FILM BREAKING GOOD BY SIMON FENECH OR seven years the only TVs I saw fuelled bullshit that I heard every day. Who knows? Some of were the ones offered to me in Then, when I watched the series, I realised exchange for ice, as we call it in it had all been true. I even knew some of these guys could have Australia, or crystal meth, as it’s the characters from my kick-boxing days been pulling the strings Fknown around the world. When you are in and once fought on the same card as Benji when I was shot and the relentless grip of this drug, leisure time Veniamin. Who knows? Some of these guys doesn’t exist. The only thing that matters could have been pulling the strings when I stabbed in my factory. is where your next puff is coming from. was shot and stabbed in my factory. My co- I became addicted to ice just when author of Breaking Good thinks we should my hat off to him for going into these Breaking Bad was coming out. As I started create a TV series around my story and, places voluntarily, having been wrongly to deal more and more, a few people considering my frame, suggested we call it imprisoned himself. The series shows mentioned the similarities between me Overbelly. No-one likes a wise guy! the massive range of ways that countries and Walter White, the lead character Before I tried meth for the first time, I was approach their penal systems. Norway, for in the series – a family man turned bad. drawn – perhaps tellingly – to films about instance, is all about rehabilitation. Russia But Walter White became motivated by addiction to money and power. Scarface and the US are more about out-and-out greed alone – I just needed to pay for a was my favourite. Al Pacino’s character, punishment. But in countries like Brazil $1000-a-day habit. If I saw any episodes Tony Montana, rises from being a Cuban or Columbia, the prisons are almost like of Breaking Bad during those lost years, I refugee with nothing to a powerful drug self-enclosed cities, with the hierarchy built don’t remember. But I watched it when I lord. I’ll never forget that final scene where, around control of the black market. I found came out of prison, safe in the knowledge having been shot, Montana’s corpse falls prison to be hell-on-earth, but Australia’s that my story would end much more into a fountain in front of a statue with the prisons are like palaces in comparison. happily than Heisenberg’s. That’s why my inscription “The world is yours”. If I was to recommend a show that warns book is called Breaking Good. More recently, I enjoyed the John Wick people away from crystal meth? That’s got to While Breaking Bad is obviously fictional films,American Made with Tom Cruise and be Netflix’sThe Tiger King. Some crazy shit and dramatized, the Australian series the TV series Sons of Anarchy. I may have happens when this drug takes control. Underbelly is much more true to life. When left the world of bikies, drugs, guns and I got sucked into a life of crime, I would women behind, but that outlaw lifestyle hear stories about the actions of Carl will always be fascinating. Simon Fenech is the author of Breaking Williams, Mick Gatto or Lewis Moran, the And I also enjoyed the Netflix series Good: A harrowing journey to Ice-fuelled kingpins of the Melbourne underworld. At Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons. I hell and back (Echo Publishing $29.99) now the time, I thought it was the typical meth- know presenter Raphael Rowe and I take available at all good bookstores. MORRISON GAVIN CREDIT: 30 PENTHOUSE.