Breaking Bad

[MCAadROCKMiKEd7]

SOA is pretty good, I never got fully into it im behind on A LOT of episodes! The walking dead is coming back up again too

"Say my name..." "Heisenburg."

[Yetra Flam]

Anyone watch?

[kll]

Yes! Blown away by how perfect the episode was. Really wasn't wise to watch just before bed as it kept me up all night - thinking.

Just beautifully done.

Thoughts?

[Kid Presentable]

First half of season 5 was like scooby doo with the massive conundrums that could be easily wrapped up in one episode (train heist?). I liked the pacing of this episode, and hope we get a nice endgame.

[Adam]

The train heist was an awesome episode.

Just watched S05E09. [Spoiler Alert]



I'm glad they didn't they didn't leave Hank-Walt confrontation for a few episodes, needs to be done.

I think Skylar is dead - maybe killed by Walt - in the 52nd Birthday flash forwards. I think Hank is somewhere out of the picture in flash forward too. Maybe DC or pulled off the case or promoted out of the way type of thing.

Not sure what the heavy gun is for. Seems to be good for cash since he bought it and left a $100 (I think) for the waitress at Denny's even though his meal was free.

So are they running until S05E13? Four more episodes - a lot to fit in.
Edit: just checked they are running to ep 16

[abbott]

I am going to break down and start watching this from the 1st episode. Have not seen one yet. I have a few friends who worked on the set and even did some business with Cranston, it was pretty funny. Not to mention its fucking filmed in my hometown.

Anyway I have a few breaking bad things sitting out in my garage. Nothing real special but I have a bag given out out the golf tournament and some limited breaking bad golf balls, they produced about 100 of each. Would be happy to trade for a nice vintage Beastie Tee shirt XL or some Mix-up beer glasses. You never know.....

Seems they would make a nice Christmas present, but I aint playing that shit again.

[Yetra Flam]

This was the episode.

[Adam]

Just watched it, first thing I did after waking up (Monday morning here in the UK).

It's rare that I've looked forward to the end of a program in as much as I want to see how it ends. Best TV series ever. I'm also watching Dexter at the same time and I just want it to end for the sake of ending because it seems tired but I know I only have one more episode to endure.

I cannot wait for next week.

[Yetra Flam]

What did you all think?

[Documad]

Absolutely perfect. And somehow I knew it would be even though I'm almost alway disappointed by TV shows I love.

[Bob]

so....hmm.

i liked the finale. i did. i don't want to give the impression that i didn't like it.

but.

i think i was expecting to walk away from the show feeling more...i guess i would say conflicted about the resolution?

what i loved about breaking bad is how goddamn morally complicated it was. the protagonist was a shithead, but you saw his journey through his eyes, so you never really got the sense that the show was holding your hand and telling you "this is how you're supposed to feel about things," like most shows do. it was up to you to decide what you felt about walt. he walked around acting like everything he did was in some way justifiable, but it was up to you whether or not you wanted to believe it, or if you did, if the ends justified the means, and so on.

so i guess i was expecting something similar from the finale, a mixed bag of results at best. but instead we got walt walking around like a badass hero, methodically solving all his problems, confessing his sins, eliminating the enemies that deserved death, sparing the ones that didn't, and then plopping down and dying without facing justice. it just kind of felt like the show was saying "things are ok now, you should feel good about this," when up until now it didn't condescend to you like that.

i dunno. it left a funny taste in my mouth. i liked it, despite myself, but i got the funny feeling that i shouldn't have liked it, if that makes sense.

one thing i can say confidently, though; i'm really bummed that we didn't get a little more resolution from jesse. the guy was about 40% of the show, a real partner in the plot, and the poor guy gets about 10 minutes of screen time in the finale. he kills todd (nice), has the chance to kill walt but doesn't, (also nice), then just kind of drives off into the night. what happens to him after that? for a finale that was so intent on tying up loose ends, i feel like jesse's story was kind of a big one.

and that machine gun thing. ain't no way that would have worked. that felt silly to me. but it hasn't been a tv show hell-bent on realism to date, i don't mind suspending my disbelief a little bit for that i guess.


so yeah. i liked it, but didn't love it. i think ozymandias set the tone for how the ending should have gone. not saying that should have been the last episode, just saying that the ending should have left us with a similar feeling.

[Waus]

I liked that Walt sort of set himself up to take the (posthumous) fall for Jesse's cook in duress. Of course, I thought there was bound to be some of Jesse's DNA there which would be kind of incriminating - but who knows, maybe he'll go see the vacuum repairman.

I think the big thing that I wanted to come out that didn't was Walt telling off Grey Matter about how important he was, what a genius he was, finally tipping his hand on just how prideful he was. Instead he remained stubborn.

I think the implied resolution for Jesse is that now he can be a craftsman. He's had everything he could want to indulge in and wants none of it - he won't sell his box for an ounce of weed anymore.

I wonder if Walt would've had the same confession to Skyler if he hadn't already secured the trust for Junior.

[Bob]

i'm also not sure at this point if he really meant that or not. if he really did come to terms with the fact that he was only doing it for himself, or if part of him still did think that this was all for the sake of his family (he did go to great lengths to get the money to walt jr, even after being told repeatedly to go fuck himself), and he was just telling that to skyler to give her the satisfaction of hearing it. he seemed to accept that his family hated him, which is why he stayed away, but he still wanted to wrap things up with them...

alright, maybe it's more complex than i originally thought (or i'm just thinking too hard)

[Dorothy Wood]

I had to stop watching the show because I didn't buy the premise. And every time I try to give it a shot, I get annoyed by something that seems really phony to me. Recently it was a scene at a car wash. I was just like you guys suck at running a car wash. Completely broke tge illusion. Couldn't concentrate on anything else.

[Lyman Zerga]

hope the end was not disappointing
havent had a chance to watch the last season yet, i wanna watch the first to last episode in one go

[Yetra Flam]

Originally Posted by Bob

so....hmm.

i liked the finale. i did. i don't want to give the impression that i didn't like it.

but.

i think i was expecting to walk away from the show feeling more...i guess i would say conflicted about the resolution?

what i loved about breaking bad is how goddamn morally complicated it was. the protagonist was a shithead, but you saw his journey through his eyes, so you never really got the sense that the show was holding your hand and telling you "this is how you're supposed to feel about things," like most shows do. it was up to you to decide what you felt about walt. he walked around acting like everything he did was in some way justifiable, but it was up to you whether or not you wanted to believe it, or if you did, if the ends justified the means, and so on.

so i guess i was expecting something similar from the finale, a mixed bag of results at best. but instead we got walt walking around like a badass hero, methodically solving all his problems, confessing his sins, eliminating the enemies that deserved death, sparing the ones that didn't, and then plopping down and dying without facing justice. it just kind of felt like the show was saying "things are ok now, you should feel good about this," when up until now it didn't condescend to you like that.

i dunno. it left a funny taste in my mouth. i liked it, despite myself, but i got the funny feeling that i shouldn't have liked it, if that makes sense.

one thing i can say confidently, though; i'm really bummed that we didn't get a little more resolution from jesse. the guy was about 40% of the show, a real partner in the plot, and the poor guy gets about 10 minutes of screen time in the finale. he kills todd (nice), has the chance to kill walt but doesn't, (also nice), then just kind of drives off into the night. what happens to him after that? for a finale that was so intent on tying up loose ends, i feel like jesse's story was kind of a big one.

and that machine gun thing. ain't no way that would have worked. that felt silly to me. but it hasn't been a tv show hell-bent on realism to date, i don't mind suspending my disbelief a little bit for that i guess.


so yeah. i liked it, but didn't love it. i think ozymandias set the tone for how the ending should have gone. not saying that should have been the last episode, just saying that the ending should have left us with a similar feeling.

I know what you mean. I liked the ending a lot, but something about it seemed like Gilligan was trying to appease as many people as possible. It was the softest ending he could have possibly had with only the "bad guys" dying. I really did want to see Walt redeem himself, even though he didn't deserve it. And I think he did a little bit, admitting that he did it for himself.

The machine gun robot, yeah, I don't know. My roommate described it as "some Tom and Jerry shit" haha. I thought it was even more unrealistic that he got all the way from New Hampshire to New Mexico in a stolen car when the police knew where he was and were looking for him. But maybe that was a part of what seemed like a chain of freakish good luck for Walt - the car door being open, the cops passing by, the keys being in the car, the car starting right away.

Even though Jesse got away, he still seems kind of fucked. Where is he going to go? He has no money, and aren't the police still looking for him because of his association with Heisenberg?

[Tomtomtom]

http://puu.sh/4DOJu

[Yetra Flam]

Poor Huell

[Bob]

i'm guessing you guys haven't seen huell's rules yet

Even though Jesse got away, he still seems kind of fucked. Where is he going to go? He has no money, and aren't the police still looking for him because of his association with Heisenberg?

yeah, that's exactly it. the finale was such a methodical bulleted list of tying up loose ends, but jesse's fate was SUCH a huge one. he's free from nazi slavery, but that's about all he has going for him. what happens to him after that? i feel like he was too big a part of the show to be brushed off like that, but instead the finale only seemed to be concerned with him in terms of his relationship to walt.

i dunno, maybe it's just because jesse supplanted walt as the most interesting character in my mind (walt was for the most part always about 90% evil, while jesse seemed far more complicated), i'm disappointed that his story ended so casually.

the ending was very good for what it was, i just...think i wanted something else. but fuck me if i could write a better one

[Yetra Flam]

Lavell Crawford is awesome. I watched his stand up special before I realized he was on Breaking Bad, and I was legitimately belly laughing most of the time.
He said something that was particularly cool, about how laughter is healing. I never thought about it that way before, how comedians and entertainers can play such a positive role in strangers' lives.

[Bob]

ha, i didn't know he was a comedian. i guess it makes sense pairing him with bob odenkirk then.

speaking of, what do we think about this saul goodman spinoff? my first impression is that it seems uh...unnecessary, but breaking bad was good enough that i'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and see what it's actually like before i judge it.

[Dorothy Wood]

Ok so I tried watching again but I coukdnt get into it. I don't understand how stuff like stealing a baby and the family yelling at each other about lying makes sense. Or Walt calling after he stole his baby and saying all that stuff when they had obviously called the cops so it was probable the cops would be there.


I mean sure the show is creative but these ridiculous things that happen keep me from liking it. Maybe I'm being too hard on it. I don't know. I don't like Lost either.

[Nicodemus]

If you'd watched the entire series these things would make more sense. It's not the kind of show where you can just catch an episode here and there.

LOST shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as BB.

[Yetra Flam]

Originally Posted by Bob

ha, i didn't know he was a comedian. i guess it makes sense pairing him with bob odenkirk then.

speaking of, what do we think about this saul goodman spinoff? my first impression is that it seems uh...unnecessary, but breaking bad was good enough that i'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and see what it's actually like before i judge it.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't really know how this whole spinoff thing is going to go down. Is this sort of going to be a prequel? I think it's unnecessary too.

[abbott]

At season 4 ep 3. Been seeing 2 a day.

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Dorothy Wood

Ok so I tried watching again but I coukdnt get into it. I don't understand how stuff like stealing a baby and the family yelling at each other about lying makes sense. Or Walt calling after he stole his baby and saying all that stuff when they had obviously called the cops so it was probable the cops would be there.


I mean sure the show is creative but these ridiculous things that happen keep me from liking it. Maybe I'm being too hard on it. I don't know. I don't like Lost either.

yeah that was kind of the climax of a seasons-long buildup. it's like you skipped to the end of citizen kane and went "rosebud's a sled, who cares? i don't get it, this movie is dumb"

[Dorothy Wood]

Nah, it's not like that. I know the storyline, I'm just not attached to it. I think it's badly written. The stakes were so high but the reactions from the sister and the son were to the lying? Like oh no so many lies, I'll never get over the fact that you're a liar. Why'd they take it so personally?

Also the butcher knife part was dumb, why would Walt tackle Skylar? Goofy shit.

It's just fuckin dumb to me, the whole premise of the show and the trajectory of the storyline. No offense, people I respect really love the show (I even bought Breaking Bad themed art for my bf for Xmas). It's just not my taste, too silly, too many outrageous twists. I find myself hating it. I tried not to hate it. I'll prob watch the last few episodes.

[Kid Presentable]

I was comfortable enough with the ending of Season 4 serving as the 'ender' ending; I thought it degenrated into utter self-parody with Season 5 (Part 1). It was still entertaining, though.

Season 5 (Part 2) was a slight improvement, but by that stage the show had well and truly jumped the shark.

The ending was approporiate. Good, even.

But given time to reflect, by season 5 it just abruptly became this un-obtuse quasi-CSI thing. It just felt dumb. A series of sleazy magician reveals. Condescending, even.

The true brilliance of the show was, to me, the writers' willingness to paint themselves into a corner, and ability to paint themselves out of it with genuine flair and brilliance. Much of the writing and narrative arcs were inspired, once upon a time.

Nothing in either part of season 5 captured that feeling for me. It just became a series of preposterous coincidences and deus ex machina claptrap.

I was a fan since day one, so I'm not mad. Just my opinion.

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Kid Presentable

I was comfortable enough with the ending of Season 4 serving as the 'ender' ending; I thought it degenrated into utter self-parody with Season 5 (Part 1). It was still entertaining, though.

Season 5 (Part 2) was a slight improvement, but by that stage the show had well and truly jumped the shark.

The ending was approporiate. Good, even.

But given time to reflect, by season 5 it just abruptly became this un-obtuse quasi-CSI thing. It just felt dumb. A series of sleazy magician reveals. Condescending, even.

The true brilliance of the show was, to me, the writers' willingness to paint themselves into a corner, and ability to paint themselves out of it with genuine flair and brilliance. Much of the writing and narrative arcs were inspired, once upon a time.

Nothing in either part of season 5 captured that feeling for me. It just became a series of preposterous coincidences and deus ex machina claptrap.

I was a fan since day one, so I'm not mad. Just my opinion.

hmm. i see what you mean, to some extent. i think that some of the complaints i had about the finale were scattered all around season 5; the train heist, the magnet thing, and so on.

but i do think season 5 was needed, if only to have the moment where walt's delusions well and truly blow up in his face. the whole time, walt thinks he's helping out his family, and he thinks he's in control and successfully hiding himself from them, to the point where he's even convinced himself.

but that moment where he crosses the line and gets hank killed, and skyler can't handle him anymore, and his son finally learns who he is, and he has that moment in the house, where he still thinks he's in control, and that he has to protect his family, only to have that "wake the fuck up" moment where his wife is bleeding on the floor and his son is protecting her from walt with his own (disabled) body...i dunno, i feel like it was a reality that needed to crash down in order for the show to end properly.

if it had ended at season 4, i think there would have been too much "so what, that's it? his family never finds out about it?" going on with it. maybe season 5 did lay it on a little thick at times, but i do think the basic plot of it needed to happen, i wouldn't say it jumped the shark.

[Bob]

though i will say that i never quite bought todd as a villain, even after he shot the kid. he's landry! landry can't be evil!