Breaking Bad Discussion >>>>>

[stevewizzle]

i'm thinking he finds that the blue meth has resurfaced.  he realizes that they didn't kill jesse, and they are making him cook. i think the gun is for the nazis, the white family is dead, the ricin is for lydia, and he saves jesse.  

[Yada]

i'm thinking he finds that the blue meth has resurfaced.  he realizes that they didn't kill jesse, and they are making him cook. i think the gun is for the nazis, the white family is dead, the ricin is for lydia, and he saves jesse.  

I'm not sure why these idiots want to stay in the meth business when they just heisted nearly 70 million dollars?

Do you think the Nazis take out Skyler?

[stevewizzle]

I'm not sure why these idiots want to stay in the meth business when they just heisted nearly 70 million dollars?

Do you think the Nazis take out Skyler?

yeah, the scene with todd and jesse, and jesse admits there is a tape out there with the full admission... well, marie has it somewhere in the house, and i'm thinking she's toast, along with the whole white family.

[DeathFromAbove1979]

yeah, the phone conversation was an act. after holly calls for her mother over and over, he realizes that he's fucked them, and decides to try and salvage. 

who the fuck is he coming back to kill?? it's got to be the nazis, right?

That slipped my mind, I was so wrapped up in the moment. He KNEW cops were there.

Also, yeah, he's coming back to kill those dudes. That has to be how he gets a machine gun.... Unless Saul has a machine gun guy.

[DeathFromAbove1979]

I'm not sure why these idiots want to stay in the meth business when they just heisted nearly 70 million dollars?

Do you think the Nazis take out Skyler?

yeah, the scene with todd and jesse, and jesse admits there is a tape out there with the full admission... well, marie has it somewhere in the house, and i'm thinking she's toast, along with the whole white family.

Could be why Walt re-arranges the bacon on his eggs to shape "52" because it WAS a family tradition....

Also, the color swatch thing is awesome!

[slappy]

[Julian, Bespoke SEXPERT]

I think Vince Gilligan's true genius lies in the fact that he has made people like a murderous meth manufacturer while simultaneously hating his wife, who has a (relatively) straighter moral compass and does far more for the family than Walt ever has.

This is an alarmingly astute observation, ggw. I felt like Walt's phone call -- along the with the obvious plot point of trying to protect Skyler -- is something of a commentary by Gilligan to the more misogynistic Bro-tastic wing of Breaking Bad fans and their absolute disgust for the Skyler character, while loving Jesse and even in some cases, Walt. There is a certain vein of BB fans who view this show entirely from a high concept viewpoint who love the one-liners and explosions and gun fights but miss the low concept/character development viewpoint and thereby see Skyler only as a detriment to the action instead of the realistic, interesting character study she is.

SN: I love Breaking Bad and The Wire, but if someone tells me those are their two favorite TV shows of all time (and especially if they follow it up with commenting Mad Men "sucks" or "nothing ever happens on it") then I know I'm dealing with an idiot and don't even want to speak to them. Why is this?

[DeathFromAbove1979]

I've never seen The Wire, but I did get through the first 2 seasons of Mad Men and I DO think it's boring, but I don't go around saying it sucks. I can see why people like it, but it just isn't my kind of drama. I COULD stare at Christina Hendricks all day though.

As for Breaking Bad I think one think they really did well was kind of making me intrigued by almost every single character and not being emotionally invested in any of them. I felt for Jesse when his girl died and have always sympathized for him, but he's a huge piece of shit and a total idiot. I never thought Walt was a badass or anything until probably season 3 or 4 and I never sympathized with him and this second half of season 5 I finally decided I wanted him to get caught. Jesse's right. He can't keep getting away with it.

The show is absolutely incredible. I never liked it because of explosions or cussing or violence, the story is brilliantly told and exceuted and it's the first time in a long time that I'm invested in characters and outcomes of the show. 2 more episodes. Insane.

[Julian, Bespoke SEXPERT]

Could be why Walt re-arranges the bacon on his eggs to shape "52" because it WAS a family tradition....

Also, the color swatch thing is awesome!

The on-going theory of Walt adopting the idiosyncrasies of the people he kills (which I won't recap here, if you're a Breaking Bad fan and have the internet, you can easily find a more in-depth overview of the theory than I would hastily type up yourself) led many to think he killed Skyler and was stealing/adopting her tradition of the birthday bacon numbers. But what if, the Nazis kill her (and perhaps others in the family) trying to find the confession tape and Walt, for the first time, allows himself for the first time to take actual responsibility for the negative things that have happened as a result of his actions? (Which I would argue, up to maybe the midpoint of Ozymandias, he NEVER has.) And then he decides to take out the Nazis and Jesse to avenge her?

(Again, I think him going back for the ricin in the flashforward is important. A gun can kill anyone but it doesn't feel personal. If he wants to take out Nazis, you go machine gun, not a single dose of ricin. If its important to you to kill ONE person in a significant way, you use ricin. Walt is clearly about to do both.)

^^ Usual fanboy wankery disclaimers apply.

[ggw]

Mad Men "sucks" or "nothing ever happens on it"

Whatever.  Don Draper and Walter White are cut from the same cloth.  It is not a coincidence that both Mad Men and Breaking Bad have name-checked Ozymandias.  Both series are about the arc of a man who starts out somewhat admirable only to see their "empire" decline - not to mention their personal downfalls.  It's the time-tested story of hubris, which the Greeks were writing about thousands of years ago.  Kudos to both Matthew Weiner and Vince Gilligan for updating it to the modern times.  It is no less relevant today. 

[K8teebug]

Mad Men is a beautiful painting, but it's overrated.  I still really like it, but it gets away with alot of subpar bullcrap.

[K8teebug]

For the record, my favorite is, and always will be...Twin Peaks.

(and I do really love the Wire)

[ggw]

Mad Men is a beautiful painting, but it's overrated.  I still really like it, but it gets away with alot of subpar bullcrap.

Mad Men is great, but has dropped off in the last couple of season.  What really makes Breaking Bad great is that each season has been better than the previous one and they are on track to go out on a high note.

One other thing - apropos of nothing - I have come to the conclusion that Walt Jr. may be the best character in the whole series.  He is the only one who is still pure - Walt, Skyler, Jesse, Hank, Marie, Gus, Gomez, Saul, Huell, Todd, etc..  all of them are complex-slash-fvcked up.  Walt Jr. is the ultimate innocent and has provided the perfect foil to everyone else.  He bored me in the first 2-3 seasons, but now I appreciate him. 

[K8teebug]

This show has never been boring.  Ever.  I will miss it.

[Yada]

For the record, my favorite is, and always will be...Twin Peaks.

(and I do really love the Wire)

Top five for me... my favorite ever is Six Feet Under.