Though technically not a comic book show, I find this to be one of the most engaging programs in recent television history.
Anyone else watch this program? Is it cool if we discuss it here?
Discuss away.
I keep hearing about Breaking Bad being so good but I haven't seen any yet. Same goes for The Wire.
I'm not a big watcher of TV shows in general unless it's something my wife wants to watch too. We're currently getting through 30 Rock - which I love.
Breaking Bad is a very good show.
I'm looking forward to Dexter's return as well.
Tried to start discussion about it here, but no one had seen it yet, haha: http://www.batman-online.com/forum/index.php?topic=1800.0
Anyways, love the show and I'm looking forward to the finale.
What'd you think of the last episode, Gregg?
Oh I absolutely love the show. Season 4, in particular, though all seasons are remarkably strong. It's consistently suspenseful--my heart jumps into my throat and then has follow-up attack, three times per chapter.
I was a bit bummed by the ending of the previous episode. I like WW's transformation throughout the season, but some of the changes are a bit too abrupt for me. Also I'm not sure I buy that the entire 5 season stretch is to have taken place within a year. That's asking a lot, me thinks.
Despite these minor hesitations I have, I still think it is just about the best drama on television right now.
Two episodes ago (for the sake of being spoiler-lite, I'll just say 'tarantula in a jar') had me up for hours after viewing it.
I think it's interesting how the episode was bookended. Walt's on top of his game and in full Heisenberg mode in the opening. Contrast this with the ending where he's let his emotions get the better of him. He's completely driven by anger and, after Mike's car drives off, fear.
The cold calculating crime lord from the beginning is shown, in the end, to be someone whose ego is so big that he just can't take criticism and he makes rash, cruel, and unnecessary actions to preserve that ego.
This time, Walt did not kill someone out of fear for his life. Mike posed no actual threat to him. And while there's the excuse that he wanted the nine names, I honestly think that Walt pulled the trigger because he just couldn't take Mike standing up to him anymore.
So last night was the finale and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Honestly, I felt like it was two episodes combined into one.
It seemed really abrupt for Walt to decide to quit in the final quarter of the episode, especially considering the entire season (including this episode with Todd's uncle) has been turning him into a top crime lord and reveling in the power. I don't believe that the scene with Skyler in the warehouse would've been enough to push him out of the business. There's been speculation that the doctor's office visit indicates that the cancer was back and it would've been a wonderful reversal, in my opinion, if the return of the cancer motivated him to get out, but if that's the case, then it was weirdly executed and, in my opinion, should've been explored more in a full episode rather than one ambiguous scene.
And while the ending was shocking, I have to ask if we ever saw Gale give the Leaves of Grass book to Walt back in Season 3. It's already pushing it to have it on the toilet seat for Hank to find. But to introduce it this season when it was never planted with Gale in the first place is stretching it, I'm afraid. I hope it was shown in Season 3.
You raise two very interesting points.
The first is that the book is awfully convenient. This program does not usually do things out of narrative convenience so I'm a bit surprised. Yes, I also hope this was given to him in Season 3, if not then it was a bit of a sloppy execution--though I like the punchline. Family reunited, all is normal...oops...blew it on an easy one.
The second point you bring up, the Doctor's Office, actually added enough mystery for me that I'm hoping for some kind of pay off next year. While the pile of money and Skylar's (Schylars?) firm plea for a return to their family life might be compelling evidence for him to drop this and return to his pre-cancer/drug lord life, I'm not sure if it's quite enough to make him retire the black hat and glasses. Cancer being back in the mix? Yes, I buy it. Why spend the end of his life running around killing people and making crystal, when he can enjoy it with his family knowing they well be financially secure?
Over all, it's still the best drama on television, no question about it. Still, this episode did wrap things up a bit too tight (I guess this was done so that the final few moments of the show could pack some punch). Though, in a strange way, had this been the series finale I would have been fine with it. It would have been enough...
....if...the book is actually in Season 3. :)
Pretty spectacular episode! Talk about hitting the ground running! The 'confrontation' at the end was kinda surprising in that it came so early on, but now having that established is just making it even more apparent that were headed to some sort of high-octane, meth-fueled Armageddon. The day of judgement is indeed, nigh.
Oh, enjoyed "Talking Bad" as well. :)
They've been building up to the Hank-Walt confrontation since the beginning and man, did they deliver. Can't wait to see what these two do next now that Hank knows.
EDIT: I got to thinking about the random Star Trek conversation in the episode. While I may be looking too much into things, there's no way that the Breaking Bad writers would've spent that much time writing Badger's Star Trek spec idea unless it had some significance to the show.
So perhaps the story is foreshadowing in the fact that it's about how one man (Chekov/Walt) tries to cheat and win his way to the top (in a blueberry pie eating contest/in the blue crystal meth making business), but gets his comeuppance due to the actions of his partner-in-crime (Scotty/Jesse).
How Breaking Bad uses Yellow
http://imgur.com/a/hwmnX (http://imgur.com/a/hwmnX)
Right! I'm gonna start watching Breaking Bad tonight!
Quote from: Paul (ral) on Tue, 13 Aug 2013, 13:29
Right! I'm gonna start watching Breaking Bad tonight!
Just a semi-word of caution; you may find it's slow paced in the first season. Stick with it, it gets much better.
Well that was one hell of a cliffhanger! :o
(OBVIOUS SPOILERS BELOW):
I think the brilliance of the episode is that it WASN'T the finale. Once Walt saw Hank, Gomez, and Jesse arrive, I thought "Wait, a minute. How are they going to extend this for another few episodes?" And how is Walt going to get from here to where he is in the flashforwards? This made it all the more tense since we knew that this wasn't going to be as clear cut as the characters thought.
While I'm pretty sure everyone knew that Uncle Jack, Todd, and company were going to show up anyway, I think the writers knew that and were playing up the tension by dragging out Walt's arrest and adding in Hank's phone call.
Ending the episode like this was a bold move. While I figured that Hank and Gomez would get killed and Jesse would escape, the cliffhanger surprised me. It makes me think that something different might happen.
Think about it. The writers could've easily ended the episode that way, with two deaths to add on Walt's conscience and left the audience in shock for a week.
Instead, they cut to black, making us wait to see what will happen. Now, everyone's already figuring that the DEA agents are goners. So, if we see Hank and Gomey get killed in the beginning of the next episode, it would be pretty anticlimactic wouldn't it? The audience has had seven days to predict that will happen.
I think the window of opportunity to go that route has closed and the writers have something different in store. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the next episode actually starts somewhere different- either in a different place with a different character or even at a different time, a flashforward or flashback.
We'll see on Sunday how it plays out.
What a heart pounding episode!
We have completely now gone past the point of no return, with all roads leading straight to Hell.
Kudos to Vince Gilligan and company. This was indeed nothing short of an amazingly outstanding piece of work in television history.
Cheers!
Yeah wow. 2 episodes left, can't say I predicted most of this.
Even Walt junior turned on Walt! No clue whats to come in the 2 episodes remaining, I imagine Jesse will escape, they didnt kill him off for a reason.
Such a great ending.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hBiwMT77Csg
Loved it. Gilligan and his team did it!
I found the first half had the most surprises. Was not expecting him to do what he did to Gretchen and Elliot. And the "I did it for me. I liked it" scene was fantastic. Unpredictable, yet an inevitable, necessary part of the final stage of Walt's journey.
I've seen some comments online saying that ending it with Walt vs. the Neo Nazis was too "safe" and they felt Walt should've died alone with his money in that cabin, but I don't think that would've been a satisfying ending to the show nor would it felt in-character for Walt to just let that happen without any attempt of getting back to Albuquerque.
In other, more predictable shows, that sort of unending is just...eurgh.
In Breaking Bad, though? It's earned the "happy" ending after everything it put the characters through.
Five seasons of misery earns a pleasant finale (or as pleasant as the circumstances allow).
Fun little article about the music of the finale. Includes a link to the final song by Badfinger, "Baby Blue".
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/30/the_music_of_the_breaking_bad_finale/singleton/
Sunday evenings wont feel the same any more. I liked how this show unearthed what had been considered a dead genre since Shakespeare's days; tragedy. I was half expecting the clicheed series finale of showing the paths of the remaining characters. Instead we get to know that it's over for all of them; Jesse doesn't have to look over his shoulder any more or risk putting his loved ones in danger. Skyler and Marie will probably be close with their husbands dead.
can't wait for Better Call Saul.
I loved the finale. One of the best of any series. I, like Walt, am not interested in redemption. I loved how he accepted who he is and what he does. He cooked blue meth because he enjoyed it, and was good at it. If it wasn't him cooking earning a truck load of cash, someone else would have. And they'll do so after his death. Not saying it's an admirable 'job' nor am I encouraging it, but he wasn't the first or the last to do such things. There is a demand and he met the supply.
It was pretty much a perfect end. Killing the entire enemy with ingenuity, after being initially laughed at and underestimated. Getting to shoot the head off the main clever-dick mid sentence. Using ricin to poison that smug SOB's coffee that is 100 per cent doomed, rubbing in the prior deaths has just meted out as well.
Either way, Walt went into this knowing he would die, and wanting to. If it was at the hands of Jesse, which could possibly help him move on, so be it. But Jesse was sick of taking orders from people– to shoot Walt – and therefore freed himself mentally and physically afterwards.
Loved how Walt reminisced about his career at the cooking lab, and dying there. The police never caught him. As someone said to me while watching, "that's not Walt, he's gone." They have his body, and again, it is likely he will be tied into cooking that meth and not Jesse. His legend is secure, and his family is set-up as well. The cancer did not dictate his fate. He did. 'Baby Blue' was splendidly used in the final moments, and I'm giving it a good listen to now.
I don't really view Walt as a 'villain'. I view him as a terminally ill cancer sufferer who lived, did what he wanted with not much to lose in the long run. Think back to the first series. A teacher, who was disrespected, washed student cars and felt humiliated. Even though there were very tough times, he decided to empower and make something more for himself, for better or worse.
Farewell, Walt. I enjoyed the ride.
^ Fantastic post and I agree.
QuoteI, like Walt, am not interested in redemption. I loved how he accepted who he is and what he does. He cooked blue meth because he enjoyed it, and was good at it. If it wasn't him cooking earning a truck load of cash, someone else would have. And they'll do so after his death. Not saying it's an admirable 'job' nor am I encouraging it, but he wasn't the first or the last to do such things. There is a demand and he met the supply.
Yep and on the flip side, I'm glad Walt never became a "full villain" in these last batch of episodes. There were theories that Walt would end up killing Skyler or others in his family and I just didn't think that would be in-character. No matter how far down the path he went, Walt was always grounded in his love for his family.
I think Vince Gilligan and his writers were able to walk the fine line extremely well and kept the show in the gray area.
QuoteIt was pretty much a perfect end. Killing the entire enemy with ingenuity, after being initially laughed at and underestimated. Getting to shoot the head off the main clever-dick mid sentence.
It really was the perfect way for Walt to avenge Hank and a great way to sum up Walt's arc, where the money was no longer important to him.
Also, as pointed out by others, Hank went out with his dignity. Jack went out like a coward, trying to bargain his way out.
QuoteUsing ricin to poison that smug SOB's coffee that is 100 per cent doomed, rubbing in the prior deaths has just meted out as well.
While many had predicted this would happen, due to Lydia's constant tea habit, I like how it was saved for last.
Walt's last line (and the last line of the whole series) was "Goodbye, Lydia." Technically, this is another element that came full circle. This story all started with a death sentence, with Walt being told that he only has two years, at most, to live.
Now it ends with a death sentence, with Walt delivering the ricin news to Lydia as his final act of vengeance.
QuoteEither way, Walt went into this knowing he would die, and wanting to. If it was at the hands of Jesse, which could possibly help him move on, so be it. But Jesse was sick of taking orders from people– to shoot Walt – and therefore freed himself mentally and physically afterwards.
Indeed. And I loved their final dialogue-free good-bye outside. Nothing needed to be said after Jesse dropped the gun. It was poignant and fantastic to see Walt set him free.
Quote from: BatmAngelus on Thu, 3 Oct 2013, 18:20
Yep and on the flip side, I'm glad Walt never became a "full villain" in these last batch of episodes. There were theories that Walt would end up killing Skyler or others in his family and I just didn't think that would be in-character. No matter how far down the path he went, Walt was always grounded in his love for his family.
This is an important point. One of the reasons why the finale succeeded is because it remained true to the characters. What they would realistically do in certain situations, etc. Dexter's finale dropped the ball in this regard IMO. By 'playing safe', Breaking Bad ended on a worthy note that didn't leave one liking some parts but not all of it. Which, lets face it, the finale is ultimately how we remember the series, regardless of how much has gone before. It's the lasting impression.
The show will go down in history as one of the few that stayed consistently strong, actually grew in its audience, and ended on a high note.
Another thing I noticed (before the following picture was created) is that Gus ended up being right in Season 3:
"A man provides for his family...And he does it even when he's not appreciated. Or respected. Or even loved. He just bears up and he does it. Because he is a man."
http://imgur.com/r/breakingbad/F0xaZDw
Way late to the party, but I decided to binge watch Breaking Bad last year, got it done within three weeks and then proceeded to watch Better Call Saul and El Camino.
What do I think? BrBa deserved every accolade it got. Bryan Cranston elevated himself as Walter White, absolutely brilliant, and the writing throughout the show complimented his acting.
Walter always rationalised that he got into the meth business for the sake of leaving his family behind some wealth to get by after he dies, but in reality, he was always an egomaniac. Right from the moment we saw him expressing his resentment towards the Schwartzes because of the whole Gray Matter affair, Walter looked at his life thus far and knew he had underachieved. As you can see when he tells that half-truth to that therapist about how he faked his fugue state to cover his disappearance when he freed himself from captivity by Tuco Salamanca, right to the very end when he finally admits to Skyler he risked it all to satisfy his own self-gratification. The biggest takeaway from this show is how ego can poison the mind and make a person do whatever it takes, endangering himself and his family, all because of a terminal illness shook him from his slumber.
In contrast, Jesse Pinkman, while obviously not innocent of course, develops more of a conscience towards the end of the series. Any ounce of whatever respect he had for his old chemistry teacher went out of the window once Walter further falls into deviant behaviour and greed, with his constant manipulation and abuse of trust, and getting him to do things that destroyed him emotionally. It's funny how a schoolteacher, without any real physical strength but has lots of brains and a massive ego, can leave a trail of destruction in his wake.
Brilliant show.
I've been watching BCS, as I already mentioned, and it's great in its own way. Really great to see Jimmy McGill before he was Saul Goodman and trying to be the best lawyer possible with his heart in the right place, albeit taking an approach of ends justify the means. Until he goes back to his fraudulent ways and slowly becomes the criminal lawyer we saw in BrBa. His relationship with his brother Chuck, who looked down at him from an academic and personality point of view, was great drama and was a contributing factor that stopped Jimmy in becoming legitimate. Depending on who you ask, Jimmy's relationship with his colleague and wife Kim Wexler may have had a part in corrupting her too...or maybe she had a darker side that Jimmy helped unleash.
BCS has great world building with so many characters appearing from BrBa, and I look forward to watch the final season this year.
Anyway, here are some hilarious videos summarising the entire show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MhWyJbdQMU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZm_N6aSU0E
Still one of my favorite shows of all time. I've been thinking of doing another re-watch soon.
For anyone who is interested, check out the Into the Gilliverse podcast on YouTube. It has interviews with actors, writers and producers who worked on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUnWBOQg-WyqwGTsxYBa7cxcyKx9Vvo8S
Another video I found was this great imagining of Mike Ehrmantraut's Half Measures story. This eerie illustrations capture a younger looking Jonathan Banks so well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUuHdACg83E
If Breaking Bad had a longer intro, one of these fan edits would be worthy of it. I prefer the second one better with its consistent use of motion graphics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U6PSWyv5sc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDFAYRtrYuk
Breaking Bad makes the MCU so much better. :P
https://youtu.be/QEzBUdhHJmo
https://youtu.be/96-3VUxfNKc
https://youtu.be/NImKxQLlQXY
A certain duo appeared in this week's episode of Better Call Saul. ;)
(https://i.imgur.com/KJ48vpp.jpg)
Better Call Saul is a worthy prequel/follow-up to Breaking Bad, looking forward to the last couple of episodes of the show.
Better Call Saul is totally a worthy prequel. I still think BrBa is better, but Better Call Saul is really close, and even some of the standout episodes are right up there with the better BrBa ones.
Quote from: Travesty on Wed, 3 Aug 2022, 13:58
Better Call Saul is totally a worthy prequel. I still think BrBa is better, but Better Call Saul is really close, and even some of the standout episodes are right up there with the better BrBa ones.
I absolutely agree.
Right now, I haven't (yet) seen the latest episode that aired this past Mon, but BCS has been simply outstanding! This final season, especially so, but I understand Vince Gilligan has been more hands on for the final season, so it makes sense.
https://youtu.be/1XSysnj2Bk0
lol, that's a great mix.
Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Raymond Cruz reprise their Breaking Bad roles and recreate some of the show's iconic scenes to promote PopCorners. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
https://youtu.be/ZMlemd6U24Y
https://youtu.be/_qgSznr2iCE
https://youtu.be/ewAzMjlEE8g
Here is a side-by-side comparison of the first ad to the scenes from the first season.
https://youtu.be/pjGQQQAWuAA