Breaking Bad

[GoodSarmatian]

Spoiler :

Frankly, I'm really starting to not like Walt. The way he bugged out when he found out his cancer was in remission? WTH? Also, forcing his son to drink until he puked. Again, WTH? And not even giving a s*** that he got that guy killed with his "expand our turf" plan. He likes to act all holier than thou but in actuality he's a selfish, prideful prick. He could have just swallowed his pride & accepted the money from GrayMatter but noooo... he had to keep selling, selling a drug that isn't exactly healthy for people & now Pink's buddy is dead.

The show is still captivating (with generous heapings of boring melodrama) but I watch out of curiosity rather than empathizing with Walt. Halfway thru episode 11 of season 2 BTW.

Walt's biggest problem is that pride and resentment have become his defining character traits due to his intelligence and his (lack of a) career. He feels his old friends screwed him over and he's stuck as a highschool teacher, and he won't let them help him because he wants to deal with them as an equal and not as some poor sick guy in need of help.

Spoiler :

I see the remission thing as a sign that he really is troubled by his drug dealings. He started cooking meth to provide for his family and pay the hospital bills so he's not a burden on them, but now since the cancer is in remision he doesn't have that justificaton any more and realizes that he'll have to live with what he has done.

 

[Narz]

Well everyone has some sense of betrayal &/or resentment &/or inadequacy (need to prove oneself) but there are healthy & unhealthy ways to deal with it... (continued behind spoiler)

Spoiler :

I just finished season 2. It seems that there was a plane crash due to landlord dude not being up to the task. So the number of people Walt is indirectly responsible for the death of just shot into the hundreds... if it wasn't there already.

 

[Narz]

Spoiler :

Just started episode three. After Walt burns the money, I'm done. Seriously, what a weak, pathetic man. He destroys the lives of hundreds of people for that money & then... rather than use it for any sort of good, he burns it. It's not the money's fault, it's his fault, he should immolate himself. With that money he could at least try to improve as many lives as he damaged. Instead his uncreative ass thinks the best solution is to burn it. Seriously, I can't watch this idiot anymore. After a strong start the show really went down the tubes. I guess I'll scope out what happens in seasons 3 & 4 from wiki or IMDB or here but I'm not watching another minute after that nonsense.

 

[LucyDuke]

You watched that not actually happen, right?

 

[Narz]

Really? It was a dream sequence or something?

Maybe I judge because of my own impulsivity. I already deleted season 3 & 4 and emptied the trash. I guess it's back to demonoid for me.

 

[LucyDuke]

It started, but it was interrupted before it finished. If you turned it off in disgust without finishing the scene, then you missed that. If you saw out the end of the scene and the starting it was enough to turn you off then don't bother picking it back up.

Spoiler :

Yeah, he lit it. He realized that was a bad idea and threw it in the pool.

Spoiler spoiler :

And he did burn himself a bit.

 

[Narz]

Spoiler :

I turned it off immediately when he dropped the match.

Thanks, btw.

 

[LucyDuke]

Cheers, it takes me a lot more to give up on something I've invested so much in. Kind of had to drag roommate through the slow parts of season 2.

If Walt being a callous assbag who makes absolutely no considerations, moral or otherwise, for anyone but himself is going to ruin the show for you, spoiler alert: the creator has always pitched the show as Mr Chips becomes Scarface. He gets bad, that's the point.

 

[Narz]

I'm still not really sure why. Maybe that will become clearer as the show goes on.

Seems like there are a lot of these "men with cancer go wild" type of shows/movies these days. I watched one with the same theme (Solitary Man) just a few weeks ago.

Spoiler :

I have to hand the show one thing, I would have never guessed that Walt would cause a plane crash.

 

[Narz]

Spoiler :

Ok, Lucy sucked me back in! Question though, who the heck was watching the baby while Skyler was having her affair? The producers act as if having a baby is about as easy as having a houseplant (that cries very rarely & they is soothed immediately when it's thirst is quenched). Also, Tuco's "macho" cousins are waaay too stylized, crack a smile tight-asses!

Also, Walt's wife having an affair to spite her husband for providing for the fam? Regardless of Walt's sketchy morals that's pretty screwed up.

 

[LucyDuke]

I've been paying pretty close attention and I still haven't seen a satisfying reason for the bad. There are unsatisfying reasons like "Walt feels powerful" but nothing that even partly redeems him.

Prop baby is hilarious. It doesn't get any better, either. And the cousins are supposed to be inhumanly badass.

IFT was more nuanced than that, than just spite - like most stuff in this show turns out to be. Remember what's motivating Skyler around that time, what she wants. She's pretty explicit about it.

 

[Nobody]

Someone said it is better than the wire? I haven't seen it so i can't judge and im sure its great and i want to watch it but better than the wire? The Sopranos is close but better than the wire.

Also off topic, you guys watching sons of anarchy? Season 3 wasnt that great but season four has been awesome so far!

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I liked the first two seasons of Son of Anarchy, but stopped watching at the start of season three.
Don't go around killing your likeable minor characters if all of your main characters are swaggering thugs.

 

[jtb1127]

Someone said it is better than the wire? I haven't seen it so i can't judge and im sure its great and i want to watch it but better than the wire? The Sopranos is close but better than the wire.

Also off topic, you guys watching sons of anarchy? Season 3 wasnt that great but season four has been awesome so far!

I have watched the whole series of all three shows in context. My rankings are as follows:
1. Sopranos
2. The Wire
3. Breaking Bad

I would say it is the best show since the Sopranos finished. The Sopranos is probably one of the best shows ever. I'm watching it a second time because it's so good.
I've never watched Sons of Anarchy.

Did anyone watch the last episode of Breaking Bad last week?

Spoiler :

What's he going to do now that all the opposition is dead? Sell more meth or go clean? I bet Hank is going to be running up his ass.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Spoiler :

I don't know how much money he has, but I guess it might be a couple of millions and the money laundering capacity of his car-wash is quite limited, so he probably won't cook meth for the money any more walt being Walt, there's always the chance he'll continue doing it for the pride he takes in his work. He's certainly not proud to put moe drugs on the streets, but he's one of the best people at his job and makes very good meth.
Maybe the success of his plan in the last two episodes convinces him he's now a true criminal mastermind and he'll try to take over what's left of Gus' operation ?

 

[holy king]

narz, fair enough if you dont want to watch a series where the protagonist is an unlikable arse, but that hardly says something about the quality of the show, does it?

i mean i stopped reading Michel Houellebecq' "Whatever" after like 3 chapters, but i wouldnt dare to call it a bad book.

 

[holy king]

Spoiler :

I don't know how much money he has, but I guess it might be a couple of millions and the money laundering capacity of his car-wash is quite limited, so he probably won't cook meth for the money any more walt being Walt, there's always the chance he'll continue doing it for the pride he takes in his work. He's certainly not proud to put moe drugs on the streets, but he's one of the best people at his job and makes very good meth.
Maybe the success of his plan in the last two episodes convinces him he's now a true criminal mastermind and he'll try to take over what's left of Gus' operation ?

Spoiler :

i took it gus stopped paying him a while ago?
he seemed to have close to a million in cash left when skyler took about 600 000 and burnt it on the "i'm gonna buy a new mercedes now, yay" guy.
in the end he didnt seem to have enough to go into hiding with his whole family which i think saul said would cost about 400 000?
so he's got 2, mabye 300 000 left by this point.

whatever he had before was mostly spent on hank's medical bill and the car wash

 

[LucyDuke]

The money..

Spoiler :

That was really confusing, and the writers were at least partially at fault. Ted was about $622k, the vacuum cleaner salesman wanted "at least half a million" to disappear the whole family. Walt brought home $274k biweekly (I think? Refer to Problem Dog) when they were opening the car wash. I certainly thought the money in the vacuum bags was counted in millions. The writing was at best sloppy (bad accounting), at worst misleading (should've played the safe scene differently).

 

[jtb1127]

The money..

Spoiler :

That was really confusing, and the writers were at least partially at fault. Ted was about $622k, the vacuum cleaner salesman wanted "at least half a million" to disappear the whole family. Walt brought home $274k biweekly (I think? Refer to Problem Dog) when they were opening the car wash. I certainly thought the money in the vacuum bags was counted in millions. The writing was at best sloppy (bad accounting), at worst misleading (should've played the safe scene differently).

Spoiler :

We also have a lack of knowledge in regards to how much time has even passed since he started working for Gus or even got his cancer. Anyone catch anything about time? What is the safe scene you're talking about?

Spoiler :

What's going on with Mike? Did they say anything about him since he was shot that I may have missed? Maybe in the next season he'll come up and try to avenge Gus.

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Spoiler :

Will Mike really care though, since he's just a hired gun? Its not really a job that lends itself to emotional attachment.