Breaking Bad

..and why not?
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Samoan
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Samoan » 14 May 2015, 11:44

fueryhk(redux) wrote:Apparently they's showing the whole shebang in the UK from series one episode one on some new channel called Spike - 160 on Sky for those who have it

I just stumbled upon this channel the other week although it's on a little late, 11 pm.
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Samoan » 04 Jun 2015, 23:05

Samoan wrote:
fueryhk(redux) wrote:Apparently they's showing the whole shebang in the UK from series one episode one on some new channel called Spike - 160 on Sky for those who have it

I just stumbled upon this channel the other week although it's on a little late, 11 pm.
It's Good!

I think I may be hooked.
Nonsense to the aggressiveness, I've seen more aggression on the my little pony message board......I mean I was told.

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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby ... » 05 Jun 2015, 17:15

Samoan wrote:
Samoan wrote:
fueryhk(redux) wrote:Apparently they's showing the whole shebang in the UK from series one episode one on some new channel called Spike - 160 on Sky for those who have it

I just stumbled upon this channel the other week although it's on a little late, 11 pm.
It's Good!

I think I may be hooked.


That Crystal Meth is pretty potent stuff

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Belle Lettre
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Belle Lettre » 09 Aug 2015, 09:14

Sorry - checked my facts
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Maryann » 12 Aug 2015, 16:11

:lol: there are all kinds of little gems and Easter eggs planted everywhere in this show.... man, i envy people watching it for the first time :D

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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Geezee » 05 Sep 2016, 12:40

Very belatedly I've watched through all of Breaking Bad over the last month or so. I didn't have a good feeling about this series initially - the circumstances around when we started watching it a few years ago weren't great, and the unrelenting violence of it didn't appeal to me. But I decided to give it another go and have come to admire what they set out to do, even if to me the violence and torture does get extended too much sometimes to the point where it almost gets boring. But I think they had a great story arc, great performances, and kept things interesting. The ups and downs of Jesse are particularly compelling as a foil for Walt's steady, determined and deliberate descent, while Hank comes more and more into his own as the series progresses (and maybe I have a quibble over the fact that there isn't much in the way of mourning for his death which seems incongruous given his importance). I think Season 2 is where it's at its best, perhaps because I'm more of a sucker for a romantic storyline (Jane), although probably the train heist episode in the final season is the one I liked the most. I do think the Lydia character could have been developed more, she was great (and not 100% sure why she had to die, seemed a bit unnecessary, particularly since he reserved such a symbolically important means as the ricing to kill her).
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Geezee » 05 Sep 2016, 13:15

Zeke wrote:
martha wrote:astute observation and I'm absolutely sure you're right. Todd's movin on up with Walt fast isn't he?


He's sort of a bizarro world Jesse. He's got the attitude Walt wishes Jesse had but none of the heart. I suspect, wittingly or otherwise, he'll be instrumental in the unravelling of Walt's little empire.

My biggest worry at this point is that Walt will kill (or have Todd frame to get rid of...) Jesse. I swear I will stop watching completely if Jesse is killed.



I suspect Jesse will be around to the bitter (and I do mean bitter) end. I think he'll live but he won't be particularly happy about it. It doesn't look like any of these characters will end well.


Well that's an understatement. :) Andrea. :(
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Geezee » 05 Sep 2016, 13:40

The Write Profile wrote:
Señor Orissario de la Fuente Monteprisso wrote:I'm only up to the third episode of this season, but I got lost with all the cigarette packet stuff. Why was Jesse so angry?



Jesse has finally realised that it was Walt who poisioned his then-girlfriend's son, and not Gus. Here's the summary of the episode in question to jog your memory. At the time, Jesse thought it was Gus, and therefore, "re-teamed" up with Walt to kill him. Walt had previously got Huell to swipe the Ricin cigarette to make Jesse think he had lost it. In other words, Jesse's finally cottoned on that there really are no limits to what Walt can and will do to try to manipulate situations to his own advantage.

That said, he trusts Hank even less, and I really don't see this panning out well for any of them.


Reading through this thread now and enjoying some fo the commentary here. I didn't understand this either - I rewound this scene a few times as well as I didn't quite understand...initially I thought Jesse had realised that he himself was being poisoned. What I don't get is that OK, he realises that Huell maybe swiped his dope...but not sure how that means he's suddenly convinced that it must have been Huell who swiped the ricin...particularly since actually the ricin cigarette didn't mean anything - it wasn't used to poison Brock, and ultimately Jesse found it again anyway (or, in discovering that Huell swiped his dope, there is nothing that should suddenly lead him to suspect that it is more likely that Walt planted the ricin cigarette back, much less "prove" that this is the case).
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Geezee » 12 Sep 2016, 10:39

I realise I'm alone in this belated discussion on BB, but over the weekend I watched the first couple of episodes again, and I'm perhaps even more amazed at this series now. I'd forgotten almost everything about the first series to the point where I'm actually a bit unsure if i ever even saw the first episode - I didn't realise, for example, that Walt's job at the car wash and early relationship with the owner was actually in the series (when that storyline reappears, I think they refer obliquely to him having worked there as a teeneager) - but in particular I'm impressed with how set in stone the character's relationships are from Day 1 - in particular, that Walt has total control over Jesse right from the bringing (and threatens to call the police if he does not start cooking with him). And the early relationship scenes with Skyler are pretty heart-breaking. Having seen that, I jumped straight into probably my favourite episode, in the final season, Ozymandias to watch the jaw-dropping phone call scene that Walt makes to her where he is shouting abuse at her. Incredible, heart-breaking stuff.
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Penk! » 29 Sep 2017, 18:48

So I belatedly finished this now. I started it once a few years ago and wasn't convinced, but a year or so ago I decided to give it another try and watched the full run over the twelve months since.
I liked it, but... it's overrated, isn't it?

Cranston is phenomenal as Walter White, which surely accounts for a lot of the plaudits. There are several scenes near the end of the whole thing when it really becomes clear what he has become and what he has lost, and there's a genuinely Shakespearean feel to it. Some other hugely powerful scenes and some very smart direction too. There are lots of small details and moments that go unnoticed but suddenly, a few episodes or even series later, become dramatically significant. In that way it's odd, as I thought it was pretty average for the first three or so series, but it developed into something much deeper and more powerful towards the end as small earlier moments and scenes gained more weight and meaning.

That said, what holds it back from greatness is that it lacks a real emotional core. Walter is the main guy but despite Cranston's brilliance he is never really a magnetic character until the end of the whole thing, when it becomes clear that what was really driving him was the desire to stand out. And by then it's too late. I think that one big issue is that the Pinkman character is too muddled. I never really found his motivations, or Walt's paternal feelings towards him, that convincing.
And speaking of relationships, Skyler is no Carmela Soprano. From the beginning she is mishandled: I think the idea is that she is going to be sympathetic, a strong woman trapped in her marriage to a criminal, and trying to do right by her kids, but for most of the time she comes across as a pain in the arse: an obstruction as Walt went about his business. Hank was a better supporting character, a believably cocky, jocky but competent and clever agent. Saul and Mike were fantastic too and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into their spinoff.

One other point that stuck out was that for a show about people making and selling crystal meth, there was no real interest in showing the consequences for the community or society around them. We got Jesse's hot methhead-with-a-heart girlfriend, we got the comedy sidekicks Badger and Skinny Pete, we got a couple of scenes of Wendy the crack whore... and that was it.
It might have been a deliberate move, to steer clear of this to avoid making Walt into too much of a villain, but I think it detracts from the show's overall impact.

Otherwise, well, the plotting was up and down with some real lulls in the third series especially, and even when things really picked up speed and tension in the last couple of series, there were things that felt like missteps, or that were too dragged out. But those last two series really were compelling while I spent much of the previous three waiting for it to get good; fortunately I had read that it was a show that rewarded this patience, so I didn't bail again.

And you know what? I think I read the final episode with its Hollywood heroics as Walt's dying fantasy of redemption. He is barely there in many scenes, hanging in the background and unnoticed by the other characters. The resolutions feel too neat. I think he died up there in that cabin.
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 30 Sep 2017, 10:55

I dunno Penk. I think it deserves all accolades. I think Walt's got a kind of magnetism throughout. In my mind it's clear to us all along what's driving him. It's just that he isn't honest with himself about it till the end.

It's like a Greek tragedy. Little man has a brush with death and realizes that he doesn't want to face the end without leaving a mark on the world. All the while he justifies his actions in terms of family security. Jesse's psychology is similar. For a lot of the show he's looking for validation.

I don't know about the ending being some kind of dying fever dream. It's possible, but it seems like a long way around the block.
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Penk! » 30 Sep 2017, 14:33

Oh, I can't really argue with that, but in my mind the central relationships - ie Walt's relationship's with Skyler and Jesse - just aren't persuasive or compelling enough.

It's a good and sometimes very good show but I don't think it has the weight, sparkle or finesse of some of those shows it gets compared to.
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 30 Sep 2017, 16:29

Walt's central relationship is to the fictionalized version of himself he's creating. It's the only relationship that's real to him.
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Penk! » 30 Sep 2017, 16:46

I think what I'm trying to say is "yes, BUT"!

By being such an intensive study of one man I think it loses some heft and wider effectiveness.

For all that is genuinely top-notch about it there is always a daft plotline (plane crash!) or annoying Skyler scene to hold it back.
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Davey the Fat Boy » 30 Sep 2017, 17:33

Personally I think the biggest flaws involve them defeating the cartel. That got into eye-rolling territory for me.

But the thing you are pointing to as a weakness was the show's chief strength to me. Ultimately this was a show about one man. The other characters are thin because he's barely in relationship to any of them.

The things that really made the show for me all happened in the last few episodes (after being set up masterfully by what came before). These two things in particular:

1. After watching him slip out of most personal consequences for his actions over and over again - he finally causes something happen that he cannot live with. As an audience member they made us wait so long for that to happen, that it seemed unthinkable when it did.

2. His absolute commitment to avoiding self-awareness was so single-minded that I think most watchers had finally accepted that he'd never come to terms with why he did what he did. So when he finally lets it in, it has more power than anyone could have imagined by seeming like a long buried-away skeleton finally unearthed.

Finally - there's the narrative style of the show, which I think is really what earns it it's place among the greatest shows ever. The fact that the creators had the confidence to show you something like a burnt teddy bear in a pool over long before they explained it was pretty gutsy for tv. They allowed viewers to not-understand a lot more than other "great" shows, making the whole thing a lot more cinematic than most tv shows.
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Re: Breaking Bad

Postby Penk! » 30 Sep 2017, 17:59

Yeah, I did think that those flash-forwards added a lot. We got the same in the final series, when we saw Walt with the hair and fake ID buying the gun, and returning to his derelict house to collect the ricin.
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