spoilery breaking bad thread

[jebreject]

the scene in walt's living room was just bad. the fact that they were lit so differently (walt with the shadows of the blinds across his face) and almost never in the shot together further drove it home. it was like they weren't even in the same show. bryan cranston was bringin' it, but bob odenkirk, well, he just ain't got the chops.

[elpollodiablo]

Totally agreed, jeb. Odenkirk has been tonally wrong for this show from the beginning. It's unfortunate, because you can kind of see what they were going for: they wanted someone who could inject even more dark humor into things. But like you said, he just ain't got it. He does look pretty convincing as a schlubby shyster, though.

I thought the scene with he and Walt last week was one of his better efforts, though.

[jebreject]

So how about some speculation? I think that someone close to Walt is going to get it this season, or at least get seriously hurt. This show isn't afraid to go there, and now that we know that Pollos dude is in league with the cartel, well, some shit is definitely going to go down. I feel like it's going to be Walt, Jr. With how he's been dealing with the pending divorce, he's going to wander into some terrible situation or another. I'm also interested in seeing what's going to happen with Marie. I think she's definitely going to find out about Walt and get dragged into things.

[hannah]

What's amazing about this show: it goes places both faster and slower than you'd expect. Like the payoff with the Cousins, or the ongoing plane-crash tease all last season. So this all makes speculation very hard.

But yes I agree: someone's going to die.

And what about Hank's panic attacks? He's going to kill someone, maybe.

[Mike24]

yeah i see hank's time with the d.e.a. coming to a close one way or another

[elpollodiablo]

This season's shaping up to be one hell of a slow burn, eh?

[Mike24]

yep, and i'm digging every minute of it.  except for the hank stuff.

[jebreject]

Holy shit. I wasn't expecting Walt to move back in. The Jesse stuff was really good too. I still don't like the cousins stuff much really. They don't feel like real people. Odenkirk was better this episode, not that he had much screentime. I actually really dig the Hank stuff. He's been one of my favorite characters since the begining.

[dieblucasdie]

Man, I love the Cousins. The canned quality is part of what I like.  Walt's spent the entire first three episodes just RATIONALIZING EVERYTHING TO FUCK, and here's this wildly violent, bordering-on-unreal, return-of-the-repressed thing gunning for him that he'd see coming if he were half as fucking smart as he thinks he is.  Pitch-perfect. 

I'm still kind of annoyed with the Jesse stuff, though.  But only because I'm disappointed to see Aaron Paul get the same screen time that the fuckin' dude-who-plays-Hank gets after the performance he turned in last year.  It's probably my own petty impatience and there'll be a payoff.  Fuck this is a great show.

edit: Also, whoever writes their Spanish is killer.  I could play that Origin of Tortuga teaser scene over and over.

[edison]

Man, last night's episode reduced me to a nervous wreck. So painful on so many counts (in a good way, of course, but still, I had trouble falling asleep).

[diesel_powered]

Caught up tonight. So far, really into the season, even for as uncomfortable as it is. I didn't care for Skyler much before, but I really can't stand her this season. I was happy Jesse finally got the house, but the whole "inert Jesse" thing is getting a little old for me. I know they've been setting things up for the past few episodes, but the tension is pretty much killing me at this point.

[dieblucasdie]

Inert Jesse doesn't bother me so much as Not-Interacting-with-Walt Jesse.  I'm actually really looking forward to Walt being dragged back into the game and having to deal with his newly-dead-inside partner.

I'm kind of surprised at your reaction to Skyler, though.  I've really liked that they've given her a character more complication beyond Harpy Wife this season.  At least now when they go into that territory, she knows Walt deserves it.

[diesel_powered]

Well, before she was Annoyingly Self-Righteous, Hypocrite Wife whereas now she's Annoyingly Self-Righteous, Hypocrite Wife Who's Out For Revenge. So y'know, I don't think she's bad TV, I just didn't like how judgmental she was before, and now I don't like the decisions she's making out of that judgmental mindset. Which I guess that's a real strength of the show... the whole issue of who's worse: all the self-righteous hypocrites with secrets, or the people who are out doing all manner of evil in the (more or less) open. I'll be interested to see how Walt gets back in the game in general, seeing as so many characters are just going straight nihilist this early on.

[dieblucasdie]

Oh man, I don't see her as self-righteous at all.  Like, we've been made to sympathize with Walt, but what he's been doing is really fucking horrifying!  It's one of the things I like about this show, actually.  If this were Weeds or some or shit, she'd be pissed for an episode, but then there'd be an epiphany scene where she understands Walt like the audience understands Walt.  And we, the audience, would like her more, and we'd feel better about everything, but we'd be complaining non-stop two seasons down the line when it seems like nothing's at stake anymore. 

Here, though, everything has consequences: the fallout of Skyler's discovery reaches every single character on the show and complicates their lives in non-obvious ways (we even get that hilarious/awesome/odd scene of Hank's explanation to Marie of Walt's assumed infidelity). The process of repairing their relationship (if that even happens!) involves emotional abuse and blackmail, fear, sexual frustration, petty revenge, ambivalence. 

Again, such a fucking good show.

[jebreject]

There's no question of who's worse. Walt's worse. Walt is the worst person on the show. Skylar's not even in the running.

Honestly, I don't even see what she's doing as revenge. She's trying to move on with her life. She's trying to sever the connections. Yeah, she's trying to hurt Walt some too, but, well, he fucking deserves it. Self-righteous, really? Are you forgetting that Walt is a methamphetamine manufacturer? I mean, I just really don't see where you're coming from with the Skylar hate.

[hannah]

Yeah, if anything, Skylar reveals how much easier it is to hate someone who fucks Ted and smokes once or twice when she's pregnant than a guy who kills people.

[elpollodiablo]

Are we taking it on faith that she fucked Ted? I read that as her having to force herself even to the precipice of doing something really hurtful, and then having to lie about it because she couldn't go beyond kissing the guy.

[dieblucasdie]

Well, after kissing him she said, "Are your kids at home?" ie "Can we go to your place and fuck?"  So unless we see a flashback scene or something later where she goes to Ted's and then can't go through with it, yeah.

[elpollodiablo]

Ah, I missed that line.

But yes, also agree that Schuyler is absolutely not worse than Walt. Anna Gunn has to walk a fine line with that character, and does so pretty capably, IMO. Though she keeps the audience at a distance, I think it's intentional. I've never disliked her, I just didn't have much interest in her in the beginning. It's also frustrating how naive she can be.

[diesel_powered]

It is frustrating how naive Skylar can be, which is pretty much why I don't really like her all that much. Walt's circumstances are a hell of a lot more complex than "OH HE'S A NASTY EVIL DRUG DEALER WHO KILLS PEOPLE!!!!" It's not like he woke up one day and decided to do the meth thing simply for the sake of evil. His life throughout the series started out as the wrong act for the right reasons (not a justifiable act, but at least one can relate to why he made the decisions he has) and every subsequent bad situation has been continuing consequences for those wrong acts. (Again, one of the reasons why the show is great, as Blucas mentioned. If it was Weeds, every wrong act would have resolved itself easily and we'd all be bored with it.) Sure, Walt's the bad guy on the show. Nobody's disputing that. But when you look at it, Skylar's no saint, either. She's fucking Ted to get back at Walt and with every episode, she gets further into helping Ted conceal his financial fraud. I'm not saying "OH, ANNOYING HARPIE WIFE SUCKS, COOL GANGSTER HUSBAND RULES, EH EH, AMIRITE?!?" here, but what I am saying is that is that I think her character's naivete denies her capacity for evil which I think is hypocritical and ultimately allows her to justify her own misdeeds. And in terms of liking one character over another, I'd rather take the character that consciously chooses the wrong path than the one that backs into the wrong path out of denial or ignorance.

[jebreject]

Dude, Jesse's gonna get nailed.

[elpollodiablo]

Hopefully with actual nails.

[jm]

So I'm finally caught up (watched all extant episodes over something like 10 days?) and able to let myself read this thread.  I haven't looked forward to a new episode of a weekly show in... I don't even know.  In fact, I don't know if I've ever seen a show that does tension this well.

Also: Zungguzungguguzungguzeng.

[elpollodiablo]

Wow, the opening moments of this week's episode might be this show's nadir. What the fuck am I watching here.

[Mike24]

ok the hank stuff is getting kind of awesome