Breaking Bad

KeithR · Jul 12, 2012

anyone a fan here? Season 5 starts Sunday.

I just finished Season 4 and can't tell you whether I really enjoy it that much. Just no humor and way too intense most of the time.

Phelonious Ponk · Jul 12, 2012

Yeah, I watched the first few episodes of Season 1 on Netflix and found it kind of relentlessly dark. And I like dark.

Tim

jazdoc · Jul 12, 2012

We love it!

Tom1356 · Jul 12, 2012

Been waiting forever.

bblue · Jul 13, 2012

I finished season 4 a few weeks ago and thought it was great. The show is a bit dark at times, but it certainly can be intense. I like it.

Tim:
I also thought Season 1 was a bit difficult to get through. In fact I almost gave up on it at one point (early). But starting with Season 2 it takes off. If you have the opportunity, try finishing up on S1 and get to S2, followed to S3, S4. It's really a kick.

Unfortunately, unless you wade through S1 and the rest of the episodes, a lot won't make sense going into S5.

--Bill

LenWhite · Jul 13, 2012

I also enjoy "Breaking Bad" - up to season 4 now via Blockbuster subscription bluray discs. The plot certainly is dark, but the script and acting are first rate. Some of the episodes are a bit slow, but many are riveting

cjfrbw · Jul 13, 2012

Yup, dark, existential, morbid, but also surprisingly funny and absurd. Love the pacing and cinematography, seems to go slow, and than wollops you.

I think it's great series. Too bad Gus ate the bad boy death burger at the end of Season 4, what a great villain.

Giancarlo Esposito (Gus) has a bit role in the soap "Once Upon A Time". Somebody needs to step up and give this great actor another role that is worthy of him.

bblue · Jul 13, 2012

cjfrbw said:
Yup, dark, existential, morbid, but also surprisingly funny and absurd. Love the pacing and cinematography, seems to go slow, and than wollops you.

I think it's great series. Too bad Gus ate the bad boy death burger at the end of Season 4, what a great villain.

Yep. But do you really think he's gone? I know it looked that way, and we're supposed to think that, but I've a sneaking hunch he'll be back with a vengeance. Could be wrong, though.

--Bill

cjfrbw · Jul 13, 2012

bblue said:
Yep. But do you really think he's gone? I know it looked that way, and we're supposed to think that, but I've a sneaking hunch he'll be back with a vengeance. Could be wrong, though.

--Bill

Ha, Ha, that would be great, but he would have to wear a hockey mask! Wouldn't be surprised.

KeithR · Jul 14, 2012

Show peaked in Season 2 imo. Season 4's 13 episodes revolving how to kill someone made it so tedious by the time you get to the end.

Apparently the creator says its getting much darkerin season 5. Yippee.

KeithR · Jul 14, 2012

I much, much preferred the Wire btw. Best show ever.

bblue · Jul 15, 2012

KeithR said:
Show peaked in Season 2 imo. Season 4's 13 episodes revolving how to kill someone made it so tedious by the time you get to the end.

Apparently the creator says its getting much darkerin season 5. Yippee.

I guess you weren't getting a lot of the subtleties in S4. There was really a lot going on, including the cat and mouse 'kill or be killed'. It was a match of wits, among other things. To me it was a very intense season.

--Bill

cjfrbw · Jul 15, 2012

"The Wire" is certainly one of the all time great programs, dissecting the drug scene from the street to the governer's mansion in the Northeast.

I don't see much comparison to "Breaking Bad," which revolves around the meth trade in the Southwest.

Also, you have to kind of "get" Walt's position. A brilliant chemist, robbed of a lucrative discovery by a trusted friend, with a crippled child, a castrating wife, teaching school with snotty brats who make fun of him while he tries to make ends meet at a second car wash job, then being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Walt devolves from the middle class into the manufacturing and dealing scene, and because he survives by mostly luck and wit, he evolves and adapts according to its Darwinian codes.

He evolves from a different direction, however, coming from despair and anger at his relentless bad luck, a kind of "ghetto of the mind" causing an amoral implosion. He eventually begins to take perverse pride in his survival, since it appeared he was always committing a kind of suicide dive with his adopted life style.

Also, because Walt is basically middle class and previously law abiding, he becomes an oddball stealth king pin managing to stay just beneath the radar of the law.

There are so many memorable scenes from the show as Walt does his waltz of bumbling clumsiness and calculated brilliance.

There was the scene of the cartel assassin at the hospital, both legs amputated, who recognizes Walt mixing with the police at his hospital room window. He pulls out his lines, falls off the bed, and drags himself with bleeding stumps across the floor with a look of hatred on his face. Nobody knows it is Walt he is looking at.

There is a good part of an entire episode of Walt chasing a fly in the underground meth lab, and just hurting himself, but pursuing it with silly, dogged relentlessness.

Many of the visions of the despair and destructiveness of the drug life are also more harrowing than even what "The Wire" portrayed.

I think the gorgeous cinematography is as much a character as the actors, it is lean, mean and blazing beautiful, especially in hi def.

.

bblue · Jul 16, 2012

cjfrbw said:
"The Wire" is certainly one of the all time great programs, dissecting the drug scene from the street to the governer's mansion in the Northeast.

I don't see much comparison to "Breaking Bad," which revolves around the meth trade in the Southwest.

Also, you have to kind of "get" Walt's position. A brilliant chemist, robbed of a lucrative discovery by a trusted friend, with a crippled child, a castrating wife, teaching school with snotty brats who make fun of him while he tries to make ends meet at a second car wash job, then being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Walt devolves from the middle class into the manufacturing and dealing scene, and because he survives by mostly luck and wit, he evolves and adapts according to its Darwinian codes.

He evolves from a different direction, however, coming from despair and anger at his relentless bad luck, a kind of "ghetto of the mind" causing an amoral implosion. He eventually begins to take perverse pride in his survival, since it appeared he was always committing a kind of suicide dive with his adopted life style.

Also, because Walt is basically middle class and previously law abiding, he becomes an oddball stealth king pin managing to stay just beneath the radar of the law.

There are so many memorable scenes from the show as Walt does his waltz of bumbling clumsiness and calculated brilliance.

There was the scene of the cartel assassin at the hospital, both legs amputated, who recognizes Walt mixing with the police at his hospital room window. He pulls out his lines, falls off the bed, and drags himself with bleeding stumps across the floor with a look of hatred on his face. Nobody knows it is Walt he is looking at.

There is a good part of an entire episode of Walt chasing a fly in the underground meth lab, and just hurting himself, but pursuing it with silly, dogged relentlessness.

Many of the visions of the despair and destructiveness of the drug life are also more harrowing than even what "The Wire" portrayed.

I think the gorgeous cinematography is as much a character as the actors, it is lean, mean and blazing beautiful, especially in hi def.

What he said.

--Bill

bblue · Jul 16, 2012

Season 5 Opener -- Ted Benecke

I must have missed something... What happened to Ted?

--Bill

Phelonious Ponk · Jul 16, 2012

I'm trying again. Deep into season 2. It's still relentlessly dark, but I think I'm hooked.

Tim

KeithR · Jul 16, 2012

bblue said:
I guess you weren't getting a lot of the subtleties in S4. There was really a lot going on, including the cat and mouse 'kill or be killed'. It was a match of wits, among other things. To me it was a very intense season.

--Bill

Look, I understand all that guys and I caught most of the subtleties in S4--but the series is very linear when it's all said and done. The "grey" area is in character debauchery. Almost every episode is about one subject--again, very linear. This is a lot different from the Wire, Sopranos, Mad Men, etc.

The real reason the show doesn't completely sell itself to me is that there is practically no humor. It's so dark that watching episode after episode is just too intense and depressing.

While I don't find the Wire and Breaking Bad that comparable, most do hence why I brought that up. Bblue- have you watched the Wire?

I am going to re-watch the Wire in the fall, it's that amazing.

KeithR · Jul 16, 2012

Ted was being held up to pay the 600k to the IRS and tried to escape---then ran into a kitchen cabinet as I recall and apparently died. We found out he never really died.

Phelonious Ponk · Jul 16, 2012

This is a lot different from the Wire, Sopranos, Mad Men, etc.

Now, Mad Men. No cops, no criminals, no lawyers, no cowboys, no reporters, no violence (to speak of) no clear heroes or villians (is there an unconflicted character in Mad Men?). It has absolutely none of the entertainment archetypes. And it is awesome. That's brilliant. It makes drug lords and DEA agents look like a crutch. I never watched The Wire, though I've heard lots of good things about it. Is it on Netflix?

Tim

bblue · Jul 16, 2012

KeithR said:
Look, I understand all that guys and I caught most of the subtleties in S4--but the series is very linear when it's all said and done. The "grey" area is in character debauchery. Almost every episode is about one subject--again, very linear. This is a lot different from the Wire, Sopranos, Mad Men, etc.

The real reason the show doesn't completely sell itself to me is that there is practically no humor. It's so dark that watching episode after episode is just too intense and depressing.

Interesting. The humor is often subtle, to be sure, but I noticed it often in bizarre character statements, ridiculous situations (where all you can do is laugh at how off the wall it is), and things like the 'talking blanket' -- you had to be holding it (according to Skyler) to voice an opinion in an open discussion... Weird stuff. Maybe that's just me, though.

While I don't find the Wire and Breaking Bad that comparable, most do hence why I brought that up. Bblue- have you watched the Wire?

No, I tried to several times but never could quite get into it. I do have a DVD set of several seasons but have never played them.

I am going to re-watch the Wire in the fall, it's that amazing.

I've always heard good things about it.

--Bill

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