http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djaLf6bgFuU
Something to chew on for breaking bad fans until season 5 starts up again. I hope this isn't a repost...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djaLf6bgFuU
Something to chew on for breaking bad fans until season 5 starts up again. I hope this isn't a repost...
That's fantastic.
Barry On Baseball Also blogging at Banished to the Pen.
I've been re watching the series over the last few weeks. One of the funniest things about the show is how Walt has progressed in pretending different people are on the phone.
My favorite is when Hank is in the hospital and Jesse has Walt paged over the intercom for the second time. Walt picks up the courtesy phone surrounded by DEA and other law enforcement and as Jesse screams "Where are you!?!" Walt calmly says "Reverend, so good of you to call."
"I know a lot about the law and various other lawyerings."
Hitters who avoid outs are the funnest.
Just wanted to pop in to say that I have just finished season 4. So I had to skip the last several pages of this thread, but I so enjoyed catching up with your year-old Season 4 theories earlier on.
I have to watch the first half of Season 5 this week while I have access to cable. This show is incredible, beautifully shot and acted, but it is going to put me on anti-anxiety medication.
There is no such thing as a pitching prospect.
I recorded a lot of episodes last summer but except for the pilot, skipped all the Season 1 episodes. AMC has been showing them again early Saturday mornings and I finished watching all of Season 1. Some of that Season 1 stuff was just hilarious - especially Walt's intervention. Marie's also a great source of comedy. Of course the show has it's dramatic moments - and they are some of the best in history - but the comedy is a real source of pleasure for me. What you said about it being beautifully shot goes double for me. Especially the cold opens.
I agree. I still think it's very funny, though the comedy has gotten much, much blacker.
BTW, I don't know if this has been mentioned, having skipped through many pages of this thread, but Bryan Cranston is playing LBJ this fall in a new play at the theater where I worked the last couple of years. Can't wait to see it.
http://www.americanrepertorytheater....s/show/all-way
There is no such thing as a pitching prospect.
"I know a lot about the law and various other lawyerings."
Hitters who avoid outs are the funnest.
Well, I'm all caught up now. Yes, I watched eight episodes in the last three days. Don't judge.
Skimming through this thread, I see a lot of people disappointed with Season 5. I think they've done a tremendous job. Sustaining the all-out thriller suspense (chase, avoiding kill, etc.) of the previous couple of seasons would have been pointless, repetitive, and the exact antithesis of why you write a show rather than a movie, the latter of which doesn't give you long-term chances for this kind of depth of character exploration.
Season 5 -- with the exception of the train episode, which I thought was a wonderful throwback with added sophistication -- is a complete psychological exploration. Yes, everything has advanced quickly for Walt in terms of evilness, and not only do I think that's necessary dramatically, but I feel it's a totally justified payback after the buildup of the previous four seasons and the payoff of Gus. It did not come out of nowhere, but it just skyrocketed after he killed Gus and was able to "take over" his empire on his own terms (or so he thought). He is so focused on finally achieving the goals he thinks he's set for himself that he loses grip with reality. For everyone complaining that some of the show has "unrealistic," THAT is totally realistic, psychologically.
Beyond that, this show has never been "realistic". Most television isn't. I think the word people are actually searching for is "believable," and that's a matter of opinion, but I think everything that's happened has been believable within the framework the show has established.
Because of the switch to psychological exploration, the pace of the show slowed (as time was picking up), and I don't think that's just a necessary byproduct of the thematic switch -- I think it's also meant to give the audience a sense of the mundanity that Walt is feeling after these several harrowing, fast-paced months. There were a few too many meth-making montages for my taste (that felt like killing time), but other than that I though the pacing worked. It's very No Exit. Hell is having nothing to do, no one to do anything with, nothing to escape, nowhere to go, right?
I think the irony that is being explored is that all along Walt used the protection of his family as his justification for everything, and in doing all this he's completely lost all connection with his family -- all human connection, really. I think, far beyond drugs, that's what this show is about: where the line is between getting what you think you want and accidentally giving up what you do want. Just in that last episode there were hints of him starting to realize this, and working to get it back, and then...
I don't know that he'll end up dead or in jail. I think there's a possibility he gets away with everything, just like he always wanted, but losing everyone he loved, living in secrecy somewhere, with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Which means it was all for what? Was the satisfaction of the ego enough? I think that's the question the show is getting at, and I think we know the answer.
There is no such thing as a pitching prospect.
Razor Shines (07-04-2013),RichRed (07-05-2013)
http://diamondvisits.blogspot.com/ My Minor League stadium review site.
I rewatched Season 5 and discover how great of an addition the character of Lyda was to the show. That scene will her writing out the 8 names for Walt was great writing in the last episode. This is probably one of those shows that I will revisit every two years when its done and still discover something that really didn't stand out before.
http://diamondvisits.blogspot.com/ My Minor League stadium review site.
I'm rewatching with my wife who has never seen the show so that we can watch the finish together.
Watching it a second time gives entirely new context to many scenes, and you also can see many events set up much earlier than they occur. The writers have done a good job with this show.
The one downside to marathoning Breaking Bad is that you don't get the slow descent with Walt - everything feels like it happens so quickly and you don't get the long period of rooting for Walt that you would have watching it over years and years.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
I foresee "an ironic ending" where Walt loses everything but has one saving grace moment where he redeems himself. A real dark sad ending that moralizes the lifestyle and consequences of Walt's choices but gives Walt one last moment to channel his good self.
Also Hank's gotta win. He's been beat up, shot at, and taken for a fool this whole time.
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