Just finished pic related and enjoyed it thoroughly. Before jumping in, I'd seen it praised/discussed/shit-on/mocked on /tv/ quite a bit. Most often I've seen the following:
>Jesse fucks everything up/a bad charcter
>Skylar's a bitch
>Walt goes full dick and this is bad/doesn't make sense
>Season 5 sucks
What's the reason for these criticisms? I disagree with each one and feel the show was smartly written throughout, in Season 5 especially; the fall-out of Gus' death would be a spectacle difficult to handle for any writer, but his crumbling empire, the tragedy of Walter's reality further being entwined with the Heisenberg legend, and the emotional reaction all of the characters would experience, was really well done.
I know I'm late to the party, but Breaking Bad thread, I guess. I'd love to discuss it.
>>49414404
for me i thought the ending was a little weak.
the machine gun car thing
>cmon really?
>>49414404
season 5 is interesting but its no way near as good as 1-4
season 5 is just kinda of layed back in a way
>>49414558
That was a quick scribble-in to advance Walter's revenge, I agree, but I don't think one misstep in a single episode warrants a lot of the backlash I've seen against S5. It seems to me people disliked it simply due to the fact that it wasn't comfortable to watch, at all. In every previous season Walt (and Jesse) come out on top. There's a semblance of hope. S5 was a slow descent into the inevitable, like a dropping the first stone into the liquid time-bomb and watching the ripples spread out.
Anyway, one thing that bothered me, and I may have missed... how did Walt sneak in the bomb to kill Gus? In the previous scene, Not-Victor checked the room for trackers, wires, and threats, and inspected the old guy himself.
In the following scene, Gus waits in the confirmed and is then told the cost is clear. Did Not-Victor not miss the bomb? Did he leave the room? It felt like a camera trick was used to try and fool the audience into thinking Walt had successfully planted a hidden bomb, but it felt like trickery to me.
>>49414590
I'd say that's because Seasons 1-4 gave Walt an adversary. Lincoln's famous quote goes, "Any man can stand adversity; if you want to test a man's true character, give him power."
Season 5 was Walt living his life without fearing the shadow of a Tuco, a Cartel, a Gus, a whomever. He was allowed to become whoever he wanted. And even though he was tempted by the power, he eventually relented and gave it up. It was only because Hank discovered him that he had to go back in and pretend to be a badass: threatening Hank; claiming kills he didn't want/had nothing to do with... He had to keep up his image. But because he was so successful at maintaining the Heisenberg reputation, its legend preceded him and no one could see Walt, the flawed scared human being behind Heisenberg, and thus tragedy continued to ensue.
>>49414640
ya i guess victor didnt see the bomb for some reason . when they kill gus is awesome. BUT
i hate how they showed gus blown up walk out the room for suspense . that was really gimmicky in my opinion
>>49414738
It was cartoonish, yeah... but a lot of the show was cartoonish. Plenty of the contingencies that had to happen to in order for drama to rack up did so because characters otherwise shown to be intelligent made completely idiotic choices or suffered lapses of common sense in order for certain events to take place.
In Walt's case it's understandable. The rage, fury, rationale followed by irratonale, pride and vanity then victim-complex and humility, are all part of his make-up. It's what makes him a good main character. He's extremely flawed, but you can understand where he's coming from. You can also see why everyone else refuses to believe him after a certain point, and how that kills him on the inside.
>>49414558
>>49414404
>>49414640
daily reminder that when they wrote the scene where walts has a bite at the denny's and checks out his new BIG GUN POW POW they had no idea where they were going with it; and just though they'd find a way to patch things up mid-season
i'm sorry but that's just mediocre as fuck.
I think that breaking bad was good between seasons 1-3 where it fell between dark comedy and drama; later seasons felt cheap and
gimmicky
>evil nazi villains
also personal opinion that it's shit that jessie's most memorable scene in the last episodes was him eating ice cream
>>49414738
>>49414793
Forgot to conclude point. Though it was cartoonish, Gus was a great character; his actor did a fucking awesome job bringing him to life. Cheesy though it was, it was a good send-off to a great character. Like a little salute to wave him goodbye.
i think house of cards is superior to breaking bad
>>49414806
>I'm sorry but that's just mediocre as fuck.
It's not mediocre. It's bad writing. I agree with you completely regarding it. But I disagree that it ruins an otherwise solid last season.
>>49414837
And I think Mad Men is superior to Breaking Bad... didn't stop me from really enjoying both. What does House of Cards have to do with anything?
If the writers knew he was going to die, why didn't they make him smoke meth?
What a waste.
>>49414866
idk random thought . i think my favorite part of BB was when gus poisonous the don volito guy
So Season 5 wanted to still be about Walt's descent to basically evil and how this destroys everything he's worked for and it alienates him from everyone he loved. Which it still pretty much did, but at the same time the show is essentially glorifying him with "badass" moments. It did this in earlier seasons but Walt was more human in those seasons. As over-the-top as the Two-Face Gus moment was Walt was still nearly panicking during that whole season so It felt grounded.
The last episode of the show on the other hand, is basically a Tarantino revenge fantasy. He had some low moments in the season but he never really felt challenged and on the ropes like he did in earlier seasons, and this is accentuated by the 2-part aspect of the season kind of dragging it out a bit more and the fact that Hank's discovery just didn't really amount to much.
My biggest problem with the show was that it just felt so narrow. Like, the truly great shows like The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood and whatever have a centralized theme but then they deal with so much more. However you feel about The Wire for example, it had a lot to say. But Breaking Bad isn't really saying anything. It is just about Walt's descent and the road to hell being paved with good intentions. But shows like The Sopranos and The Shield already did this, and they really had the balls to follow through with the cancerous methods of their anti-heroes. Breaking Bad ends with Walt basically winning and being all cool or whatever and then that's it. The show isn't really about anything beyond the surface and that's what stung the most about the finale.
For all of Walt's plans and Jesse's freedom and the revenge murder of all the supremacists (or whatever they were) Breaking Bad's world still ends with a whimper, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.
Or maybe I'm just a contrarian dipshit who wanted to hate it and thus missed more than I realize. I don't know, this is just how I felt though.
Daily reminder that Breaking Bad had an excellent first season and started going downhill from there. The first major blunder and sign the writers had no idea what they were doing was the plane crash.
They try and have some huge event that Walt is indirectly responsible for to continue his descent as a villain. The problem is, by only the most thin reasoning is he even remotely responsible. Jane's father was 100% responsible and chose to go back to work at a bad time.
The whole "show a teaser and have no idea where we're going with it" shit makes for okay suspense I guess but it didn't start with the gun in the trunk. Remember all of season two we had more and more teasers hinting that Jesse and Walt would die. We had twin body bags outside his house, evidence of an explosion, his glasses found nearby, and then with thirty seconds left in the season they have a stupid fucking plane crash where no named characters are injured in the slightest despite the apparent massive ramifications the characters discuss. This would have been a great opportunity to kill off at least a secondary character or three. Instead it may as well have not happened considering its lack of consequences for the rest of the series.
>>49415149
but they had other characters wearing pins to mourn the crash
OMG SUCH GOOD WRITING WOW LOOK AT THAT CONTINUITY
>>49415148
I completely agree with you. Don't feel that you're contrarian just because you didn't enjoy it. Even if you had seen the show in a vacuum, with zero knowledge of public opinion, you wouldn't have liked it.
this show is just revenge / violence porn. ridiculous premise after ridiculous premise.
a family man, who is a school teacher, who has obeyed society's rules his entire life, does not become a drug dealer. even if he gets cancer. even if he's hard up for cash (which he wasn't-- but his pride or whatever -- which isn't a reason in real life when a family / child is involved). that shit doesn't happen.
he would have gone down this path long before. even if we can accept that idea, of a person going completely against their nature without sufficient outside influence, the idea that Walt is a better drug dealer than all of these lifelong professionals is simply absurd. he has a deep knowledge of chemistry? so do plenty of other drug manufacturers. he's really smart? so are plenty of other drug dealers.
Was Gus gay?
>>49416510
For you
>>49415149
The plane crash was awful. They didn't need that. The scene with Jane was enough to put Walt down that path. The show has some cringeworthy stuff.
