Breaking Bad (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

[frogwoman]

i thought the last episode was great. except i would have liked to know more about what happened with gretchen and elliot.

also i thought that Walt didn't want to get himself out of a hole. He wanted to die.

 

[frogwoman]

Disclaimer: it was brilliant of course. deeply satisfying on a dramatic level, some absolutely awesome camera/cinematography/lighting work, pace never slacked and it let you catch up with everyone you cared at all about. (*except maybe Huell of course.)

Now for the obligatory urban bunfight gratuitous beef heretical thought: it was too kindhearted by half. I was expecting/hoping for something with much more bite and a snap of that good old blackhearted malice and mischief which you get at other moments. (and that doesn't have to mean gore or gunplay, either.) It could have thrown in some absolutely outrageous twist, or gone fullbore social satire, or done a more marxist (or maybe wire-like genius) montage showing how the wheels of industry keep grinding away. Instead we ended up rooting for Walt, and walt got to have a final goodbye to skyler and caress holly's little head; jesse got away in one piece rather than (more likely) dying of torture/malnutrition/neglect/despair, and to reconcile with Walt .

My 'least likely ending' prediction was group hugs, learning and reconciliation and that's more or less what happened dammit!

detail I liked best of all: walt spying on walt jr through the laundry block and it looks pretty much like they are living in the projects. oh the middle-class horror. especially when set up against the glitzy polished marble walls of the ex's 1%er blingpad bought (possibly) with walt's genius inventions....

I don't think Jesse did reconcile with Walt.

 

[frogwoman]

Badger and Skinny Pete. Hitmen yo.

Loved that.

 

[frogwoman]

The entire point is that he wanted to die, and he also wanted Jesse to kill him because he knew he'd done him wrong

 

[belboid]

Tand he also wanted Jesse to kill him because he knew he'd done him wrong

he wanted to give Jesse the choice to kill him, but still was glad when he didn't do it, imo

 

[frogwoman]

There should just have been a bit more comeuppance for Walt. We knew he was going to die from the beginning of the show, considering everything he went through and put everyone else through, he shouldn't really have been allowed to choose his own time and way of dying.

He didn't choose his own way of dying though? he wanted jesse to kill him and Jesse refused, not wanting to give him what he wanted.

 

[frogwoman]

So it wasn't a terrible final ending. Pretty much everything wrapped up, no major plot threads hanging in the air, Walt reeks righteous revenge, people who deserve to live survive, people who deserve to die get killed.

But it wasn't the ending I wanted. I wanted something that would blow my mind, something that would both rap things up properly and make me reappraise everything that had happened up to that point. I wanted the best ending ever. And it was just alright. It was predictable. Everyone's been saying for the last week that the nazis had to die.

Oh well, that's what comes of overinflated expectations.

how shit would it have been if the nazis hadn't died???

 

[Jon-of-arc]

how shit would it have been if the nazis hadn't died???

I'm not saying they shouldn't have died. I just didn't want that as the ending. I wanted something more. Fuck knows what. Maybe something that truly shows Walt that his actions have consequences even he can't control. Something unexpected, poetic, thought provoking.

It was a fine ending. I can't specifically fault any aspect. But fine doesn't do it when everything leading up to it has been brilliant.

 

[belboid]

He didn't choose his own way of dying though? he wanted jesse to kill him and Jesse refused, not wanting to give him what he wanted.

he chose to die in the shoot out (or pretty much did), he knew that was his final move. Whether it was Jesse (and i dont think he really wanted Jesse to kill him) or not was not that important. No one caught him, he died in a manner of his own construction.

 

[keybored]

I'm glad nobody here has said deus ex machina yet, I don't really want to start using the block function.

 

[Ted Striker]

Tbh I wanted a happy ending rather than drama that left open holes, 'what ifs', and a cheap ajar door if Gilligan/Cranstons pension needs an injection in a few years time. I thought of it as like the Tour De France finale procession into Paris. The race has been won, and all that needs doing is to send the event 'home' and clear it all up ready for the champers to pop for the crew at the closing credits. Even with the phenomenal pace of events in series 5, any up-and-down twist setup and execution would have just been too much to squeeze in. It was a very dense episode, that could have been stretched out over 3 or 4.

Yes, he could have been more inventive/sciencey with the nazi execution, though it was good enough I suppose. IMO it didn't nearly have the 'suspension of disbelief' of other US shows - or even compared to the early scenes and dramas with Tuco (which were, IMO, a bit too much, e.g. blow up his office in front of all his gang yet get no retribution from a known meth madman).

The main call for the anti-Nazi rambo finale was owing to the unique disposition that the audience knew something with the gun was coming up - which of course you wouldn't normally see/know.

 

[frogwoman]

the only thing wrong with it is that i reckon both episodes were too short (the last one and this one) and it meant that some things weren't tied up. I wanted to know why walt was so pissed off with gretchen and elliot, i also wanted to see more of Walt Jr (RJ Mitte can really act and he was not used enough during the series). I don't understand why he wasn't given more of a bigger part and was just made to eat breakfast all the time, he really should have had a bigger role in the series because what scenes there were when he was acting were fantastic.

I thought the last scene with Skyler was fantastic, really great acting from Walt where he told Skyler that he did it for himself and that he felt alive, which is the reason I've always thought he was really doing it.

 

[frogwoman]

oh and I do think that ONE of the nazis should have got away and not died, it would have made it scarier. things like that (like all the nazis dying) dont happen like that in the real world.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

The real world.....

 

[frogwoman]

The real world.....

the real world where life is shit and the bad guys get away with everything. especially nazis, how many times do you hear of some second world war war criminal dying at the age of 100 or something having had a long happy life and never had to face the robot machine gun of justice? it would have been far more realistic if you'd have had one or two of them sneak off or manage to get out of the door just in time.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

the real world where life is shit and the bad guys get away with everything. especially nazis, how many times do you hear of some second world war war criminal dying at the age of 100 or something having had a long happy life and never had to face the robot machine gun of justice? it would have been far more realistic if you'd have had one or two of them sneak off or manage to get out of the door just in time.

The whole show was unrealistic. It was all escapist fantasy. Fun and smart escapist fantasy....but just a big bubble of syrupy make believe.

 

[frogwoman]

The whole show was unrealistic. It was all escapist fantasy. Fun and smart escapist fantasy....but just a big bubble of syrupy make believe.

Yeah but it felt completely believable. Obviously it would probably never happen that a chemistry teacher became a drug dealer but you never know, stranger things have happened in real life. It didn't feel believable that EVERY SINGLE nazi got killed. It was believable that hank died, that walt jr told his dad to fuck off and that he didn't want his money, it was believable that nazis kept jesse as a prisoner and tied him up, because thats the sort of thing that nazis do. It wasn't so believable that badger and skinny pete were the "hitmen" but it was nice and a good touch of humour and it made me laugh anyway.

It wasn't believable that Walt just died, having killed every single person remaining on the show who was a cunt, there was bound to be an even bigger cunt who got away. I think it should have been Todd tbh.

 

[Nanker Phelge]

Two bigger cunts got away....those rich pricks.

 

[frogwoman]

Two bigger cunts got away....those rich pricks.

i agree. however, they didn't entirely get away because they would be so scared of the "hitmen" that they were bound to do what walt said. But yeah fair enough!

 

[xslavearcx]

.....the robot machine gun of justice...

best expression ive heard in a long time

 

[frogwoman]

to be honest its like a common complaint of mine when im reading books/watching films, that it's not realistic enough

 

[Yelkcub]

to be honest its like a common complaint of mine when im reading books/watching films, that it's not realistic enough

Are you also disappointed that real life isn't enough like fiction?

 

[frogwoman]

Are you also disappointed that real life isn't enough like fiction?

All the time

 

[frogwoman]

I like things that I watch to have a happy ending, not unrealistic but something with hope/redemption in it. that's why I liked it when Jesse was driving away laughing, when Skyler and Jesse were absolved of responsibility by Walt's actions, and I liked the huge shootout when most of the nazis got killed, I was happy with that scene except I think one nazi should have escaped to go off and be a cunt somewhere else cos that's more believable. There needs to be something to give you hope, and that's why I don't have as big a problem with the "happy" bits that everyone else seems to. I almost cried at the bit where Walt admitted his true motive to Skyler.

 

[Fez909]

As much as I wanted Jessie to live, it would have been a better ending had he died. Not everything needs to end well. Especially if the show is a morality play, which it is, then surely the consequences of his actions should reflect what would really happen. He wouldn't be free. He wouldn't get away with it. He probably wouldn't have lived, had this been anything even close to real life.

I'd have been devastated as I really wanted him to escape it all. But the better ending would have been the one that left a lasting impression, even if that impression was sadness.

By the end, we were made to feel for Walt, but look at what his family have been reduced to. From a huge, middle-class neighbourhood house, so a project box room and what looked like second hand clothing. Flynn was the true victim, yet that whole scene had me feeling for Walt and how he won't get to say goodbye to his boy, etc. And Skyler was obviously complicit to a certain extent, but she was definitely a victim. Look at the state she was in. And again, I'm rooting for Walt.

I don't think this is just me; I think that was intentional by the writers.

Jessie should have died, probably, and Walt should have received a less noble/wanted death.

 

[xslavearcx]

i get annoyed when you get actors moving from soaps to soaps. it would be much better if the character of a soap moved from one soap to another, creating a wonderful intertextual world of soapery. for example, how much better would the shite scottish soap river city have been when instead of stefan dennis just being a shite short lived carachter emerged as paul robinson, expanding the lassiters hotel brand with the nefarious tactics we'd come to expect of him?

 

[xslavearcx]

Jessie should have died, probably, and Walt should have received a less noble/wanted death.

think its kinda how they let darth vader die in a nice way when he faced up to him being a bad sort for a bit...

 

[neonwilderness]

the real world where life is shit and the bad guys get away with everything. especially nazis, how many times do you hear of some second world war war criminal dying at the age of 100 or something having had a long happy life and never had to face the robot machine gun of justice? it would have been far more realistic if you'd have had one or two of them sneak off or manage to get out of the door just in time.

If it was going to be realistic then the whole gun contraption would have got jammed or something and not worked, or the Nazis wouldn't have put his keys down in a conveniently grabable place

I think the series was only properly believable right at the beginning. Once Walt became Heisenberg it started getting a bit daft. It was still great to watch though!

 

[Fez909]

The fact that people are disappointed with certain aspects of it, while still being positive about the show as a whole, only goes to show how good it was. No one gives a shit how 2 Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps ended, because it was turgid from start to finish. Breaking bad is still one of the best things I've ever seen on telly, even though I wish certain things had gone differently.

Series one was pretty boring excepting episode 1 and the last one. Then it was amazing, yet less realistic for the next 3. I don't think I'd trade realism for the sheer enjoyment of those series. The final one, I've been a bit disappointed with, but considering it wasn't meant to happen, they made it coherent and wrapped up 99% of loose ends without it feeling rushed, bolted on or just a cash-in.

Can't complain too much, in other words. But I will anyway

 

[frogwoman]

yeah i've got very little to complain about overall. I actually think this is the best way that it could of ended barring a few minor details (like more screen time for RJ Mitte and none of the fash getting away). Imagine if no nazis had died and jesse had been killed and then walt had died of cancer or something, it would have been so shit and everyone would have been complaining about it because there was no hope and no possibility that somebody would have come out of it all right.