Breaking Bad (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

[BigTom]

Thanks mods

 

[Orang Utan]

to be honest I've got to eps 10 in series 2 and I'm bored with it

The storylines are just going around in circles with the same themes and outcomes

It would seem to me that 12 episodes for a series is too long

12/13 is usual for an american series and the first season is only 8

 

[Divisive Cotton]

no seriously, keep watching it! there are parts in season 2 where it drags a bit, but the end of season 2 is fantastic

okay then I'll keep going

 

[twistedAM]

okay then I'll keep going

Yeah do. End of S2 is big and then the Mexicans come in big style in S3. The last series os great but it goes really slowly and then......

Meanwhile loving the new thread title with the added CAPS.

 

[frogwoman]

BB also has to be slow, that's kind of the whole point of it, a mans slow almost imperceptible descent into criminality and a lack of conscience. Makes the shocking / fucked up moments all the more shocking

 

[BigTom]

Yeah, I like the slow pace of it, punctuated by periods of intense activity.

 

[Orang Utan]

i don't see it as slow at all as there is always something happening

 

[BigTom]

I dunno, there are lots of episodes which are basically just people talking, with lots of fairly boring family or work scenes and then an episode or two (or sometimes more maybe) with lots of action.

 

[Orang Utan]

people talking isn't necessarily boring - all action is boring!

 

[frogwoman]

people talking contributes to the tension though. like that episode where walt and jesse are in the meth-lab trying to get rid of the fly which loads of internet commentators thought was shit but i thought was one of the best of the series.

 

[kenny g]

download and then use fast forward.

 

[Orang Utan]

download and then use fast forward.

huh?

 

[revol68]

people talking contributes to the tension though. like that episode where walt and jesse are in the meth-lab trying to get rid of the fly which loads of internet commentators thought was shit but i thought was one of the best of the series.

that episode was fucking awesome

 

[Anonymous1]

I dunno, there are lots of episodes which are basically just people talking, with lots of fairly boring family or work scenes and then an episode or two (or sometimes more maybe) with lots of action.

I see this as vital character building, explaining a bit of their backstory and alluding to possible tendencies or stereotypes that people may tend to
see in other. Then the story speeds up and blows a lot of that out of the water.

 

[Reno]

I dunno, there are lots of episodes which are basically just people talking, with lots of fairly boring family or work scenes and then an episode or two (or sometimes more maybe) with lots of action.

Sounds like this isn't the show for you then and you want something less character and more action based. The "boring" work and family scenes are very well written and acted and the whole series is about the tension between the domestic and the crime world and how they eventually collide. This is what is really great about the show and what lifts it above more superficial fare.

 

[BigTom]

people talking isn't necessarily boring - all action is boring!

I didn't say it was boring? Perhaps what I mean by slow is different to what you do.. slow is what gives the space to build characters and create tension.. and then break the tension with action.. to build it up again.

Sounds like this isn't the show for you then and you want something less character and more action based. The "boring" work and family scenes are very well written and acted and the whole series is about the tension between the domestic and the crime world and how they eventually collide. This is what is really great about the show and what lifts it above more superficial fare.

I agree.. I never said they were boring. It was someone else who said they were bored..

people talking contributes to the tension though. like that episode where walt and jesse are in the meth-lab trying to get rid of the fly which loads of internet commentators thought was shit but i thought was one of the best of the series.

One of my favourite episodes, I got up to ep8 of s3 yesterday and really didn't want to go to bed.. I couldn't remember where in s3 that episode was though, or if it was s4. I bet it's episode 9..

 

[Orang Utan]

I didn't say it was boring? Perhaps what I mean by slow is different to what you do.. slow is what gives the space to build characters and create tension.. and then break the tension with action.. to build it up again.

i know you didn't see it as boring but others on the thread said it was slow and boring.

 

[BigTom]

and having re-read what I wrote I did say it was boring. how odd. I like and appreciate the slow family/work scenes, I'm not sure why I described them as boring.

e2a: ok, I think what I meant to say was mundane rather than boring..

 

[twistedAM]

and having re-read what I wrote I did say it was boring. how odd. I like and appreciate the slow family/work scenes, I'm not sure why I described them as boring.

e2a: ok, I think what I meant to say was mundane rather than boring..

Mundane is fine.... making industrial quantities of crystal meh is a mundane job. Though the pay is pretty good. A bit like playing for Chelsea.

 

[Structaural]

 

[thriller]

Just finished Ep 13 Season 3.

cant wait to get onto Season 4 tomorrow!

God bless america for this great drama

 

[belboid]

I don't know how his Cerebral Palsy affects his or Walts character.. It's interesting that something that looks to be a fairly major thing (I mean, how often do you have major characters with (visible) disabilities?), and in S1 there's a few scenes or conversations that refer to it or are based around it (there's one in a shop when they are getting clothes and some dicks are being well nasty to Walt Jr, and Walt gives one of them a dead leg and almost gets into a proper fight - though I saw that as developing the "breaking bad" part of the Walt story line and not really to do with Walt Jr).. but it seems to disappear into the background later..
It's something I'm happy about tbh, it's good to have a character with disabilities who is not there as a plot device or character driver simply because of their disability.

it is one of the great things about the whole series. At various points you think it might be brought up as another rationalisation for Walts behaviour (the extra stresses and strains of bringing up a cripple son), but, no, it's just a matter of fact, another part of life to be got on with. Top writing.

Just finished season 4, and...holy fuck on a broomstick! Since episode 6 me n mrs b were both going 'how the hell can the next episode not be the finale??' So much happens, keeps on getting wider and wilder. Next season is gonna be a cracker.

Re some of the earlier conversations: I really dont get how anyone can see Skyler as simply a home/family person, sure, she was forced to become one for a time, but everything we see of her life pre-series (as it were) shows she has a hell of a lot going on.
A great accountant, holding down a good job (albeit with a tosser), a published author (?? – I think so, she discusses her book of short stories with Marie in S1E1), she is clearly as clever, driven and egotistical as Walt. Superb character, never slows the plot down at all.
And, why is it compared with Mad Men and/or Boardwalk Empire? Well, simply because they are the other examples of high quality, ‘serious’ TV drama being shown at (roughly) the same time. You might not be really able to compare the plots, or the characters, but you sure as hell can compare the plotting and the characterisation. Not to mention the dynamics of peoples relationships, the philosophical questions of what makes people ‘bad’ etc etc.

A question – over what time period are the events we have seen meant to have taken place? I don’t think it can be a year a season (as is usual), not least because Walt Jr was no way 12/13 in S1. 14 maybe. Walt was 50 in S1 (Skylar nearly 40), Walt Jr, 16 now. Are there other clear clues as to timespans?

And, apparently Jesse was meant to die at the end of series 1!!! They only kept him on cos of how well he (that is, Aaron Paul) played with Bryan Cranston. No way would it have been half as good without Jesse.

I’ve got a list of possible outcomes to the whole thing down to a dozen or so now, tho the way 4 was written so that it could have been the very end was great – the way Vince Gilligan clearly set it up so that if AMC didn’t renew for a final season, he could go out with a nice ‘fuck you- the baddie just won. Ha!’ Tastily done

 

[Iguana]

A question – over what time period are the events we have seen meant to have taken place? I don’t think it can be a year a season (as is usual), not least because Walt Jr was no way 12/13 in S1. 14 maybe. Walt was 50 in S1 (Skylar nearly 40), Walt Jr, 16 now. Are there other clear clues as to timespans?

It's all taken place in about a year. Walt mentioned having being diagnosed with cancer a year ago when he is talking to another patient toward the end of series 4. Also Skylar is heavily pregnant in the first episode, Holly is 7 weeks old at the end of s2 and is still very clearly several months less than a year old at the end of s4.

 

[belboid]

He said (iirr) he's been living with the threat of death for a year - I assumed that was to do with the threat from Gus tho, rather than the cancer. Must admit, I've barely noticed Holly at all, so couldn't work out her age.

That's one hell of a twelve months for anyone!

 

[BigTom]

a published author (?? – I think so, she discusses her book of short stories with Marie in S1E1),

From what I remember she isn't published but is writing and hoping to get published. But your point still stands, and I think Skylar really began to show this side of her in s3/4 when she got involved and was doing the money laundering side of things, she was the stronger negotiator for the car wash than Walt and insisted it was the way to go etc..

Her back story is potentially interesting - she left that job because Ted sexually harrassed her, something she may not have told Walt (I can't remember, I think it's clear she didn't) and may well have told Walt that she had decided she wanted to be at home for Walt Jr whilst he was a teenager or something, and prior to that it was her who was the real breadwinner in the family, not Walt, which would put another factor in Walt's inferiority complex.

 

[sim667]

I've got one episode to watch then im done. I've smashed the entirety in less than 2 weeks.

Great show!

 

[sim667]

Skylar's a weird name

 

[belboid]

Aint it just?

The meaning of Skylar is "scholar, protection; fugitive; giving shelter" according to wiki. Oddly, they don’t list Mrs White amongst the (real and fictional) list of Skylar’s on there. I refuse to add it in for reasons completely unknown, even to myself.

e2a: aah, its because she is called Skyler. She is listed ther. And it's a German name - she's in league with Gus's mob! Ohh, poor Walt

I so wanted her to have taken a baseball bat with her when she last went to see Ted. She is gonna be a mean momma now she has (effectively, kinda) broken her duck.
Well, either that or she’ll tell break down and Marie everything, and then….

 

[D'wards]

Tweets from Aaron Paul (Jesse)

Just read the first episode of breaking bad S5 and words can not express. Shit is about to get crazy. Get ready my friends. Love you Vince!

Breaking Bad will return to your Television sometime in July. Make sure u wear your diapers because I'm pretty sure u will shit yourself

The teaser alone in episode 1 S5 will have you screaming more then when someone got blown up last season.

 

[Dan U]

i finished S4 last night.

cracking ending, others have covered a lot of my thoughts already.

however, my only concern is how on earth are they going to introduce a whole new story arc in one season. its going to have to hit the ground running a lot more than in previous seasons, which have over lapped and built and built towards the end of S4.

I hope Mike comes back though. Baddest assasin type on TV in ages.