Shall we anticpate the AMC series "Breaking Bad"? I think I may.

I don't necessarily disagree with you guys, especially about how Skyler is supposed to be somewhat unlikeable due to audience expectation and supporting the antihero main characters, akin to what rockapads is saying. But the way the show has been moving, the main characters, Jesse and Walt, and have always have their core negative traits (stupidity/shortsightedness and pride/abusive/vindictive/vicious) while also getting a lot of sympathetic breaks as well. The second season I think really continued to make them deeper, more fleshed out characters, going back and forth constantly on that balance.

But with Skyler, the writers must've thought she was TOO sympathetically written in the first season, since this time around they made her even more "pregnant TV wife" annoying. I will give them points for doing that angle where she figured out the accounting scam (thus setting up her smarts and the great confrontational scene in the last episode), but between her general harpy nature, that bit where she was smoking (WTF) and the revelation that she was flirting with her ex-boss which led to the "sexual harassment" claim in her past, I felt they were trying to escalate how irritating she was. Of course a lot of the character's anger is justified, no doubt, but the way it's directed or written kept bugging me. I hope they do a better job with her this year.

see, I guess I have a different perspective. as much as I have liked Walt, I think he has pretty much gone from anti-hero to villain at this point. he is more despicable and less sympathetic than Tony Soprano was for me - at least in the first few seasons. I agree that Skyler is kind of annoying, and maybe not as deep as she could be, but I think they did a great job toward the end of that last season of tilting my sympathies away from Walt and toward her.

I just have Comcast cable. It's under On Demand here: TV Entertainment > AMC > Breaking Bad

Yeah, I found it... Comcast's menu system is so ridiculous.

on my on-demand there's an episode missing (number 7), wtf

just watching this again...how would jane's blackmail have been any way effective? if she told the papers or police about walt he'd incriminate jessie too surely?

She could tell Walt's wife.

well she did threaten to call the papers specifically...

is the stuck in the desert w/ dead battery episode the "pine barrens" of breaking bad?

does not involve 'universal remote' or even 'docking station' so

so..........

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/03/17/vince-gilligan-on-breaking-bad-season-three

Interview w/Vince Gilligan, mostly talking about the second season finale. Interesting in that it basically does confirm that overall, Walt already is/will be tipping really far over into the evil category (though he and Cranston don't necessarily agree, lol) though for Jesse, it's not quite so, he hints that it might not be the case by the end of this season...

jane was full of guff but walt doesn't know how to play hardball

I was trying to put that as a poker analogy but I don't know enough about poker

jane was full of guff but walt doesn't know how to play hardball

Yep, no one really knew what they were doing in that situation. They are all amateurs.

All of the cast expressed surprise at Gilligan's assertion during the panel they did earlier that day that Jesse Pinkman was actually the moral center of the show. Paul was also surprised, but he could see where that assessment of his character came from.

What is wrong with you? Why are you BLUE?

I'm a blowfish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFyB3UZlVDw

off to a good start imo

agreed

All those crawling-through-the-desert folks = even more mysterioso than last season's floating teddy bear

Some explanation on that:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_guillermoprieto?currentPage=4

On the first day of every month, at the Tepito metro stop in downtown Mexico City, a new breed of pilgrim can be observed inching his way on his knees out of the stop and down a filthy market street, and cradling in his arms, babylike, a plastic figure of Death—or Holy Death, La Santa Muerte, as the pilgrims refer to the robed skeleton, who carries, variously, a scythe, a sceptre, a set of scales, or a globe in her (sometimes his) hands. There were dozens of these effigies, borne by crawling men in their teens or early twenties. Tattooed and gaunt, they were dressed in black T-shirts with the sleeves ripped off and wore chains around their necks and silver skulls, like brass knuckles, on their fingers.
Their goal was some four blocks distant, in the heart of Tepito, a legendary neighborhood that in the centuries since the Spanish Conquest has remained stubbornly insubordinate. Venders were everywhere along the pilgrims’ path, hawking T-shirts and baseball caps and medals decorated with the Santa Muerte.

walt jr said "bullshit"

Yeah, i noticed that too! apparently getting more lax on their censorship of doity woids.

So anyway, by posting a picture of Heisenberg at that Death Shrine it's not clear if the twins were praying for aid to find walt or to kill him.

guessing they're tuco-related somehow

assembly scene was next-level. I love this show.

yeah the assembly scene isn't something you'd see on many tv shows.

loved walt's response to the kid's bullshit story about seats with human legs on his neighbors lawn

The assembly scene was way too long. Lots of Curb Your Enthusiasm awkwardness stuff in this episode that I don't remember from earlier seasons.

well the first season was about a pathetic man dealing with his impending death, now it's about an insane person trying to be drug kingpin, schoolteacher and family man.

walt jr said "bullshit"

― iiiijjjj, Sunday, March 21, 2010 11:57 PM

"nobody's tellin me jackshit"

the 2 mexican guys are cheesy so far. too calm and matrix-esque about their violence and explosions

they r COLD BLOODED do u c

oh yeah jackshit my bad

yeah the mexican mercedes twins were embarassingly comic book even before they walked away from the explosion without looking back at it

also noticed that the front of the rehab clinic where walt picked jesse up looked suspiciously similar to the front of the airport where jesse picked walt up

thought it was a brilliant episode...even if the mexicans are a bit clichéd. was trying to suspend disbelief. find it interesting how walt's attempts at being normal now become this sort of deranged parody of who he was at the start, the sort of geeky "1960s technology" stuff that just isn't him anymore.

"i'm the bad guy" is some serious scarface shit. i was expecting it from Hank, not Pinkman.

Loved it. I wonder what mr chickens offer would have been. Maybe putting him up in this sweet meth cooking resort so he could cook for 3 months.

i'm gonna bet we're gonna find out

Also, I wonder how long the stuffed toy eyeball is going to be around. Sitting under Walt's bed right now.

Since they did the thing last season with the black and white teasers and episode titles (Seven Thirty-Seven Down Over ABQ), I'm really looking for clues as to what is going to happen this season.

Might be a waste of time. Vince Gilligan said at the PaleyFest panel the other week that they weren't going to repeat themselves in that manner, one and done.

I have to believe that eyeball is going to witness something very untoward happening at ground-level in Walt's room at the Beachcomber.

I was astonished that Walt let the cat out of the bag to Skyler! His lies to her sustained the entire previous three seasons..!! It's like Sam just finally getting together with Diane, or something... I'm really glad they had the guts to find another source of tension, another plot mechanism, though. And even if it becomes a catastrophe I'm proud of Walt for finally - if grudgingly - coming clean.

The assembly scene - Jesus.. I literally covered my eyes for the entirety of Walt's speech. Just could not look.

Or entire previous two seasons.. I can't keep track - feels like this show's been on longer than it has

And yes the whole "I'm not a criminal" convo with Gus seemed unbelievably naive and stupid... these are the words of someone who will flip and cop a plea, give up all the names to the police if caught... bad move. Gus may put on a friendly face but I don't think he rose to his position by being a nice guy.

agreed. i think Gus could be more trouble even than those two absurd mexican dudes.

esposito is really dope in that role

Q: that composite sketch of Hank that the two mexi-gangsters pinned next to the shrine - where did that come from? I know it stems from an earlier point in the series, but I can't remember under what circumstances it originated.

loving this already, btw.

er.. Walt, not Hank

isn't the composite sketch from badger's description when he gets busted

http://blog.nj.com/entertainment_impact_tv/2009/04/large_breaking-bad-negro-y-azul.jpg

that sounds about right, but still I can't recall. I'm thinking about reviewing the series maybe - only 19 eps b/w ssn 1&2, so not such a huge time commitment.

Possible S3 plot prediction: Skyler knowing Walt's secret will lead, directly or indirectly, to Hank finding out & putting the pieces together to discover that Walt = Heisenberg. Hank will be conflicted about what to do about this, but greed & opportunism will ultimately drive him to pressure Walt into cooking more product & sharing the profits. This will lead to Walt reconsidering Gus's offer, tho Gus will eventually find out Hank's involvement & a shitstorm will ensue. Somehow the mexi-gangsters will be involved in all of this.