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

feel like bb is somewhat sopranos

I feel like every show which features marital tension post-Sopranos is somewhat Sopranos.

I disagree. Sopranos is a lengthyt character study, BB is an extended crime thriller. Love both, but BB has so much more narrative momentum.

― rhythm fixated member (chap), Sunday, July 18, 2010 6:48 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

im not saying its exactly the same but BB is clearly pulling a lot of plays from the sopranos playbook. both are about family men doing morally dubious/reprehensible shit and yet the audience is still onboard, juggling life of crime with family, and the wifey stuff is REALLY similar

the main thing is this protagonist who the show keeps pushing further and further, dragging him more and more down, taking the audience along, playing with our sympathies & testing them

Very true. I pretty much thought i'd lost all sympathy for Walter after what happened to Jane but damned if i didn't find myself rooting for him again by the end of the third season.

haha fuck jane

A friend sent me this, pretty rad:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24869473@N02/sets/72157623732482564/

rad! been catching up on this show. so great. first season was a bit slow, but second and third masterful all the way. only thing disappointing was the lack of hank in the later 3.

it all reminds me a lot of the shield, rooting for a guy doing a lot of awful stuff, with every clever solution leading to a situation a lot worse than the one he was trying to get out of.

New interview with Cranston. Brief but some fun bits in there.

http://images.memegenerator.net/walter-white/ImageMacro/1282010/Sitting-around-smoking-marijuana-eating-cheetos-and-masturbating-Do-not-constitute-plans.jpg

I don't know if it's possible to participate in this thread w/o having seen the most recent episodes and not stumble onto spoilers but I'm catching up on DVD and...I liked season 1, but halfway through season 2 I feel like this is getting so stupid and unrewarding I kinda want to just stop and never watch this show again. I never heard anything about it falling off, am I alone here? If not, does it get better?

yes

what do you think is stupid about it?

the whole thing seems pretty good to me, i think you should just keep with it.

this show is god fuiud

when is the next season coming out?

i was hoping thats what this bump was abt you can imagine how disappointed i was

i like the first two seasons but the third is on another level

weird I was just looking for this thread since I started watching recently, a little ways into s2

This is the best American tv show ever

have to wait until july for next season. has anyone who comes in and asked to be convinced to like something they don't like ever been made to like what they don't like?

if they know whats good for them, which they dont

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i like the first two seasons but the third is on another level

― a nan, a bal, an anal ― (abanana), Thursday, January 6, 2011 4:05 AM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark

otfm. also o_O at the fly catching episode.

That flickr of location shots listed upthread is A+ btw. Would totally do a self-guided BB location tour if I ever go to ABQ, which is incredibly unlikely.

the last season was as good as it's been
RUN

I thought the fly catching episode was the only not so great episode of the series

^^^ ya srsly

it was somewhat unsatisfying cause it didnt advance the plot, while as the same time being absolutely virtuosic

I remember reading it was partly a money-saving thing?

yah one set two actors cheap to make &c &c

i tht it was overdone and tedious and forced but i mostly read journal articles while it was on

RUN

Oh man, just reading that gave me some chills. That was probably my favorite moment on TV ever.

I don't think I've ever been as impatient for the next episode of a TV show as after that.

And right now I know I've never been as impatient for the next season of a TV show.

have to wait until july for next season. has anyone who comes in and asked to be convinced to like something they don't like ever been made to like what they don't like?

― keythhtyek, Wednesday, January 5, 2011 11:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that's not really what i did, though -- i said i really liked the first season, i just feel really let down by season 2 so far.

S2 represented a massive leap in quality for me. The plotting's so ruthless and precision-tooled, I think I might even prefer it to 3. How far through are you?

what do you think is stupid about it?

the whole thing seems pretty good to me, i think you should just keep with it.

― j., Wednesday, January 5, 2011 10:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i dunno, it just feels kind of lurid and over-the-top in a way the first season never quite was, the more they do these drawn out crazy scenarios like the whole Tuco thing and the crazy tweakers crushing each other with ATMs the less I give a damn about the characters or what's going on, it just gets kind of exhausting and not especially entertaining to me. also it feels like at some point they told Aaron Paul to say "yo" more so now it's in every single sentence he says. like I appreciate the heightened reality of the show and that they're willing to do some crazy shit, but it's starting to feel like shock value for the sake of shock value.

i'm 6 episodes into the season, about to watch the 7th.

"That was probably my favorite moment on TV ever."
it's damn close but I might pick this instead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeS6y6mbUzY

s2 IS exhausting.. it's less goofy and footloose than s1. i think it's worth sticking it out, though. going through the wringer of skyler/walt's evolving distrust is tough but rewarding

they are running the whole series again weekly leading up to the next season, so, wherever they're at with that (about six episodes in), subtract from however many total episodes there are, and that's when it's starting again. I'd guess....this summer

i dunno, it just feels kind of lurid and over-the-top in a way the first season never quite was

In the first season a ceiling collapses leaving splattered blood everywhere because Jesse had attempted to dissolve a body in acid in the bath. How much more lurid or over-the-top can you get?

Series 3 is up there with the best TV I've seen over the past few years though. The fly episode is great because part of the joy of this show is watching Walt and Jesse bouncing off one another and getting on each others' nerves and they hadn't actually shared that much screen time up to that point.

I said never quite was, as in obviously they pushed the envelope plenty in the first season, but it felt more situational and less driven by wacky characters like Tuco and Jesse's wigger crew and the horror movie meth family

I see what you are saying, although I didn't mind those aspects too much. I think the show does come to rely less on characters like that. I mean, there are a couple over over the top characters to come, but the sheer menace that they exude and the pacing/direction of the episodes that feature them is so freaking tense that I think it really works. So based on your concerns, I would say that you will be rewarded if you stick it out.

In the first season a ceiling collapses leaving splattered blood everywhere because Jesse had attempted to dissolve a body in acid in the bath. How much more lurid or over-the-top can you get?

this is where they nearly lost me, but i'm so glad i stuck with it.

Haha, that's pretty much when I knew they had me. Quite a fan of grand guignol type stuff.

Just finished season 2, and love it all. Esp. the fact that Walt is a complete and total dick, and that I couldn't care less about his family, because he clearly doesn't care, either. They're just distractions. Walt's just greedy and passive aggressive, but it's presented as the belated outburst of a whole bunch of repressed baggage thus far only hinted at. I can only assume more "what went wrong with Walt?" backstory will be parceled out as the series proceeds. Like, why did his promising career and brilliance lead to nothing? Is Walt Jr. even his kid with Skylar, or from a previous marriage (could have sworn they stated or implied a 10+ age gap between them)?

Anyway, a comparison I see is not "The Sopranos," which is kind of about the moral decay of the family unit, but "The Shield," which is more about the nature of true selfish evil.

GENERAL INTERESTS:
Fine herbage! Keepin' it real. JuiRyo Ki Kung-Fu (Blue
certification). Banging on the skins with my smokin band
European motocross (plan to attend Wheelie School in
MILF's, MILF's, MILF's, MILF's!

EDUCATION:
J.P. Wynne High School, DeVry University data system
The STREETS, YO!

Jesse's wigger crew

― Johnny Cheever (some dude), Thursday, January 6, 2011 10:53 AM

wigga wigger

Anyway, a comparison I see is not "The Sopranos," which is kind of about the moral decay of the family unit, but "The Shield," which is more about the nature of true selfish evil.

one difference might be in why mackie and walt pretend / think they deserve more than others—walt has sort of a meritocratic thing going on, feeling that his gifts haven't been well used or appreciated (exacerbated by his split with his old chemist partner). apart from taking care of his family, what's the rationale mackie comes up with? (i'm not doubting it, i just don't exactly remember.) you gotta cut corners if you want safe streets? tough methods get results? i put myself out here on the line and i deserve more than this shitty city is giving me?

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/61pqMZr1ps0/0.jpg

STAY OUT OF MY TERRITORY

Jesse's wigger crew

― Johnny Cheever (some dude), Thursday, January 6, 2011 10:53 AM

wigga wigger

― am0n, Thursday, January 20, 2011 12:08 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark

do you have a point or is it just "hey old thread"