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

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"

finished s3... wow, just wow

ive watched all thru s2 & cant wait til amc gets up to s3 reruns (by my count by feb 16th)

rewatched better call saul which just reaired -- damn was odenkirk so good

odenkirk is so good

sometimes you dont want a criminal attorney - you want a criminal, attorney

RUN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_3u-G03Ri0

breaking bad actors in other things #1

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

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/run_dmc.gif

<3

hawwwwww

ok, finally dragged my heels through the end of season 2 -- fuck this show imo. hate when a DENSE LATTICEWORK OF COINCIDENCES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS takes the place of plot.

guess you hate life, sorry bro

lol u mad doggie

maybe you should go watch some 2 1/2 men

maybe you'd like to have a real conversation about this without any ad hominem attacks?

how is that an ad hominem attack, I was just suggesting you watch a show you enjoy, 2 1/2 men instead of a show you don't like, breaking bad

maybe some dude is charlie sheen

the climax in the last episode was too "authorial" and wacky for me but it doesn't erase everything else in S2, which was awesome until that moment

RUN

imo the s2 finale was very much of a piece with the wacky authorial nature of what came before

I felt sort of the same way about the end of season two, it was too much of a punctuation mark, too much of a SEE??

Season 3 on the other hand is so wow, so much of a jump. Trudge on, some dude, trudge on.

I liked season 2 but yeah, season three was whole new heights. Definitely not a series of coincidences but a series of events that the characters set in motion themselves through their own good and horrible choices. What is also fun for me was to get a look at the fucked up motivations behind those choices.

when does the new season start? ever?

July 17th!

yeah when S3 comes out on DVD shortly before S4 starts i will probably try to rent it and catch up -- it's an aight show and has its merits, i'm just kind of frustrated at the moment at seeing all the ways it gets close to being a show i could love and then keeps daring me to hate it.

oh good, thanks!
i like it 90% of the time, less so when there are "clever" conceits like the stupid fly episode
i never liked it when the wire would try to be clever either
i think i basically hate when things are too clever. just let the story be without injecting cleverness into it all the damn time.

I loved that whole framing device for Season 2. It wasn't annoying to me at all--it resulted from the actions of the characters, so it wasn't arbitrary.

I think half the reason they did the fly episode was budget constraints.

yeah, that was a classic "bottle" episode

Loved the fly episode

Frankly, I found the whole secret underground lair conceit more than faintly ridiculous for the duration of S3. I thought it veered close to Nip/Tuck levels of ridiculousness. Hope S4 brings things back to reality at least a touch.

Really? You find it that outlandish?

Yes. Like, James Bond villain outlandish.

I mean, on a show with crazy homicidal mexican twins and shit?

s3 > s2 > s1 IMO. I'll be surprised if S4 manages to continue this trend. Really hope all concerned have a specific endgame in mind.

I remember reading that Vince Gilligan specifically told the writers to write themselves into corners in S3.

I don't really find the "underground lair" particularly outlandish considering what IRL drug traffickers are willing to do:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narco_submarine

He has hummed and hawed a little about whether the fourth season will be the last. I hope it is though and they can go out on a high.

I remember reading that Vince Gilligan specifically told the writers to write themselves into corners in S3.

― Number None, Thursday, April 28, 2011 9:29 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol if season 4 actually takes place in a corner

I loved that whole framing device for Season 2. It wasn't annoying to me at all--it resulted from the actions of the characters, so it wasn't arbitrary.

― shamefully blowable (latebloomer), Thursday, April 28, 2011 4:53 PM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark

the end of s2 resulted in part from the actions of a character who had only been introduced a few episodes earlier, whose relevant profession was revealed like a couple scenes earlier. i get that it was in part ABOUT that reveal but i feel like the less effort goes into 'planting the seeds' of something like that, the more arbitrary it ultimately feels.

no, the end resulted from Walt's actions (or inaction)

arbitrary? wasn't the wreckage featured at the beginning of many of the episodes in S2? (been a while since i've seen these episodes)

well sure, through a rube goldberg butterfly effect that the characters themselves have no way of being aware of, not in any way that demonstrates a sense of right and wrong and consequences. xpost

the only thing I found "outlandish" about the whole underground lair, and really the whole arrangement with (and value of) Heisenberg, was the idea that they were the first/only crew to pull something like that off. Am I supposed to believe that all meth in this country comes from junkies in RVs?

xxps

The only reason the coincidence seemed like a Rube Goldberg machine is because we knew the guy who was the main catalyst. That is how things happen in real life; we just can't see it that way we don't have the god's eye view of the narrative. Was the crank head finally getting fed up and dropping the ATM machine dropped on dude's head any less of a coincidence?

x-post to some dude

it's not very rube goldbergian at all! walt's inaction allows jane to die, which affects her dad, then plane goes crashy. not that crazy. dramatic maybe, but THAT'S BECAUSE IT's FUCKING DRAMA.

everything walter does has consequences, which seems to me to be the point.