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

oh no, I know, it was just a funny juxtaposition to me if read literally.

I looked into my crystal ball and saw that Walt gets kidnapped by the cartel. But I still think there needs to be some funny business with the carwash first. Then again, it'd be hilarious if they introduced the carwash as another irrelevant character, like the baby (does it have a name?) and Walt, Jr. They'll just toss in a line here and there. "Oh, I stopped by the carwash today and everything seems to be OK."

I've never liked Hank, as such, but I do think he's a deceptively well-written character. He's an ass with issues, but he's a great cop.

Best moment of the show was at the start, when Walt tells Skylar how sorry he is, and she drops down her guard, then realizes he was just practicing his act. That actress, by the way, totally Botoxed the anxiety out of her face. If I were a show runner/producer, and my show hinged on stress and anxiety, I would have it in writing that actors will not get their face frozen mid-show.

OMG, just realized Anna Gunn was Bullock's schoolteacher wife on Deadwood!!! What a difference a bonnet makes.

i was really hoping for rehab but somehow i think that's not gonna be it.

yeah - rehab was sepinwall's first conclusion too, which makes me think that ain't it

I suspect majorly big shit will go down next couple of eps. Every one since the premier has been a major screw-turner.

Best moment of the show was at the start, when Walt tells Skylar how sorry he is, and she drops down her guard, then realizes he was just practicing his act.

That bit was amazing. I actually said "oh, shit." Fucking Walt.

yeah that was my favorite moment as well

this was an excellent episode

such a cutting comment though about how in their "fiction" she doesn't come out looking good at all - "at least you gambled, i'm just the uptight wife who won't cut you any slack". she's well aware that that's how walt sees her too. and it's like an acknowledgement of how her character is perceived by a lot of BB's audience.

― Dark Noises from the Eurozone (Tracer Hand), Monday, August 8, 2011 8:07 PM (Yesterday)

also thought her comment implied how walt jr sees her

That actress, by the way, totally Botoxed the anxiety out of her face. If I were a show runner/producer, and my show hinged on stress and anxiety, I would have it in writing that actors will not get their face frozen mid-show.

noticed this too. looked like she did season too, but it's pretty severe this time. she also looks like she's put on some significant weight since last season, which isn't a big deal or anything, but kind of weird since this season picked up hours after last season's finale.

such a cutting comment though about how in their "fiction" she doesn't come out looking good at all - "at least you gambled, i'm just the uptight wife who won't cut you any slack". she's well aware that that's how walt sees her too. and it's like an acknowledgement of how her character is perceived by a lot of BB's audience.

yeah this bit was so clever, such a brilliant set up to have them discussing how they "would feel" when they have no kind of honesty or real relationship with each other. again i just love the sense of the money as a force or character in itself, kind of altering every dynamic in the show, and people trying to ignore all the evil that comes with it, the lying that's required to keep making it, the need to ignore the murders and the horrible effects of all that meth. and the way jesse is being ripped apart because lately he's been first-hand witnessing all this ugliness.

i agree that walt joining up with a cartel would be incredibly risky and dumb and yeah, that is why i think it might happen. it seems a natural step for him to debase himself even further and to make things even more crazy.

i love the way the show makes you want walt to just get worse and worse. i mean, i see him a little cowed in the last episode or two and i'm waiting for him to get back to his crazy badass ways.

Best moment of the show was at the start, when Walt tells Skylar how sorry he is, and she drops down her guard, then realizes he was just practicing his act.

Gotta jump in and say that this moment was indeed amazing. Even and maybe especially on second viewing.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I put you through all this."

(one beat)

(two beats)

"How's that sound?"

Flawless.

and the way jesse is being ripped apart because lately he's been first-hand witnessing all this ugliness.

What's ripping him apart is that he's causing it. He's witnessed it plenty before. The fact that he shot a very weird, brilliant, sweet man in the face was only the catalyst for what he's now realizing that he's really doing. Not just what he can see, but everything.

yeah that's what i mean...i really like what they've done with his character.

And he doesn't even care when he finds $70,000 missing. The only reason he shows up to work at all is because he feels a sense of loyalty to Walter. And he doesn't know why.

which ties in really nicely with why he's not cut out for all this, he is basically a sort of vulnerable goofy kid.

I sincerely can't read Hank. What he does and doesn't suspect is a mystery to me. But he's good at hiding those kinds of things, right? Even if he outright knew that it was Walter, which I don't think he does (yet), he'd still be impossible for Walter to read, because Walter is just a liar, not a trained professional at telling lies to get other people to confess their crimes. Hank is. I have no idea where the Hank plotline is going, except that it's probably not to the pot of gold at the end of anyone's rainbow.

Pizza, dipping sticks, meth, you know. What a man needs to survive.

video games

Another moment I loved. There's a hot girl in the corner, and Jesse grabs her hand and tugs her upstairs as if to say, "It's that time when we do what we do." And she knows exactly what that thing is. And it turns out to be playing video games.

You have to be interested in life to be interested in sex, and Jesse has no will to live at all.

You have to be interested in life to be interested in sex

oh i don't know about that

but you're generally otm

what was the intro scene with mike in the van all about?

showing the cartel is still an ongoing problem

The only reason he shows up to work at all is because he feels a sense of loyalty to Walter. And he doesn't know why.

or because he doesn't want to intentionally, consciously cause himself to be murdered to death by Gus' goons

I'm waiting for walt to get jealous that someone else is stealing all his Heisenberg glory and do something ridiculous to feed his ego.

i think the glory-stealing envy-rage moment will have to do with chemistry, rather than drug dealing per se -- it's already happened to him once, and he carried that resentment/rage around for a LONG time. (some might even say that THIS was the cancer, but that's a bit much imo)

he's not going to let sweet dead old Gale take credit no matter how sweet or regrettably dead he is.

Need it be said that at this point, Walt is the cancer?

Walt's fauxpology fooled me! Actual scene from our living room:

Walt: I'm sorry. I'm sorry I put you through all this.

Jenny: About time, Walt! Good job.

Walt: How's that sound?

Jenny: FUCK YOU WALT!!!!

Skyler was absolutely referencing Walt Jr's take on the situation, which Walt intentionally exacerbated in an attempt to manipulate Skyler.

Also the baby's name is Holly.

but there were two "sorrys" ;)

just getting caught up w/ the latest ep: omg best 'cold open' ever!

recipe for vegan smores

top ten recumbent bicycles

indoor composting tops

*tips

or because he doesn't want to intentionally, consciously cause himself to be murdered to death by Gus' goons

A more than fair point.

Not that he really cares if he gets by a train or something, but, yeah. Lacking the will to live is not the same thing as suicide.

walt going through gale's notebook put a big stupid smile on my face, amazing episode.

i was just assuming they were going to kill Jesse. but that would be too obvious... so maybe rehab/therapy?

I keep thinking someone who knew him when (a middle school friend or something?) will come back and remind Jesse that he wants to live and that there are people out in the world who care about him. He needs to get out of the proverbial neighborhood, for real.

i was wondering... he still has a landlord, right? i mean, did mr air traffic controller sell the place? either way someone must own it, and i'm sure the neighbours aren't happy about the lot getting turned into junkie-central-station.

He moved out of there and bought his old house back? To piss off his parents or sthg?

btw - <3 dude in the tie.
like he came over after work and just never left.

xpost

ooohh fuck right.

i'm thinking mike's gonna do more of a scared straight talk

i don't think mike does talking.

Sure he does. Remember "no half measures"?

and how did that go?

The tweakers are like zombies. I mean the arrangement/presentation of the tweakers is similar to the presentation of zombies in ensemble zombie moves. You've got the goofy one (airport bone scan man), the business tweaker (dude in tie), the cunning one (Dave Navarro), etc. They have little personalities.

i think the "conversation" he had with Walt at the bar is more his thing.
xpost

just getting caught up w/ the latest ep: omg best 'cold open' ever!

― the goon with the braggin tattoo (Pillbox), Tuesday, August 9, 2011 8:41 AM

was it explained who those guys were and why mike was chillin inside? i found it v confusing

its never stated outright but i figured:

- the cartels have been hijacking and destroying gus' shipments as payback/attempts to muscle back in to the market
- gus + mike arranged a decoy shipment w/ only chicken batter in order to catch the cartel guys at work

xp guys were rival cartel
mike was chillin inside because gus SEES THE BIG PICTURE and realized just such a thing might happen
i love how this show makes it clear that walt's massive fucktacular disaster world is just a small part of gus' bigger empire and that dude has bigger fish to fry in the long run

or chicken as the case may be amirite

touche

i thought the buckets were filled with chemicals for meth though, not chicken batter and that this was not a decoy shipment so much as mike being johnny-on-the-spot but maybe i'm wrong?