Shall we anticipate the FIFTH SEASON of the AMC series "Breaking Bad"? I think I may.

Why do you hope this? Mike is a murderer. I hope he bites the same dust Walter White bites.

aero, I'm with you 100% on this, but want to dig deeper into the underlying storytelling, dramatic structure, characterization and whatnot. Obviously Walt and Jesse are protagonists but not heroes here. Are there any heroes in this show? I'd unplug my phone and hide out for a month before I'd hang out and have a beer with Hank, so it's hard to see him as heroic, even though I guess he's the closest the story has.

the only family member Walt really seems invested in is the baby, really. the only one that hasn't failed him or been lame

I meant lame as slang for uncool, although Walt Jr. fits the traditional definition :(

In a show about extreme moral ambiguities, one is still allowed to pick sides. Hence, Al Swearengen was a scumbag, but better than Hearst. Shane was terrible, but better than Vic. Etc.

I mean, I can imagine Mike retiring, never doing anything bad again. But Walt is pathological.

xpost Earlier I almost described the character of Walt Jr. lame, too, then caught myself!

I think Walt Jr.'s physical lameness plays a part in Walt Sr.'s subconscious here! Everybody's let him down until Holly.

maybe we should revert to his badass nickname of 'flynn'

I reckon the chances of Walter Jr being the one who actually discovers what his dad is up to, before Hank, are pretty high. Hank has been working one degree of separation from Walt for ages now without getting close, and Mike is a lot less likely to fuck up under pressure than Jesse. Whereas Walter Jr could just overhear or find something incriminating and that will be that.

mike reminds me of richard kuklinski. thats who i was thinking of when he was about to ice the lady, anyway. but then he didn't do it. but kuklinski was a great dad and stuff and said he would never have killed a child

i have a lot of love for walt jr but i really hope they do not go off on some subplot where he and his friends try the blue meth, which is like super pure and just came back after being totally unavailable for a while. i can hear one of his friends trying to convince him "dude, it's got better chemicals in it than that burger you're eating" and flynn feels shamed and does the meth later that night. that really does not need to happen. they can't even possibly have time for that. right?!?

I think we're more likely to have Walt Jr. get an inclination of what his dad is up to, then threaten to go to the cops and "do the right thing." Then Walt Sr. would be faced with the prospect of killing his own son or going to jail.

i've been waiting for him to get busted smoking pot - which would be alot more likely then him trying meth.

xpost

I think Mike's seemingly-uncharacteristic failure to kill Lydia was suuuuper intentional on a thematic level. It was a half measure, and the ultimate result of that half measure will likely be a tragic reminder of why Mike had sworn off half measures many years ago.

this is a really good point i had totally forgotten mikes speech about half measures...

one of the high points of the entire series imo

that speech sort of backfired tho, didn't it?

I am really digging how mike has become a central character in the last season

also I know y'all get twitchy when I mention next week's teaser, but there are hints of walt/mike alpha dog disputes on the horizon

I'm assuming that's some sort of thing like the teddy bear eyeball that will be a recurring motif and by the end of the season we'll have a flashback episode that shows how the two yellow hippos got there

Was that the same pink teddy bear knocking on Chou's door?

And hey, Lechera, how was the German?

Que pena, no hablo alemán. Weltanschauung. Weltshmerz. Gemeinschaft. Bildungsroman?

Letzte Tage - Letzte Nachte

oh great you broke la lechera hope ur happy

scheisse!

Herz au glas

where are the language settings on this thing

halp

토렌트 설치사용방법] [토렌트 업로드 방법] [토렌트 다운로드 방법

I tried hitting my monitor but it's just getting worse

half measure, you must smash your monitor with a baseball bat

*DING*

*DING*

*DING*

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7lhv5W27k1qkftiqo4_r1_250.gif

http://www.veiled-chameleon.com/weblog/httpdocs/images/blogcontent/roomba.gif

omg you guys :D

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m76objufpl1qe1j63o1_500.gif

half measure, you must smash your monitor with a baseball bat

http://images.wikia.com/breakingbad/images/d/dd/5x1_Live_Free_or_Die_(10).jpg

lol

It was a calculated risk, wasn't it? Mike knows what he's getting into. I only hope the show gives Mike a failsafe, some sort of collateral to use over Walt.

Why do you hope this? Mike is a murderer. I hope he bites the same dust Walter White bites.

― tallarico dreams (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, July 24, 2012 9:29 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

lol you have such a weird view of fiction. "we've watched the crime, now we await the punishment. that's what this is all about, right?"

I think Mike's seemingly-uncharacteristic failure to kill Lydia was suuuuper intentional on a thematic level. It was a half measure, and the ultimate result of that half measure will likely be a tragic reminder of why Mike had sworn off half measures many years ago. Getting into bed with the ticking timebomb by episode's end just further underscores Mike's foregone doom. He ain't gettin' out of this alive because he broke his own code.

― Old Lunch, Tuesday, July 24, 2012 7:11 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah half measures is partly what i was thinking of in re: laying the groundwork for mike not pulling the trigger

lol you have such a weird view of fiction. "we've watched the crime, now we await the punishment. that's what this is all about, right?"

― nakhchi little van (some dude), Tuesday, July 24, 2012 12:52 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

isnt aero catholic

http://i.imgur.com/sy7Zo.jpg
u gonna get what u deserve

Because at least Mike operates within a code of honor.

lol

if a guy like Mike kills somebody you love I'm sure his code of honor will really make it easier on you

criminals & their codes, beloved since pre-Godfather

Is that why all the "classic" new shows are about assholes?

it's what the kids are into these days

I think that gets to what bugs me about it, the idea that a shitty moral compass - hey, it's still a compass! prefer an honest sociopath to the hitman with a sudden plot-convenient heart of gold. most of the people a dude like that has presumably killed would have had children, brothers, sisters. just feel like people who walk the straight and narrow have this need for a criminal whose code is somehow romantic, allowing them to kill only people who "deserve it" in some fucked up sense. a guy like Mike is much worse than Walt to me: at least Walt can argue self-interest, a higher good than "well I have this code, see"

those can be good! but admen, meth kingpins, Bushwick girls ... just a wall of misery.

xp

have you always been bothered by the 'killer with a code' thing, aero, or is it just with Breaking Bad that it bugs you so much?

i agree with aero insofar as i don't root for mike over walt or think of him as any more righteous for having some vague code. as a matter of fact, in this messed up world of meth-dealing child-poisoning killers, i want walt to win out over mike for being the colder, more evil dude, and then i want walt to suffer the ultimate cosmic punishment, whatever that may be (walt jr. turning his dad in and deciding that hank is his true father figure?)

you guys must've hated the end of the godfather

im a flag poster w/a code

i wouldn't root for walt over mike b/c of the code, per se, but more b/c mike is a bit of a cliched character. the fact that walt is more disturbing makes him more interesting.

You know who else honors a code? Jedis.

http://debutdad.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/stormtrooper-dad-son.jpg

In a show about extreme moral ambiguities, one is still allowed to pick sides. Hence, Al Swearengen was a scumbag, but better than Hearst. Shane was terrible, but better than Vic. Etc.

This feels almost formulaic at this point w/r/t contemporary cable dramas, not that I don't enjoy it immensely, but, it's like in season 1 of these shows you have your protagonist and your scumbag. And then in season 2, an even worse scumbag is introduced and you develop sympathy for scumbag 1, who eventually becomes this lovable rogue.