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

it doesn't seem like it would be a craaaaazy leap to say that the same time they were filming a show to air this season that they might be programming for that season's other shows does it?

anyway i honestly don't care either way so SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE GUSTAVO

Xp Not people who don't watch U.S. TV, that's for sure

im almost positive theyve done mob week before

altho i guess that fact cld cut either way in this arg

I think Skyler had a good quote this week that applies to this argument.

"fuhgeddaboutit!"

that's the one

it doesn't seem like it would be a craaaaazy leap to say that the same time they were filming a show to air this season that they might be programming for that season's other shows does it?

the crazy leap is how you imagine this taking place - the producers of (I think) the most successful show on the network, one of the most buzz-heavy shows around, aren't probably beholden to the network about whether to put a tie-in for a thematic week of programming into an episode. even if they were, you get that how this would take place involves people's agents & managers & business managers & things they'd need (=$$$) to make this happen: not just one (the "executive producer") but directors & writers. Many of whom have creative control clauses written into their contracts as soon as they get any juice at all. And probably, unless they signed on for the entire show's run at the outset of it, the major stars: a what-I'm-shilling-for clause in a contract is p. standard afaik. Every screenwriter I know would be very insulted to be told "you have to put something in about Scarface, have them watching Scarface, the network said they're showing it that week and they want some help."

it could be, I guess - it's not unimaginable - I just get a big wasp in my nose about how people think the entertainment biz is this super-easy-to-read thing where a guy at a desk with a cigar and a wad of money in his fist calls up a screenwriter, shouts some directions into a phone & slams the phone down, and then the director adjusts his tie and sweats three fat drops of fear-sweat and barks at a nearby kid in a fedora: "Jimmy! Quick! Write in something about Scarface with this week's script or it's curtains for the show and we're all eatin' cheese sandwiches!"

lol polyphonic

okay, i swear i don't care about this, but again I would refer you to jesse's light gun work on RAGE with prominent box placement and game exposure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCNSF7lsoSY

and the sequence in question makes sense with ANY gangster film. If i were a screenwriter i would WANT to use scarface; AMC has the rights to use it so why not integrate?

the important thing is that it's a silly thing to have walt watching when skylar walks in, gimme a break

AMC has the rights to use it so why not integrate?

They don't have the rights to use it. They had to contact Universal and get the rights, and get Al Pacino's okay as well.

it was such a "wah-WAHHHH" moment

How come he didn't watch Mr. Chips in season 1.

Every screenwriter I know would be very insulted to be told "you have to put something in about Scarface, have them watching Scarface, the network said they're showing it that week and they want some help."

That's definitely not what I think happened. I figure somebody at AMC went to Gilligan's Island and said "We want to do a 'mob week' programming block sometime during BB Season 5.1. Is there a scene anytime during the season where characters might be watching violent shit on the tv? If so, would you consider making it one of these movies? If not, I will respectfully withdraw, O Profitable One."

How come he didn't watch Mr. Chips in season 1.

Too unrealistic. Nobody willingly watches that movie.

And besides, he starts offing dudes in the first episode. There was no time!

well I gotta be honest I can totally see WmC's version of this scenario happening

so filled with RAGE right nwo

http://www.vinylexchange.co.uk/images/pics/1038ministrynwo.jpg

it was such a "wah-WAHHHH" moment

yeah it was an eye-rolling scene even without the possible tie-in

although the cut to the money-counting machine sounding like gunfire was a little more clever

Walt dandling baby whatsername while watching hyper violent gangster movie: LOOK HE IS EVIL NOW. First misstep so far this season.

well I gotta be honest I can totally see WmC's version of this scenario happening

And Gilligan loves to talk about this stuff ad nauseam, so I fully expect confirmation at the end of S5.2, if not 5.1.

Gilligan talks about the scene a bit here

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/29/breaking-bad-scarface_n_1716848.html

There's that great line that Bryan Cranston ad-libbed that is not in the script for the episode: "Everybody dies in this movie." Who knows if that's foreshadowing or not.

good one Cranston

just abt everytime i read some day after recap or piece like that it reminds me why i shouldnt read them

i dont understand why they exist

my favorite part of those things is the bulleted list of things that happened in the episode

i dont understand why they exist

― joaquin haus-partizan (s1ocki), Tuesday, 31 July 2012 01:10 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

they perform the exact function of this thread more or less

and at least it keeps the AV club commenters all in one place

whoever the interviewer is raving abt 'what a brill ad-lib etc' is just ¯\(°_o)/¯ 2 me
its a good show, cranstons a good actor but cmon lady

Ya but no one bothers to write 1500-word summaries of each ep on this thread

ilx has the weirdest arguments about breaking bad

ilx has the weirdest arguments about breaking bad

ilx has the weirdest arguments about breaking bad

Heh

or something like that: "oh shit this is my mom's house" or w/e

I bet Mike's mother is fucking terrifying.

Love how just a few months ago Walt wouldn't cook with one solitary fly in the room and now they're doing it in cockroach-infested houses.

loved the apple chomp of victory

i was meaning to ask even before this ep though, does everyone fully buy skyler's wigging out to this extent cos i don't really

like yes she is naive but not that she couldnt have forseen something like that happening, maybe not walt actually doing it but the eventuality of it. and given she's been shown to secretly love the power would she really have this much regard for loss of life if it's that of a drug kingpin who was out to kill her family?

not saying walt hasnt been gross since then but i do feel for him somewhat

There was a point last season when Skylar directly asked Walt "are we in danger?" and Walt said no. Since then, Walt has deliberately hidden everything that happened at the sharp end from Skylar, and she didn't ask any difficult questions and it was convenient for her not to think too hard about it because yay money.

So the first inkling of real danger would have come when the family were suddenly taken into police protection and I'm quite prepared to believe this and then her husband coming home a double-murderer were a genuine shock to her. But only because she was stupid and/or willfully blind.

Even by Walt's standards he's being pretty fucking complacent about his wife cracking up.

Weird that at this stage Walt's the liability and Jesse seems to be the level-headed one.

xp I think also being responsible for Ted being in traction is maybe kinda messing her up too.

loved the apple chomp of victory

i was meaning to ask even before this ep though, does everyone fully buy skyler's wigging out to this extent cos i don't really

like yes she is naive but not that she couldnt have forseen something like that happening, maybe not walt actually doing it but the eventuality of it. and given she's been shown to secretly love the power would she really have this much regard for loss of life if it's that of a drug kingpin who was out to kill her family?

not saying walt hasnt been gross since then but i do feel for him somewhat

― r|t|c, Tuesday, July 31, 2012 5:17 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i buy that the cumulative effect of all this trauma would be to drive her off the rails

i mean it's driven walt off the rails in a different way

True. What kind of crazy person watches Scarface with an infant?

xxp, yeah, he was Takeshi Kaga'ing the hell up, it was nice

re: Skyler - I think up until recently she's been able to convince herself that as with Walt's original justification, they were being practical about their larceny, but blowing up a nursing home + the Ted thing was just waaaaaay too far for her, i could see moving from abstract money laundering to crippling her ex-lover and murder would push her over the edge

seeing an ex-lover crippled and terrified because of something u did is p fucked up

after the first couple times tho its not so bad

Hilariously that's basically what Walt tells her.

I buy Skyler's wigging out because she's wigging out about Walt being a murdering, creepy, "I forgive you," let me paw at you in bed while you're clearly not interested in even talking to me, terrifying person to be married to. Oh who just moves back in. Basically Skyler is terrified of Walt and powerless to escape him.