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

maybe I do not rc

skylar reminds me a bit of my Mom when I was growing up, seems p well fleshed out for a woman in her situation. I've never had a problem with her portrayal ~as a woman~ etc

I feel like her whole arc is lame retread of Carmela Soprano, more or less

Marie doesn't really have an arc. Lydia is a series of tics.

that goes for a lot of the male characters too tho. what's badger's arc, or saul's? marie's back on auto-pilot but the whole klepto breakdown was more of an arc than some of the male characters have gotten.

badger's arc is being awesome imo

ok that buzzfeed theory is freaking me out

O_O

I don't remember much of carmela's arc aside from some dalliance w/ a priest, but comparing the skygur of S1 to the one who told ted to keep his f'kn mouth shut demonstrates a pretty good arc

like in S1 I was certain if she ever found out about walt then that was it for them and she'd prolly get whacked for blabbing but her character has evolved far and credibly imo

I don't remember much of carmela's arc aside from some dalliance w/ a priest

o_0

don't forget, she fucked Ted.

I know, right? and I was one of yr few allies in the sopranos vs the wire melee

xp

there are a bunch of things Skyler has done that feel like they were straight out of Carmela's storylines - the bimbo-ing-it-up to get something, the what-kind-of-monster-am-I-married-to confrontations with Walt, the entire arc of being trapped into complicity and then learning to get kind of good at it, the enjoyment of the perks with flashes of guilt and remorse, the entire family/"there's no getting out" aspect of her and Walt's relationship

i don't really get what you want from that character though. more yoga?

aren't those all just heteronormative western culture things?

marriage that seems inescapable due to children to a person who isn't the same as the one you thought you married

I dunno, I'm not saying Skyler's character doesn't make sense just that it doesn't feel like they've done anything new or interesting with it. her character feels like one of the most rote and unrewarding elements of the show.

xp

yet IFT is one of the most memorable and rewarding moments, weird

she likes to simmer for a long time before blowing up
lotsa people are like that irl

http://www.vulture.com/2013/08/breaking-bad-dean-norris-interview.html

did anybody link to this already?

as sieve-like as my memory is, I don't recall thinking "things are over for the sopranos if carmela ever finds out about tony's mafia biz", seems like the seeds of slippery morals were sown early on w/ carmela, whereas skybirdh had a moral authority at BB's beginning, and therefore farther to fall (tho I agree they ended up in the same place). and as diff as tony soprano is from walter white, they both evolve from relatively sympathetic positions to a point where their respective shows are nearly dedicated to rubbing the audience's face in how completely rotted their moral fiber is. at a macro level I'm not sure if breaking bad would even exist were it not for the precedent of the sopranos.

I wonder how a sopranos / the wire / breaking bad poll would go.

So, I just saw this episode, and I was kinda wondering, was Walt picking up the ricin pill supposed to be poetic/symbolic, or something? Because I can't think of any rational reason he would do it, instead of just making some new ricin? Judging by the Heisenberg tag and the neighbour's reaction his cover is already blown, so it's not like he has any reason to get rid of some discriminating evidence either.

I read that "crazy BB theory", but at the moment it seems they're building up to Walt killing Jesse, not Skyler, what with Jesse throwing money and acting all crazy, and Walt not wanting him to expose them both. Though I guess the shocking twist of the final season could be that Skylar threatens to talk to cops, Walt kills her, goes undercover, has a total breakdown, and as a final attempt at redemption tries to save Jesse. Jesse's been kidnapped by the Madrigal people so he could cook better meth than the 67% stuff, Walt saves him, but dies while doing that.

Though I'm not sure if they want to do even the slightest redemption arc for Walt at this point, that'd probably be too good a fate for him. Jesse'll most likely get redeemed in some way though, I'm still convinced he's not gonna survive. The show's been trying to make him into a "decent" person for a while now, by contrasting his awakening morality with Walt's eroding one.

was Walt picking up the ricin pill supposed to be poetic/symbolic, or something?

presumably because he needs to kill somebody who is difficult to kill

wants to make ricinbeans

Because I can't think of any rational reason he would do it, instead of just making some new ricin?

dude is on the run after driving 30 hours straight from new hampshire, buying machine guns in diner bathrooms, doesn't seem as if he's got the time or resources to be cooking up new batches of ricin

he also apparently doesn't gaf who knows he's there, so it def seems like a suicide mission

dude is on the run after driving 30 hours straight from new hampshire, buying machine guns in diner bathrooms, doesn't seem as if he's got the time or resources to be cooking up new batches of ricin

IIRC the episode where he first made ricin shows it's totally easy for him to make it, he just needed basic household items, not a lab or anything... Or am I misremembering that?

Maybe he just wanted to see his old house?

Because I can't think of any rational reason he would do it, instead of just making some new ricin?

You don't just look sideways at a handful of castor beans and get an effective ricin capsule, as that IRL guy in Tupelo who mailed ground-up castor beans to Obama probably discovered. Walt created the first one when he had access to Gus's lab. He has the know-how, but after months away from ABQ, not the facilities to make another. xxposts

He went to get it because it gave us a reason to show the current state of the house

did the DEA guys photoshop a schraderbrau logo into one of the crime scene photos in that file, or did i imagine it?

walt doesn't think lydia might be a threat, does he? wasn't mike the only person who knew that she was looking to have those 11 guys killed to avoid getting caught?

I think that photo was the really early one when Hank posed with Tuco's chump who got trapped under the scrapyard car.

In all seriousness, though, plot-wise having him pick up the ricin gives the writers a way to further establish the passage of time and the breakdown of the Whites' home. It's the only thing that Walt could conceivably go back for -- I don't think he would have left cash in the crawlspace and I'm sure the authorities would have searched the home if he had to flee, but it's unlikely anyone would be prying off all the electrical outlet plates.

We also get the implication that he didn't use all the measures available to him on the way out; still having the ricin there means that he wasn't poisoning people, which is a direction we've kind of expected. The episode before the break was the last time we saw it when he was considering poisoning Lydia if she didn't go along with the plan.

if he had any time to plan leaving that place you'd think he'd have taken that with him

That could be another clue! He was storing all the cash offsite so in the case he'd have to flee he'd never have to return home

walt doesn't think lydia might be a threat, does he?

No, I don't think so. Maybe she'll prove to more dangerous than she appears to be, though? They might even try to draw parallels between her and Walt; Lydia doesn't seem like a gangster at all, she appears more like a harmless middle-aged suburban parent, just like Walt does. Anyway, it seems obvious the writers still have some unrevealed plans for her... She'll probably act as the face of the drug underworld, now that they've gotten rid of every other character who previously served that role.

uh Lydia represents Madrigal, who has every reason to want Walt dead.

he is a liability to their operation, he knows the cook, their methods, their distribution contact - but he is not on the payroll.

I guess the ricin had to be included also because it's the only Ghekhov's gun they haven't fired yet (besides Gus's mysterious past, but that seems irrelevant now), and having Walt just make some new ricin wouldn't have the same feel of tying up loose plot threads.

well yeah

agree about Gus's past - that was a weird thing to allude to and then drop. would be pretty o_0 if they brought it back now.

That Norris interview is a good read. Seems like a cool guy.

did the DEA guys photoshop a schraderbrau logo into one of the crime scene photos in that file, or did i imagine it?

There was a very quick cut between a closeup of the pic Merdeyeux IDed and a shot of Hank reflected in a window with the logo in foreground during the Hank Detection Training Montage, the logo didn't appear in the pic itself

uh Lydia represents Madrigal, who has every reason to want Walt dead.

I don't think it's ever been established whether Madrigal as a whole was behind Gus, or whether it was just some corrupt executives within the company (Lydia, the German guy who kills himself, etc) who were willing to make business with him? It seems kinda unlikely that a German multinational corporation would get involved in crystal meth trade in the USA, but on the other hand BB is hardly a realistic show...

lotta moving parts amirite

Anyway, can I just say I found it amusing that (after the teaser) the story continued right from where it left a year ago, with Hank coming out of the toilet. He just took the longest dump in TV history!

omg @ this detail from the Dean Norris interview re the scary cousins

They’re brothers in real life — Daniel and Luis Moncada. I always bring my sisters to premieres, and they loved those guys because they were so nice and huggy. You may have heard this, but they each had “Fuck You” tattooed on their eyelids; they had been gangbangers, and that’s what they wanted people to see when they were lying in their caskets. I said to Luis, “Fuck man, didn’t that hurt? And he said, “Well, the ink hurt, but what really hurt was the spoon they had to put under the eyelid while they were doing it.” [Laughs.] But they were really good guys.

Lydia looks like trouble -- the sort of character who in a moment of crisis buries a pair of scissors in your back.

she looks like a rat

yeah she's so squirrelly, it's the thing that makes her most dangerous in my eyes

yeah skiler got plastic surgery between s3 and s4 i think?

She'll probably act as the face of the drug underworld, now that they've gotten rid of every other character who previously served that role.

― Tuomas, Monday, August 12, 2013 6:41 PM (22 minutes ago)

don't forget todd. he provided the means for walt to wipe out mike's guys, plus he's a cold-blooded kid killer.

ever since I heard Gilligan talk about the color themes he chooses for characters I've been obsessively noticiing in S1, and then in last night's season Walt & Skl'ar are wearing almost white, like they are drug-money-laundering angels in heaven's car wash