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

And if eyebrow man is gonna tell the court how the Whites acquired his car wash, that isn't gonna help Skyler sound like a victim either.

(xxpost)

Also, I liked how the diner scene showed that Hank, probably the most sympathetic main character in the show, isn't alway as great as he'd like others to think

he did beat jesse to a pulp

she just has to say he threatened to kill her and so forth

Beneke's another one who'll keep his mouth shut if he knows what's good for him.

Walt looked so fragile in that bathroom floor scene.

I think almost everyone on the show is sympathetic.

Sympathy has little to do with why I like or dislike shows so I'm no judge.

theyre all sympathetic in their own way even walt who is a psychopath because he did what lies in all our hearts and went gangster

I love how Hank starts off being very sympathetic to Sk'lar and within less than a minute he's hinting to her how she needs to snitch and has a recorder in pretty much no time at all. He turns from sympathetic ear into pig cop and she's got the "fuck you, piggy" instinct.

Notice she said absolutely nothing when Marie was talking to her, either. Her own sister could be wearing a wire, she's not gonna say shit.

ya hank really blew it he needed to take step back

enjoyed the creative license of showing Walt digging a big-ass hole in the middle of the desert all by himself

ain't no dude digging a hole that big within a day

hes v determined

but sometimes he collapses (he has cancer u know)

lol I don't find Hank very sympathetic either myself - he's a blowhard and not half-as-good a cop as he makes himself out to be

hank is a really good investigator tho it seems like, unless he has to speak mexican or deal w exploding heads

I often wonder if this show can pull off the task it seems to set for itself--in terms of making Walt the villain and really turning the audience against him rather than just get us to intellectually agree he is immoral or whatever--since (if indeed that is what they are trying to do) that would set them against pretty powerful narrative forces and a charismatic performance. I think even now ("tread lightly") there's an illicit thrill in Walt's gangsterisms that sorta renders the moralism of the show moot.

he's such a good investigator it took him over a year to figure out his bro-in-law is a big-time meth dealer

xp

if you only have that one data point then sure

I find Hank sympathetic in that he's a decent family man and good with his nephew and niece.

He and the entire DEA were obnoxious as fuck for so long, posing next to corpses and cracking jokes about drug dealers and being general cocky pieces of shit. When Walt hit the big time and got so far out ahead while the DEA was getting played by Gus (and Hank was getting shot) they made him more sympathetic in that he was less of a cocky loser and more of just a loser.

but yeah, speaking mexican and exploding heads

yeah I agree w all that

the thing with that is that Walt being under Hank's nose all along is that Hank would probably have caught Walt if he was doing his off-the-books detective work of season 4 with anyone but Walt.

ain't no dude digging a hole that big within a day

yeah, that annoyed me too

I don't have a giant home theater complex and I've been playing loud music in clubs for the last 20 years. Fuck do I ever hate episodes where half the dialogue is whispering.

― combination hair (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, August 18, 2013 9:03 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh man this annoys the crap out of me esp since we can only watch when the kids are asleep so we turn it up to hear the dialogue then boom a commercial or music or something is suddenly loud as fuck. by the time you turn it down theyre back to whispering again. i ended up rewatching season 5 part 1 one night with closed captioning on

I don't have AMC so I watched it over lunch with headphones on like a bad employee, worked for me

seems like they could just make the whispers loud when they mix it why not

dynamic range and the loudness war. google it

oh i know I KNOW

the hole digging was TOTALLY ridiculous
dude couldn't have done that even in his prime

It's kind of what dudes in their late teens/early 20s who are all like "yeah, I've never done <some physical thing> but if I had to I could totally flip out and do it"

Kind of like how they watch The Godfather or w/e and think they could definitely be a crime boss, if they really wanted

i assume the louboutins were for the trademark SPLASH OF COLOR that gilligan likes

i had images of walt getting his shirt caught on one of those huge barrels o'cash and being dragged into the hole and crushed like a bug

rest of season just long time-lapse shots of walt's decomposing corpse

He totally could've dug that whole. Just needs some meth.

maybe he was there for days. making a fun weekend of it like he did back in the day with jesse and the rv.

i feel like its not impossible but he would prob faint after

yeah but you are like the ubermensch

oh yeah i could dig it in like 20 mins

hank handled the talk with skyler incredibly poorly

― seriously, THIS GUY (daria-g), Sunday, August 18, 2013 10:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yup

― lag∞n, Sunday, August 18, 2013 10:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i didn't think this at all. i mean it got out of hand and pulling out a tape recorder was probably a little premature but i think skylar would have reacted very differently if hank had found out and approached her somewhere between 'i won' and 'how big does this pile of $$$ have to be?.'

what I liked about this episode was how Skyler reacts to Hank's dehumanizing/depersonalizing of her - she is tired of being treated like someone without agency and she has learned that when people tell you they're acting in your interest, they're usually lying, or at best they're exaggerating their ability to take care of you

feel like there's some cool feminist subtext/s to Skyler's realization that she is on her own and holds all the cards

― combination hair (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, August 19, 2013 9:06 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

genuine question - how was he dehumanizing/depersonalizing her?

i think the hole digging fits with the often comic-booky or western tone of the show. i like that they go with stuff like that, suspension of disbelief be damned.

by reverting to standard cop/perp roles

xp

no kidding, he immediately jumped to "oh, you poor baby" and figured since Walt is nothing other than a monster to him now, obviously that's her take too

at least Marie had the agency to ask the strong questions and be offended that Skylar knew and was involved. shit never even occurred to Hank that she could be a player or had any of her own free will

yup, otm

perhaps important to remember that cops are trained to divide all non-cops into two categories: victim or criminal

yeah, family member is a distant third there

i'm glad someone here pointed out that once Skyler realized that Walt was going to die again, it completely changed the dynamic - definitely otm, waiting for him to die is once again her best move

hank seemed like he was almost offering to walk skrim through minimizing the appearance of her role in the conspiracy, but he couldnt quite get it out cause he was discomobulated

I've been trying to figure out how to describe his recent emotional distress, seems kind of like an extreme anxiety punctuated by rage

i think the hole digging fits with the often comic-booky or western tone of the show. i like that they go with stuff like that, suspension of disbelief be damned.

but stuff like secret underground labs and exploding chemistry tricks are at least comic-booky in a FUN way. the idea that WW could dig a hole the size of a cargo van in the rocky, sun-baked desert dirt is just silly.

walt = wile e coyote

then it makes sense

lol