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

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lx6q6xFlB81r6alqeo1_250.gif

feel like every time a thread goes south we should have DJP start up another round of AMANDA and get us recalibrated

btw i feel no shame for this delightful stand-off in the desert, better use of time than rating how hot the characters are imo

Wha happen

lagoon eye rolled at anna gunn's whining about trolls, and a few people scoffed back, which interrupted the whole "i give hank a 6" discussion

thank christ it's Sunday

lol veg

so how do you guys think the shows gonna end

it's not.

with Jesse reading a Slate piece to cellmate at prison library.

hahah

lag∞n remember when you were smart and said smart things a couple years back? do that schtick again it was righteous

we all have our off days

oh god

lagoon was yr point just 'there is a difference between a death threat directly made to an individual and someone commenting ugh someone kill skyler already on youtube/some messageboard/to the person sitting next to them while they watch breaking bad' or were you actually making the 'get over it' argument attributed to you here? not that ugh someone kill sklyer already isn't problematic or whatever, the same trend popped up w/ carmela soprano and is (or probably was now) most pronounced w/ betty draper. i don't recall it (and bullock on deadwood was a decidedly different character than tony/walt/don) but i could imagine there were ppl who thought the same about anna gunn's character on deadwood though really there wasn't anything approaching a 'shrill nag' on that show. the wire probably too unfocused on one central character/hero for it to happen there - daniel's wife a possibility, mcnulty's ex another but neither male character antihero badass enough to serve as a fantasy figure for reddit types (though mcnulty's pretty close) and neither killjoy woman ever focused on long enough to get sustained hate. have always assumed that a huge percentage of hate directed at skyler et al was just losers channeling their hate toward their mother, wife, whatever woman is holding them back from being the badass they know they are inside.

It's going to end back in high school, with a chemistry teacher fired due to budget cuts. He's heading to his car with his trunk of stuff, and Todd sidles up to him. "Hey, man ..."

Either that or Walt is posthumously awarded the Nobel Prize.

Can't imagine Gunn got hate for her Deadwood character. That was a far more complex relationship, more interesting. it was two people learning to love and appreciate one another in a weird situation, if I recall correctly, and Bullock was doing the honorable/dutiful thing, which was very much in character for him. No? Been a while.

i was def not making a get over it argument fwiw xp

if you were I could point you to the Eagles listening threas

*thread

why? i don't want to defend sexist trolls

come on the breaking bad writers aren't that bad

i keep thinking back to last week's ep -> walt doesn't trust skyler now, does he? and walt told saul that they couldn't send hank to belize because he's family - the line walt won't cross is harming anyone in his own family - but I wonder if they're setting that up for him to do something even more terrible, that the audience really thought he wouldn't

what always bothered me about the writing re: skyler was the moments that aren't all the most important to the plot but come across as excessively awkward/humiliating for her. it seems believable to me that she'd buy her son a car that was more safe than cool, but picking just about the worst vehicle possible (pt cruiser? in purple, was it?).. i dunno. and the singing happy birthday to beneke -> seriously? as intelligent as she is, in a professional workplace? no way.

i think in all of these shows we're with the male leads so constantly that we are privy to their inner turmoil and see them for the "genuinely good guys" that they view themselves to be (even though they're really not.) so being privy to walt's desire to leave his family a few bucks and being privy to don draper's traumatic childhood memories and the fact that despite his philandering he'd have liked to have held onto betty (from what we can gather to some extent), when skylar and betty get ice cold and start calling them on their shit and fucking around on them, there's a natural tendency to feel defensive about the male characters' true nature and intentions, DESPITE the fact that they're both colossally fucked up sociopaths. a lot of this probably has to do with the male fantasy fulfillment that both characters are blazing their way through (walt has become a gangster badass who uses his INTELLECT to outmaneuver his enemies and is the best at what he does in a competitive environment, draper is this office pimp who is the best at what he does in a competitive environment) as well as the fact that betty and skylar aren't given the same backstories and the same endless scenes of inner struggle. so skylar's nagging and "concerned wife" thing and her ted beneke affair, as well as betty's nagging and general issues and "henry francis as plan B" feels shallow in comparison (we shouldn't even get started on megan draper.) this is a weakness in the characters to some extent, but then again a lot of viewers simply don't like female characters as much as male characters, to the point where it amazes me when viewers will wish death upon female characters for simply being "annoying."

singing happy birthday to beneke

Oh god I had forgotten about this, I'm with you guys, Skryllex is the worst

this is a really good piece re the whole phenomenon http://the-toast.net/2013/08/22/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-troubled-male-antihero

His wife greeted him as he came into the kitchen. That bitch.

“You crossed a moral event horizon recently that I didn’t think you would ever cross, despite all evidence to the contrary,” she sobbed like some kind of fucking pussy. Her makeup was all smeared, like a total bitch.

He picked his daughter up from wherever she had been before he picked her up.

“You look different from before,” he said to her.

“Different how?”

“Like older.”

She nodded. “Oh, yeah. That’s from time.”

He thought about it for a minute. She might be interesting after all. Not like her mother. That bitch. He handed her a cigarette.

lmao

while they could definitely flesh out Skylar's past (and there have been weird notes like the "happy birthday" bit), I like the fact that she isn't some invulnerable angel - before he went nuclear, she and walt were in a mediocre, complacent marriage with minimal communication and empathy, likely loaded with resentments built on compromises on both ends. But when she's confronted with Walt's crimes, the worst she can really think up in response is "ok, well if morality is what you can live with, i could fuck that boss i had a crush on" because yeah, she's not as inventive as walt, but also not as destructive. Functionally miserable couples usually don't include an innocent party, so it'd be weird if she was a paragon of strength and understanding who just happened to be married to a prideful timebomb. But I think BB's done a good job of not crucifying Skylar for her uncoolness, for her desire to stick to the script, the way a movie like American Beauty did Annette Bening. That fedoraland doesn't get it is "understandable," but fucking horrible and not worth coddling.

plus, I'm not sure what else we need from Skylar's past that will "explain" her actions.

that they've gotten away with so little backstory (aside from the "picking out the house" bit, there was just that one episode where we got a glimpse of pre-skylar walter in the future billionaire scientists club, right?) is partially because of its use of the "cool psycho dad/boring shrill wife" cliche, and while it doesn't ruin the show for me (though I'm embarrassed we've got a book saying its exploration on cable is the best thing since the moon landing), the kneejerk reaction of some fans does reaffirm that BB doesn't really reinvent or subvert the pulp wheel, just delivers it with exceptional detail.

lool @ that toast thing

a day in the life, breaking bad, game of thrones, mad men, naming names, oh everything probably just pick one, ray donovan, sons of anarchy, television, the sopranos, the walking dead, troubled male protagonists

that anti-hero thing was great

What if Skylar kills Hank? It would be pretty symetrical with the whole series -- Hank "cleans up" the meth business side of things -- taking down Jesse & Lydia (I assume Todd escapes cause Todd will be Todd) -- while Skylar "cleans up" the domestic side of the situation -- killing Hank and perhaps doing something like framing the murder on Marie or in some other way keeping her quiet? Then she takes the kids and runs off, on Walt's insistence, while he goes to make some last grand stand at Dennys.

While Walt Jr enjoys one last Grand Slam at Dennys, you mean.

I'm just waiting for Walt Jr. to break (fast) bad... It's my favorite fan theory but probably won't happen.

Skyler's motivations have been pretty blurry. Sometimes she is motivated by support of Walt, sometimes she is motivated by fear of Walt, sometimes she is motivated by fear of what Walt is doing to her family. It's hard to portray someone as strong when the show has mostly featured her being emotionally beaten into submission. Her killing Walt would be a big relief.

There should be some kind of payoff to the "Walt Jr"/"Flynn" confusion

I wouldn't be surprised if Walt Jr. turns against his parents and somehow helps Hank get evidence on them. Then Walt helps Jesse and Skyler disappear and makes it look like he killed them.

walter, skylar, walt jr sit around the breakfast table of their new island home, walt jr waxing effusively about dad's gambling magic and bacon. "Well, that's all behind us now," sighs Walter. "It better be," chimes in Skylar, as Holly wobbles over to her daddy. "What is it, my dear?" he playfully inquires.

"Hi, hi, hi..."

Skylar and Walter share the moment. Baby's first word.

"Heisenberg."

Walter's face goes grey, nervously turning to his family. But Skylar and Walt Jr simply look perplexed. As the absurdity soaks in, he laughs long and hard. Sylar joins him.

"What?" says Walt Jr as the screen fades to black.

so we're in ep three of the second half of 5 tonight. what's the over/under on the first 'major' event of the latter half occurring tonight? Seems like it might be a little early, but there's been an awful lot of setup in the first two. Obviously there are too many eps left for someone to actually die tonight I think, but it's like an hour away and I'm giddy.

lol croup

hahaha perfect

Ooh that just made me wonder how many babies have been Holly by this point?

Watching last week's again...how stupid was it to blindfold Lydia but let her keep her phone? Durrr.

or for that matter, not asking what the "problem" was before opting to leave the 'underground meth lab' to investigate.

i like that Lydia is the charmingly awkward woman who just happens to awkwardly get people killed.

well maybe not charming, just awkward

As awful as Walt is, I don't want the Lady in Purple, aka Marie, yelling at me.

if hanks the kingpin y would he need his cooks $ 2 pay his medical bills

in this hypothetical scenario maybe it would've been post falling-out so if the money would've been in a caymans bank account like it was for mike & the other dudes, i suppose he wouldn't have had access to it?