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

av club recaps/"reviews" are so weird. like the "stray observations" at the bottom of this piece are just... things that happened in the episode? good lookin out!

http://www.avclub.com/articles/granite-state,102660/

haha they have separate recaps and reviews now and i'll be damned if i can tell the difference. i think my favorite thing about the netflix model (beyond even just enjoying orange is the new black, arrested development 2.0, and house of cards to varying degrees) is the extent to which it has just exposed the laziness and complete lack of imagination of the tv crit community in general. the whining of 'this isn't how tv should be, they need to role it out one a week or maybe two a week, stick to the traditional model, my recaps are even more pointless now' and the inability to explore how the netflix approach has say offered up new narrative possibilities (a few have acknowledged it but none have really committed themselves to say an entire paragraph on it. gotta save space for 'here are some lines of dialogue i liked', the critical equivalent of the guy who thinks he's funny cuz he quotes snl catchphrases. i'm down w/ sepinwall and i loved twop way back in the day (when it was mightybigtv) but that avclub model of tv crit makes most gamer crit look like the fucking london review of books.

sean o'neal writes for the onion proper right? i'm trying to figure out why he's still there, considering how many sites are basically just 'what if dennis miller hosted entertainment tonight' you'd think maybe vulture or gawker or grantland (though grantland doesn't seem to be as much a 'react to everything in the entertainment newswire', i almost never read anything in the sidebar there so i could be wrong) would've grabbed him by now.

what if netflix stopped making episodes and just turned it all into really long movies

"sean o'neal writes for the onion proper right? i'm trying to figure out why he's still there, considering how many sites are basically just 'what if dennis miller hosted entertainment tonight' you'd think maybe vulture or gawker or grantland (though grantland doesn't seem to be as much a 'react to everything in the entertainment newswire', i almost never read anything in the sidebar there so i could be wrong) would've grabbed him by now."
--I dont get it

Hell, maybe the whole lead up is a giant bait and switch. Maybe Walt is going to head back, find Todd, and give him a choice:

Todd: Mr. White, I'm not sure you should be here.
Walt: Shh. Just listen, OK? Listen. Put down the gun, Todd.
Todd: Well, OK Mr. White, but just for a little bit. If Uncle Jack saw us here like this ...
Walt: Please, stop talking, we don't have much time. Todd ...

Walt reaches over and puts his hand on Todd's shoulder.

Walt: I can teach you to make an even more pure form of meth. You will be more powerful than you could even imagine. You're just a kid, and I, I am a dying man, But I could make you great. People will whisper your name and quake in terror. Anything you want will be yours. Charlie Rose will be begging to come on your show. How ... how does this sound?
Todd: Gee, Mr. White, it all sounds great, but how are you going to make this happen?
Walt: With this ...

Walt extends a chemistry book.

Walt: ... and these.

Walt offers his Heisenberg hat and the ricin pill.

Walt: It's easier than you think, Todd. All it will take is a little time and a little ... Todd? Todd, do you know how to read?

Todd smiles.

Todd: No, Mr. White. But I sure can learn.
Walt; Good.[coughs, smiles, pats Todd avuncularly on the shoulder] Good. Now let's get to work.

Cut to black.

"Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake plays.

--I dont get it

― RRRRR, Wednesday, September 25, 2013 7:09 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You'd have to be familiar with other letters of the alphabet

http://rlv.zcache.com/pirate_boy_rrrrrr_postcard-rb7d2791ee435427aa83b45c78b32e204_vgbaq_8byvr_512.jpg

let's remember the better times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRpXiRtbWaU

(i hadn't seen this when i mentioned twaughthammer before.)

Didn't know if i should put this here or in the Tim & Eric thread. (Bob Odenkirk wins either way.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?fv=TDPf4rfMbLo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=TDPf4rfMbLo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&fv=TDPf4rfMbLo

GODDAMMIT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_hKcmdmKyo

I'm watching the beginning of the series-long meth binge marathon that SKC is running and Emilio just fell through the ceiling.

SKC = AMC

xxxxpost

There is a weird part of me that wants to see a callback to "Fallacies" in the finale. As inappropriate as that would likely be.

It was such a tender time

http://www.savewalterwhite.com/

Didn't that site used to link to cancer charities instead of the AMC homepage?

i guess the reason that would disappoint me is that everything in this show has been driven by a sense of urgency... whether you're "team walt" or not, it's always been about him trying desperately to survive, or not get caught, or protect someone, etc. etc. "walt goes hunting for his wounded pride and some cash he left behind" just doesn't have that tension.

For all Walt knows Jesse could be planning to take out his family in revenge for the Jane thing.

Let the record state that the best 'bitch' ever is when Walt and Jesse are hiding in the RV with Hank outside and Jesse is reminding Hank of his rights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpDSn6odVzs

that clip misses out walt's amazing withered look he gives jesse

that era of the show was so incredible.

hank turning up at the hospital with a face like 10 simultaneous heart-attacks.

I really miss Walt and Jesse as comic double act.

Yeah, at this point it's kinda hard to remember how much humour there used to be in the show. I think up until the end of season 2 you could've easily thought the show would end up being a Coen brothers style pitch-black comedy; it wasn't until Jane's death and the plane crash that it was made clear it's gonna be a tragedy.

it's still kinda funny - in places. the nazis are sort of funny without having any punchlines.

I wonder if they has used Tuco as the Big Bad, as they had planned before the actor left the show, would the show have remained a black comedy even longer? Tuco was definitely a more comic (though still scary) villain than Gus.

Nah it's been comic all the way through, even/especially when Fring was in it. That's a big part of why Saul's in, Walt attempting to explain the petrol on the carpet to his family, all that stuff is funny.

For all Walt knows Jesse could be planning to take out his family in revenge for the Jane thing.

are you seriously suggesting that's why he changes his mind at the end of the episode

It's not any one thing, there are like four or five reasons for him to change his mind and as many motivations not to just give himself up. Walt is mad paranoid, we already know he believes in tying up loose ends and there's no way he'd let a loose end like Jesse keep walking around. That plus hating the idea of Jesse and the Nazis getting rich(er) off his product, compounded by the Grey Matter slight.

Walt arrives at compound. Nazis point guns at him, Todd points gun at Jesse. Walt raises hands in air. "Just give me five minutes of your time," he said. Camera slow pans across nazis whose facial expressions say: "what the fuck??" Camera back to Walt: "I know these circumstances seem...extreme. But there was another man who once faced extreme circumstances, two thousand years ago. Possibly even more incredible circumstances than ours." Camera pulls back to show full scene as nazis approach, curious about Walt's tale. Breaking Bad music montage set to "El Shaddai": Walt explaining the good news and reaction shots of nazis and Todd: interested, outraged, holding faces in hands and crying, looking up at the sky. As music fades, we hear Walt, Jesse and the nazis praying the sinner's prayer. Camera slow tracks up to the sky where Jesus Christ holds Tuco, Gus, Krazy 8, Hank, Tortuga, Gomie, Drew Sharp, and Andrea in his giant hands. When the camera tracks back to earth, we see Walt giving communion to his converts: wine from a coffee mug and some crusts of bread. The camera tracks to the nearby dust where we see a crushed, unsmoked cigarette.

I like it but can we work in a Walt crucifixion?

Walt touches Walter Jr and his crutches fall away and he does a little dance including a backflip.

Gale and Jane don't get to go heaven... Or just difficult to get Gale because of LWS obligations?

Saul becomes a missionary after being temporarily blinded by a Thai masseuse.

Gale and Jane don't get to go heaven... Or just difficult to get Gale because of LWS obligations?

Suicidees and gays don't get to heaven, haven't you read your Chick tracts?

Turning water into wine=turning common chemicals into crystal meth.

Walt arrives at the Nazi camp - a silver-haired man stops him at the gates. It's... Walt's father.

"It's time to stop running Walt."

"No. I can't, my meth..."

"Walt, it's time to give in."

"But..."

"This is the place, where we meet the ones we love."

Uncle Jack opens the gate and we see a slow motion of Hank, Tuco, Gus, Skylar, Holly, Walt Jr, Crazy-8, the twins, Jane, and Jesse, all eating a barbecue.

Piano music plays softly as the Br/Ba symbol slowly fades into a black screen.

A mysterious long-haired man approaches Walt in the desert. Walt sees that Gus is walking alongside the man, so he grabs his gun. But Gus smiles and lifts his hand, talks to Walt with a gentle, soft voice: "The time for that is over.". The gun drops from Walt's hand onto the desert floor, and Gus proceed to hug him. Walt then sees Hank behind Gus, and behind him there is Krazy-8, Gale, Tuco, Mike, Uncle Tio, the eight people killed in prison, and all the 167 passengers of Wayfarer 515. They gather around Walt, all smiling. The long-haired man walks through the crowd to Walt. "Walter White," he says, "instead of breaking bad, isn't it time to break bread?". He then gives Walt five loaves of bread, which Walt somehow manages to share with the whole crowd. The final shot is of tears falling down Walt's cancer-ridden cheeks, as the scene fades to White.

we're joking not posting actual spoilers!

. . .

sorry, that came across as a statement more than the faux-rebuke i meant it as.

Walt travels back to NM, kills the Nazis and Todd, rescues Jesse, apologizes to his family, takes the ricin, feels himself being pulled out of his body, discombobulatedly finds himself sitting in a diner and surrounded by another man's family while "Don't Stop Believin'" plays on the jukebox, exclaims "Oh boy...", Al explains to him that he's a mob boss in NJ, etc. It writes itself, really.

maybe the final episode will be a musical

First one of you to throw in a Suzanne Pleshette reference gets a midnight visit from Todd the Ninzi.

75 minutes of the camera trained on Vince Gilligan giving the camera the finger.

Was it the Onion that said something about the next Ken Burns documentary just 16 hours of a pan across his laughing face?

i had a dream todd was sitting in a diner laughing about how angry coach taylor would be if he knew what he was up to.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts-entertainment/breaking-bad-makers-admit-final-episode-never-going-to-happen-2013092479725