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

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Gretchen probably felt bad that they didn't have anything to give Walt as a birthday present. This is why it's good to keep a stock of birthday cards in a drawer (or even little gifts - come on, Gretchen, you can afford it) in case of an emergency.

funniest part of Elliot and Gretchen *shocked* at laser pointers is "omg I can feel something on my torso I will look down at it"

― I'm not a rockist, I just hate Rap-A-Lot (sic), Monday, September 30, 2013 2:32 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fwiw they could see the lights w their eyes through the windows

oh and/but we were still there during the beginning of the embarrasing Talking Bad afterwards, and when Hardwick stammered an incoherent, fulsome, run-on non-sentence about how Gilligan is a genius bcz every single loose end was wrapped up in this one episode, I called out "Huell!" and people cheered & applauded </disgusting savage>

the ricined cup of tea must've tasted like crap, poor lydia didn't even get a nice cuppa to go out on.

idk man it's a long distance and the li'l end of the pointers is p tiny, but admittedly I don't get a lot of real or fake assassins pointing red lights at me either

Pretty irresponsible to give that money to Flynn when he'll likely use it to overdose on breakfast

"Give me all the bacon."

I'd include Larry Sanders and the UK Office in the GOAT dram showlist, inasmuch as they were dramedy-ish and GOAT.

I wouldn't have included L O S T in that list even when it was super fun and I was addicted to watching it. It was always pretty trashy. And then eventually just trash.

The Wire, Sopranos, Mad Men, Friday Night Lights and Breaking Bad seem pretty solidly all first-tier - at least limited to the current era of TV... Everything else feels like it doesn't quite feel like it fits - even brilliant stuff like Larry Sanders (a half hour) or Freaks and Geeks (one season).

Sanders is so much better than FNL though

list of shows

yeah - Sanders was amazing... I guess it just feels really different to me, but maybe that's a good thing

I have a feeling that Mad Men is not going to age well and will feel very of it's time. Like Dallas or something.

Out of the shows people are listing, it seems like BB & MM have the most original premises. The thing that makes the Wire less impressive to me is that it feels like a refinement and almost like a logical culmination of 20 years of cop shows since Hill St. Blues. They increased the scope, the detail, and the realism, but it's still a police procedural, which to me is a much bigger knock against it than saying BB is just pulp. I guess it's why I've never watched the Sopranos. I'm sure yet another mobster story is good and adds something to the genre, but meh.

don't watch The Sopranos, it's a trap

God damn all you revealing wire spoilers on a breaking bad thread. I'll remember this.

lost? meh just another stuck on a mysterious island show

I don't think anyone revealed any Wire spoilers that matter, half the comments were jokes

It'll be interesting to see how time treats the show, but I think BB stuck the landing. There's been a lot more moments and plot threads that hinged upon suspension of disbelief since the S4 finale, but I have zero complaints beyond that. And that's a pretty minimal complaint.

But it's a big deal that it did stick the landing. I try not to let disappointing final acts affect my opinion of otherwise stellar shows, but it happens. I didn't think the final Sopranos episode was nearly as problematic as much of the rest of season 6.2 where Chase decided to focus on minutia and release much of the head of steam he'd built up. Deadwood, as mentioned, was unfairly hobbled with a non-ending. And my reaction to The Wire's serial killer plot pretty much mirrored Bunk's as he watched McNulty strangle a corpse. I still love all of those shows despite their whimpery endings. But it's nice to have a piece of really great serial fiction wrap up in a satisfactory fashion (I kinda feel like SFU managed to do likewise, but I may be in the minority mentioned above. And Larry Sanders definitely pulled it off, if we're counting it as part of this particular pantheon).

lost? meh just another stuck on a mysterious island show

Did anyone rate Lost in "tier 1" itt?

xpost Oops (Wire spoiler). Ha ha.

ok well NOW there are a lot of Wire spoilers itt

Lost brought me some of the funnest times of any tv show

Lost was amazing until the last maybe season and a half

xps i loved Sopranos 6.2. imo 6.1 was the only dip in the entire series

I wish I could put Lost in tier 1, but it screwed up the last season so badly (and various runs during the series, i.e. early season 3). There's still plenty of gold in it to make it an all-time great show though. Same deal with BSG

I would've been pretty pleased if Lost had ended after Season 5. I liked that as an ending to the show.

I can't count L O S T among the shows I'm able to forgive for ending badly (or really shittily). It was a lot of fun for a long time, but that last season undermined everything that came before. As much as they paid lip service to the notion, it wasn't in any way a show about the characters (who were mostly little more than gears in a giant Rube Goldberg machine). It was about plot mechanics, and when it became clear that all the plots and planning were part of a big, stupid shaggy dog story, the whole thing fell apart for me.

imo 6.1 was the only dip in the entire series

p much agree with that. same with 6 Feet Under, it had some low points but got good again at the end.

I would've been pretty pleased if Lost had ended after Season 5. I liked that as an ending to the show.

OTMFM. I suggest watching just to the end of S5 to everyone I know who's expressed an interest in checking it out now.

In any case, Wire is hardly such a spoiler-adverse show. I mean, most of the time you will know who did it many episodes in advance. Also, I don't think BB gets bonus points for the originality of it's premise in a world where Weeds exists...

I'm sure yet another mobster story is good and adds something to the genre, but meh.

this is exactly why I avoided the Sopranos while it was on the air and came to it late and holy shit was I wrong. it goes way beyond the scope of other mob stuff, and goes much deeper imho.

xp

LOST was the first show of the DVR era, hiding little clues etc

Kinda feel like there should be a thread for recommendations of when to stop watching shows before they turf out. Like Roseanne through season 5 or 6 is one of the best shows ever made, and by season 9 is became of the worst.

I guess what I wonder is whether the flash-forwards hurt a show's re-viewing potential--when I called it "well-made pulp" yesterday, it was along the lines of something like Stephen King, where the suspense and thrill ride are second to none in a first read/viewing without a need to experience more than once. Certainly that seems the case with Lost.

xp: www.jumpedtheshark.co.uk

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If you haven't rewatched BB, I'd recommend it. I got a hell of a lot of new stuff out of a rewatch. Lots of subtleties I missed on a first viewing, particularly when you already know where certain things are heading.

The production and writing in Lost was just so dense; I rewatched many episodes of the show during its run and there were just countless details to pick up, enjoyably. Sadly this somewhat led to its downfall in the final season where they threw in a bunch of crap they had to tie up from years and years before.

they threw in a bunch of crap they had to tie up from years and years before

everything except the important stuff to tie up, that just got jettisoned with a "you're thinking about it too hard, it's really about feelings man" cop-out ending

The makeup and prosthetics to give Walt his turkey-neck wrinkles were another really good part of the finale, btw.

Anna Gunn mentioned that they loaded her and Cranston with oversized clothes to give them a shrinking, weakened appearance - totally worked

gunn looked real pretty in the last couple eps i thought

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/breaking-bad-finale_opt.jpg

"Did you ever audition for Lorne? I was there in '96. Couple years after the Comedy Store."

Also, I don't think BB gets bonus points for the originality of it's premise in a world where Weeds exists...

come on, bb is more different from weeds than the wire is from every other cop procedural ever.

Plus the premise isn't really just "chemistry teacher breaks bad and enters the meth cooking business". That's just the TV Guide summary.

I think what's really unique about BB is that Walt is a nerd criminal who loves the life of crime because he loves nerding out on the logistics of it all. He doesn't even ever enjoy the fruits of his success like Scarface or most other fictional crime bosses do. He's just in it for the fun of it. Which works really well for the genre because it mirrors the audience's love for the mechanics of a caper.

I mean the story is really "dying man retires from work and spends his last two years of life doing what he loves."

I love that he made 80 mil and they never even went on vacation or bought a new couch or anything

new hot water unit tho

i had no real serious issues with Walt's fantastical return to ABQ/nazi decimation/grey matter trust fund et al. we've been treated to some pretty badass McGyverisms and cunning on his part, and i would have been let down if the final ep didn't throw us some of that.

but i am kinda sympathetic to Nussbaum's take (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/09/breaking-bad-finale-reviewed.html?utm_source=tny&utm_campaign=generalsocial&utm_medium=facebook). it would have been a little easier to swallow if 1) Walt had disguised himself a little better & 2) he'd spent a little time back in NH plotting his return, rather than it being a snap decision after he'd already tipped off the authorities

(http://www.newyorker.com

going no further