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

yeah exactly - this bizarre need for some kind of fair share storytelling hasn't got anything to do with entertainment.

Like I said before, we don't really get too anything of what happens to Skyler or Marie and Jr. after Walt runs off.

The show is centered around two years in the life of Walt, and what happens to Skyler, Marie, and Jr. after Walt runs off still hasn't really happened yet. They're still paying for Walt's choices, bogged down in the police investigation and the court system, and will still be paying for it for some time. Resolving their characters doesn't fit into the timeline unless you want Animal House-style "Walt Jr. is a US Senator and still loves breakfast" chyrons.

"I wanted to know more about what happened to supporting characters" is a pretty good complaint to inspire, as opposed to "then what was the deal with..." complaints most drama finales raise.

enjoyed this - how could anyone not - but agree with nussbaum ultimately

false binary between high ideas and low pulp upthread does a terrible disservice to both

could have used one of those protracted EPILOGUE scenes with stock white text telling what happened to everybody in the future

"oooh I could have two more seasons of a Jesse spin-off!" vs "wait, did they ever explain the bees"

didn't feel the need for anything to be spelled out at all - there was plenty there about how completely fucked they all were in this episode and the five seasons that led up to it

God the look on Walt's face after his flashback in the old house is so morose.

ahhhh, Lydia's legs

If anything I thought it was almost too "let's get one last scene with everyone" to involve the Schwartzes and Skinny Pete/Badger, although I have no problem w/ how they were involved in the story.

"Badger And Skinny Pete took Walt's money and moved to Hollywood. They now have a development deal with AMC."

nussbaum kinda wearing thin in general imo. i agree with her about a lot of the far-fetched stuff but there's a generally jaded air of someone who has to think something novel about tv too often for money.

"Huell is still waiting for someone to get back in contact with him. It is 2035. He does not know Heisenberg is dead."

I love the acting Walt does to sell himself as a battered-down ex-mastermind to convince Lydia+Todd that he'll be an easy takedown.

and the "theory" that "i like to think it was all a dream" is incredibly self-indulgent.

Nussbaum rules even when she's wrong

While it sucks people have to write knee-jerk reactions, nussbaum admitted it was one, and described that kind of initial underwhelming as well as anyone could.

the badger & skinny pete scene was pure fan service, I thought

Totally forgot that they fixated extra long on the Stevia exiting the packet and entering the tea.

When Breaking Bad began the title meant two things. Obviously, it referred to Walther White going down an evil road, but it was also en expression taken from chemistry, referring to when an experiment didn't turn out the way it was intended. Throughout the show, these two interpretations has somewhat battled against each other. Sometimes, the show has been about chaos and the unknown; how even the best-laid plans would inevitably lead to even more complications down the line, and the imposibility of Walt to accurately understand the depth of the meth-game and the massive reach of the cartel. Other times, a moralistic cause-and-effect has taken over and kept everything in line, from failure to save Jane -> fiery plane-crash, and with an omniprescent God at hand to tell you which way you should go through divine coin-toss. I love the first show, and don't really care for the second. What annoyed me about the finale, the finale of a show called Breaking Bad, is that nothing broke bad. Everything turned out exactly as planned, all the evil was punished, and the longest-suffering sorta-good-guy was released from his shackles. Not only is it way too neat, but it does somewhat cheapen the previous seasons. If really Walt could go from having nothing to getting everything he wanted in a day and a half, then he looks stupid for the rest of the show. And are there now no more bad people in Albuqurque, waiting to take over the meth trade? Yeah, it undercuts a significant part of the show, the best part of the show in my opinion, if in the end the world was a closed and controllable system anyway.

I hated the last episode of the wire because there were no wires in it

'What annoyed me about the finale, the finale of a show called Breaking Bad, is that nothing broke bad. Everything turned out exactly as planned, all the evil was punished, and the longest-suffering sorta-good-guy was released from his shackles.'

can you really say 'everything turned out exactly as planned', esp in the context of the entire show?

she hasn't got great competition in the tv episode recap game

xpost the minute walt said "two of the finest hitmen" or whatever you just knew...

xxxpost the stevia reveal was v heavily done. feel like walt taking back the lasers was also heavy-handed.

i really like the dream-like feel to the episode - it was more to do with walt gaining a form of closure - admitting he did do it all for himself, and facing up to his death.

i think I didn't notice the Stevia because it was right around the time the DVR started corrupting and I was focused on that

There were a shitload of methaphorical wires in The Wire finale. Uhm, spoiler-warning, I guess.

although it was plainly obvious based on the show's past that Walt was in Skyler's kitchen, I love that the sound of a boot and a faint shadow are the first evidence you see of him being there.

methaphorical

nice

although it was plainly obvious based on the show's past that Walt was in Skyler's kitchen

it did feel telegraphed as her phone convo went on, but the opening fisheye panning shot was v well-done distraction imho

love that Walt still can't directly tell Skylar that he's about to kill somebody, even hours before death.

it did feel telegraphed as her phone convo went on, but the opening fisheye panning shot was v well-done distraction imho

― what's up ugly girls? (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, September 30, 2013 7:02 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I mean it was still well done, it's just that I've been with the show long enough to know that a call that says "look out for <person>" means person's already in the houes.

that whole shot was so tense - albeit not quite as tense as the long shot of Walt just hanging out in Chez Grey Matter

Yeah, it undercuts a significant part of the show, the best part of the show in my opinion, if in the end the world was a closed and controllable system anyway.

the world isn't remotely a closed and controllable system. he killed some bad guys and (hopefully) set some wheels in motion for his family. but it isn't the first time he's done that. and now that he's dead, he (And we) will never know if it worked. It's not that Walt won, but that we didn't SEE him lose.

that shot was amazing.

that scene reminded me a bit of the rape scene in a clockwork orange.

xpost

also Funny Games

yeah the chez grey matter scene was awesome, so many moments where people have been like "oh obv he's going there" but they draw out for so long what he's actually going to do.

Like when he closes the gates. Jesus.

i mean, why close the gates when he's just going to lead them to his car anyway, other than to have us see him close these huge gates in the background.

"If it's going to go that way you should get a bigger knife." - Walterdile Dundee

it really got across the sense that it could have been walt living that life, too, without it having to be said. just the touch of the wall.

xpost lol.

jack's purple v-neck was a strange choice. he looked a bit like a villain from the karate kid in this ep.

i think leaving Walt do die (mostly) on his own terms was certainly a generous and cathartic gesture of the show that I'm grateful for even if they didn't go somewhere more ambitious with it. as i said before, i don't think this was really *that* kind of show to be really narratively challenging like that. anyway--it was cool that it basically came back to a guy coping with death in a totally inappropriate (and thus awesome) way.

I would say that yeah, the show ended with Walt dying, maybe a couple months sooner than the cancer would've gotten him, and the only one of dozens of people whose deaths he caused that he has any real remorse over is the in-law that used to grind his gears. Kinda came out way better for Walt than it could've.

hat shot was amazing.

that scene reminded me a bit of the rape scene in a clockwork orange.

― Evil Juice Box Man (LocalGarda)

Reminded me of the safe-robbing scene in Marnie.

how did the police end up at the nazi ranch? sound of gunfire? i had assumed it was secluded. what did they think that building was before they discovered it was a meth lab?

I imagine the sound of a heavy machine cannon firing for some minutes would drift pretty far across the desert.

I wanna know why Walt left his watch on the payphone.

and the "theory" that "i like to think it was all a dream" is incredibly self-indulgent.

― Evil Juice Box Man (LocalGarda), Monday, 30 September 2013 23:53 (Yesterday) Bookmark

i really like the dream-like feel to the episode - it was more to do with walt gaining a form of closure - admitting he did do it all for himself, and facing up to his death.

― Evil Juice Box Man (LocalGarda), Monday, 30 September 2013 23:57 (Yesterday) Bookmark

...

do you not get how someone could like a dream-like quality to an episode but not want it to LITERALLY be a dream?

But how would they know where it was? I suppose the building was thought to be a factory or whatever?

Some of the stuff about concealing meth labs in early seasons was kinda ignored as regards the Nazi operation.

Bit silly considering the lengths Gus and later Walt went to to cook without raising suspicion.

xpost saying it was dream-like does not in any way equate to actually theorising it was a dream. ffs.

xpost, thank you.

I wanna know why Walt left his watch on the payphone.

idg this either

I can totally buy that the Nazis were less careful than Gus and Walt. For all we know the DEA could have been on their ass.