Breaking Bad withdrawal support society

lol chekhov's trippy-uppy carpet

but I get all fretful about how nakedly horrible a person as Fring is also the person we're happiest to see every time he appears

we can solve this by requiring that all horrible characters be played by shitty actors

I'm hoping she gets a scene in the forthcoming Deadwood movie where she finally just tears out her hair after years of thankless-wife roles on prestige dramas

the Gus thing doesn't seem terribly complex to me; it's a fascinating character played by a great actor. there's also the fact that he's written to appear mostly by proxy, and never really says much when he's on screen, so you kinda have to figure out his motivations on your own. the ruthless professionalism is fun to watch.

I think Gilligan & co. intentionally steered the audience to pooh-pooh a flawed but ultimately upright character like Hank while they whooped and hollered for Walt and Gus

in the first season maybe...I think from S2 on Hank is a much more well-rounded and sympathetic character, but you don't really root for him because if he "wins" then the show is effectively over. as for Walt...its sorta like watching "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"...you may not like the character, but he's the crux of the show and there's still a part of you rooting for the guy to just walk away while he's ahead rather than continue to risk it all, over and over again

I just mean...even recently itt people have been keen on picking apart Hank's character flaws. I think it's interesting that people were/are often quicker to nitpick Hank's dude-brah-isms or call Skyler a nag than to, say, be creeped the eff out by Gus's ice-cold sociopathy.

I'm enbarrased to admit I dont think I ever twigged that the murdered Pollos Brother was his love interest partner. Does this suggest he also had a thing for Gale?

Him = Gus there, obv

Me either

Oh here we go, in an interview with Vince Gilligan:

Gus is a man who had one Achilles Heel, as far as we know: His burning desire for vengeance against the people who killed Max, who was very important to him. We don’t tend to nail things down on Breaking Bad. It’s fun to be a little mysterious, and it’s nice to have the audience come up with backstories on their own. Having said that, I personally think Max was more than just a friend to Gus. I think they probably were lovers. And therefore it was understandably a very crushing, terrible loss for Gus, one that he would never forget. That one bit of emotion that he allowed himself ultimately proved to be his undoing.

never picked up on that either tbh!

yes it isn't directed said out loud on-screen but rewatching the scene where max is killed i feel gus's reaction is too extreme not to be about a lover or actual family: he pretty much throws himself at hector (smoking gun still in fist) in grief and rage, as if to say "if you don't kill me i'll kill you" -- it's so out of (later) stone-cold controlled character that i felt the off-page emotional math was allowable, given they're plainly not actual biological brothers. so this might be esposito's on-set improvised reading on the day, as much as gilligan's pre-written backstory

the thing i couldn't decode in the same scene tho is when don eladio says to gus, "i didn't kill because i know who you are" (or "what you are"): who or what is he? is this a ref to his mysterious chilean past or his actual identity? (is this something explained later? i am slowly rewatching but it's interesting that i don't remember the exact unfolding of the story, so much as the gathering dread that any given scene i'm watching is going to end horribly… i mean lol many of them do but i feel like i'm intuiting a half-recalled awfulness more than remembering the actual narrative outcomes

directed s/b directly

Weird, I could've sworn it was explicitly stated/very strongly implied that they were lovers, but perhaps mine was just one of several possible interpretations.

I assume the "mysterious Chilean past" meant that Gus was ex-Pinochet regime, another reason not to be fooled by his surface fabulousness

Frank Pembleton is a good counterpoint to "devil always gets the best tunes" theory: great actor, fascinating character, flawed but totally one of the good guys

in the max-killing scene -- a few moments before max is killed -- gus says "i love this guy" (or something like that), but at that point it isn't clear (i don't think) that it's not just an expression of extreme buddyness with his cooking pal to convince don eladio how serious they are as business partners with the cartel

fairly sure max has never been mentioned before this scene -- haven't rewatched far enough to recall if he's subsequently mentioned (or appears in flashback)

I wish Skyler had gotten more iconic moments than "I fucked Ted" (which is admittedly the best)

Yeah I got the impression Gus's past was explicitly not explained and just left a menacing idea hanging.

^^^ yeah it was never explained

my mind immediately went to Pinochet too but eh who knows

Did Gus mention a wife and kid(s) at some point? I feel like it came up when Walt went to dinner at his place. Not that this precludes anything involving his former partner, and might have been for respectable businessman cover story reasons but still.

think vince gilligan's take is pretty definitive. gus and max were very close, probably lovers, though this isn't spelled out

Well, hector does say they should be called “the butt brothers”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/breaking-bad-movie-is-a-sequel-starring-aaron-paul-1159128

there is absolutely no need for this but if Gilligan has a great story to tell then oh well

when Better Call Saul was announced people had the same reaction and that turned out pretty well

I have a hard time figuring out what sort of interesting storyline they could pull off given the way BB ended - I mean, the last three episodes closed the book about as hard as it possibly could. still confident they'll pull off something brilliant though, that's what they do

people had the same reaction

I was totally down for an Odenkirk / Gilligan half-hour sitcom

I can't believe I only just found out about this! And there probably is no need but it should be totally worth watching based on what Gilligan did with BCS

I had never made the connection that Tuco was also in the Chupacabra episode of the X-files until today.

*googles* a Shiban ep!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqG8Li86_uI

oh god I forgot the birthday handjob in the first episode

new trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JLUn2DFW4w

If this one's good I want the Francesca Liddy movie.

momentarily wondered if Mike Francesa had been cast as G. Gordon LIddy

Took me a couple of tries to figure out which thread I posted on the first time I watched the this...I guess here; I thought I posted more often, though. Anyway, through three seasons of a rewatch; still consistently good-to-great, though not, for me, as good as Mad Men (which it beat 71-61 in a poll thread).

One thing made me laugh the other night, one of the episodes after Skyler has broached her car-wash idea to Walt. You see her sitting at her computer--careful, methodical, cautious Skyler, the one who realized that Laser Tag was an awful idea and that they needed a well thought out cover story--and she's googling "money laundering."

Season 3 was 2010. Was the world's attitude towards one's internet footprint that much more casual then, or was this just a logistical gaffe on the show's part?

the former imo.

they cut the shot of her setting up a VPN and opening an incognito tab, for time

Nah, I think it’s in keeping with the character. Skylar’s bad at being bad.

I ordered a pricey sofa online two nights ago, and both my credit cards were turned down. I phoned Visa, and after about ten minutes on the line, they unlocked the account; they said they flagged it because I'd recently moved, and, I'm guessing, also because I rarely make large purchases on credit.

My Mastercard was still locked as of today--I hadn't tried to use the card again, but I wasn't able to log into my account, so I realized that was the problem. Another phone call, lots more questions. When the guy had me identify recent purchases, he got to something called Wish. It didn't ring a bell, so he told me it was an Amazon-type retailer.

Me: "Yes! I bought a Los Pollos Hermanos T-shirt the other day."
Him: "Breaking Bad?"

It was a great paradox. It was like we bonded over the T-shirt, and he was more ready to trust that I was who I said I was. On the other hand, probably not the best thing to come up when you're trying to prove that you're not someone who'd commit credit-card fraud.

Anna Gunn starts to look so much like Courtney Love towards the end of season 4. I googled the two names together and found at least one person who noticed the same thing, but I thought I'd find more.

Lydia ordering tea early in the final season--"You're really running me through my paces here"--is so funny.

i've spent the last couple months slowly going through this show. i adore it, but i've had to take a few breaks from it -- while it's completely absorbing and surprisingly hilarious at times, i find it really intense and sometimes almost too nerve-racking to watch.

after watching the first few episodes i told a co-worker that i'd found the bathtub/acid stuff a little hard to stomach and she kind of laughed, like, oh you have NO idea what's coming.

Not sure what she meant by that, the bathtub/acid thing is by far the grossest moment in the entire series.

Grossest but far from most immoral.

i'm about to finish season 4 but yeah i haven't encountered anything else that gross yet, at least a few moments that i found more horrifying tho

I rewatched the entire series when C was a baby, so coming up two years ago, and found it just as compelling and unsettling second time around. My sense of Walt having always been an asshole got stronger.

the bathtub scene is definitely the grossest moment of the series but far from the most intense - I'd say that goes to the box cutter scene, maybe the most nerve wracking thing I've ever seen on television.

Anna Gunn starts to look so much like Courtney Love towards the end of season 4.

I dunno how this came off in real time but it was strange watching the show on Netflix and just seeing her face drastically change from one episode to the next

it was like that in real time. one season she just showed up with a totally different face.

Seeing as JD is working his way through this for the first time, I'll hold off on anything too specific for the time being--was going to quote a great Saul line from Season 5.

The guy who plays Uncle Jack gives a really good performance--as does Jesse Plemons, who's just about the politest cold-blooded killer ever (I think Jesse calls him a psycho Opie or something like that).