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

Figured this is a good time for a new thread, seeing how the other one's too unwieldy with 5000+ posts. (And hey look, I eliminated the typo!)

Good call - but you guys really gotta stop using quotes in the subject lines because it breaks the search engine

anticpate was how i was able to find the old thread
now what

Bookmark it and when you want the thread, ctrl-f breaking bad.

So excited!

Is this linked in the OG thread? I can't link on my phone but if someone else can that might be a good thing

also omg so excited to finally watch a season irl

oh wait nm durrrrr

s4 just released on netflix instant. 3 hours after i bought in on itunes -_-

Work is going to long tomorrow. I will be thinking about not much else all day.

For anyone w/ a Dish issue, AMC is streaming the show live on heir site in 20 minutes.

*their

rethinking my 'at least it was better than alien vs predator' stance re: prometheus

uh hu.

psyched!

Noooooowwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!

s5 - brought 2 u by "fuckin' magnets how do they work?"

First "bitch" of the season was the best moment

this is probably the best "aftermath" episode

So, the baconography: 52 or S2?

Had a hard time w/ buying Mike going in on their insane plan, but 'twas fun. And very much like a crooked episode of MythBusters.

compare w/ S1E1

xp

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120210202844/breakingbad/images/a/af/1x01_-_Veggie_Bacon.jpg

that was probably the least helpful post on ilx ever

nice cap! i had a feeling that might've been a callback

I really enjoyed the "because I said so" moment in the car

fake bacon vs Denny's bacon

Thk you e3, that was driving me crazy!

tofu bacon in S1E1?

walt's solo birthday breakfast has some nasty implications for his other family members

silly episode but pretty good for a recap and a "here we go"
i do not like gilligan's penchant for "in the opening i will tell you how the season ends" grandstanding but i can cope

The artillery in the trunk has some nasty implications for someone.

How much time elapsed from the beginning of S1 to the end of S4?

in S1E1 he turns 50 and S5E4 is titled "fifty-one" so I'm guessing about a year

i was halfway hoping he was gonna come home to a birthday cake, but maybe too cute i guess

solo breakfast could mean nothing (he was there on business)(plus season one bday breakfast was alone right? walt's exactly the type of fuck to be miserable on his bday). so do ppl think we'll see that scene/reach that state of affairs by this end of this year's block of episodes or is that a glimpse of the endgame?

walt is creepy

i think it's best not to overthink what gilligan's doing with the flashforwards; it's an unwinnable game

dont think abt the show everyone

xp word

S1E1 breakfast was with skyler and walt jr

in fact walt's had so many breakfasts w/ walt jr it's a meme

http://www.vh1.com/celebrity/bwe/images/2012/04/Walter-Junior-Breakfast-Club-1334865488.jpg

anyway walts on the lam? he wants to kill someone w/a big gun? he has maybe been to new hampshire?

check out the big brain on brad

cool reference

anyway I'm not making any prognostication here, it could be total misdirection on gilligan's part, but the S5 cold open has more subtext than just "walt spends weird bday bfast alone"

he def wasnt feeling as confident as in the rest of the ep

i'm always happy to see jim beaver onscreen

way I read it, it's a flashforward a year, walt's spent some time hiding out in NH, now he's back in town and is planning to settle some score w/ a v big gun

breakfast + the callback to E1S1/happier times indicates his family is somehow involved, mainly due to their absence

what would one need such a big gun for

yeah if i didn't already see that this guy's gonna get humbled before he possibly buys it i would've been hoping for mike to blow his arrogant head off even more tonight.

again, could be total misdirection on gilligan's part, for all I know walt jr is sucking down lobster rolls back in NH while heisenberg is just planning to big-dick his way into some high noon action

mike secretly loves walt tho, hes like the friend who drags you to the party when you dont want to go and then you have the best time

tbh if I was gonna showdown w/ mike that's probably the gun I'd bring

he coughed in the bathroom and took medicine

exorcist reference, remember how father merrin ended up, he was shot by his tough guy straight man named mike

something something call back flash forward flash back s3ep5 walt

very willing to bet that that gun isn't for mike or jesse

it looks like a gnu you might use to kill a number of people at once

whos even left to be mad at walt

i guess he could meet some new people

btw recording those videos was a v dumb move for someone as careful as gus, or maybe he didnt actually record them or maybe they were encrypted or w/e, but generally dont record yr crimes is a good rule of thumb

wild guesses here but if it turns out I'm right buy me a cola or something: walt eventually gets caught by hank, he rolls over and helps them get the guys behind gus, DEA gives him witness protection flyout to NH, walt can't run from his sins, bad stuff happens, he returns to NM to settle score w/ big gun, something something walt bitch more breakfast

i like it

gnus are large but can you actually kill ppl w/ them I'm confusd

i knew that was coming

who are the guys behind gus, that german company or w/e

i knew that was coming

― lag∞n, Monday, July 16, 2012 12:55 AM (7 seconds ago)

^ what you'll say after the last ep airs now that you've read my incredible predictions

vince gilligan is reading this thread and he just threw a conference phone through a window

haha a guy on the internet ruined if for me by predicting that

another possibility re life in new hampshire if he even did go there and its not just a fake id w/matching car is that saul offered to set him up w/a guy who could get him a new identity

anyway yeah gus had some german multinational backing him, if anybody actually made it to the first commerical break of smalltown security or w/e there was a shot of german board of director baddies meeting w/ the DEA in the BB preview of next eps

ahhh

it's right in the opening, look here's a new guy for walt to irritate then kill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6e9vLy4fjM

haha rip everyone irritated to death

he's trolled the criminal underground of at least two countries now, why not germany too

another interesting bit in that cold open, waitress asks how far a drive is NH, walt says "30 hours if all you do is stop for gas"

whatever the circumstances, it's another classic walter scheme he's flying by the seat of his pants to execute

um can we talk about hilarious truck magnet for a moment?

also walt's "I forgive you" moment with Skylar, so fkn creepy. I thought he was going to choke her for a minute but then I was like, nah not in the first episode. but yeesh.

Has anyone paused to check out the info behind the Gus/Max photo? I thought it said Swiss bank but I'm not sure? If so how does that link Walt to Gus? Safety deposit box maybe??

I am SO psyched for this. Really really excited. One of my favourite shows EVAH.

that "offering Mike full partnership" thing in the trailer is irritating me. Mike's a great character & scenes with him are fantastic but reducing your cut by 17% is not something you do just to get a guy whose dialogue is snappy

that was a fine scene i guess but why is ted alive

another possibility re life in new hampshire if he even did go there and its not just a fake id w/matching car is that saul offered to set him up w/a guy who could get him a new identity

didn't the waitress call him "mr lumberg" or sthng after seeing his ID? was already assuming this on-the-lam Walt had a new Saul-brokered identity but that seemed to confirm it

that "offering Mike full partnership" thing in the trailer is irritating me. Mike's a great character & scenes with him are fantastic but reducing your cut by 17% is not something you do just to get a guy whose dialogue is snappy

― tallarico dreams (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, July 16, 2012 8:20 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they really need mike tho, otherwise theyll just get murdered by the competition, dont really have any other connection to muscle, also mike is really smart, although clearly incapable of preventing walt from doing stupid things

idk they could find some muscle I think. muscle is the easiest thing to get. cutting 17% to a guy who hates you, this is not something I can see a dude like walt actually doing. not a huge sticking point, show is p much gonna rule no matter what, all they gotta do is let the well-written characters be who they are & they're gold. I just think like seriously? you get the fucking market locked down and the first thing you do is offer a dude a full third? c'mon now guys literally nobody would do that

sorry not 17%. that would maybe make sense. cutting a full third to a guy who has aimed a gun at you. no.

that is a much better argument

but i mean walt is not good at dealing drugs

but it's not just that man it's like making the bouncer at the club you own an equal partner. I'm sure your bouncer is a total bro and he worked at the club before you bought it, knows all the ins and outs. total badass. no finer bouncer in town! If your opening offer to him is actually "equal partnership with the owners" you are insane.

and i mean they dont have the whole market locked down, they dont have anything, i imagine its not just muscle they want mike for they want him to set up their whole operation, because he is a professional who knows what hes doing

mike is really smart and knows all the stuff abt the drug game, he should prob be hiring walt n jesse, not partnering w/them

I think my favorite scene this week was the Ted visit in the hospital - Skyler coming into her own monstrousness, the director & writer really willing to humiliate the character so completely - hardcore shit imo

xp afaik all Mike really does is protect the dudes who know the stuff, he's yr classic noir/thriller guy who can put you next to an M16. all the information about Gus's routes was just destroyed by Mike, running an operation on that scale is not a "let's go with Mike - he really knows the stuff," it's a huge business undertaking.trust me I deal a lot of meth

"the drug game" as a thing smart dudes can memorize and keep in their heads is one myth this show happily makes fun of. big players in the drug game are not sociopathic dudes with an internal code of honor whose caustic patter both frightens and charms us. big players look like what Gus looked like 95% of the time, some fuckin guy managing a burger joint.

you may be right that hes not ideal for the job but it doesnt really matter as hes the only person walt n jesse have any connection to who has any dea what hes doing in the drug business

i mean setting aside for a moment the fact that mike wants to kill them can you really argue that theyd be better off w/o him than w/him, what are their other options, can they get mike w/o offering him a full partnership

badger has good line on a fun job as a walking billboard. p chill job

I liked it being a breezier, slightly goofy episode after the intensity of S4. Recalled S1 shenanigans.

also walt's "I forgive you" moment with Skylar, so fkn creepy.

Yes

that would prob be the wise choice xp

Scrap yard guy was amazing, by the way.

i mean setting aside for a moment the fact that mike wants to kill them can you really argue that theyd be better off w/o him than w/him, what are their other options, can they get mike w/o offering him a full partnership

I think keeping him in the mix is the smartest & easiest move. I think the idea of cutting him a full third is how this scenario would play out on Saved by the Bell

ya i guess its just a question of what it would take to keep him in the mix, but lol walt n jesse often do things in a p saved by the bell manner

i wonder if well get a scene of them discussing mikes compensation

that would have been the scenario I'd've expected - "we're going to give you ten percent" "fuck you, I get a third, you're dead without me" "oh ok scary noir guy, a third it is, let's celebrate by getting into a terrible pickle"

I think the idea of cutting him a full third is how this scenario would play out on Saved by the Bell

But you see, this show should be called Murdered by the Bell.

ha ha!

so... which one is Zach?!

I am the one who Zachs

no.

I liked it being a breezier, slightly goofy episode after the intensity of S4. Recalled S1 shenanigans.

yeah definitely. reminded me of the one where they stole that big barrel of chemicals.

walt's "I forgive you" moment with Skylar, so fkn creepy.

SUCH a great last line. Because he does forgive her. But OMG, if the Death Plant reveal at the end of the last season wasn't evidence enough that Walt has lost his moral compass, this seals it even further. He doesn't realize anymore when he's done something bad. Talk about an antihero. He's truly psychopathic.

The man don't give a fuck.

He'll get what's coming to him, if Gilligan has any balls. And my that I mean Walt will be forced to watch his wife and son murdered.

Gus always keeps his promises. :)

But even better was the look on Skyler's face: YOU forgive ME?!

^^^

Exactly.

“Keys, scumbag. It’s the universal symbol for keys.”

that "offering Mike full partnership" thing in the trailer is irritating me. Mike's a great character & scenes with him are fantastic but reducing your cut by 17% is not something you do just to get a guy whose dialogue is snappy

they have repeatedly shown what a total badass mike is, he's not some ten a penny thug. i mean they gave him that amazing assault on precinct 13 scene to tell us this. he is a complete pro.

great episode. loved the two fat guys in the scrap yard high fiving each other.

xpost yes to the "keys" bit, and mike is just fucking awesome as ever, my favourite character in the show.

http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/tumblr_m7993v2X8K1qkd4gio2_500.gif

magnets, how they work

Gilligan's a closet juggalo.

show's got a magnet fetish. my favorite bit of slapstick from last season was the magnet on walt's carbomb sticking to the elevator door.

i'm looking forward to more hank. loved walt jr's get-the-audience-back-on-track speech in the beginning and also how he was like WOW uncle hank is gonna be an even BIGGER badass now huh dad?

walt's basically doing a gus impression with this "walk up slowly and intimidate people without laying a finger on them" routine, right?

Oh yes. He has watched and learned.

finale of this show has to be walt vs hank. lookin forward to it. love me some hank.

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsuy14Pkqk1qcfyhd.gif

ha ha

jesse's OH YEAH BITCH, MAGNETS exclamation after the job was awesome

saul withering in response to walt's gus imitation = quality television

I don't think they'll kill Skyler or the kids. I don't think they have the stones to do that, although Ted in his head traction was pretty shocking.

still sorta hate how everybody loves Mike, a total sociopath who's every bit as big a scumbag as Walt, because they impute some Noble Code of the Criminal to him. Mike talks cool and is smart. That's awesome. He is pond scum.

yeah but who aside from, Walt Jr isn't some form of pond scum.

by that rationale you can't really 'like' any of the characters.

I love Mike because the guy's a walking story of his own - he wears his whole history on his face but he's the sphinx. He's the guy who keeps his mouth shut who can do the job best and that's why he's still around.

Mike's awesome and I make no apologies for loving the pond scum that he is.

I wouldn't be surprised at any character's death in this show. I don't think they'll make the storytelling mistake of killing everybody, but there won't be a single death in this season where I'll say "I never thought they'd kill that person."

I am willing to bet any amount of money that they won't kill the baby

it's gonna be marie and the baby standing in front of a pile of smoking gristle in the series finale

still sorta hate how everybody loves Mike, a total sociopath who's every bit as big a scumbag as Walt, because they impute some Noble Code of the Criminal to him. Mike talks cool and is smart. That's awesome. He is pond scum.

weren't you saying this about Jesse last season? A lot of people like antiheros you know. It's not like they'd applaud such actions in real life.

yeah true of Jesse too. this is probably more a personal than a formal concern with me - kinda Ted Bundy syndrome, how a dude that cuts a charming figure (or in the case of Mike, a colorful one) gets this sort of "I like him, he's got style!" pass that...like, I get, as a response to fiction but it sticks in my craw somehow. But in discussing the characters, look anywhere - this thread, elsewhere - and hatred of Walter White is just visceral. What an asshole! What a self-serving, narcissistic, cold-blooded son of a bitch! But Mike's almost doubtless killed more people, directly, with his bare hands; Jesse goes to NA meetings to deal meth to people who are trying to climb up from addiction. These characters' actions & motivations aren't in any way nobler or more justifiable than White's; Jesse especially, fuckin' A dude, you don't have cancer or loans to pay or a family to worry about, dude like that has zero excuses for fucking up anybody else's life. So something chews at me about how of all the total fucking scumbags on this show (for whom I have affection, too, don't get me wrong), Walter White gets to wear the bell around his neck. As soon as any of these characters are seeming cool to you as a reader, there's an opportunity to really engage the story at a deeper level: so this or that style point is where you start cutting a dude slack for abominable behavior? Huh. Interesting. But it also drives me nuts, because the point at which people start to say "he's cool" seems basically "his dialogue is snappy," which seems a p. low fuckin' bar to me.

Scrap yard guy was amazing, by the way.

I thought I recognized him from someplace...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4qiPSJo3pQ&t=3m0s

Good response. I think the fact that there's such vocal hatred for Walter over the rest is in a lot of ways a tribute to Cranston's performance. Of course everyone was sympathetic to him at the start but there's such a coldness to the character now. I mean he's downright unnerving, whereas Mike has the avuncular cat burglar thing going on and Jesse is the loveable screwup (and i know that downplays the terrible shit he's done) which is just easier to relate to than whatever Walt has become.

but i'm still getting a kick out of the "I'm the king now" stuff so i don't understand blanket hatred for Walt

Scrapyard Guy was also Friends' neighbor, right?

+ dude playing Kramer on Jerry and George's pilot in Seinfeld

Jesse goes to NA meetings to deal meth to people who are trying to climb up from addiction. These characters' actions & motivations aren't in any way nobler or more justifiable than White's

Walter, now more than ever, is the driving force behind many of the other character's motivations. Especially Jesse! Walter has been poisoning Jesse from day one.

Jesse was a meth dealer before Walter even met him though

Well, "met" is the wrong word since Walt was his teacher, but ...

Jesse was a shitty little punk-ass before Walter met him. Now he's a murderer.

I think I will feel cheated if major characters don't die by the end of this because the escape of death has been such a recurring theme.

hey no threadcop but isnt there usually an understanding with these threads that we don't discuss promos for the following week's episode without huge SPOILER warnings?

another interesting bit in that cold open, waitress asks how far a drive is NH, walt says "30 hours if all you do is stop for gas"

whatever the circumstances, it's another classic walter scheme he's flying by the seat of his pants to execute

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Sunday, July 15, 2012 7:18 PM (Yesterday)

maybe if he just drove 30 hours without sleeping he has started using meth

Walter, now more than ever, is the driving force behind many of the other character's motivations.

If I may, I'll restate and slightly elaborate on this. One of the key events in this episode was Walter pulling Mike into his web. And the angry, "godDAMNIT you're right" look on Mike's face as he realized that he, too, was stuck. Mike may be a hired killer, but the fact that he's good at what he does, and does it with a sense of dignity and loyalty, gives him a lot of crime drama cred as a likable character. Walter is also good at what he does, but he has no loyalty, and he's only good at one thing. Even as a criminal, he lacks integrity. He'll throw anyone under the bus to save himself. Anyone but Jesse, who he has (arguably) hurt the most.

Whether Walter still has a human being inside of him is one of the great things that this last season has to resolve.

otm

another interesting bit in that cold open, waitress asks how far a drive is NH, walt says "30 hours if all you do is stop for gas"

whatever the circumstances, it's another classic walter scheme he's flying by the seat of his pants to execute

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Sunday, July 15, 2012 7:18 PM (Yesterday)

maybe if he just drove 30 hours without sleeping he has started using meth

― ♆ (gr8080), Monday, July 16, 2012 9:38 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this would be an intersting development!

hey no threadcop but isnt there usually an understanding with these threads that we don't discuss promos for the following week's episode without huge SPOILER warnings?

yeah some people don't like it because not everyone sees the promos (like if you watch on torrents or whatever) but I kinda consider any official "next on" that aired on TV as fair game, personally

this one was actually pretty substantive, I'm used to the hilariously vague Mad Men ones that don't tell you shit

yeah its def a non-issue when talking abt mad men, but for real i go out of my way to not watch them w/ any show. reading like 5 posts about a plot point that doesn't surface until next week's episode is a bummer, guys.

i'm kinda with gr80 on this one, but i guess what can you do

Yeah I always avoid them.

they r on tv u guys u have to watch them sry

legume lol

I avoid the coming attractions too, especially since they're in "the first commercial break of 'Redneck Deputies'" or whatever the hell that was.

It's not like Rockford Files where it plays before the closing credits.

fyi guys its 2012!! i am either watching TV via:

• DVR
• Torrent
• DVD

what if we start two threads, one where you can discuss the next ep preview, the other where it is strictly off-limits

That would be ridiculous.

I don't even read the synopsis on the OnDemand menu.

I was joking

but if you watch it on DVR and you choose NOT to watch the coming attractions you can't really get mad at other ppl for not doing the same and talking about them?

I mean I could give a shit either way it's all kinda ridic

I watched the utube of it itt how can u resist idk

i'm not mad i'm just sayin'

with grady on this, there's been more discussion itt about something that hasn't been in the show yet than what was in the actual episode, ban aero imo

look I already told you what's gonna happen the rest of the season and you're bitching about next week's eps, get a grip

you are getting the thread you deserve

you want it to be one way but it's the other way wait

hmmm yeah aero's been kinda bossy in this thread I say we stage a coup

WHO'S WITH ME

nitpicking, but one thing that bugged me abt the cold open was that Walt showed the waitress his FAKE ID to confirm that it was his birthday. He would not have his actual birthday listed on a phony.

a man can make bacon say "52" any day he pleases.

of the glut of BB-related listicles on the interweb in recent days, the Cranston-on-White version is the most worthwhile prob: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/12/bryan-cranston-picks-13-favorite-breaking-bad-moments.html

why was walter white wearing eyeliner

maybe they give him his real birthday on his fake id cause its easier to remember

btw I caught up to this series like most ppl I know by this point so now I am with ya'll but I have to tell you that glancin at old bb threads and seeing really really horrible conjecturing posts about what people think is going to happen is p maddening idk I wasn't really maddened tho, not that madden'd, just like from the point of a casual viewer I was kind of like, wut people think about tv like this?

but maybe I am just kind of scared that now that I am in this thread (itt) I am going to start posting like everyone else

bbbut what would a Breaking Bad be w/o all sorts of misguided conjecture?

er 'Breaking Bad thread'

the show purposefully invites it, its kinda how it works

does not compute

so we would just talk abt stuff that already happened?

i...i...don't understand

btw I caught up to this series like most ppl I know by this point so now I am with ya'll but I have to tell you that glancin at old bb threads and seeing really really horrible conjecturing posts about what people think is going to happen is p maddening idk I wasn't really maddened tho, not that madden'd, just like from the point of a casual viewer I was kind of like, wut people think about tv like this?

yeah but OTOH it's v. hilarious when people are like "OMG it is SO OBVIOUS that Walt is going to chop off his own hand next week, the writing is on the wall even an idiot can see this" and then of course nothing like that happens but because other stuff happens the dumb conjecture just mists away

the thumb conjecture just mits away

I would never tell anyone how to post, don't mind me, just that I looked at like a season 3 or 4 thread after watching the season and was like wut how do people think about tv like this? <--- btw thinking about this now, this is prob because after I watched an ep of this, I was like welp let me watch another

ya its the waiting week to week that drives us to speculate, if you can just find out what happens right away youre gonna

does anyone else text "pollos" to people they know at like 2 in the morning

pollos

idk why people r mad abt speculation being wrong, its the nature of speculation and its just for fun

i mean you can not speculate and not be wrong but everyone knows inside you are speculating

some of it is v stupid thats ok though its just a learning exp for me

I'm evolving

you have to take the stupid w/the not quite as stupid

http://i.imgur.com/unrv5.gif

from the Cranston-on-White listicle I linked to upthread

Walt is trying to get back into the good graces with Skyler (Anna Gunn) and trying to get her to approve of him and move back into the house. He brings over this enormous pizza. She rejects both him and the pizza and he walks away in frustration and disgust. And he just throws the pizza up in the air to get rid of it and it lands on the roof. Well, we had a long discussion about it. This was an enormous pizza. You had to hold the box with two arms. I couldn’t possibly do it with one because it’s huge. I told the director I have to be this far from the roof while doing this because I couldn’t look at the roof. Walt’s not trying to throw a pizza on the roof. He’s throwing it out of frustration and it lands on the roof and he’s not even aware of it. So I actually do this. It lands in precisely the perfect spot on the very first take. I didn’t see it land because I’m not looking up there, I jump in the car and pull out and speed away. But when I come back and drive up with the car, I look up and I see the pizza perfectly placed in front of the camera on the roof. You’re kidding? It couldn’t have been more perfect and then our director says, “Let’s do a second take!” And I said, “We can’t do this again! There is no second take! It’s done!”

So flash forward to today: the lovely people who own that house where we shoot the exteriors, they will have, from time to time, someone who will take pictures in front of the White house. They get the address from somewhere. Several people have come with pizzas and they ask if they can put this pizza up to take pictures? And they say, “Go ahead.” They’re very nice people.

lol wut people do not come and put pizzas on the roof

totally mystified by the need to fanfic this shit up, you could just enjoy the show rather than madlibbing your way to your special explanation of why dude likes bacon

lol at anyone who goes to that house and does not put a pizza on the roof

I don't think anyone's liking of bacon needs further explanation, ever, for or by anyone.

the city should really put up a plaque and a bronze pizza

Just an fyi re the 'next week' previews, amc actually buried them into that Small Town Security show so even with dvr you missed em unless you recorded that one too,

hey whatever happened to that damn bear's eyeball

does anyone else text "pollos" to people they know at like 2 in the morning

Now I do.

I am going to start

i am going to keep not doing that

I was a bit disappointed that Jesse didn't actually say where he'd heard that you could use magnets (bitch), because I'm sure he saw it in the same film I did, which I *think* was the Big Easy, but it's annoying me that I can't remember. Can anyone else remember? Cop has done something illegal that's caught on video, IA investigator is going to court with the videos next day, so cop throws huge magnet through a shop window and other cop puts the magnet in the evidence room next to the videos.

I don't think it's a secret that magnets can wipe electronic data

hey, at least we're not as dumb as the AV Club recapper

He idly arranges his bacon in a mirror-image S pattern [update: sharp-eyed commenters with long memories point out that this is a 52, indicating that it has been two years since Walt's 50th birthday in the pilot]

and Jesse probably saw it in Fight Club or something

lol @ sharp-eyed commenters

He idly arranges his bacon in a mirror-image snake pattern in honor of his inspiration, Thulsa Doom.

hahaha

Pretty good ep. I had a serious visceral creep out reaction to "I forgive you." God, Skyler, RUN girl! Also scene w/ Ted was wrenching with Skyler being horrified and then being like "Damn right you won't breathe a word." Woof.

I didn't really catch as much of the latter, but maybe that's because Gunn was kind of overselling the former.

I thought she sold the turn really well, actually. And I'm not normally a very big fan of her. Just the single "good" was so fucking cold. I loved it.

Yeah totally (though I like Gunn/Skyler).

I liked how they waited another two seasons before some meth head explained that you the pizzas are cheaper if you don't get them cut into slices.

Wait... what?

xp I gotta give Gunn credit for that, she sold both genuine concern turning into icy malice amazingly well, that I bought them both. Also used to hate Skyler but as a character she's gotta a lot more interesting the past couple of seasons.

The pizza he throws on the roof isn't sliced. If it had been, it would have gone in 12 different directions.

Later, last season, Badger or somebody at one of Jesse's meth parties explains that the pizza place gives you a discount for not having to slice it.

Pawnee, Ind., still uses AltaVista and apparently, Albuquerque has this thing with unsliced pizza (to cover a plot hole.)

i love that they apparently got just enough pedantic emails about that to cover their asses a whole year or two later

lol

I wonder how many pizza delivery places got calls the night that episode aired asking for discounted, unsliced pizzas.

there is an actual place in albuquerque that does this unsliced pizze iirc from a previous thread

Icey, it's a television show. there isn't really a place called albuquerque.

don't tell that to neil young!

Seriously, it takes what, 20 seconds to slice a pizza? Why would a restaurant give up revenue to save on something that doesn't appear to be all that labor-intensive.

its a gimmick

its real all real i know because i went there and there was a pizza on the roof

Just the single "good" was so fucking cold. I loved it.

OTMFM. If I had to pick just one word to represent the best of Anna Gunn's acting in this show, that would definitely be it.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7b8ax7U9a1qdvl9ko1_500.gif

i want jesse to be more than a punchline delivery device
i hope they increase his humanity, and soon

jesse is the most realistic person on tv

They can make token visits to the not-dead kid that Jesse likes, and his mom that Jesse may or may not be seeing.

I say this with all respect, and do not mean to start any kind of flaming, but Jesse is the show's most human character but a long way.

jesse being not very intelligent is his humanity! i actually love his character--he's a bruised sensitive soul surrounded by maniacs.

yeah that mom-and-kid plotline bores me -- i want to see him sitting around his house repairing shit or putting up a new shower curtain or something

I don't know, Badger seems pretty real

I enjoyed the fact that they were planning next steps at Jesse's house, which is now pretty clean, but still has eight foot tall speaker stacks

i want jesse to be more than a punchline delivery device
i hope they increase his humanity, and soon

I crush on Jesse hard in every single incarnation the show has given him.

evidence room cop is the realest character on tv

Without Walt, Jesse would have just been a fuck-up, which is mostly a step down for him. He feels what's happening around him in a way that no one else does. Re-watch the episode where he talks about how he killed a "dog".

Tortoisey Von Headrest is the realest character on TV

jesse is the most realistic person on tv

― lag∞n, Tuesday, July 17, 2012 11:53 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

i hate his line readings, i feel like i can see the scarequotes around every cussword and "yo"

I enjoyed the fact that they were planning next steps at Jesse's house, which is now pretty clean, but still has eight foot tall speaker stacks

The papasan chair kills me.

The pizza he throws on the roof isn't sliced. If it had been, it would have gone in 12 different directions.

Later, last season, Badger or somebody at one of Jesse's meth parties explains that the pizza place gives you a discount for not having to slice it.

Pawnee, Ind., still uses AltaVista and apparently, Albuquerque has this thing with unsliced pizza (to cover a plot hole.)

― pplains, Tuesday, July 17, 2012 11:21 AM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Walt was still very much in character when he jacked the electromagnet up to 11 just to make sure he did the job right. Walt being thorough is the cause of, and solution to, 90% of the show's problems.

i like it when jesse gets to do normal stuff and interact with people who are not walt -- it gives us a chance to see him in a different environment. like when he was shopping at home depot? i loved that part.

I'ma be so pissed if it turns out Jesse is just a figment of Walt's imagination.

What was your take on Jesse's plot arc with the next-door girlfriend?

I liked her, sorry about what happened. The scene in the car after the art museum was great.

^^^ So good.

I'm with Eric re: crushing on Jesse

That gif made me grin. I loved the enthusiasm, plus you know, the magnet was his idea! Of course he's pumped!

Yeah, loved that reaction so much, but, tbh, what was going through my head through that whole scene was, "fuckin' magnets, how do they work?'.

Just a really great 45 seconds or so:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUh8ZSCS9mQ

Haaa jvc! me, too!

So walt turns 51 in a few weeks = exactly barack obama's age?

50 is starting to sound freakin awesome

My wife and I have a long-standing discussion about why men love magnets, prompted by watching the exclusively male fascination over a tub full of "natural volcanic magnetic rock" at an airport gift store in Costa Rica. Like, every dude that passed by, whether "he" was a guy in business attire or an eco-hippy or a 5 year-old kid would stop and play with the magnets, while women seemed resolutely uninterested in them. Anyway, this episode kind of made our point for us. I still think magnets are great.

maybe guys are made of metal

we wear it on the end of our pricks.

why are you lookin' at me??

(and then they look at mike after hearing "plate in the head." such a great scene.)

sunny gave me a couple of bullet-shaped magnets that when you throw them into the air at the same time, they rub against each other and make this loud cicada noise.

Dudes in the office love them, but then, so did my daughter.

I think what adamrl was trying to say is that all men are 5-years-old.

Magnets are magic

We need to determine how our society has failed this stereotypical female such that she is not interested in the simple pleasures of magnets

I think women are basically afraid to enjoy magnets. Yeah I said it

these r hella fun

http://i.imgur.com/PoRNv.png

shh don't tell anyone but I secretly love magnets

Just don't let your parents know and you'll be fine

iirc that Buckyballs toy is the first result in a Youtube search for "most boring video ever" for some reason! ==> description obviously written by a woman. (Gonna buy someday)

if u ever do any kind of drug and those buckyballs are around, let me tell you folks, you're gonna be playing with them all night.

trippin buckyballs

I was joking

― iatee, Monday, July 16, 2012 10:39 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Haha, damn, good shit.

I say this with all respect, and do not mean to start any kind of flaming, but Jesse is the show's most human character but a long way.

― cue "White Rabbit" (kenan), Tuesday, July 17, 2012 11:54 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

walt is the most human! people talked upthread about how mike is likable and loyal and professional, and walt's none of those things - which is what makes him so compelling. walt's bitterness/pettiness/cruelty are so recognizably human, he's such a great character! and i mean mike's fun to watch but you dont care about his inner life or anything. hes just a fun character like saul goodman (saul's cooler though)

jesse, i get why people like him, he's a hunky brooding bad bwoi or whatever, im not really attached to him. i hope he dies i guess

anyway dug this ep a lot, hospital scene was brutal, dont find waltavo fring totally convincing yet but i still like where things are headed. hope we get a heapin helpin of hank soon

ive said this a bunch of times on these threads but i like jesse cause hes such a common type of contemporary guy thats really under represented in popular entertainment and they just nail him

totally. he also completely undermines the "hunky brooding bad bwoi" thing with his constant state of hapless put-upon-ness

ive said this a bunch of times on these threads but i like jesse cause hes such a common type of contemporary guy thats really under represented in popular entertainment and they just nail him

― lag∞n, Tuesday, July 17, 2012 6:27 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

yeah i agree with that, tho i was mad they had him dressing less scumbaggy in season 4

Very true, he seems much realer than pretty much any other portrayal of a 20-something dude. Every other guy that age on tv is a super genius or detective or superhero or ultra-nerd or glamorous comedic foil to a leading woman.

yeah I don't have the walt white hate at all, because all of his flaws are totally recognisable, he's so fucking human it's scary. Which is probably why there's so much hate - pretending that he's now inhabiting some Other persona, naw way. He's us. That arrogance that power brings, the hubris...that's just the batman cape he's wearing over top of still being regular old Walter White deep down. The realization that he can *claim* some of the power he never knew he wanted...that's a powerful opiate and anyone who thinks that isn't a really human quality is kinda deluding themselves, I think.

u don't really want Jesse to die, canks...u can't mean that ;_;

i dont know why everyone has to hate characters on this show or any other tv show, to me its a really weird way to interact with art

agreed Veeger

yeah i agree with that, tho i was mad they had him dressing less scumbaggy in season 4

― Black_vegeta (Hungry4Ass), Tuesday, July 17, 2012 6:30 PM (32 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

totally, his look was key, i guess theyre trying to say he matured a little

u don't really want Jesse to die, canks...u can't mean that ;_;

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, July 17, 2012 6:32 PM (32 seconds ago) Bookmark

only to see anguished fan reactions! i like jesse hes funny and cool, i just mean i hear people talking about how they want the show to end with him cleaning up and going to art school or something and im like, what show do you think this is.

i dont know why everyone has to hate characters on this show or any other tv show, to me its a really weird way to interact with art

― funny-skrillex-bee_132455836669.gif (s1ocki), Tuesday, July 17, 2012 6:32 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

couldnt u say the same about loving characters in a show. *taps pen against chin thoughtfully*

Very true, he seems much realer than pretty much any other portrayal of a 20-something dude. Every other guy that age on tv is a super genius or detective or superhero or ultra-nerd or glamorous comedic foil to a leading woman.

― hot sauce delivery device (mh), Tuesday, July 17, 2012 6:30 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

even like the apatow schlubby man children are a million times more together and sophisticated than jesse

I know this was way upthread now, but when some dude mentioned seeing square quotes around Jesse's "bitch" and stuff, I wanted to mention that I totally knew people who did talk like that irl! Like they'd put weird emphasis on swear words.

i just mean i hear people talking about how they want the show to end with him cleaning up and going to art school or something and im like, what show do you think this is.

is this like when I said he will end up a high school chemistry teacher? lol

but he'll hate it, it will be like his purgatory

I tend to go in for character hatred on corny lightweight shows, because it passes the time. But stuff like this, or The Wire, the fun is not really knowing who the 'bad guy' is...the joy of shows like this is knowing that everyone has it in them to be an evil motherfucker if they're pushed hard enough.

couldnt u say the same about loving characters in a show. *taps pen against chin thoughtfully*

― Black_vegeta (Hungry4Ass), Tuesday, July 17, 2012 6:36 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its different, i love *watching* characters in shows whose actions are completely freakin' deplorable. i dont get the hand-wringing rush to judge these fictional characters in a violent show about drug dealers.

feel like hating characters is often an attempt to achieve emotional distance from the show because really you love them a root for them even tho they r horrible

the apatow schlubby man children

these assholes are all addressing the same "deep questions" of life, like love and marriage and babies and other horseshit

jesse pinkman is just living, here, no deep concerns beyond what happens right now. he's pretty much wandered into two relationships, been offered this meth stuff, and has some free will about his activities but 90% of it is suggested by others

in other words, he's the common man

im more moved specific culture of his character personally

like how he wore the huge clothes long after they were out of style and showed his girlfriend all the lil super heroes he drew

tbf he's a dude in the southwest, there are some weird styles down that way

everywhere has these guys

literally every town in america

jnco forever

I feel like culturally I am not that far divorced from the character. Different circumstances, who knows?

Remember Jesse's parents and family? They're pretty normal middle class types, you could tell that he just wasn't into high school and hung out with the "bad types" and would rather smoke weed by the 7/11 than go to class

his parents were total assholes tho

The guy I have met who reminds me most of Jessie worked in the IT department of a large London advertising agency and sold coke and ecstasy on the side. I wonder where he is now?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v352/Geza_Echs/jesse-pinkman-aaron-paul.jpg

Double Dragon?

I feel like that was due to their dissatisfaction with their lives and their inability to use good parenting skills. There are parents who actually try to help their kids or do right by him, and his went back and forth between enabling him by ignoring him at his -- what was it, grandma's or great-aunt's? -- house, and the "tough love" of booting him out.

Kind of feel like if Jesse had gotten an education and played by the rules he could have turned into his parents. He's certainly no less intelligent, they just followed different shaping forces in their lives.

yeah the tough love thing...in the wrong frame of mind it just justifies to the kid 'oh well clearly my parents hate me because I'm loser so I guess I'll just go out and be a loser because that's all they expect I'm going to be' and totally cut off their nose to spite their face (as my mum would say)

also if the parents have a certain image they're trying to uphold and the kid is flying in the face of that, it's really hard for the parent to choke down the embarrassment and react to the kid as just a kid

fkn sad shit to watch when it happens

no its just a show

do u guys have behind the scenes infos

sorry i was going off on a livejournal thought tangent, as you were

w/r/t to "liking" people on the show the only thing that ever bothered me were the peeps who liked Gus, or thought he was somehow less reprehensible than Walt.

Thinking back on waltavo sitting in Saul's office silently listening to his spiel or riding in the back of the car after escaping from the magnet ... he's not doing that slack-jawed open mouth thing anymore that he did when he was just going along with something.

almost everyone on the show is a reprehensible criminal and it would be terrible to know them irl, but it's a tv show and I look forward to the time I get to spend with hit man mike and charming dirtbag jesse

when y'all start calling somebody out for "liking" one of them I get this vibe of the schoolyard prude turning their nose up at the kid who digs darth vader

well fyi if there's ever a BB fap I'll be the one wearing the I <3 JESSE tshirt

when y'all start calling somebody out for "liking" one of them I get this vibe of the schoolyard prude turning their nose up at the kid who digs darth vader

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Tuesday, July 17, 2012 9:20 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm, though im not sure i ever witnessed that

when y'all start calling somebody out for "liking" one of them I get this vibe of the schoolyard prude turning their nose up at the kid who digs darth vader

kiiiiiiind of a different vibe in that Darth Vader lives in space and wears this amazing black mask and can control things with his mind?

so you're saying that just as long as someone lives in space you're allowed to criticize them

GREAT precedent you're setting there, especially as we move into the 21st century and potential human habitats in space

meh - they're both power-hungry psychos with goody-goody sons.

xposts

enjoying a fictional character does not (always) equal "wkiw"

and applauding an antihero is not "yay their moral compass is askew but they're so awesome that now SO IS MINE!"

i mean, this is such basic stuff that pretty much everybody understands implicitly

there are shows and movies I've enjoyed where I hated the characters as people, but enjoy the stories they are involved in

then there are shows where I thought they are were loathsome and had no interest in watching (entourage)

he's so fucking human it's scary. Which is probably why there's so much hate - pretending that he's now inhabiting some Other persona, naw way. He's us.

Holy shit. I hope to hell he's not me. He's a monster. That's like saying, "Humbert Humbert is us." In a way, that's the point. But in another way, the point of the whole exercise of examining him is to realize how and why he's just RONG.

But I do understand what you're getting at, which brings me to...

i dont get the hand-wringing rush to judge these fictional characters in a violent show about drug dealers.

Judging a fictional character is the most common way of being involved with one, and a direct byproduct of seeing yourself in the character. Yes, of course these are fictional people, but fiction means something. It's not just fairies and wizards and closets with trapdoors and tesseracts and shit. Fiction isn't just a bunch of made up crap. (Unless it is, in which case, ignore it.) It's insightful, and often instructive. Fiction can help you make a map of your life.

Good writers tell their stories. Great writers tell YOUR story. The writers of this show are out to entertain, and provide us with explosions and people acting like badasses and having you cheer for the murders they commit, and all those pulpy things. But they are also great writers.

So yes, in an important way, Walt is us.

so you're saying that just as long as someone lives in space you're allowed to criticize them

yes

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/43/81297026_0060046d98_m.jpg

this holds up well to a second watch. Just really whip smart

when y'all start calling somebody out for "liking" one of them I get this vibe of the schoolyard prude turning their nose up at the kid who digs darth vader

kiiiiiiind of a different vibe in that Darth Vader lives in space and wears this amazing black mask and can control things with his mind?

― tallarico dreams (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, July 17, 2012 9:34 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well mike's a crusty ole ninja who will take out yr power with some mylar balloons and then shoot you through a goddamn wall

Dear writers of Breaking Bad,

Please include a scene where Jesse listens to Insane Clown Posse.

Your Friend,

me

Jesse probably likes a more obscure artist from ICP's label

last season's brostep parties make more sense in '12 than him to be into ICP

w/r/t to "liking" people on the show the only thing that ever bothered me were the peeps who liked Gus, or thought he was somehow less reprehensible than Walt.

― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, July 17, 2012 7:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

yeah i had a guy telling me once that gus was more 'moral' than walt, i guess some people will make up anything about a character if they find them sufficiently badass

Thinking back on waltavo sitting in Saul's office silently listening to his spiel or riding in the back of the car after escaping from the magnet ... he's not doing that slack-jawed open mouth thing anymore that he did when he was just going along with something.

― pplains, Tuesday, July 17, 2012 8:55 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

i call that cranston's caveman face. i love when he makes it, hope we havent seen the last of it

Wasn't Jesse's endless house party mostly dubstep last season?

xxpost oh, right

regarding magnets and computers in the real world: you can use a powerful magnet to damage a hard drive, but the data can still usually be recovered with a lot of time and effort.

apparently not, if the drive has been previously corrupted by the smell of fried chicken.

well the computer was also slammed against the wall so hard the case was damaged, so the hard drive prob got tooken care of

Plus Jesse said "bitch." Usually that seals the deal.

Dear writers of Breaking Bad,

Please include a scene where Jesse listens to Insane Clown Posse.

Your Friend,

me

― sarahell, Wednesday, July 18, 2012 2:32 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dear writers of breaking bad, please dont ever pander for cheap internet lolz

uhhh too late dude

there's a difference between doing stuff that causes lolz on the internet and doing something as obvious as an ICP joke

that stupid, unfunny nazi zombies scene in season 4 always felt like internet pandering to me. probably the show's lowest moment

dear breaking bad writers, please have a scene where jesse eats BACON

this is exactly what I was talking abt w/gus adjusting his fucking tie. it looks like "what can we do that Tumblr will enjoy as an animated gif?"

From day one: http://www.buzzfeed.com/breakingbad/the-definitive-breaking-bad-gif-collection-61z6

if we consider making visually-interesting tv and movies just pandering to the gif crowd now i'm going back to bed

haha didn't s1ocki make his triumphant return to ilx last year specifically to defend gus's death scene?

lol i think so

you're hitting me where it hurts guys

i dug gus' death scene. i appreciate flourishes like that + think they're appropriate for the tone & character of the show. BB does consistently impress me with how visually accomplished it is... TV-wise it's in pretty rare company in that respect

i think it's very much "too much time on the internet" to assume stuff like that is made so that i'll be turned into a gif

gus adjusting his tie like he usually did vs. gus walking to the door with half a face in full "the walking dead" zombie animated effects

seriously, i'm sitting here thinking "adjusting his tie is what you guys are going pull out of that scene as pandering to the gif crowd"?

BB does consistently impress me with how visually accomplished it is.

Yes! It's not that BB does things so they can become internet memes. It's that BB is often stunning to look at so people make gifs out of the good parts.

idk what you guys are talking about, but I just found this "godard" guy and he was gif whoring like no other

in the BB insider podcast gilligan said that whole coat and tie adjustment thing was something giancarlo esposito came up with himself

Looking at those gifs reminded me of what a great scene this was. What a great show, it hardly ever lets you down
http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web05/2012/6/27/12/anigif_enhanced-buzz-14693-1340814136-16.gif

Whenever I get depressed about S5 being basically two half seasons, I remember how much they packed into that first one.

before s4 started I went back and watched the last 2 eps of S3 and I was agog at how much plot was jammed into them, all these events I thought had happened over the course of the season were just BAM BAM BAM RUN BAM BAM BAM GALE

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110203035648/hanna-barbera/images/5/50/Bamm-Bamm_Rubble.jpghttp://images3.cliqueclack.com/tv/files/2011/08/breaking-bad-gale-video-425x240.jpg

^ spoiler alert

ilx getting me hooked on san andreas again made watching this ep really really weird

like drive to mike, [mike cutscene] go get the magnet, drive magnet next to building, oh no van is fucked, escape

it was all there in my mind man

(would totally play gta breaking bad if any staff writers keen to indulge internet dweebs are reading)

haha

Could totally see one of those "spook" meters they use when you're trailing somebody to gauge the strength of the magnet.

I think I actually said to sunny, "ooh, this is like a GTA mission" when they drove the truck into the police compound.

lol, it really WAS like a GTA mission, complete with fucking up the main objective and dashing to steal another car to escape

Free Pay N' Sprays at Walt's Car Wash.

ha ha!

hahaha

otm re: GTA affect
they should hire the writers

gta should hire bb writers or vice-versa

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/breaking-bad-vince-gilligan-bryan-cranston-347082?page=show

But the suits had trouble envisioning Fox's suburban dad as their star and threw out film-star names including John Cusack and Matthew Broderick (both passed). "We all still had the image of Bryan shaving his body in Malcolm in the Middle. We were like, 'Really? Isn't there anybody else?' "

lol john cusack

my reaction to finding out that BB was originally set in riverside, CA: of course it was. i can picture that show so easily

The Malcolm in the Middle thing is a big reason why I resisted watching BB for awhile. I hated that show.

its basically the same show

It's amazing how wrong that would be.

And how right Brian Cranston is. Like, I can't even imagine how it could have been anyone else, like it's a scientific law that BC is Walter White.

xp LOL slocki

How wrong John Cusack would be, that is.

i mean the fact that walter white is the same guy who played square-jawed all-american wacky dad just makes it tha tmuch better

i always thought Cranston really carried that show and was responsible for it being watchable at all

i never watched it, always seemed really antic and annoying in a way i couldnt handle

it's a bit annoying. the parents really held the show together and brought a little gravity to it, though.

his only goal is to "make the audience feel something on a visceral level."

"I want moments of showmanship," he continues. "Moments that take your breath away."

i think this is a good way of summing up the show's m.o. and basically think it's artistically valid but that it also kind of feeds into the feeling of them sometimes just swinging so hard for that OMG WTF internet peanut gallery buzz

i rewatched s4 during the leadup to the season premier, and the cran-man really did some amazing work in that season. that guys just insane-o good

yeah season 4 of malcolm is really when he went all in

hahahaha

[btw i tried to post "hahaha" and it told me i was trying to post a duplicate message, lol]

nice.

i think this is a good way of summing up the show's m.o. and basically think it's artistically valid but that it also kind of feeds into the feeling of them sometimes just swinging so hard for that OMG WTF internet peanut gallery buzz

i dunno, i think the story-telling is too well crafted for it to ever feel forced. "swinging so hard for that OMG WTF" makes me think of Lost. mostly BB just hits the bullseye of the OMG WTF and frequently because they've written themselves into a corner and then bust their way out after you're left not knowing how they can do that. (fairly sure gilligan has talked about this approach before)

yeah that was the Season 3 M.O. specifically

definitely, imo that streak of cliffhangers at the end of s3 is the most thrilling tv drama i've ever seen. all these shows have their own strengths and weaknesses but nobody touches BB for how economically it's used the alloted time from week to week, s4 was a bit more loose but i don't expect them to ever top s3.

ya lost was way more "let's wow the audience now and worry about how it makes sense later"

those bastards wrote the book on that. bb can be fanciful at times but only as part of an overall tone of the show imo, eg the plane crash or something.

I even thought the plane crash basically made sense w.r.t the show's themes.

agreed, it has done a good job of setting out the rules.

hated the plane crash but i already know i'm not in the bb cult like y'all so it's whatever

^^ i stopped watching the last episode of season 2 because the plane crash seemed so dumb. but yeah i know i'm in the minority

it was pretty dumb but willing to forgive.

I hated the plane crash initially, but what they did afterwards with it was so good that I've come to retroactively like it

why do u guys hate plane crashes so much

Walt's speech at the high school would not have happened without the plane crash and breaking bad would not have been as good without that speech

No, the plane crash kinda made me go whaaa? too.

Yeah, I get the metaphor, and in a way, I appreciate how the show has treated it since. Walt's responsible for all those plane crash/meth victims. And now, those victims are just a punchline to one of Saul's TV commercials. But narratively speaking, it didn't ring true.

i don't i hated the coincidence/jutxtaposition of the airplane crash falling into Walt's pool with the junkie GF's dad being an air traffic controller

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxposts GTA should hire bb writers natch

Yeah, I didn't start watching BB until the middle of Season 4's on-air run, so I was way behind. I really hated that plane crash too, it was a little much. But, thankfully, I stayed with it and Season 3 renewed my faith.

- "Hey, Don! You feeling better?"
- "Oh, you know. One day at a time."

*puts on air traffic control headphones*

I mean, c'mon.

only thing i didnt like abt the plane crash was all the fake out flash forwards w/the stuffed animals and forensic teams at walts house

- "Hey, Don! You feeling better?"
- "Oh, you know. One day at a time."

*pushes button that starts Magic Mountain ride*

- "Hey, Don! You feeling better?"
- "Oh, you know. One day at a time."

*designs plans for Tacoma-Narrows Bridge*

only thing i didnt like abt the plane crash was all the fake out flash forwards w/the stuffed animals and forensic teams at walts house

^^^i spent all the previous episodes thinking "cool, the feds are gonna bust walt at his house, that will be interesting to see how it plays out, hmm, yes." instead it was all,

- "Hey, Don! You feeling better?"
- "Oh, you know. One day at a time."

*puts on air traffic control headphones*

hated the plane crash but i already know i'm not in the bb cult like y'all so it's whatever

― Barack 2 Chainz Obama (some dude), Wednesday, 18 July 2012 20:54 (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah i mean Suits is just objectively a better show

- "Hey, Don! You feeling better?"
- "Oh, you know. One day at a time."

*designs plans for Tacoma-Narrows Bridge*

― pplains, Wednesday, July 18, 2012 4:05 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol

Jesus, let's just pretend we didn't bring up the plane crash and move on.

S2 was the only one the writers mapped out from beginning to end, right?

And that's strange because the plane crash seems the most improvised of the season finales.

Just goes to show, making it up as you go along > making a plan ... which is the theme of the show too, kinda.

hated the plane crash but i already know i'm not in the bb cult like y'all so it's whatever
― Barack 2 Chainz Obama (some dude), Wednesday, 18 July 2012 20:54 (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

do u really gotta be this way dude

why not just use the word 'fanboy' or wtv

as long as he doesn't call us tumblr whites or nerds I think it's all good, lol

I'm alone in occupying the middle section in the Malcolm fan/BB fan ven diagram huh?

(Hal was always my joint favorite character, along with Dewey)

^^^
and the horrible racist grandmother.

No way dude, I'm right in the middle too! I really liked Malcolm. I didn't watch all the way through the series but at least the first 2 or 3 seasons or I was a regular viewer.

Malcolm would've been a much better show without Malcolm himself. I liked the rest of the family, but he annoyed me so much I could barely watch it.

http://cs406519.userapi.com/v406519766/7c7/-z-v4jGPmd4.jpg

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http://timcrockett.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Giancarlo_Esposito_325x200.jpg

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http://blogs.amctv.com/breaking-bad/BB-S3-David-Costabile-325.jpg

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http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/20500000/Stevie-malcolm-in-the-middle-20523284-1024-768.jpg

do u really gotta be this way dude

― funny-skrillex-bee_132455836669.gif (s1ocki), Wednesday, July 18, 2012 4:54 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

why not just use the word 'fanboy' or wtv

― funny-skrillex-bee_132455836669.gif (s1ocki), Wednesday, July 18, 2012 4:54 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sorry man

also number none don't be a dick

why is 'fanboy' better

it's not, there's just no need to mince words if you're going to be derogatory about a show's more intense fans

damn broken image messing my "joke" up.

http://blog.kidsfunplaza.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/stevie-boy.png

- "Hey, Don! You feeling better?"
- "Oh, you know. One day at a time."

*designs plans for Tacoma-Narrows Bridge*

― pplains, Wednesday, July 18, 2012 4:05 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol

― Black_vegeta (Hungry4Ass), Wednesday, July 18, 2012 4:09 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

^^^^^^^

why is 'fanboy' better

― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Wednesday, July 18, 2012 5:37 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's not, there's just no need to mince words if you're going to be derogatory about a show's more intense fans

― hot sauce delivery device (mh), Wednesday, July 18, 2012 5:42 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm not even like... a super-intense fan! i just like the show! my walter white tattoo is barely even visible if i'm wearing a shirt!

all i was really doing was preemptively batting off any "how can any fan of the show not love the plane crash!!!" reactions that i was imagining getting from my post

haha.

i don't remember having a strong opinion on the plane crash. i guess in retrospect it was a bit OTT even for the show but i think i was binging on episodes when i watched it and was just like... YEAH YEAH YEAH

^^ same here

I found it a bit innaritu

I didn't love it but it wasn't that big a deal. Maybe would have been more tolerable if there hadn't been an entire season of foreshadowing and buildup with the constant shots of the teddy bear eyeball in the pool.

and yeah the coincidence of it being the girl's dad was a bit much

oh yeah that reminds me, the actress who played Jesse's girlfriend just put out an album with sometime ILXor Speculator on his record label WT Recs.

http://www.mtvhive.com/2012/07/18/ex-vivian-krysten-ritter/

^^^ interview by sometime ILXor Andy Beta

xxp and Walt running into him in the bar.

xp thanks for the info... interesting i guess?

The Malcolm in the Middle thing is a big reason why I resisted watching BB for awhile. I hated that show.

I was super-excited for Cranston on Breaking Bad because he had been so incredible on Malcolm In The Middle. Casting agent for that should have got an Emmy Emeritus every year it was on for how amazing the regular cast was, esp Hal, Reese and Dewey

all i was really doing was preemptively batting off any "how can any fan of the show not love the plane crash!!!" reactions that i was imagining getting from my post

If anything, BB's fans are the ones that in my experience seem the most pissed about the plane crash.

It was kind of crazy but it's fiction. Remember the crazy death cult brothers who crawled through the desert to a shrine? Magical realism? Worse than plane?

i can see being annoyed by just the sheer co-inky-dinkyness of it, which is different from breaking bad's other un-real/larger-than-life/magical-realist/whatever you want to call it

White Magic

You aren't going to like it when it turns out that Walter White interned at Pepcon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOPP4ZBgnoA

It was kind of crazy but it's fiction. Remember the crazy death cult brothers who crawled through the desert to a shrine? Magical realism? Worse than plane?

my thoughts exactly. most of the time i can accept the far-fetched stuff - but the twins were the only thing i really shook my head at.

i'm sorry - did anyone else lol at that video when they said they wanted to save the marshmallow factory from the fire?

Malcolm in the middle is a really great show. But yeah, because of the other characters.

Malcolm himself became better later on when they realised he was annoying and played it up for laughs.

I hated that show because Malcolm never put his eyebrows down and it was so distracting I couldn't watch it. Put your eyebrows down, Malcolm!

lol @ you guys unable to accept the guys crawling to a shrine - that seemed so obv something 'ripped from the headlines'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2008/nov/12/religion-mexico-cult-death

there's lots of footage of the shrine on youtube but I can't find any footage of the people crawling to it. if you look at some of the footage there's plenty of shots of the people paying homage to santa muerte so I don't think it'd be a case of "people are afraid to film the people crawling." in the trailer for this documentary people are showing up by bus to go to the Mass of Holy Death

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgQftFWM41Q

my goth ass would watch the HELL outta this documentary tbrr

I accept the guys crawling to the shrine! The way it was portrayed, and the reactions of locals were kind of crazy. Then again, the Salamanca boys were pretty crazy, anyway.

the twins weren't even the worst -- gus' dialect coach was the worst if we were to believe (and i think we were?) that he was supposed to be from latin america originally

who played the dialect coach?

the twins weren't even the worst -- gus' dialect coach was the worst if we were to believe (and i think we were?) that he was supposed to be from latin america originally

― nicest bitch of poster (La Lechera)

Gus was Chileno. Doesn't matter to me though, I only care about unconvincing accents when they're supposed to be from my country.

Chile isn't part of Latin America? I guess it does sort of matter to me. Not a big deal, but while we're complaining.

I read the goofs part of the Cartel episode and everyone complained about how the accents were so horrible, Gus' especially. I'm just happy they didn't film the scenes in English.

Would love to see an example of a foreign-language movie or television show featuring a scene in English. The only thing I can come up with right at this moment is the final scene in "Life Is Beautiful" where the American soldier in the tank says to the Italian kid, "Hello, boy!"

Chile isn't part of Latin America? I guess it does sort of matter to me. Not a big deal, but while we're complaining.

― nicest bitch of poster (La Lechera)

Oh yeah it completely is, I was clarifying rather than correcting.

Oddly enough I actually watched the Cartel episode whilst in Latin America. My Spanish isn't nearly good enough to pick up on dodgy accents though.

I think I said this before, but I remember liking Gus's accent because I could more or less understand his Spanish. Which is a sure sign that it's a terrible accent.

Not terrible, just obviously not native. It would be totally fine if he were from Albuquerque, but he was supposed to be a native speaker.

Is there any comparison you can make where UK:Spain = USA:Mexico to what Chile or Argentina sound like? Would they come across as Australian?

Seeing as Chileno accents are pretty garbled and difficult to understand Glaswegian might be more apt.

They're all just different, lots of different phonological features. There aren't any direct analogies to be made afaik.

f hazel would know more than i do, having studied argentine spanish specifically iirc?

One thing I really really like about the Pablo Escobar show is how antioqueño they all sound, but I would expect it to be muy auténtico because it's a Colombian show.

i have never been able to summon the energy to get angry about bad accents

Me neither, unless it's someone trying to do one of my local accents.

That's because you guys aren't linguists! This is my thing.

I'm allowed to pipe up about it occasionally.

No one said otherwise! I wish I could pipe up about it.

I know, I'm not mad :)

Would love to see an example of a foreign-language movie or television show featuring a scene in English.

There's a really embarrassing scene in The Marriage of Maria Braun where a black soldier, who's supposed to be an American GI only the actor isn't American, it's Gunther Kaufmann, comes drunkenly through a train car swearing a lot because he thinks the Germans don't understand him. Maria Braun responds "wittily" in English. One of the worst Fassbinder scenes really - the GI is doing a German director's imagined version of how Americans swear, and you can tell he thinks he's really got it down, only he doesn't and it's embarrassing.

Kaufmann's imdb is fucking weird and tragic like p. much everybody who came into Fassbinder's orbit.

In November 2002, he confessed to the murder of his accountant and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He confessed to the deed even though he was not guilty because he wanted to protect his cancer-stricken wife, who had instigated three accomplices to this act. He wanted to spare her a cancer death in prison. Once the actual perpetrators were convicted, he was released and again recanted his confession. He reached a retrial and was acquitted in January 2005. Because of his false testimony two alleged accomplices were innocent of three weeks in custody. Therefore, he was convicted in March of 2006, a probation and a fine.

ha the dialogue in that scene is coming back to me as I research it -- "Lonely Richard, as my friends call ME" - with the stress falling on "me" instead of "friends" and sounding completely wrong and the hard "s" German & Dutch speakers tend to use when pronouncing the word "as"

incidentally I don't get MAD about bad accents, more really interested, like in the way the Dutch always say "as well" as if it were one word (and how they use "as well" but not "too") so as far as I am concerned La Lechera can talk all day about Gus's accent which made me think he didn't actually speak Spanish at all because it sounded so weird to me

Would love to see an example of a foreign-language movie or television show featuring a scene in English.

can't remember the details but there's a terrible scene in pierrot le fou that's supposed to parody american imperialism, it falls totally flat

i'm not MAD either, just disappointed. i have been trying in vain to find a clip so i can provide better examples, but i don't have all day to talk about this, so...carry on...

Would love to see an example of a foreign-language movie or television show featuring a scene in English

This p much describes the whole of 'The Room'

To get back to the previous derail, I've got Malcolm on in the background now and watching Cranston is extraordinary. Every iota of Hal's body language is utterly different to Walter White's. Such an incredibly controlled performer.

Wouldn't be surprised at all if he bags himself an Oscar in the next ten years.

I'm guessing two or three, if he stops slumming in stuff like Rock of Ages.

yeah, I recently saw an episode of Seinfeld with Cranston in it and asked my girlfriend (who I watch breaking bad with) if she recognised him and she had no idea.

I remember seeing that Seinfeld episode in reruns and thinking, Wow, Malcolm's dad was sure getting edgy here!

your girlfriend has amnesia :( xp

Tim Whatley is great, kinda underappreciated in the repertory of Seinfeld characters

not if you're jewish haha

I'm guessing two or three, if he stops slumming in stuff like Rock of Ages.

― the new dire homonomoreboobsativity (Eric H.),

I reckon classier leading roles will start pouring in once BB wraps.

He'll pull off a Tommy Lee Jones in one of the next Bourne movies, no doubt.

Would love to see an example of a foreign-language movie or television show featuring a scene in English. The only thing I can come up with right at this moment is the final scene in "Life Is Beautiful" where the American soldier in the tank says to the Italian kid, "Hello, boy!"

― pplains, Thursday, July 19, 2012 10:40 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m0fW-SY7eY

xposts to LL, as I understand it, the writers didnt know where gus came from until the 4th season. They were forced to pick somewhere for the gus/max/hector storyline. I suppose it would be ridiculous to change his accent that late in the game?

i find it hard to imagine cranston getting a lot of juicy film roles post-BB, but i hope im wrong. i just see a lot of dads, grumpy bosses and bad guys in his future

That makes lots of sense. It's not that geographically it was inaccurate -- I don't even really know that I would recognize the exact features of Chilean Spanish even though I listen to it all the time at work. It's just that he is clearly not a native Spanish speaker at all and they didn't train him/his mouth well enough to make that inaudible/undetectable (to me, ol' eagle ears). I've always been interested in the strange world of dialect coaches. I wonder if they have formal linguistics/phonetics & phonology training?

Anyway he's gone now.

I think.

http://www.amctv.com/breaking-bad/videos/sneak-peek-episode-502-breaking-bad-madrigal

preview for e2

*bites tongue*

i have never been able to summon the energy to get angry about bad accents

― funny-skrillex-bee_132455836669.gif (s1ocki), Thursday, July 19, 2012 11:32 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Me neither, unless it's someone trying to do one of my local accents.

― pplains, Thursday, July 19, 2012 11:37 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha yes

That's because you guys aren't linguists! This is my thing.

― nicest bitch of poster (La Lechera), Thursday, July 19, 2012 11:44 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

do they make you take a vow to get irritated at bad accents before they hand you the degree

we have to draw the vowel chart for our native language at gunpoint, then we take the vow, then we get the paper

...then you get the women? (scarface, sorry I couldn't help it)

http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/video/id/1410523

sepinwall linked to this on twitter. Aaron Paul in his late teens or early twenties on The Price is Right. Totally perfect.

hah, wonderful!

And here are GIFs!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/whitneyjefferson/aaron-paul-the-best-the-price-is-right-contesta

BOB BARKER BITCHES

THE PRICE IS WRONG BITCH

fkn adorable, yo

that has brightened my day a bit

Julia as Hector "Tio" Salamanca:

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i191/fluxion23/julia-hector-face-web.jpg

(I called her and asked her permission to post that. Not everyone wants their best Hector face on the internet.)

"Look at me, Julia. Look at me."

who?

Dude was very otm to eat the nuggets without the sauces.

"who?"

Fair question. I guess she's always been a bit of a lurker, but she's been here longer than I have. Which is a long damn time.

cajun kickass

forget about julia, who is lydia

She's The Tattooed Lady. Jeez. Keep up.

Franch

i had to imdb but it but OH YEAH the chick from Neverwhere

way, way better than the premiere imo

Heh, I used to sell those rolling pig toys at my previous job.

Skylar / Walt bed scene...gaaaahhhhh could that have been creepier

One of the best cold opens of the whole series. The sauce tasting reminded me of the scene in Mulholland Drive with the espresso. And then it gets even better. And all before the titles.

Skylar / Walt bed scene...gaaaahhhhh could that have been creepier

It gets easier. I promise.

This episode is even better the second time. I love the way the scene with the DEA boss is lit, and the way his shirt collar is at least an inch too wide, and his shirt is overstarched and too big for him. It makes him look tiny and shriveled. The metaphor is obvious, but I didn't notice it until the second time I watched.

And I love that the line of dialogue that rings through this whole episode is actually from the last episode. It's from Mike, about to shoot Walt, yelling, "Do you even know what you've done?" Walt has no idea. And neither do we. And that's who Lydia is. She's what Walt has done that he doesn't know.

it's a roomba!

i was pleased that this ep featured not only a roomba, but a weeping jesse, and intense questioning from hank.

jesse crying! I was like I HOPE YOU FEEL REALLY BAD NOW WALTER WHITE YOU BIG MEANIE

loling at the madrigal chick trying to order tea at the diner

loved the sleeves on her blouse, for the record

love that the whole magnet scheme was pointless (hank dismisses gus' laptop as unusable evidence) and actually made things worse by turning up the offshore accounts

This episode is even better the second time. I love the way the scene with the DEA boss is lit, and the way his shirt collar is at least an inch too wide, and his shirt is overstarched and too big for him. It makes him look tiny and shriveled. The metaphor is obvious, but I didn't notice it until the second time I watched.

― cue "White Rabbit" (kenan), Monday, July 23, 2012 7:31 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post

also liked the mirroring of the boss complaining about how gus was right under his nose to hank who has walt right under his nose

Yeah, it's maybe one second of a reaction shot from Hank, but it's priceless.

And totally agreeing with Lechera about those sleeves. Truly remarkable sleeves.

Really the whole interrogation scene is fantastic. They know who the guy is, they know he's dirty as the day is long, and they know that "good cop/bad cop" isn't going to work on this guy. So instead they play "smart cop/dumb cop", and they do it so well that they almost fooled me into thinking that Gomez is actually a complete boob. But no. That was planned.

Just finally caught up with the premiere, which was ... OK. Walt's arrogance is off the chart in that one. Looking forward to ep 2, but in terms of total assholes, Walt is currently sort of sub-Vic Mackey. It's not even clear if Walt loves his family, and he more than seems willing to cut them off (or worse) rather than go down with them. Like, even when he "saves' them, or protects them, it seems like one more step in some long game that he's playing.

A+++ episode. I'm slightly breathless from the amount of confidence and versatility this show is displaying right now.

We're not supposed to know exactly how Lydia fits in yet right? Because if we are I must have missed something. I thought maybe she was Gus' wife at first, but that's obviously not right.

I thought it was implied she's a Madrigal exec or connected with the one who killed himself at the beginning? Because she didn't seem the sort who would take the initiative on "cleaning up" the mess, working under someone

but i could just be imagining that

I agree, although did BB show its hand a little too much in letting Mike make such an obvious and uncharacteristic mistake by not killing her? He's supposed to be smarter (and colder) than we are, after all.

Perhaps, a) it's likely she double or triple-dipped on the murder assignments b) Mike is now broke and c) even if he did kill her, good possibility that someone else would come in and finish up the clean-up. If they're back in business, everyone gets to stay alive and rich again, theoretically

it's subtle but I thought she was in the meeting with madrigal and the DEA

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120723070759/breakingbad/images/3/3e/5x2_Madrigal_board.png

Such a great shot

Anyone else feel a weird sense of injustice at them all getting their assets frozen? We've spent a fair amount of time watching them make that money. Then I remember how they made the money...

Yeah I think the money was Mike's motivation for not killing her.

mike is not completely callous, he saw how much she loved her kid and had second thoughts, now if he had his $2m still who knows

Mike not killing Lydia did seem p forced to me too. His whole deal is supposed to be he's the unsentimental brains of the outfit, but the only people he kills are outside the storyline - Mike poses no threat to you if you might be instrumental to the story. Kinda diminishes his character a bit.

i think mike aspires to be the unsentimental brains but thats not really him, see constantly giving walt advice when he knows it wont do any good

yeah I see that but still - it's like, scary muscleman Mike, plenty of people he's had reason to kill but the only ones who're actually in danger are bit-players

yeah he hasnt killed walt jesse or walts family, but thats a p small group, no one else has killed them either... YET!!!!!

btw re our discussion of mikes value to the walt/jesse partnership, his connection w/the precursors is def worth something

there has to be a better source for methylamine than someone who's trying to kill you

cajun kickass

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Monday, July 23, 2012 12:23 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark

i bought mike not killing her - it would've been really cold if he did, and i would've bought that too. but i think the groundwork's been laid to make it believable that he wouldnt

Oh yeah, wanna add that the cold open had me in stitches.

not many shows where I feel there would be some value in watching an eps a second time immediately after finishing it

it's subtle but I thought she was in the meeting with madrigal and the DEA

― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Monday, July 23, 2012 3:28 PM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nice catch

but i think the groundwork's been laid to make it believable that he wouldnt

I think some groundwork had been laid and then they added some quickie last-minute groundwork of showing him with his granddaughter, to make it more plausible that the daughter angle might make him not pull the trigger

theyve shown him w/his granddaughter repeatedly tho, its like one of two things we know abt mike, he has a granddaughter and he used to be a cop

not that that scene wasnt there for a reason but still

you're overlooking the gift that is mike playing hungry hungry hippos

think maybe in the next eps he can work out his differences w/ walt in this manner

ya thats the reason i was talking abt

was mad Mike didn't sing the Hungry Hungry Hippos song tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HPI_HT6yjo

don't think it was just the daughter that caused mike to reconsider, the ep seemed to set up the idea that unless he gets some money (and the other dudes on the list too) then somebody will go to the cops.

ya i agree it was both

even if you look at earlier in the ep a big part of mikes argument abt why to not worry abt the situation is everyone is paid

still find it a bit hard to believe that he'd not only spare someone who tried to kill him, but go into business with her

but yeah I guess if he gets her and all the guys she's worried about back employed again then it changes the situation

xpost that's true

even if you look at earlier in the ep a big part of mikes argument abt why to not worry abt the situation is everyone is paid

i still don't hate walt btw, i know he's meant to be super-evil etc but i still am rooting for him. i sort of assumed this was everyone's position. it's a tv show and i want walt's quest for dominance to succeed.

mike's like I better get some $$$ or I'm gonna have to kill all these fools

still find it a bit hard to believe that he'd not only spare someone who tried to kill him, but go into business with her

― dmr, Monday, July 23, 2012 4:41 PM (53 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its a classic machiavellian move, hes got it over her now

was anybody else bothered by the fact there were 2 yellow hippos on mike's game

me

I'm assuming that's some sort of thing like the teddy bear eyeball that will be a recurring motif and by the end of the season we'll have a flashback episode that shows how the two yellow hippos got there

god i hope so

was anybody else bothered by the fact there were 2 yellow hippos on mike's game
me too but i convinced myself that one was lime green and that i was seeing things

is there any sense that hank was actually thinking of walt at all in that long, slightly unsubtle, pause, after the chief talked about gus being right under his nose etc?

i took it as a bit of cruel irony for the enjoyment of the viewer.

glasgow representing in breaking bad

so i guess we're in for more ricin-based hijinks at some point

ricin beans yo

Given that we are entering the final stretch and it's been great so far, is this one of the few shows that has gone this many seasons without having a less-than-stellar run at some point. I'm not saying it was flawless (the plane crash comes to mind as an uncharacteristic misstep), but otherwise I think the show has been as close to flawless as any I've seen. I also really do feel like each season has had its own character and yet they all feel of a piece, which I couldn't say about The Sopranos, for example.

xxp my wife called it "Ruislip" (which is actually a little town north of London for my American friends)/

it's subtle but I thought she was in the meeting with madrigal and the DEA
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Monday, July 23, 2012 7:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

omg she is. These subtle motherfuckers

it's not even clear if Walt loves his family

i dont think its ever been clear that walt loves his family - from p much the first couple of episodes the show makes it p clear that the 'family' stuff is in large part pretext for walt

anyway this show is super fucking rad, only part of the first two that i thought was kind of lame was hanks boss droning on about how gus was hiding right under his nose and the wah-wah thing about how the laptop was s0 encrypted that the dea could never have got anything useful out of it but hey the magnet storm knocked loose a picture with some vital banking info to unravel this whole damn thing but i guess thats sorta symbolic of walts whole arrogant and reckless approach to criminal enterprise

this improves, as others have noted, on a second viewing and it was plenty fucking good the first time.
they've made a big deal about how the show is about a man truly coming apart ("breaking bad" if you will) and coming around to himself as casually evil and the naturalness of walt being all like "shyeah of course i'm gonna keep cooking, fuck you saul THERE'S GOLD OUT THERE IN THE STREETS" with zero interest in the human cost and without much of a serious reason to stay in the game and that i didn't even sense the slightest waver outta character shows just how long the game they've been playing is.

btw, small town security turned out to be compellingly good. i am surprised.

Been away and caught up with both the first two episodes last night. Really enjoyed the first one, although I'm not really buying that hyper-careful criminal mastermind Gus Fring would keep a video archive of all his most incriminating evidence on a laptop in the back of his restaurant. Even an encrypted one. There's hiding in plain sight and then there's just being plain sloppy.

Also that first episode saw Walt, Jesse, Mike and the junkyard guy between them basically perfected the art of the "this fucking guy" glance.

Mike not killing Lydia did seem p forced to me too. His whole deal is supposed to be he's the unsentimental brains of the outfit, but the only people he kills are outside the storyline - Mike poses no threat to you if you might be instrumental to the story. Kinda diminishes his character a bit.

I think both here and upthread you're getting Mike's character wrong a bit. I don't think he's this 100% cold killing machine - correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think we've seen him kill anyone not involved in the drug trade. This might well be a pragmatic thing rather than a moral thing - dead civilians generate more police attention than dead drug dealers, but still.

His not killing Lydia definitely hinged on the kid. He'd just come from playing with his granddaughter. Since maybe S3 the show has made involving/murdering children its moral point-of-no-return and it has now positioned Mike and Jesse on one side of that line. Walt obviously has now crossed over that with the poisoning thing and I'm wondering how much further he'll go.

Basically the awesome thing about this season is that we know Walt is set up for one epic confrontation of one form or another with pretty much each character. Walt vs Hank, Walt vs Jesse, Walt vs his own son - could/should all be amazing scenes.

That said I could watch an entire series of Mike breaking into darkened buildings and taking people down. And occasionally feeding chickens.

Other thing I enjoyed was Walter Jr. coming in and being all "hey dad did you see Mr Fring was this big drug dealer and Uncle Hank totally took him down" and Walt silently seething and resenting it and clearly wanting to glory in his achievement.

yeah, he does that a lot

And I love that the line of dialogue that rings through this whole episode is actually from the last episode. It's from Mike, about to shoot Walt, yelling, "Do you even know what you've done?" Walt has no idea. And neither do we. And that's who Lydia is. She's what Walt has done that he doesn't know.

Pretty sure there's something a lot scarier behind Gus than one slightly panicky woman, a dead German guy and a faceless industrial conglomerate. So scary that a guy would walk straight into his office and electrocute himself.

aliens

I think Mike's seemingly-uncharacteristic failure to kill Lydia was suuuuper intentional on a thematic level. It was a half measure, and the ultimate result of that half measure will likely be a tragic reminder of why Mike had sworn off half measures many years ago. Getting into bed with the ticking timebomb by episode's end just further underscores Mike's foregone doom. He ain't gettin' out of this alive because he broke his own code.

I really love how Walt seems completely oblivious, willfully so, to the chaos he has caused all around him. He just smugly seems to be waiting for everyone to calm down and get on board. Like, his totally arrogant look when Mike called him back, it's as if he had no idea there's more going on than just him and his untouchable scheme.

Now that the show is running down, I hope they don't do something drastic and suddenly empower Skylar. I mean, that seems like the direction they might go, redeem her and let Walt dangle, but I dunno. At this point basically everyone needs to go to jail except Walt Jr., and even then, they should send him to useless character jail. It almost seemed like an in joke when they made a point of showing that he .... DID NOT FINISH HIS BREAKFAST. Because that's all Walt Jr. does, eats breakfast and offers some naive "gee, dad!" non-teen talk.

No Hank's wife in this ep or last. Odd that a major character (albeit a lame one) wouldn't show up at all in either of the first two eps of a show's new season.

I don't think he's oblivious at all. He knows full well and doesn't give a flying fuck.

It was a half measure, and the ultimate result of that half measure will likely be a tragic reminder of why Mike had sworn off half measures many years ago.

^^^

AGREE

I think Mike's seemingly-uncharacteristic failure to kill Lydia was suuuuper intentional on a thematic level. It was a half measure, and the ultimate result of that half measure will likely be a tragic reminder of why Mike had sworn off half measures many years ago. Getting into bed with the ticking timebomb by episode's end just further underscores Mike's foregone doom. He ain't gettin' out of this alive because he broke his own code.

yeah this is good

It was a calculated risk, wasn't it? Mike knows what he's getting into. I only hope the show gives Mike a failsafe, some sort of collateral to use over Walt.

I don't think he's oblivious at all. He knows full well and doesn't give a flying fuck.

^^^ This. He tends to have crises of conscience, like breaking down in front of Walter Jr last season, but these have tended to coincide with the moments when his or his family's lives were in danger. I think killing Gus has sent him into full on "I am invincible, everything I do is justified" mode. Once he'd rationalised the plane crash there was no going back for him in this regard, really.

He's definitely oblivious to all the stuff Mike was/is up to. Lydia. The 11 other employees that Mike was asked to kill. The bank accounts. He has no idea=oblivious.

Oh yeah that's true. At every single step he has blithely underestimated the scale of the criminal world he's dealing with. It's what keeps the show going.

I think now he sees himself as the boss he is probably in a more dangerous place than before, as he seems to be forcibly acting blasé about shit to fit his own image of himself as this Gustavo Fring II.

there's definitely stuff he's oblivious to, and remains so because it never occurs to him to think OUTSIDE of what he already knows - cf his seething resentment of Gus, unaware of how Gus was the only thing keeping him protected from MULTIPLE south-of-the-border cartels. not sure if he even knows of the EXISTENCE of Madrigal via Hank - and if so, he definitely doesn't know that there's a core of Fring-picked employees still in town, who got paid off, who have had their payoffs frozen and are being investigated by the DEA in 'collaboration' with a cadre of Madrigal execs who've flown to the US for this purpose.

xpost

Like think how far he is from the constantly freaking out Walt of previous seasons xpost

It was a calculated risk, wasn't it? Mike knows what he's getting into. I only hope the show gives Mike a failsafe, some sort of collateral to use over Walt.

Why do you hope this? Mike is a murderer. I hope he bites the same dust Walter White bites.

Like, his totally arrogant look when Mike called him back

^ this. i love how it was shot! he looks so evil! i couldn't figure out if that was even a smile he was cracking or what.

xpost Because at least Mike operates within a code of honor. Walt is 100% selfish and evil. This is the ep, after all, where Mike showed himself unwilling to orphan a kid, whereas Walt has no prob hurting kids (which is the low standard even Jessie adhered to). In the moral scheme of the show, Mike>>>Walt.

im sure mike's killed guys with families before.

Why do you hope this? Mike is a murderer. I hope he bites the same dust Walter White bites.

aero, I'm with you 100% on this, but want to dig deeper into the underlying storytelling, dramatic structure, characterization and whatnot. Obviously Walt and Jesse are protagonists but not heroes here. Are there any heroes in this show? I'd unplug my phone and hide out for a month before I'd hang out and have a beer with Hank, so it's hard to see him as heroic, even though I guess he's the closest the story has.

the only family member Walt really seems invested in is the baby, really. the only one that hasn't failed him or been lame

I meant lame as slang for uncool, although Walt Jr. fits the traditional definition :(

In a show about extreme moral ambiguities, one is still allowed to pick sides. Hence, Al Swearengen was a scumbag, but better than Hearst. Shane was terrible, but better than Vic. Etc.

I mean, I can imagine Mike retiring, never doing anything bad again. But Walt is pathological.

xpost Earlier I almost described the character of Walt Jr. lame, too, then caught myself!

I think Walt Jr.'s physical lameness plays a part in Walt Sr.'s subconscious here! Everybody's let him down until Holly.

maybe we should revert to his badass nickname of 'flynn'

I reckon the chances of Walter Jr being the one who actually discovers what his dad is up to, before Hank, are pretty high. Hank has been working one degree of separation from Walt for ages now without getting close, and Mike is a lot less likely to fuck up under pressure than Jesse. Whereas Walter Jr could just overhear or find something incriminating and that will be that.

mike reminds me of richard kuklinski. thats who i was thinking of when he was about to ice the lady, anyway. but then he didn't do it. but kuklinski was a great dad and stuff and said he would never have killed a child

i have a lot of love for walt jr but i really hope they do not go off on some subplot where he and his friends try the blue meth, which is like super pure and just came back after being totally unavailable for a while. i can hear one of his friends trying to convince him "dude, it's got better chemicals in it than that burger you're eating" and flynn feels shamed and does the meth later that night. that really does not need to happen. they can't even possibly have time for that. right?!?

I think we're more likely to have Walt Jr. get an inclination of what his dad is up to, then threaten to go to the cops and "do the right thing." Then Walt Sr. would be faced with the prospect of killing his own son or going to jail.

i've been waiting for him to get busted smoking pot - which would be alot more likely then him trying meth.

xpost

I think Mike's seemingly-uncharacteristic failure to kill Lydia was suuuuper intentional on a thematic level. It was a half measure, and the ultimate result of that half measure will likely be a tragic reminder of why Mike had sworn off half measures many years ago.

this is a really good point i had totally forgotten mikes speech about half measures...

one of the high points of the entire series imo

that speech sort of backfired tho, didn't it?

I am really digging how mike has become a central character in the last season

also I know y'all get twitchy when I mention next week's teaser, but there are hints of walt/mike alpha dog disputes on the horizon

I'm assuming that's some sort of thing like the teddy bear eyeball that will be a recurring motif and by the end of the season we'll have a flashback episode that shows how the two yellow hippos got there

Was that the same pink teddy bear knocking on Chou's door?

And hey, Lechera, how was the German?

Que pena, no hablo alemán. Weltanschauung. Weltshmerz. Gemeinschaft. Bildungsroman?

Letzte Tage - Letzte Nachte

oh great you broke la lechera hope ur happy

scheisse!

Herz au glas

where are the language settings on this thing

halp

토렌트 설치사용방법] [토렌트 업로드 방법] [토렌트 다운로드 방법

I tried hitting my monitor but it's just getting worse

half measure, you must smash your monitor with a baseball bat