Breaking Bad

[©brad]

What an amazing episode. Those impossible scenes... how do you even go about executing them? And doing it so perfectly? That confrontation in the garage was literally an impossible scene, but it was flawless and exhilarating. Hank's fiery eyes, his quivering lips... I'm speechless right now.

Can you imagine sitting down to write a scene like that? How intimidating and difficult that must be? It's the moment the show has been building to since the beginning, one fans have predicted and speculated upon endlessly and yet they still somehow come in and blow it out of the water.

From everything I've read, what separates Breaking Bad from most shows is the inordinate amount of time they spend in the writer's room and how detailed they are when they break episodes. Vince has said he wants it so any writer could take the outline and write the episode without missing a beat. From my limited knowledge it's somewhat of an unique way to work.

I just can't get over Dean Norris's performance in the garage scene. He needs to win all the awards for that. I also appreciated how the shot of Walt was wider so we could really focus on Hank.

Oh man, MVP for sure goes to Dean Norris. His face in that garage scene conveyed so muck - shock, terror, anger, heartbreak. I can't wait to watch this again.

I have one minor issue that might not make me too popular, and that's with Jesse. How many times have we started a season with him in some sort of relapse or depression? It's not out of line dramatically and Aaron Paul plays it wonderfully. It just seems, I don't know, a little tiresome. Like dude, shit or get off the pot. Why hasn't he killed himself already? My lame prediction is he teams up with Hank to bring Walt down somehow. This could also be Aaron Paul being so freaking good at depressing the everliving hell out of me that like Jesse I just want the pain to end.

The cold open was top 5 best they have done. And that ending might be top 3 for me. I screamed into a pillow when that garage door closed.

[Jeremy Blackman]

The podcast is up!

[Ghostboy]

I just can't get over Dean Norris's performance in the garage scene.

That can't be his real facial hair, right? It looked like they glued pubes to his face.

The only blemish in an absolutely amazing episode. I had trouble looking at it. I just wanted to pull those long strands off.

[jonas]

Because.... well, why not.

[Brando]

A couple of things occurred to me while listening to the podcast. Walt walking outside to contemplate then has a hunch to check under his car finding the tracking device is very similar to when Gus is in the parking garage. Gus enters the parking garage stops before getting to his car and stares into space. He comes to some sort of realization that Walt and Jesse are working together walking away from his car which has a bomb stuck to his car with a magnet.

Also, a bearded Jessie is determined to give away his blood money. The bearded Walt in the 501 flashfoward gives/tips the waitress a hundred. Both are a stretch. Walt could only have hundreds.

[Fernando]

I need to say that seeing Heisenberg written inside Walt's house gave me chills, it was almost scary to look at...



anyway, Meth Busters did an episode dedicated to Br Ba, and it's available on youtube!

[polkablues]

I watched the Mythbusters episode last night. It was entertaining, but I was disappointed they just did the acid bathtub and the mercury fulminate explosion. I wanted them to test the magnet!

[modage]

On Sunday I interviewed "Breaking Bad" writer/producer George Mastras. He's been a writer on the show since Season 1 and is responsible for the eps "Crazy Handful of Nothin," "Grilled," "Mandala," "I.F.T.," "Thirty-Eight Snub," and "Dead Freight" (which he also directed)! We talked for an hour, mostly about the process in the writers room and less about the specifics of why something happened or didn't, etc. This is Part 1, enjoy!

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/interview-inside-the-breaking-bad-writers-room-with-writer-director-george-mastras-20130813

[©brad]

So jealous and impressed! Great interview. Can't wait for more.

For the most part, it's so thoroughly broken in the room that anybody could really write that script.

Told you bitches.

[Tictacbk]

Spoils etc...

First of all, of course, awesome opening episode.  I can't believe the Hank/Walt confrontation has already happened, and I can't even begin to guess what's going to happen next.  Fantastic.

Started listening to the podcast, and then remembered why I don't listen to the podcast.  I prefer not to see behind the curtain on this one.  They reveal in the first 10 minutes of the podcast that when they wrote the flash-forward in 501 with the M60 (giant gun), AND when they wrote this week's flash-forward with the ricin they apparently had no idea where they were going with either of those things.  I just can't believe thats how this show is written.  Whatever works though, I guess?

[Jeremy Blackman]

On Sunday I interviewed "Breaking Bad" writer/producer George Mastras. He's been a writer on the show since Season 1 and is responsible for the eps "Crazy Handful of Nothin," "Grilled," "Mandala," "I.F.T.," "Thirty-Eight Snub," and "Dead Freight" (which he also directed)! We talked for an hour, mostly about the process in the writers room and less about the specifics of why something happened or didn't, etc. This is Part 1, enjoy!

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/interview-inside-the-breaking-bad-writers-room-with-writer-director-george-mastras-20130813

Great interview as always. I love viewing Dead Freight as a way to deliver a morality check to the audience. In your defense I think it is a bit of a rug-pull after all, if only in the way it very methodically gets you rooting for them.

They reveal in the first 10 minutes of the podcast that when they wrote the flash-forward in 501 with the M60 (giant gun), AND when they wrote this week's flash-forward with the ricin they apparently had no idea where they were going with either of those things.  I just can't believe thats how this show is written.  Whatever works though, I guess?

"No idea" is certainly a stretch. I've learned from this podcast that you have to read between the lines a bit, and there's definitely some false modesty at times. It's not as if they had "no idea" what these things would be used for. Obviously it's a gun and some poison, and they were going to be used against some enemy of Walt's, and Walt's list of enemies was going to change depending on where exactly they took things in the final 8, and that's what they didn't know before.

Vince has mentioned in previous podcasts that they've always known they were going to use the ricin eventually, "fire that Chekhov's gun" as he put it, so I'm sure this has been stewing for a while.

I have one minor issue that might not make me too popular, and that's with Jesse. How many times have we started a season with him in some sort of relapse or depression? It's not out of line dramatically and Aaron Paul plays it wonderfully. It just seems, I don't know, a little tiresome. Like dude, shit or get off the pot. Why hasn't he killed himself already?

I know what you're saying, but it still feels right to me. It's cyclical. Jesse not starting the season in some kind of existential crisis would be like winter not arriving.

My lame prediction is he teams up with Hank to bring Walt down somehow.

I have made the same lame prediction...

Perhaps Jesse and Hank team up, and all sorts of crazy antics ensue.

I'd like to say this again... I hope Jesse plays a major (and sufficiently redemptive) role in Walter's downfall.

And I still hope it's true. It doesn't seem out of the question right now. I think they should team up at least indirectly. Perhaps Hank discovers that Jesse is Heisenberg's partner, which itself would be a big revelation, but maybe he also discovers their schism and reaches out to Jesse, after pushing him up against a wall or something.

[Jim Steele]

Started listening to the podcast, and then remembered why I don't listen to the podcast

Yeah, I get that too. I can only stand a handful of people talk about their craft, writing, stand up, anything. It's always end up just making me feel sick. But it's usually the moderators that really upset me with their questions like "where did you get teh inspiration for this scene" and crap like that. It's just annoying. This is unrelated, but the only thing I really enjoyed that was a discussion of a craft was that HBO thing, Talking Funny. Really entertaining and insightful. If anyone here likes comedy check that out, it's on youtube somewhere

[Reel]

you guys are loony. The podcast is great! I mean, I wish I didn't get a peak behind the curtain this early in the season, it's kinda like listening to a commentary before you've finished a movie, but I like to know the work that goes into it. I appreciate the show more as a piece of filmmaking when I'm aware of certain details in the process. I don't think it takes away from its mystique at all, if anything it just raises more questions.

[©brad]

Why does the podcast take so goddamn long to load on itunes?

[Jeremy Blackman]

Ah, the perennial podcast debate.

Here's the thing. This show is not a mystery. It doesn't have mythologies. Interpreting it is not that difficult. So with this podcast it's not like you're listening to the Lost writers revealing their deepest secrets. I've never felt like precious ambiguities are being spoiled. Vince often chimes in to make something more ambiguous, actually.

I understand it's personal preference, though.