Breaking Bad

[socketlevel]

they also mentioned that eventually they stopped thinking of crimes and misdemeanors and started talking about Fargo.

pretty sure the ending wouldn't have been so triumphant had that been their guiding light.

i liked the episode though, because i'm one of the dickheads they tried to appease by giving walt so many victories. i'm not dissatisfied because i wanted him punished, i just wanted something more meaningful. that final song was SO on the nose it was ridiculous. the lyrics were saying almost exactly what the visuals were showing. i mean emotionally. the music added nothing. it was embarrassingly cute.

the final song was my least favourite part of the episode. i don't think it was the best episode of the season onto itself, but i couldn't be happier with the way it did play out.

[©brad]

So in essence, you guys wanted the show to end with Ozymandias?

Ask yourself what you believe the show was really about. What is the answer? (Serious question.)

#NODISRESPECTOCBRAD #ALLDISRESPECTTOVINCEGILLIGAN (jk. love him too)

Haha I hear you. Was just trying to understand where you were coming from with Jesse. It seems most critics agree with you. Here's a round-up from Vulture.

i liked the episode though, because i'm one of the dickheads they tried to appease by giving walt so many victories. i'm not dissatisfied because i wanted him punished, i just wanted something more meaningful. that final song was SO on the nose it was ridiculous. the lyrics were saying almost exactly what the visuals were showing. i mean emotionally. the music added nothing. it was embarrassingly cute.

I'm pretty much here. I liked the finale but I want to watch it again and think about it more before I decide definitively what they were trying to say and not say. I did want more of a gut-punch at the end. And yeah that song choice felt like a different show.

[Pubrick]

Here's a round-up from Vulture.

holy fuck this just made me look forward to rewatching the episode on its own terms rather than what i thought the show was about:

* "The theme of "Felina" seems to be this: People and machines are usually predictable. Lydia meets her business partners like she always did, tears open the only stevia packet on the table like she always does. Gretchen and Elliot betrayed on television how much they fear losing their reputation and their elegant lives, and that means that they can be manipulated. Walt has always used this predictability—this scientific certainty about action and reaction—to get what he wants. But it's taken him until now to realize the corollary: If you can change your pattern, those predictable people and machines will miss you. Walt changes; he's the only one who does. After their purpose is fulfilled, the machines stay in motion. The massage chair keeps rolling even though its occupant is dead. The M60 keeps sweeping even though it's out of ammunition. But Walt's purpose is fulfilled, and he just stops." — Donna Bowman, The A.V. Club

there's a lot of insightful reviews here actually, i'm really glad to see so much conflicted dissatisfaction.

[modage]

Walt sees this as a win but only someone who's soul is as corrupted as Walt's could see this as a Win. He's a man who has lost everything. He's done so much harm to people he's loved.

This is absolutely not true. More accurately would be: He's a man who lost his family and gained his self-respect. Or he's a man who sacrificed the love of his family for the love of himself. But the show didn't view that as any kind of tragedy, they let it play as a victory.

[jenkins]

for people like me who didn't watch the show and are just reading the end results:

last song


the end title appears to be an anagram of the italian word finale, indeed. used when a drama ends

the marty robbins song with the felina name wasn't used. the marty robbins song that comes right before that song was used when beginning the episode



my response to responses from the final episode:

a variety of specific desires sound missing. the narrative map wasn't torn, in linearity or philosophy, and that leaves only the map. nothing to do now but check the map. i'm enjoying people doing that. seems like an intricate and compelling map was made, and while certain cities couldn't exist, the ones that did exist will remain as good as they were. sounds like they were quite good. everything that's pure disappointment today will fade tomorrow

it's breaking bad, plenty of people will be there to think about it and write about it

[Pubrick]

it's so weird what you're doing. i'm not sure i like it. but then i think i do something similar when trolling mad men, arrested development and the walking dead.

do you ever plan on watching the show? or are you happy to just live your life not understanding a single thing that is going on?

your assumptions and guesses are totally wrong by the way. i mean, i don't watch those shows i troll but i'm pretty sure i'm right when i predict they'll all be as satisfying as dexter (another waste of time i'm glad i avoided.)

[jenkins]

it must be weird, i agree. i'm observing you observing a show, without observing the show itself. i directed my post toward people who don't watch the show. we should have our own thread but, of course, we can't have long conversations about the show. i included songs so people didn't have to google them

i don't have breaking bad plans. i am happy without breaking bad, yes, that's a bizarre question

i don't know what assumptions and guesses from that post you mean. i didn't make any. i think you mean earlier in here, when i was caught in a gust as a leaf from a different tree. i'm not trying to troll. i see where you're coming from. can this be the end of this? it is for me

and now, back to breaking bad

[Frederico Fellini]

#NODISRESPECTOCBRAD #ALLDISRESPECTTOVINCEGILLIGAN (jk. love him too)

[modage]

Interesting. According to the podcast, Gilligan had originally planned to have Skyler kill herself (this is what he pitched to AMC when he explained the season to them in October). He says the other writers talked him out of it and now he agrees it was for the best, says it would have been "unnecessary."

[Brando]

Walt sees this as a win but only someone who's soul is as corrupted as Walt's could see this as a Win. He's a man who has lost everything. He's done so much harm to people he's loved.

This is absolutely not true. More accurately would be: He's a man who lost his family and gained his self-respect. Or he's a man who sacrificed the love of his family for the love of himself. But the show didn't view that as any kind of tragedy, they let it play as a victory.

That's difference cause I did view it as a tragedy. I don't think you can argue Walt completely losing his family and putting them through all this pain as a win. No matter how far Walt has fallen, he's always loved his family and been the most important thing to him. Walt losing his money, empire only hurt his ego. The loss of his family hit the heart of Walter White. It was the only thing Walt could lose that could really punish him.

Interesting. According to the podcast, Gilligan had originally planned to have Skyler kill herself (this is what he pitched to AMC when he explained the season to them in October). He says the other writers talked him out of it and now he agrees it was for the best, says it would have been "unnecessary."

I'm about to listen to the podcast myself. I cannot see Skyler White killing herself. It's just out of character from the woman we've seen over the entire series.

Anyone else notice the Flynn's weird camouflage pants?

[Mel]

I treated last two episodes as epilogue and it worked for me. "Ozymandias" is good ending to story of Walt as drug baron (from rise to fall). In "Granite State"  and "Felina" main theme is a search for self-acceptance, not only acceptance of Heisenberg (dark part of his soul), but also dying from cancer. Those two things are interconnected, but I felt that special emphasis was put on cancer later on.

Story begins with Walt being diagnosed with cancer. Writers started rolling the ball with it and made main character believable. This could be replaced by something else, it was just convenient. Yet I don't think that relapse in this season was a mere coincidence. It was put there very deliberately, why bother otherwise? "Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance" - someone had fun playing with those in last few episodes (with last two almost exclusively focused on Walt).

Overall it was good ride (trolling begins here, so you can skip). I left "Breaking Bad" in half of the second season to focus on watching other shows. I fell that was good decision: Breaking Bad fits binge watching model very well. I picked up it again not so long ago, because fan base was very noisy and reading spoilers by accidents including who dies and how at the end of second season wasn't fun.

Rest in peace Walt.

[ono]

I'm about to listen to the podcast myself. I cannot see Skyler White killing herself. It's just out of character from the woman we've seen over the entire series.

Then what would you call "Fifty-One" (besides a cry for help)?

[modage]

Vince Gilligan on letting Walt succeed in giving the money to his family: "We knew to satisfy the audience, first and foremost to satisfy us, we knew we wanted Walt, it's kind of a no-brainer when you think about it, we want walt to succeed on some level. Morally speaking, it's not that he deserves to succeed and yet nonetheless you want it, as a viewer. He's your protagonist if not your hero. And you don't want it to be all for nothing. So it's kind of a no-brainer that he gets at least some of his money to his family. So you know you want that but the question is how do you do it?"

I wonder when their attitudes started to shift in the writers room?

[Brando]

I'm about to listen to the podcast myself. I cannot see Skyler White killing herself. It's just out of character from the woman we've seen over the entire series.

Then what would you call "Fifty-One" (besides a cry for help)?

I would call it her plan to get the kids out of the house. I thought that was made certain in the episode. Walt even confronts Skyler and she admits it.

[Ghostboy]

I wonder when their attitudes started to shift in the writers room?

All opinions on the final episode aside, it is tough to hold someone 100% to certain ideals when those ideals are applied to a medium as expansive as six seasons of television. Attitudes are definitely going to shift over time, even in the space of one season (or even a single episode), especially with characters like these, occupying moral territory as gray as they have for such a sustained period of time. And for as much frustration as this shifting might have caused in this final hour, I think it's also almost certainly the root of some of the most satisfying and enriching complexities of the previous 63 hours.

So, I hold nothing against them.