Breaking Bad

Started by squints, February 25, 2009, 07:23:38 PM

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Kal

Can't wait! I will try to rewatch the last few episodes to remember everything that was going on and get even more excited (if thats even possible!).

diggler

I'm sure we'll start seeing some footage as we get closer to the premiere, this served to get me back in the mood to watch the show though. Even without new footage, it's a hell of a trailer. I'd be perfectly happy not seeing a second of the new season before it premieres.

This show has become the high water mark of modern television.
I'm not racist, I'm just slutty

cronopio 2

i agree that this show's handling of tension is impeccable and it's probably as exciting as the dynamics of a cliffhanger can get, but i'm going to briefly comment on the things that put me off:

-scenes like walter being right in front of jessie's gf when she's having a stroke.  those scenes ruin the hard earned verosimilitude of the show ( i say it's hard earned cos it takes a while to buy into shit like the fact that walter's brother-in-law is a DEA agent).

-it's a show that doesn't get any benefits from selling its style. i don't want walter and jesse to look fabulous in their yellow PPEs or  cool shots.

-i hate when it gets wacky, like the lawyer's publicity, or the narco corrido about walter, or the ad for the chicken restaurant. it turns the story into a GTA IV sequence.

-lazy stereotypes. the moral rawness of its characters is eclipsed by how dumb and textbook the stylization of criminal behaviour is.


feel free to argue

john

Quote from: cronopio 2 on May 31, 2011, 11:28:50 PM


-i hate when it gets wacky, like the lawyer's publicity, or the narco corrido about walter, or the ad for the chicken restaurant. it turns the story into a GTA IV sequence.

-lazy stereotypes. the moral rawness of its characters is eclipsed by how dumb and textbook the stylization of criminal behaviour is.


feel free to argue


As much as I love Bob Odenkirk, I cringed when they introduced his character. I expected a caricature, rather than someone fully detailed and befitting the world the show had established. That was a worry that was dismissed pretty quickly, however. Odenkirk's character might be used as comedic relief, but it's an earned comedic relief. His ads, or the ad for the chicken restaurant, might undercut the otherwise unflinching tone of the show, but it does so very honestly. At no point do the ads feels disingenuous. They feel real to both the world the characters inhabit and to my perception of that world.

In regard to the lazy stereotypes: This probably isn't what you are addressing, but the one element of the show that I'm worried about (and, hopefully, it's another unfounded worry) is the progression of Skylar from (muddled) moral compass to Lady Macbeth-esque accomplice. It's the one character arch that seems too easy and a bit reductive. The shows writer's are smart and could easily circumvent this development and I hope they do... or, at least, make it more interesting than it promises to be.



Can't wait for the fourth season. This is a show that constantly outdoes itself. I just hope it's scope doesn't become too ambitious, actually. Gus is a perfectly realized adversary. I hope he doesn't become larger than life (anymore than the last couple episodes have hinted at anyway) and they remember it's the small moments that have carried the biggest impact so far.
Maybe every day is Saturday morning.

diggler

I think they've done a pretty good job of setting up Skylar to be an accomplice.  In the first season she feigns pregnancy problems to get out of her sisters shoplifting troubles, which was a minor comedic scene but it set up the fact that she was capable of bullshit just like Walt.  Then her looking the other way while Ted cooked the books led to her eventually accepting Walt's ventures. It wasn't as if she just snapped out of her own morality.  The scene where she cooked up the lie about Walt's "gambling" problem might have been my favorite scene from last season. Walt's earlier lecture to a student to "never shit a shitter" came full circle there.  Skylar is way more capable of a ruse than Walt is.
I'm not racist, I'm just slutty

ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ

Those are some mad spoils, cron, though maybe everyone here is caught up on Breaking Bad.

Quote from: cronopio 2 on May 31, 2011, 11:28:50 PM
-scenes like walter being right in front of jessie's gf when she's having a stroke.  those scenes ruin the hard earned verosimilitude of the show ( i say it's hard earned cos it takes a while to buy into shit like the fact that walter's brother-in-law is a DEA agent).

That was one of my favorite scenes of the show chiefly because there is a huge difference between letting someone die of a stroke and letting someone die of an overdose.  Especially in the context of when it happens.  She brought it on herself, she was sapping Jesse, they had just made a plan to get away from it all and go sober (though the show indicates it's possible that she would've gone clean for Jessie, we will never know).

Hell, the DEA agent brother isn't really that farfetched.  It's the crux of the show.  He saw a meth bust on TV in a time when he needed to make a lot of money quick no matter the repercussions, but what sealed the deal was his DEA agent brother in law suggesting how instantly lucrative it is.  In fact, if his brother in law wasn't a DEA agent, he may never even have considered drug dealing on his own. 
"As a matter of fact I only work with the feeling of something magical, something seemingly significant. And to keep it magical I don't want to know the story involved, I just want the hypnotic effect of it somehow seeming significant without knowing why." - Len Lye

diggler

I'm not racist, I'm just slutty

©brad

And here is a nifty new trailer with actual scenes from season 4. I can't believe we have to wait yet another month!


AntiDumbFrogQuestion

Quote from: ddiggler on June 21, 2011, 03:44:14 PM
Some nifty photos from the new season. Love that last one!

http://blogs.amctv.com/photo-galleries/breaking-bad-season-4-studio-photos/season-4-cast.php


HaHah I've always loved how they treat RJ Mitte's character as one not to be pitied, and I especially love that they could make him look BadAss in this publicity still!

©brad


ono

I just rewatched most of S2 and S3 in anticipation of this, thanks in part to the late-night marathons on AMC, and my own stash of downloads.  Half Measures is one of the best hours of television ever (though really, what episode of S3 can you NOT arguably say that about?).  Full Measure is heartbreakingly, heartstoppingly tragic.  And now, this!  http://www.amctv.com/breaking-bad/videos/breaking-bad-sneak-peek-season-4-episode-1-box-cutter

The best show on television's 4th season premiere is only a few hours away!

And today, Reddit is honoring BB's return with its alien dressed up as Heisenberg.  :)

Reel

never got into Breaking Bad, thinking I should start..

ono

Cut from mopping up blood to french fries dipping in ketchup?  I see what you did there.  Walt kept taaaalking and talking, and Gus.  Said.  Nothing.  I knew what his line would be once he finally did speak.  The only thing I can't quite put together -- well, I guess I can -- is why silent boy?  Maybe 'cause he made a mistake (jumping in to the crime scene and letting himself be seen), and was expendable.  Perfect chance for Walt and Skyler -- well, Walt -- to confide IN Skyler, but more was said when nothing was.  Cut to the crime scene photos, and... the Lab Notes.  I'l never look at box cutters the same way.

Jeremy Blackman

SPOILERS

Quote from: ono on July 17, 2011, 10:06:02 PM
Cut from mopping up blood to french fries dipping in ketchup?  I see what you did there.  Walt kept taaaalking and talking, and Gus.  Said.  Nothing.  I knew what his line would be once he finally did speak.  The only thing I can't quite put together -- well, I guess I can -- is why silent boy?  Maybe 'cause he made a mistake (jumping in to the crime scene and letting himself be seen), and was expendable.  Perfect chance for Walt and Skyler -- well, Walt -- to confide IN Skyler, but more was said when nothing was.  Cut to the crime scene photos, and... the Lab Notes.  I'l never look at box cutters the same way.

You know what they say... a box cutter introduced in Act 1 is always used in Act 3.

This should be an amazing season. They keep raising the bar for intense scenes, and I just don't know how they do it. The scene with Gus was hardcore. Not only gruesome, but paced beautifully. How rare for an episode of television to have such potent silences. It was masterful.

Gus talked to Mike, so I'm sure he knew how Victor had handled the situation, which is to say... unprofessionally. If you remember the Season 3 finale, he started acting based on his emotions as soon as he learned what Walt had pulled. So yeah. Who knows how many security cameras captured him on his way there and back? Maybe he left some fingerprints, too. He certainly made himself memorable to the eyewitnesses at the scene, and of course they're going to mention that encounter to police. This is Gus's right-hand man. Gus can't be seen with Victor in public anymore, so yes, he's a liability and pretty much useless. (Starting the batch by himself sort of put an exclamation mark on that.)

The slaying of Victor was also a display (complete with supplemental stony glares) meant to intimidate Walt and Jesse. But I think Walt is smarter than that, as we learn in the diner scene. He's planning their next move and thinking like a criminal, like one of them, and he even seems a little excited about it. Remember when it seemed ridiculous for Walt to be strategizing about these things? Doesn't seem ridiculous anymore, does it?

Skylar's behavior does make sense. She's concerned about Walt, but she's definitely not at the point (yet?) where she wants to be aware of the details. It will be interesting to see, as Walt becomes a more hardened criminal, whether she catches up to him a bit. I'm not sure that will ever happen to a great extent, since the show is about Walt's transformation. She will probably maintain a don't ask / don't tell policy for at least a while.

Also:

- I knew what Gus was going to do as soon as he picked up that box cutter, but that didn't make it any less shocking.
- The ketchup was heavy handed, but still funny. This is the sort of thing you'd see all the time on The X-Files.
- We should remember that Gus killing Victor is not an endorsement of Walt, whose analysis of the situation seems to be correct.