Breaking Bad

[Jeremy Blackman]

Yeah. That is late late summer.

Personally I'm going to have a week-by-week rewatch of Season 5 Part 1 leading up to the premier. Now even that is delayed.

[©brad]

'Breaking Bad' Creator Vince Gilligan Reveals the Finale Will Be "Victorious"

Well, worry not: showrunner Vince Gilligan has assured The Daily Beast that he isn't going to pull a Sopranos and leave us hanging.

"Anyone anxious that there won't be resolution enough at the end of these eight episodes can rest assured that the story very much reaches resolution," Gilligan said Monday in his most extensive comments on the Breaking Bad finale to date. "It will not end in any kind of open-ended sense."

Speaking from Los Angeles, where he was busy editing the final batch of episodes—"We're about halfway through," he explained—Gilligan struggled to "say something of substance" about the end of Breaking Bad without "giving anything away." After much hemming and hawing, he finally settled on a single word to describe the finale: "victorious."

"I'll say this much," Gilligan began. "I'm surprised by how victorious, in a certain sense, the ending feels to me."
Whether "victorious" means that Hank (Dean Norris) nabs Walt (Bryan Cranston), or Jesse (Aaron Paul) breaks free, or even that Walt triumphs over his (many) foes and frenemies, Gilligan wouldn't say. Walt, of course, seems to be overdue for some sort of comeuppance, but Breaking Bad has always resisted tidy moral constructions, so we wouldn't bet (just yet) on seeing Heisenberg dead or behind bars in the end.

However the series concludes, though, getting there wasn't easy, according to Gilligan.

"I was very nervous for the last year that we didn't have an interesting enough way to wrap up Breaking Bad," he confessed. "I have to say that we were in the woods for a long time with these final eight episodes. Creatively, I felt like I couldn't see the forest for the trees, and I was sort of trying to hack my way through the jungle of this story."

But eventually Gilligan and his team found what sounds like an ideal solution.

"I'm very proud of these final eight," Gilligan said Monday. "They go like gangbusters. There is no downtime in them. We are racing to the finish. I think they end the show in as satisfying a manner as we could possibly come up with."

[Brando]

This is old but some one just sent me the link and I haven't seen this before.

Vince Gilligan Interview "Breaking Bad" is about a guy having the world's worst midlife crisis -- a guy who's never littered or jaywalked, never broken the law in any serious way, suddenly finding himself doing something reprehensible and illegal. Why would he do such a thing? That's the experiment of 'Breaking Bad' -it's a show about change. Our main character, our hero, becomes our bad guy... And if we're going to do this, we have to be courageous about it and we have to let the chips fall where they may."   

http://emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/vince-gilligan#

Writer/Producer Vince Gilligan was interviewed for nearly four hours in Burbank, CA. He talked about knowing that he wanted to be involved with storytelling, in film or television, from a very early age. He discussed his education at NYU Film school and winning a screenwriting award which lead to his first jobs in television writing. He discussed becoming a staff writer on The X-Files after a chance meeting with series' creator Chris Carter. He spoke in great detail about his seven years as a writer, and later producer, on X-Files and described several specific episodes including the Emmy-winning "Memento Mori". He spoke about the short-lived spinoff, The Lone Gunmen, and how both series were affected by the events of 9/11. He spoke at length about his current project (then concluding season 4), the AMC drama Breaking Bad, which he created and produced. The interview was conducted by Jenni Matz on August 9, 2011.

[MacGuffin]

'Breaking Bad' Spanish-Language Adaptation a Go

After a bit of confusion, it's officially true: The Spanish-language adaptation of "Breaking Bad" is a go, Sony Pictures Television said on Monday.

The adaptation, titled "Metastasis" and starring El Capo" actor Diego Trujillo as, yes, Walter Blanco, will be produced by Sony Pictures Television and Teleset.

Univision announced the project last week as part of its 2014 lineup -- but that apparently came as news to Sony, which owns "Breaking Bad." It contacted Univision and expressed its surprise, since a deal had not yet been struck, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap last week.

"Metastasis" has been cleared in most major Spanish-speaking markets, including Univision's UniMas in the United States.

Much like -- OK, pretty much exactly like -- "Breaking Bad," "Metastasis" follows the story of an unassuming chemistry teacher who is given a fatal diagnosis and enters a world of drugs and crime, where he ascends to power.

[03]

anyone else rewatching this from the beginning in preparation?
they all feel new when you watch them, how do he do it

[03]

this may sound kind of weird, but i was watching jackie brown again yesterday and i had the sudden realization that max cherry and mike have somewhat similar personalities. does anyone else agree or am i crazy?

[ono]

I agree, and that's a really interesting connection to draw.  Older, weathered men, seen-it-all, warm-hearted under a gruff exterior.  I think Mike is much more gruff and hardcore than Max, though, but his downfall was he had a blind spot for Walt.  Max, I don't think, has any such blind spot.

[Reel]

Max, I don't think, has any such blind spot.

He has a bald spot, but he 'did something about it.'


I can see the comparison, that gruff voice and thousand yard stare, I think it's mostly the way they talk. I haven't watched BB in a minute, though. I need to see that first half of season 5 again, so great. Good ol' Mike...

[AntiDumbFrogQuestion]

"Is white guilt supposed to make me forget that I run a business?"

Could come from either of their mouths

[MacGuffin]

'Breaking Bad': Creator Vince Gilligan spills on the final eight episodes
Source: EW

When Breaking Bad left off last summer, tenacious DEA agent Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) was hot on the trail — and, er, toilet — of meth maker Walter White (Bryan Cranston). And when the revered drama returns with the second half of season 5 (beginning Aug. 11 on AMC), what should we brace for? Among other things, maybe a bit of self-reflection from the cancer-stricken chemistry teacher who transformed himself into a lethal drug kingpin with the help of high school dropout/partner Jesse (Aaron Paul).

"We often said in the writers' room that if Walt had a superpower, it would be not his chemistry knowledge or his ability to cook crystal meth but his ability to lie," series creator/executive producer Vince Gilligan tells EW. "Walt has been the world's greatest liar, and I think the person he lies most capably to is himself. So in these final eight episodes, perhaps the lies will cease to find traction and the scales will start to fall away from Walt's eyes. And when that happens, will Walt really begin to realize who he is? That's a question that we asked ourselves a lot in the writers' room this year."

Of course, Walt won't have too much time for navel-gazing, as he'll need to keep his eyes on his brother-in-law Hank — in addition to other adversaries. "There will be antagonistic relationships aplenty," promises Gilligan, adding: "Walt's got plenty of fight left in him. And he's got plenty of forces to fight. You met some of them. Others you haven't."

Should viewers brace for a high body count? "As the movie title goes, there will be blood," answers Gilligan. "To my mind, that's not the most interesting thing. It's the emotional moments and the character moments. ... We've got some stuff that I think is going to be truly satisfying and truly shocking and jarring. It does not always center on moments of violence." And these moments will come flying at you at "breakneck speed," he warns: "I have surprised myself at how much story there was left to tell and how quickly we tell it. You need to really settle down on the couch and pay close attention because it's going to come at you fast and furious in the final eight episodes."

Gilligan is both cautious and upbeat when it comes to discussing that highly anticipated finale. "We worked long and hard to ensure that these final eight — and, in fact, the very last episode — would satisfy an audience," he says. "I am guardedly optimistic that we have achieved just that. And furthermore, trying to be as coy as possible, trying to give away as little as possible, I feel like this ending represents on some level, however small, something of a victory for Walter White. Read into that what you will. And try to be as open-minded as possible when you watch this episode, because it may not indeed feel like a victory. Or maybe it will. ... I feel good about where it all ended up, and I can't wait for people to see it."

Asked for one last cryptic hint about the homestretch of episodes, Gilligan says: "Sometimes you see meth labs in the darndest places."

[Jeremy Blackman]

"Spills" definitely sounds spoilery.

[polkablues]

[ono]

Yes, that joke is at least like 4 years old, but thank you for playing. 

In other news, Byron Cramden (see: his SNL monologue) did an AMA at reddit.  You know, that other site.

[polkablues]

Yeah, well, internet.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I for one hadn't seen it before and rather enjoyed it. But perhaps this matter warrants further debate.

In other news, my flash drive with Breaking Bad Season 5 Part 1 is currently being passed around like [insert prostitute joke or Margaret Thatcher joke here]. Anticipation really seems to be building... should be interesting to see what ratings are like for the final 8.