Breaking Bad Season 5 Discussion Thread

[rcole_sooner]

Yep, this show tends to find what it takes to make someone do something they would not normally do, if they thought they had another choice.

[popthree]

about Walt's descent to barbarism..... the guy's had it in him all his life... he finally just gives in to it. He has no conscience... i'm re-watching the entire show.. just rebooted season 1.

Need a sympathetic character ? Jesse's your man.

[rcole_sooner]

Yeah, Jesse's character actually seems to grow-up during the show. A little to whiny at times, but then that is some crazy stuff they are dealing with. I would of been whiny long before it got to that point.

[cowboytwang]

Originally Posted by KenH

I've only watched a couple of shows over the years. I thought the guy was dying of an incurable disease and wanted to provide for his family before he checked out. Why is he still around?

Because he told his wife about all the money and she blew on an a guy she was having an affair with.

Originally Posted by Califiddler

I just recently discovered this show. Over the last few weeks I have watched season 1 (7 episodes) and the first 7 episodes of season 2.

Season 1 was really good. The basic plot line of a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and decides to manufacture meth to provide for his family after he is gone is very unique and creative. And for the first season, Walt is a sympathetic character.

It went downhill pretty quickly in season 2. The holes in the plot and suspension of belief (I'm thinking especially of the episode where Hank kills Tuco) really get out of hand. More importantly, Walt ceases to be a sympathetic character. When the meth-addict couple rips off one of Jesse's dealers, and Walt gives Jesse the gun and tells him to deal with it, it's hard to keep rooting for Walt. The show becomes just another crime drama with drug dealers, addicts, cops, crooked lawyers, etc. Apparently Walt's cancer goes into remission, which would make him even less sympathetic.

Unless someone can tell me that the show gets a lot better after season 2, episode 7, I'm done watching.

If Walt didn't become a true evil, bad person, I don't think they would have called the show "Breaking BAD". It's kind of the whole point.

[dburns]

Big fan here too. Just started it about a month ago and flew through the first 4 seasons. Season 5 has been up to par so far. And yea, from all accounts, this is the final season.

As far as destroying Gus' laptop...Hank mentioned last night that it was 'encrypted' and they probably wouldn't have gotten anything from it anyway. So all that work with the magnets only lead to exposing that bank account/routing number in the Cayman Islands...talk about a plan backfiring. Great show.

[scrimmer]

Big BB fan here also. It's the only thing worth watching on TV IMHO, and that's saying something for me. I am just not much of a TV watcher at all. Thank God for DVRs and being able to watch it on my own schedule too.

Anyway, I think this may be the last season and it's not going to end well for Walt. (Mike's comment about "you're a ticking time bomb and I don't want to be around when you go 'Boom'!) Just speculation, but I see it all ending tragically and abruptly in the end, and I think this season is it. Anyone agree?

What a great show, with such great writing and characters!

[Skully]

Season 1 was really good. The basic plot line of a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and decides to manufacture meth to provide for his family after he is gone is very unique and creative. And for the first season, Walt is a sympathetic character.

It went downhill pretty quickly in season 2. The holes in the plot and suspension of belief (I'm thinking especially of the episode where Hank kills Tuco) really get out of hand.

I thought the show didn't didn't get up to speed until the second season. I found Season 1 unbearably slow; something I had to work through to get to the good stuff.

And someone else explained the unsympathetic thing.

[Skully]

Anyway, I think this may be the last season and it's not going to end well for Walt. (Mike's comment about "you're a ticking time bomb and I don't want to be around when you go 'Boom'!) Just speculation, but I see it all ending tragically and abruptly in the end, and I think this season is it. Anyone agree?

I believe it's eight episodes this year, eight episodes next year.

[rcole_sooner]

Originally Posted by dburns

Big fan here too. Just started it about a month ago and flew through the first 4 seasons. Season 5 has been up to par so far. And yea, from all accounts, this is the final season.

As far as destroying Gus' laptop...Hank mentioned last night that it was 'encrypted' and they probably wouldn't have gotten anything from it anyway. So all that work with the magnets only lead to exposing that bank account/routing number in the Cayman Islands...talk about a plan backfiring. Great show.

Hard drives can be unencrypted, but that aside, if the bank accounts had not been exposed, then I doubt Mike would be willing to enter the "partnership". They are going to get a precusor supplier out of it.

So, yeah, it may have backfired, but it was like a bad golf shot, that winds up next to the hole. It was a good miss.

[thunderbyrd]

Originally Posted by popthree

about Walt's descent to barbarism..... the guy's had it in him all his life... he finally just gives in to it. He has no conscience... i'm re-watching the entire show.. just rebooted season 1.

Need a sympathetic character ? Jesse's your man.

yeah, i agree with you, Popthree. it's supposed to be about a good man who descends into evil, but i've seen him as evil from the 1st episode. it's the story of his layer-by-layer divesting of the regular guy facade, in my opinion, but heisenberg was in him all along.

[Larry F]

What was the purpose of the ricin cigarette? It wasn't for Gus, was it? He doesn't strike me as someone who would smoke. I'm trying to think of other baddies. I've watched all the episodes, but just don't remember.

Yeah, great show. But I feel funny acknowledging that, which I'm sure is an even greater tribute.

[getbent]

Originally Posted by thunderbyrd

yeah, i agree with you, Popthree. it's supposed to be about a good man who descends into evil, but i've seen him as evil from the 1st episode. it's the story of his layer-by-layer divesting of the regular guy facade, in my opinion, but heisenberg was in him all along.

my read on walt is the he is a version of many of us. Given the right set of circumstances... we all have heisenberg in us... (uncertainty)

I'm almost surprised that folks have morality problems with Walt (or his wife or the FBI agent or the kid or the attorney or the chicken man or mike)

I see myself in all of them. I see ways that given the right circumstances and impetus and skill set... there are all kinds of things that could happen...

If your life has never turned on a dime... you are in for a rude awakening and it will be a great experience... before Walt got sick and cooked meth... he was dead (although he felt blissful in his pretend existence) when he drew way outside the lines, he found himself, his strength etc...

Every single one of those felons have socially redeemable characteristics and with only some minor adjustments for life's banality... they could be us, our neighbors and our friends...

[Larry F]

Originally Posted by getbent

Every single one of those felons have socially redeemable characteristics and with only some minor adjustments for life's banality... they could be us, our neighbors and our friends...

I don't know. Maybe my imagination is limited, but I wouldn't ever do the things Walt does. Are you saying that, given certain conditions, I would make the same choices as Walt?

[cowboytwang]

Originally Posted by Larry F

What was the purpose of the ricin cigarette? It wasn't for Gus, was it? He doesn't strike me as someone who would smoke. I'm trying to think of other baddies. I've watched all the episodes, but just don't remember.

Yeah, great show. But I feel funny acknowledging that, which I'm sure is an even greater tribute.

The cigarette was just the vehicle for Jessie to get the ricin into Gus's office. He was supposed to put it in Gus's coffee.

[getbent]

Originally Posted by Larry F

I don't know. Maybe my imagination is limited, but I wouldn't ever do the things Walt does. Are you saying that, given certain conditions, I would make the same choices as Walt?

or you would fold.

I think the point of all of it is that we have the veneer of civility, when pushed, when threatened, some of us will compete and choose ruthlessness and cruelty and lawlessness in order to protect ourselves and our own and some won't.

Some of us won't want to think in those terms and have the luxury (the remote) to not consider them and to assume that we have evolved beyond having to scratch and claw and make brutal choices to get what we want....

but, we do it in subtle other ways... deep sixing a competitor in business (even the term is implication) or writing a lukewarm review of someone we don't like in our department (rationalizing all the way)

Walt does it in bald terms. He does it straight up and in your face AND.... he is still a nice man who loves his handicapped son, his infant child, his wife (who is equally ruthless but wavers in her acceptance of her animal self)

Desperation exposes things about us that we might tell ourselves we'd never do...

I gotta say, I loved the whole magnet thing.... the whole scorched earth way of doing things has intellectual appeal to me because it strips away any pretense of 'being nice'....

[rcole_sooner]

Originally Posted by Larry F

What was the purpose of the ricin cigarette? It wasn't for Gus, was it? He doesn't strike me as someone who would smoke. I'm trying to think of other baddies. I've watched all the episodes, but just don't remember.

Yeah, great show. But I feel funny acknowledging that, which I'm sure is an even greater tribute.

The poison being in the cigarette was just a way to sneak it around. The initial plan was to put it in his food or drink.


And yes, I read some show info, and it seems the idea is that Walt was dead living in suburbia, before he got cancer, and then, after cancer, began to really experience life, however warped it was.

One thing my wife and I have learned is, we like life boring.

[thunderbyrd]

"One thing my wife and I have learned is, we like life boring"

yes, compared to walter white, boring will be just fine. it's a cautionary tale!

[popthree]

Originally Posted by getbent

my read on walt is the he is a version of many of us. Given the right set of circumstances... we all have heisenberg in us... (uncertainty)

definitely a theme i've picked up on...

when i watch this show, i keep finding myself reminded, over and over, that there isn't much difference in the most dispicable of humanity and that which is considered the creme'.

circumstances, choices, circumstances, choices

[thunderbyrd]

Well, is everybody stoked for episode 3? i know i am. i don't get off work til midnight, so i rush home and watch the last half, then see the whole episode when it comes on again about 0130.

[maryjane]

i really loved the show until walt let jesse's girlfriend die...

then his character lost all of his humanity....killing gale was a twisted kind of self defense,

so jesse somehow managed to retain what humanity he had