Breaking Bad

[JustInFudge]

80 million = empire

 

11 million = not even enough to pay Revis for a season.

 

Empire dead. 

 

 

I know JiF will understand now. 

 

He said that 2 seasons ago, before he left the business.  He's no longer interested in an Empire.  Maybe he's interested in his money but the Empire sh*t he's over, especially now that he's lost everything that he loves from it.

 

The motivation to return is either a) money Jesse c) revenge.  I dont really see it any other way.  He's not going to destroy them all to start cooking again.  

[JerryK]

We've covered all the obvious questions... I have another one from out in left field.

How absolutely, positively, definitively, 100% sure are we that Mike is dead?

 

 

Yeah, he kinda fell over by the stream, but that's all we saw.

 

Edit:  Yeah, he's toast.  I checked back to that episode.

[JustInFudge]

If Walt rescues Jesse it's because he wants Jesse to kill him when he's free.  There's no salvaging that relationship.  If the writers were to allow Jesse to forgive Walt - even if he saved him - would be ridiculous.  They've spent 15 episodes focusing on the detereoration of their friendship..  to kiss and make up in the last 2 episodes wouldn't be Breaking Bad like.

 

This is good point.  It was just theory of mine.  Maybe because deep down inside I want them to work things out...but you're right.  That would be a little ridiculous to have them kiss and make up.  

[The Crusher]

We've covered all the obvious questions... I have another one from out in left field.

How absolutely, positively, definitively, 100% sure are we that Mike is dead?

 

 

Yeah, he kinda fell over by the stream, but that's all we saw.

 

 

Like Sanchez as the starting QB of the Jets dead.

[The Crusher]

This is good point.  It was just theory of mine.  Maybe because deep down inside I want them to work things out...but you're right.  That would be a little ridiculous to have them kiss and make up.  

 

 

True. But maybe pulling an 80 and hugging it out?

[Klecko73isGod]

He said that 2 seasons ago, before he left the business.  He's no longer interested in an Empire.  Maybe he's interested in his money but the Empire sh*t he's over, especially now that he's lost everything that he loves from it.

 

The motivation to return is either a) money Jesse c) revenge.  I dont really see it any other way.  He's not going to destroy them all to start cooking again.  

 

 

He could destroy them and keep Jesse enslaved and cooking for him.

 

EMPIRE BITCH! FTMFW!

[JustInFudge]

True. But maybe pulling an 80 and hugging it out?

 

Or at the very least, setting him free.  Maybe they dont patch things up, but he gets him out of slavery and they just go their separate ways.

[JustInFudge]

He could destroy them and keep Jesse enslaved and cooking for him.

 

EMPIRE BITCH! FTMFW!

 

lol - that would be a funny ******* twist.  

[Klecko73isGod]

lol - that would be a funny ******* twist.  

 

Learn to think like Heisenberg bitch!

[JerryK]

Me: Is mike really dead?

 

Like Sanchez as the starting QB of the Jets dead.

 

Right, later in the episode he gets the hydroflouric acid treatment.

[The Crusher]

Me: Is mike really dead?

 

 

Right, later in the episode he gets the hydroflouric acid treatment.

 

 

Jesse doing it the first time in the non plastic tub was when I started falling in love with the show.   Made more of a mess than when I eat wings and teh ribs.  LOL

[Pac]

Interesting tidbit.  The family leaves the house to stay with Marie. 

 

Now this might be something...  Family goes to stay with Marie, white trash posse comes looking for the tape, someone gets hurt or killed.

 

That could be the reason Walt comes back with a shotgun in the trunk. 

 

Or what about this wild theory..  Walt takes the Ricin for himself.  He expects to get taken prisoner when he goes in shooting so he takes the Ricin before going in...  so he can't be tortured or forced to cook.

 

That would really suck..  as horrible as Walts been I still want for him to live.  There's no way he'll ever be happy but to see him die would suck.

[The Crusher]

Now this might be something...  Family goes to stay with Marie, white trash posse comes looking for the tape, someone gets hurt or killed.

 

That could be the reason Walt comes back with a shotgun in the trunk. 

 

Or what about this wild theory..  Walt takes the Ricin for himself.  He expects to get taken prisoner when he goes in shooting so he takes the Ricin before going in...  so he can't be tortured or forced to cook.

 

That would really suck..  as horrible as Walts been I still want for him to live.  There's no way he'll ever be happy but to see him die would suck.

 

 

I likey that secenario.  I fel like Walt has to die.  Pretty sure they go stay with Marie.  OMG can;t wait. 

[Pac]

I likey that secenario.  I fel like Walt has to die.  Pretty sure they go stay with Marie.  OMG can;t wait. 

 

ughh..  I don't want Walt to die.

 

and why in the f-ck did the geniuses at AMC tell Vince Gilligan he has to close out the series 2 years ago...  They're getting better ratings than they've ever had and it's climbing.  They should have given them a couple more years.

[The Crusher]

ughh..  I don't want Walt to die.

 

and why in the f-ck did the geniuses at AMC tell Vince Gilligan he has to close out the series 2 years ago...  They're getting better ratings than they've ever had and it's climbing.  They should have given them a couple more years.

 

 

He might have been the one to tell them he is done.  This is better than it jumping the shark and becoming assinine like 24 did the last three seasons.  Yet I would be very happy if they extended it.  Walt will die.  Book it.  Nothing less to live for plus the cancer.  If they let him live evryone will picture him dying a slow shriveled up cancer death. he has to go out like Jesses ******* James.  I will throw a handful of sh*t at the TV if they Soprano the ending. 

[Pac]

He might have been the one to tell them he is done.  This is better than it jumping the shark and becoming assinine like 24 did the last three seasons.  Yet I would be very happy if they extended it.  Walt will die.  Book it.  Nothing less to live for plus the cancer.  If they let him live evryone will picture him dying a slow shriveled up cancer death. he has to go out like Jesses ******* James.  I will throw a handful of sh*t at the TV if they Soprano the ending. 

 

naw I read articles on it...  AMC pressed him to end the series 2 years ago.  They wanted him to end it in season 5 with 12 episodes.  He held out for 16 and was ready to move to a different network.  AMC finally came around and gave him 2 more seasons with 8 episodes each.

 

the ratings are more than triple what they were when the series started and are climbing.  a lot of people think it had to do with word of mouth spreading and people like you and me catching up on Netflix.  They're saying shows like BB and Mad Men might change how studios do business with Netflix..  as in they won't charge them as much to show their content.  Ultimately it's helping them to get better ratings.

 

That's good news for people who may have missed out on past seasons of great shows that currently aren't on NF.

[Pac]

one good thing is the last 2 season of BB success have paved the way for the spinoff with Saul..  it's going to be a prequel to the series so Saul won't have met Walt yet.

 

I'm hopeful it will be good but I'm not sure..  it will be nice to see a "familiar" face in Saul but Albuquerque without Walt, Jesse, Hank, etc can't possibly be great.

[The Crusher]

naw I read articles on it...  AMC pressed him to end the series 2 years ago.  They wanted him to end it in season 5 with 12 episodes.  He held out for 16 and was ready to move to a different network.  AMC finally came around and gave him 2 more seasons with 8 episodes each.

 

the ratings are more than triple what they were when the series started and are climbing.  a lot of people think it had to do with word of mouth spreading and people like you and me catching up on Netflix.  They're saying shows like BB and Mad Men might change how studios do business with Netflix..  as in they won't charge them as much to show their content.  Ultimately it's helping them to get better ratings.

 

That's good news for people who may have missed out on past seasons of great shows who currently aren't on NF.

 

 

I would have never watched it if you and JiF didnt bring it up.  I have never enjoyed a show like this.  Sad to see it go.  Walt will die.

[Pac]

I would have never watched it if you and JiF didnt bring it up.  I have never enjoyed a show like this.  Sad to see it go.  Walt will die.

 

Walts not dying you a-hole..  he has a full head of hair -- cancer is in remission.

 

Much better to let him live and have the audience ponder the uncertainty of his future.  I don't need to see him die...  stop saying that.

[The Crusher]

Walts not dying you a-hole..  he has a full head of hair -- cancer is in remission.

 

Much better to let him live and have the audience ponder the uncertainty of his future.  I don't need to see him die...  stop saying that.

 

 

He has a full head of hair because he is NOT getting Chemo.  Chemo makes your hair fall out not cancer.  Walt will go out in a blaze of glory and you may be sad but at the same time we all know it;s the only way.  Plus accodring to Klecko Walt is already dead and Eisenberg is in full effect.  Regardless he will die before it is said and done. Jesse will live, skyler will live, the baby will live, Marie will die and Walt JR is the wildcard. He may die too. 

[Klecko73isGod]

He might have been the one to tell them he is done.  This is better than it jumping the shark and becoming assinine like 24 did the last three seasons.  Yet I would be very happy if they extended it.  Walt will die.  Book it.  Nothing less to live for plus the cancer.  If they let him live evryone will picture him dying a slow shriveled up cancer death. he has to go out like Jesses ******* James.  I will throw a handful of sh*t at the TV if they Soprano the ending. 

 

The Sopranos ending was brilliant. 

[Klecko73isGod]

Walts not dying you a-hole..  he has a full head of hair -- cancer is in remission.

 

 

He has a full head of hair because he is NOT getting Chemo.  Chemo makes your hair fall out not cancer.  Walt will go out in a blaze of glory and you may be sad but at the same time we all know it;s the only way.  Plus accodring to Klecko Walt is already dead and Eisenberg is in full effect.  Regardless he will die before it is said and done. Jesse will live, skyler will live, the baby will live, Marie will die and Walt JR is the wildcard. He may die too. 

 

Heisenberg can't be killed. 

[The Crusher]

The Sopranos ending was brilliant. 

 

 

If your a fan of blue balls then yes., 

[The Crusher]

Heisenberg can't be killed. 

 

 

OMG how do you even stand yourself?

[Klecko73isGod]

If your a fan of blue balls then yes., 

 

The ending is quite clear. Go back and watch the episode again. 

[The Crusher]

The ending is quite clear. Go back and watch the episode again. 

 

 

No. I'm still pissed off from the first time.

[AFJF]

Just watched the most recent episode.  Hate the direction this is going in, but such a great show.

[Pac]

So good news is I get to go to Atlantis in the Bahamas on Sunday on the company dime.  Flight, room, etc paid for.  Bad news is I won't be able to see BB until next Thursday when I get back.  I'll be avoiding this thread until next week but feel free to praise me in my absence when many of my predictions about the show come true.

[Klecko73isGod]

So good news is I get to go to Atlantis in the Bahamas on Sunday on the company dime.  Flight, room, etc paid for.  Bad news is I won't be able to see BB until next Thursday when I get back.  I'll be avoiding this thread until next week but feel free to praise me in my absence when many of my predictions about the show come true.

 

 

Don't worry, I'll text you what happens. 

[JerryK]

I guess nobody told Pac.  CNN posted a story too early and blew next week's episode.  Saul and Marie are getting married.

[Pac]

I guess nobody told Pac.  CNN posted a story too early and blew next week's episode.  Saul and Marie are getting married.

 

speaking of articles check this one out from the other day...  pretty cool. I was on another board arguing with someone who was trying to tell me Sopranos and the Wire are better than BB.

 

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/allenstjohn/2013/09/16/why-breaking-bad-is-the-best-show-ever-and-why-that-matters/

 

 

 

Why 'Breaking Bad' Is The Best Show Ever And Why That Matters

Twenty three minutes into Episode 514, entitled “Ozymandias” after a Shelley poem, Breaking Bad made television history. Except that most fans didn’t notice. They were instead ready to cry, scream, vomit, or hurl a waffle iron at the plasma TV, or some combination of the above.

Sometime around that first commercial break, Breaking Bad broke away from the pack and staked its claim to the title of television’s Best Show Ever.

Over the course of five years, Vince Gilligan and his friends have constructed a world piece by piece, with attention to detail worthy of a Faberge egg. They created a compelling protagonist, a deeply flawed yet charismatic genius. They built a business at which he had savant-like skills, and depicted the family that often drove him crazy. Then blurred lines between the two. And in that way created a life for Walter White that many of us can relate to.

But other great and groundbreaking TV dramas had done something similar, most notably David Chase’s The Sopranos, David Simon’s The Wire, and David Milch’s Deadwood.

But Breaking Bad did something those iconic shows didn’t do. Showrunner Vince Gilligan set his protagonist in motion. Television had always been about a kind of inertia. After every episode of M*A*S*H or The Rockford Files there’d be a cosmic reset button that would allow the characters to return to exactly where they started at the beginning of the episode. That’s how you can make the Korean War last eleven years.

And as that first generation of shows from television’s post-millennial Golden Era threw off so many of the shackles of convention inherent in the medium, they kept this one.

Tony Soprano was a man who didn’t change, couldn’t change. Jimmy McNulty, Stringer Bell and other characters of The Wire fought hard for change—changing themselves and changing the system—but Simon’s message was that the drug/cop/court/prison/politics system in a fictionalized Baltimore was, tragically, too big and too strong to be taken down by a few angry men and women.

Vince Gilligan started Breaking Bad with no such constraints. Whereas Tony Soprano spent seven seasons running errands around North Jersey, Walter White embarked on an epic journey, tracing an arc reserved for iconic characters of literature and cinema like Jay Gatsby and Michael Corleone.

As he morphed Mr. Chips into Scarface, Gilligan wrote his own version of The Great American Novel. On Steroids.

Part of Breaking Bad’s grandeur stems from the medium itself. Watching The Godfather Part I and Part II takes about six and a half hours. You can read The Great Gatsby in roughly the same amount of time.

When it’s over, Breaking Bad will span 62 episodes. We’ll have spent almost ten times as much time with Walt and Jesse and Skyler as we did with Gatsby and Daisy or Michael Corleone and Tom Hagen. We know Walter White in a way that few great characters have ever been known, coming to that knowledge organically, over time.

But we spent that same kind of time with Tony Soprano and McNulty. Breaking Bad differs from those shows–and surpasses them–in one important way. This is a story that’s moving toward an ending.

The ending of The Sopranos, whether you loved it or hated it, was largely a non-ending. It was designed to make us think about the show and the act of watching it, as much as it made us think about Tony Soprano. The last season of The Wire, despite a number of resonant, even heartbreaking moments featuring Michael, Omar, and Bubbles, was simply not up to the standards of the four seasons that came before. Deadwood didn’t have a proper series finale at all. For all their cardinal virtues, those other contenders for the Best Show Ever left us feeling somewhat unsatisfied.

Breaking Bad, on the other hand, is sticking the landing. Last week Gilligan teased us with a vision of how Breaking Bad might have ended if it were a 1970s cop show, with the click of handcuffs and a vindicated cop placing a triumphant phone call to his pretty, relieved wife.

Having taken us on that detour, Gilligan pulls back from brink and begins an ending that’s majestic and horrible and completely of a piece with the 60 hours that came before. As Hank faced death last night and Walt unleashed his monstrous, destructive rage (setting in motion, as it always does, a torrent of suffering to come) these gut-wrenching moments were bought and paid for.

“You’re the smartest guy I ever met,” Hank told Walt as Uncle Jack pointed a gun at his head. “And you’re too stupid to see. He made up his mind 10 minutes ago.”

It’s a moment that can proudly stand beside the killing of Big ***** on The Sopranos, or the execution of Stringer Bell on The Wire. But unlike those great moments, Breaking Bad has built toward Hank’s death, and whatever comes next.

The best moments of Ozymandias, directed by Rian Johnson of Looper fame, are filled with nuance and bits of craftsmanship that can be appreciated on the second and third—and tenth—viewings.

But the first time through, the episode delivers a series of gut punches. Jesse. Junior. Marie. Skyler. One by one, each of the characters we care about have had their lives systematically torn apart.

“Where’s Hank?” Skyler screams into the phone at Walt at the end of the episode echoing the classic line, “Where’s Wallace?” from Season One of The Wire. It’s a chilling moment taken purely on its own, but viewed as a homage, one that speaks to Breaking Bad’s ambition. The final season has been filled with small but telling references to The Wire and The Sopranos.

The episode ends with Walt returning Holly to Skyler–inadvertently placing her squarely in the path of whatever danger is poised to come knocking at the White Family’s door.*

(Dear Vince Gilligan: “Kids love fire trucks. Can’t Holly stay at the fire house for a while? Until she’s, like, 21? ”)

It’s possible that with two hours left Vince Gilligan will flinch. But I get the sense that like Uncle Jack, he’s already made up his mind. And we’ll be covering our eyes as we watch these last two episodes.

Why does it all matter?

It matters because television finally has a great drama that makes no excuses. Breaking Bad seems destined to end with as much power and majesty as it had during any of its season-ending/season-opening cliffhangers. The water cooler conversation after the finale airs on September 29 will be dominated not by head- scratching analysis, but by slack-jawed awe.

If that happens, Episode 514 may have marked the moment where serious television drama as a genre truly comes of age.

Television is unique in that a showrunner begins a series without any real sense of where and when it’s going to end. Sometimes a show goes on way past its natural expiration date—see ER. Sometimes showrunners literally beg for a last-minute reprieve (see David Simon and The Wire.) And sometimes the money is so good that a showrunner will continue to churn out episodes after they would have preferred to have ended things earlier. (David Chase and The Sopranos)

That’s why series endings have historically been so tricky. But Vince Gilligan, unlike many other showrunners, had a successful career in film before his time in television. He understands the simple virtues of a beginning, a middle, and an end. Story is powerful, whether it’s viewed one-week-at-a-time or binge-watched on Itunes or Netflix NFLX +2.48%. Breaking Bad is like a sprawling Russian novel come to your flat screen, or an epic film allowed to unfold at its own pace rather than edited down to three hours so the theatre can cram in an extra showing every day. By saving its best for last, Breaking Bad is quietly pushing the boundaries of this evolving genre.

We can watch “Ozymandias” in a way that generally wasn’t possible in 2008 when Breaking Bad’s “Pilot” first aired. We have virtually instantaneous access to the new episode on demand and on-line. The days of wating for a re-run are history. We can, if we so choose, binge-watch Breaking Bad like a giant film. Or have random access to any page just as we would in a novel.

Our HDTVs allow us to analyze previously invisible details, like the “With our Sympathies” greeting card sitting on a display behind Skyler at the carwash, visible in the background during her interaction with Walt, Jr. in Episode 513. Netflix and Itunes allow us a deep dive into the archives, to watch, and re-watch, the confrontation between Walt and Jesse after Brock was poisoned.

These technologies, which enhance a truly great show, may be responsible in part for huge ratings boost for Breaking Bad’s premiere. As Kevin Spacey points out in this widely shared speech, television is changing and the lines between genres are blurring. Episode 514—and hopefully the episodes to follow—will set the bar for the next generation of content creators, showing them what’s possible and daring them to do even better.

As a show about a 50-year-old science teacher with cancer, who turns to a life of cooking meth, Breaking Bad may have been the worst idea ever for a television show. But Vince Gilligan crafted a pilot that grabbed you by the collar and demanded your attention. Over the course of five roller-coaster seasons, the show never really let go. Now as it’s on the verge of delivering an ending that’s surprising, inevitable, and wholly earned, Breaking Bad seems poised to become something else.

The Best. Show. Ever. And maybe too, one of the most important.

* An earlier version of the column contained a slightly longer discussion of the phone call between Walt and Skyler. I initially thought that the emotions from Walt and Skyler were largely authentic, even though they knew the police were listening in. A number of readers suggested that Walt was mostly performing for the police listening in on the line, taking all the blame so that he can absolve Skyler. And Skyler, for her part, is going along with that. Although it took several viewings to come to that conclusion–my hatred for Walt was clouding my reason- I now think that’s a correct reading of the scene and I was simply missing something.

It made me feel better to know that I’m not alone in this. The very smart Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker wrote about that scene, and admits that she, too, missed it the first time around.

[Pac]

Don't worry, I'll text you what happens. 

 

The only one that has my # from the board is Gata.

[Klecko73isGod]

The only one that has my # from the board is Gata.

 

What a surprise, Pac is wrong again. 

[Pac]

What a surprise, Pac is wrong again. 

 

well she technically doesn't have it yet but Im just waiting for her to ask.

[Klecko73isGod]

well she technically doesn't have it yet but Im just waiting for her to ask.

 

So you suck at that game, too?