Be Excellent To Each Other

Mike, there's a cool guy. So was Gus, really. Walt, well, he's become scarier, I don't think of him as cool though because we know his character.

Correct - he's an egotistical, maniacal twat really
Yes, when he was dying of cancer, his aim was to provide for his family. But behind that motivation was pride, not wanting to rely on help from his peers who had done better than him. Almost everything he's done since then has damaged and endangered his family to further his new ambition - yet he still justifies it all. Psychopath really.

And I don't blame Skye for not relishing living with a scary gangster.

It's like you are watching a completely different show, or at least totally missing the main points of this one.

I'm not saying Walt is a good guy, but at the same time I don't see that he's done anything intrinsically evil.

He only got started out due to the cancer and the fact the medical system in the USA would leave his family swinging in the breeze, so he responded with a capitalist solution to a capitalist problem.

Terminal cancer guy isn't economically viable and his family are fucked, but terminal cancer guy can produce something that the market wants and survive that way, and fuck the consequences.

At least his solution is more honest than the likes of the Wall Street bankers who brought the entire financial system close to collapse and then waltzed off into the sunset, at least Walt has to face the consequences of his actions upfront and personal.

He clearly loves Walt Jnr and his daughter, and whilst his motivations for carrying on with what he's doing have become distorted and a bit perverse, if you'd gone through what Walt has and brought the motherfuckers down that he has, you'd probably be getting a full of yourself as well.

I stick by 'morally ambiguous', and a damn sight better than how a lot of 'respectable' corporations and businesses conduct themselves.

Just watched the "last" episode of series 5.

Oh my god!

Oh my fucking God.


Take your pick between And those are just the highlights off the top of my head, without getting into the obvious metaphor at the end of Series 2 and the debatable morality of being a meth kingpin.


PERHAPS? Holy fuckmonkeys, dude.


It really fucking hasn't, you know.


Yeah, God. Walt's never done anything to her other than the constant lies, the emotional abuse, the unexplained prolonged absences, the exposure to danger and prosecution that comes with living with a drug lord and that one near-rape. Why the fuck can't she just shut up and stand by her man? What a bitch.

Rodafowa

indeed. I'd managed to hold off on the spoilers on s5. And I'm glad I did!

Cannot wait for the rest of it!!!!!!!!!!

Well, you've got to look at these things with an open mind. Hitler might have been a bit morally ambiguous, after all.

Is he any worse than the businessman, in his suit and tie?

Bankers: worse than Hitler.

Let me be clear here, I'm not saying Walt is some kind of hero character, he clearly isn't, but at the same time I wouldn't classify him as 'evil' or inherently bad.

Certainly he's done some bad things but most of those are justifiable to some extent and/or he clearly agonises about the impact of his actions or inaction.

Now admittedly this is rather less the case throughout Season 4 and into Season 5, but I still don't look at him and think he's a dreadful bastard.

He went into survival mode right at the start of Season 1, when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and it was obvious that without him doing something pretty batshit crazy, he was going to die poor and his family would not be provided for after his passing.

He's a product of capitalism and particularly the nasty variant of American capitalism.

I agree with you - I just can't find myself really hating the guy or thinking that's he's inherently evil. This probably says more about me (and you) than Walt, but there it is.

However, as a person, Jesse is of course a much 'nicer' guy than Walt.

No, I think it speaks to the charisma of Brian Cranston -- without which the show would be borderline unwatchable.

Witness DocG mould the world to the shape he believes it should be.

It's his special trick.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish Walter White a Merry Christmas .............

Second half of the final series starts in a week.

This is a pretty good recap. Spoilers, obv.

Season 5 episode 9 is now on Netflix UK.

Seen it and loved it to bits. Just watch it ............

I know right!

JUST GIVE ME ALL THE EPISODES NOW PLEASE

Being able to watch Breaking Bad legally a day after it has been aired in the US is brilliant, now they just have to do that with everything.

Time to resubscribe to Netflix then, although I'll wait until all of the last five episodes are up on there.

My broadband isn't working fast enough for netflix, so I'll have to [legally download] it. What are we doing for indexers at the moment?

PM sent old chap!

Oh yes.

Five?

Don't you mean eight?

I say, thanks old sport!

I went looking for that first of all (considering I'm already signed up). Couldn't see it. Turns out I'm barred!

Isn't it ten episodes for Series 5 of which we already had five and there were five more to come?

2 sets of 8 episodes, episode 9 came out yesterday.

New episode was brilliant, making loads of plot progress as well.

Suppose they will all do this though as its the last 8 and they need to wrap the show up.

How this ends on 5 seasons and all the CSI shows run for 10 or more is beyond me.

Because this isn't 'monster of the week' programming.

Aye, it's hard to do a procedural of a science teacher-turned-drug lord.

Insider Podcast is now up for the just broadcast season 5 episode 9 - direct MP3 link here:

http://media.amctv.com/breakingbad/podc ... odcast.mp3

I haven't heard it all yet but there shouldn't be any spoilers for future episodes - it's Gilligan, Cranston, writer Peter Gould, two producers (Maclaren, Bernstein) and editor Kelley Dixon chatting about behind the scenes stuff (writing, sets, logistics, etc, etc, etc) from this episode.

They could have dragged it out a bit, and certainly there have been some episodes/scenes where the plot isn't really being advanced much (Fly anyone?), but I think the pacing and the constant escalation of the stakes is a big part of what makes Breaking Bad so special.

Just have to chip in here and say that I LOVE 'Fly' - although it does seem to be an episode that you either love or hate.

Oh, I love it too, but compared to all of the other episodes, hardly anything happens plotwise. It's mostly just spending time with Walt & Jesse in a typical bottle episode format. It made a nice change of pace, and was a good palate cleanser, but you couldn't do something like that every few episodes.

Very true.

Bouncing in my chair waiting for more.

Just watched the episode again - wow, time sure does fly when you're enjoying yourself.

Best bit of the episode

Didn't disappoint, yo.

So here's the loose ends I can think of, anything I am missing?



Stuff that we know from the flashforward:

Regarding Skinny Pete & Badger's recent discussion of Star Trek:

Potentially huge spoiler, but it is based on speculation, not any knowledge of what happens:

Never watched this, but downloaded the 1st 4 series..

Settle in for a great watch.

People had been saying to me for ages how great it was, but I'd never bothered looking at it.

Now I've seen it I'm in the same boat of saying "watch this, it's amazing", but I appreciate how hard it is to convince someone of a show's worth until they've tried a couple of episodes.

I will get a beer and chill out tonight then

I envy you.

If you're not hooked by the end of the first episode then at least keep going and watch the first 3 or 4 if possible. I had difficulty getting into it the first time I tried - it took two attempts on the first episode but I guess I was just in the wrong frame of mind on the first try.

Now I have zero regrets - it's one hell of a ride.

(oh yes, and be careful reading this thread - you don't want to stumble across any spoilers).