Scots Taffer on 2/10/2013 at 02:40
Quote Posted by Renzatic
I think we were both right in a way.
He hated Jesse and wanted him dead up until the moment the Nazis dragged him into the room. When he saw him chained, haggard, and scarred, Walt realized Jesse had been in living his own personal hell for far longer than he had been, even before the showdown in the desert, and immediately chose to forgive himI totally agree. This was it right there.
I must admit that I was worried about where Walt was going and how bleak and ugly the finale might be when he posed as the NYT reporter/photographer to get Elliot & Gretchen's address, I worried he was going to kill them and that he was completely lost as a character now. From there I could see the finale spinning out into the ugliest ending imaginable with untold death tolls... thankfully it didn't go that way, I don't think the story or the characters deserved it either.
I hold true to the belief that Walt isn't a good guy with ugly traits nor is he a horrible guy with a few redeeming features, but rather that he is like all of us, human. We are all susceptible to our weaknesses, to our environments, our hubris, our relationships, and also on the flip sides of those, we can all get immeasurable power and success from them under the right conditions.
Walt has been "lucky" many times with those conditions many times in the past, but in this scenario he tried his best to replicate a laboratory scenario and control as many variables as possible so that the reactions could just occur around him. He was the catalyst, but not the active ingredients, the ingredients were already there.
With Jesse, it was a fitting end for him to be freed and for him to no longer be any man's tool. Whether or not he will save himself from a spiral of despair remains a big question that hangs over his future, as we have seen him fall prey to this several times over the course of the series - I would have liked to see some level of internal resolution for him that showed this won't happen again.Quote Posted by Fafhrd
A guy over on the CHUD.com forums made this, and it is the best thing. It is a HUGE HUGE SPOILER. Like, THE HUGEST. I cannot stress how big of a spoiler it is, absolutely do not click if you haven't seen the finale. (
http://vimeo.com/75739556#)
Would've preferred if it had cut after he pressed the button because it loses its potency after that. :)
Quote Posted by Angel Dust
I suppose when I say 'patchy', I'm mostly referring to the scenes with the wife's sister or the brother-in-law. They just feel a bit off compared to everything else so far but I'm sure it is probably just teething issues. Walter White is an immediately gripping character so I'm probably in for the long haul.
This is true, some of the early conceptions of the secondary characters are a bit all over the place, but stick to the core of Jesse and Walt and their descent into the meth world to be utterly enthralled with some of the best thriller/suspense writing you'll ever see.
I pretty much mainlined the last 3 episodes in a blur. I want to revisit them and probably will before rewatching the show as a whole. I need to give the whole thing some time, but it's been a couple of years since I started watching it and I have only fuzzy recollections on a lot of the early goings on in the RV, Crazy 8, Tuco and Gus.
I love how whole the show feels when I think about it. Too many shows succumb to studio pressures to be something they aren't and all credit goes to Gilligan for sticking to his guns about full creative control over when it ended. Dexter should have been a 4 or 5 season show, even though they lost me with 4, but I think that's because they were just treading water and it was clear that's what they were going to do. Even The Sopranos and Six Feet Under, two shows I love, went on for probably a season longer than they should and retread old themes rather than end whilst the themes had been explored to their absolute relevance then finalised with a meaningful coda. Some of the best remembered shows (even Fawlty Towers as a left field example) had a short run and maximised their potential while in that run.
I hope that the success of Breaking Bad teaches all of TV and movie a valuable lesson: risks are good in the world of creativity (very often BB writers would put themselves into a corner by eschewing the standard narrative structure), consistency of creative vision at the helm is imperative and the scope of the show should
always be defined (it may not be a clear 3 act structure to your tale, but you should have an idea about where it starts, where it goes and broadly how it should end) but creativity be allowed room to breathe within those confines (elsewise Gus Fring wouldn't have become as big as he did to the overall benefit of the show).
Ultimately Breaking Bad leaves me satisfied as a fan, hungry for more as a member of the TV watching audience and truly inspired as someone who harbours desire to let their creativity run free. That's a lot to beat.
Favourite moment from the finale:
when Walt gives the little gesture and the 2 laser beams pop on Elliot and Gretchen's chests, fucking awesome, with a close second being Jesse getting to kill Meth Damon stone fucking cold.Mr.Duck on 2/10/2013 at 04:39
Quote Posted by demagogue
It's not really a spoiler. I took that quote to mean there was a family or old friend connection between Don Elaidio & Gus. The only thing really special about Gus IMO was building a successful business & moving it into the US, which was legitimately built by good business sense, & then using its distribution infrastructure for moving meth. Then he used the money he made later to erase his history in Chile that tied him to a criminal past or drug-related family. I didn't think that was a big secret or anything. There could have been more to it that they left ambiguous to tease the audience--I mean I think they phrased things like that on purpose to do just that--but I also think a simple explanation like that is enough by itself too.
It was implied that he was part of the Chilean military, if memory serves, so probably someone high in cahoots with the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.
Ah, what a series...what an ending......w00t!
faetal on 2/10/2013 at 09:12
Quote Posted by NuEffect
I don't know what it is about Marie but she always really did for me. Like in my pants. When Hank was dependant upon her and yet giving her grief and she just took it I was like mmmm that woman.
I know exactly what you mean.
Klepto too. Hot.
faetal on 2/10/2013 at 09:13
Quote Posted by Thor
Still Deadwood is my all time favorite series. And yet it's the one that got cancelled. Doesn't reflect too well on our society. :( But what can ya do.
I just "finished" Deadwood recently and I can agree with your sentiment word for word. Fucking cocksucker.
faetal on 2/10/2013 at 09:15
Quote Posted by Sulphur
I'd say Walt's son has much the same problem, but there are bits that redeem him peppered here and there that help you not want to wish he'd get run over by a car, unlike AJ from The Sopranos.
Inline Image:
http://f.kulfoto.com/pic/0001/0051/DiiuT50784.jpgSorry for being the "image guy".
SubJeff on 2/10/2013 at 11:21
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
Favourite moment from the finale:
Mine too. That was Heisenberg awesomeness. Second favourite moment of the whole series for me. My favourite was this:
[video=youtube;jmNU8blUwms]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmNU8blUwms[/video]
Everything about the entire scene was great. The advice, then the cogs ticking, then him coming out and being a total badass. The music is great too. TV on the Radio's DLZ from the album Dear Science.
Lyrics start:
Congratulations on the mess you made of things
I'm trying to reconstruct the air and all that brings
And oxidation is the compromise you own
go on to
This is beginning to feel
Like the long winded blues of the never
This is beginning to feel
Like it's curling up slowly and finding a throat to choke
and peak with
Never you mind, death professor
Your structure's fine, my dust is better
Your victim flies so high
All to catch a bird's eye view of who's next
Never you mind, death professor
Love is life, my love is better
Your victim flies so high
Eyes could be the diamonds confused with who's next
Never you mind, death professor
Your shocks are fine, my struts are better
Your fiction flies so high
Y'all could use a doctor who's sick, who's next?
Never you mind, death professor
Electrified, my love is better
It's crystallized, so am I
All could be the diamond fused with who's nextIt wasn't written for the show I don't think but goddamn it fits.
faetal - I saw that meme a while ago and told my gf about it. It's so true! Oh how we laughed.
faetal on 2/10/2013 at 12:21
Breaking Fast.
Renzatic on 3/10/2013 at 05:37
God, there's so many of them. Of course I like all the standards. "This is not meth", "Run", "HAAAA-BOOM", but if I had to pick one, it'd be the entirety of Fly.
It's such a slow episode. Nothing much happens in it. They're in the meth lab, Walt's obsessing, and....well, that's about it. But the way it swings back and forth from comedy, to bonhomie, to nearly unbearable tension all within a few sentences, makes it one of the most unpredictable 45 minutes of the entire show. You're wondering the whole time if Walt's gonna screw up, and say something he shouldn't say.
Scots Taffer on 3/10/2013 at 06:35
Cool pick of a moment, Renz. Nailed it. :p
