Fafhrd on 7/6/2010 at 06:08
Holy shit the ending to this last episode.
Renzatic on 7/6/2010 at 07:56
Run.
bukary on 7/6/2010 at 19:49
Quote Posted by Renzatic
Run.
Good riddance! Great episode (as always). Jesse seems more and more likeable, while Gus starts to really piss me off.
Renzatic on 14/6/2010 at 07:15
Piss you off though he might, we at least know why Gus is who he is. After all, he didn't become head of a nice, profitable drug ring by being a nebbish little guy with a good front. He's a cold, quiet, calculating bastard who knows how to weigh his options.
This season, and the spectacular ending especially, was great for showing Walt that there's no such thing as an easy life in the drug trade. Too much paranoia over stakes far too large, and once again hammering home the running theme of the showing that every action has its consequences. And now this next season looks like Walt will be butting heads with Gus, a character just as collected and intelligent as he is, who himself is going toe to toe with the cartels.
Excellent show. I'm glad you all talked me into watching it. :thumb:
Rug Burn Junky on 14/6/2010 at 19:12
I've waited way too long to reply to this thread (especially considering I discovered it on Scots's recommendation from last summer, and I believe he finally watched it based on mine.)
Just finished watching the season finale (side note - fuck you AMC, for making my DVR think it was a 2 hour episode and then tacking on your Special Sneak Preview of Rubicon. Which I will now never watch out of spite).
Obviously I still hold everything up against "The Wire" because, well, I'm on record that it's the best series ever. This is the best show I've seen since.
I was concerned with a few of the episodes in the first season, they ventured dangerously close to campy farce - showing the "zany hi-jinks" of someone clearly not cut out for the big time drug trade. Even then, though, they pulled it off without going over the line into ridiculousness. and kept it satisfying. It's just gotten better and better since.
There are two aspects of the show that are done brilliantly.
One, the obvious, is the sticky web of decisions and mistakes, each precipitated by the last. Every character reaches moments where they make decisions that are so transparently the wrong decision, being done for all of the right reasons. The writers manage to convey just the right sense of tragedy without overt moralization (who wasn't heartbroken when Jesse and his gf start in with the heroin, knowing that it could only end badly?). Watching Walt's devolution into utter corruption is tragic, precisely because you can understand each of the decisions that brought him to that point. But that one's obvious, Jesse's corruption is so much more subtle. While they show Walt's fall in a straight line, your first impression of Jesse as a hoodlum taints your view through the entire run. Even after they highlight his family background (caring for his sick aunt?) you can't shake that first impression. But when you think about it, his downfall is more unsettling, because he didn't take the cold calculating look at it that Walt did, he is so much more subject to the whims of fate. But interspersed with the corruption and tragedy, are small moments of redemption, guilt and humanity that keep you from giving up on them.
But the key, to me, is the second aspect which makes the first possible. It lies in how well they communicate the characters' inner monologues and motivations with subtle cues. No show has ever done this better. Part of that is acting chops, part of it is the way things are set up by previous scenes, subtly steering you down certain trains of thought. Like Bodie's chess monologue with McNulty in the Wire, you know what the characters are thinking in ways that you wouldn't just by the dialogue of one particular scene.
Though there is at least one scene like this in every episode, the best example I could come up with off the top of my head is the conversation that Walt, Skylar and Hank's wife have about Walt's "gambling winnings." Based on the scenes just prior - Skylar fending off her boss's advances, and being more open with Walt - it suddenly looks like Skylar is taking walt back, or at least open to it. She's a mystery here, but you can see the look on Walt's face as he processes her potential motivations and you're thinking the exact same thing he is.
Part of that is also the use of flashacks/forwards which I think was done to superb effect in the first two seasons, and rightfully ratcheted back in the third. It's another tool they've used to manipulate your thinking without outright exposition. The opening bumper to the finale? classic. Because who wasn't thinking that Walt and Skylar had cleared out of town? Or did Walt buy a new huge house and pack them up? Its hinted that either something very bad has happened, or confoundingly after last week, something very good. And the payoff of "neither" was just enough of a screwball to satisfy.
Cranston has been amazing, and in spite of Scots's first impressions, I think Aaron Paul has been underrated. He most certainly has risen above the obvious caricature that would be so easy for him to sink into. Asking him to deliver all of those "Yo, Mr. White"s while still maintaining some light behind those eyes is a tall order. I don't know that many other actors could have pulled it off, and that would have ruined the whole series.
The interplay between the two characters has built a very unique relationship - as unlikely as it may be, and as loathe as each are to admit it, you can see how much they care for each other based on their actions, and even their expressions, whereas if you only read the script and saw words they spoke to each other you'd think they barely tolerate each other. That relationship is the foundation of the series, and without that the whole thing falls down. Adding Gus into the mix this season has brought it to another level, because he's finally a third character/actor that actually rises to the occasion. Every scene with him and Walt is a highlight.
That's not to say that it's all roses. As much as I love Oedenkirk in this role, he's a bit of a caricature, and he's overmatched in acting skill. It's OK, because he still brings something to the table, and entertains. To a lesser extent Hank and Mike suffer from the same thing. They're all obvious archetypes, with enough layering to keep them from being 2 dimensional, but (unlike Jesse) the actors aren't up to the task of fully escaping the caricature (But you have to love the scene as mike attacks the chemical supplier in this episode, as ridiculous as it was.). Skylar on the other hand is a potentially interesting character brought down by the actress's inability to emote anything other than sullen moodiness. She's improved this season, but still. She's not a drawback, but just a missed opportunity. The kid is passable, he certainly kicks Cousin Geri's ass as the best Palsy actor on a TV show, but that ain't saying much, is it? He adds an element to Walt's character, but the writers have been smart not to hit you over the head with it. His last scene with Hank in the hospital was pretty good, though, I'll give him that.
And don't get me started on Hank's wife. I long for her death.
All in all, solid show. Constant tension, great acting, and I don't think I've ever been as consistently blown away by the "holy fuck" moments of any show.
Scots Taffer on 15/6/2010 at 00:19
Quote Posted by Rug Burn Junky
Cranston has been amazing, and in spite of Scots's first impressions, I think Aaron Paul has been underrated. He most certainly has risen above the obvious caricature that would be so easy for him to sink into. Asking him to deliver all of those "Yo, Mr. White"s while still maintaining some light behind those eyes is a tall order. I don't know that many other actors could have pulled it off, and that would have ruined the whole series.
Season 3 has not-so-slowly changed my opinion of Aaron's acting chops - his change in character has been pretty significant (more man than "yo ... bitch" boy) and it's interesting to see this frustrated boy surface occasionally (like in the scene in the hospital after
Hank beat the everliving shit out of him and when
Walt tried to offer partnership). And yeah, the start of his downward spiral with the girl next door was pretty tragic - and how hard he fell for her so easily continues to underline the lost boy notion bubbling beneath the surface that I admit I overlooked in the first and half of the second season.
Cranston continues to amaze me though, the scene in the latest episode I watched where he coldly dealt with Skylar over the
Hank and Pinkman fight and responded that he "wasn't family anymore" was a far cry from the man who was trying to weasel his way back into his wife's affections.
Fafhrd on 15/6/2010 at 03:26
Quote Posted by Rug Burn Junky
To a lesser extent Hank and Mike suffer from the same thing. They're all obvious archetypes, with enough layering to keep them from being 2 dimensional, but (unlike Jesse) the actors aren't up to the task of fully escaping the caricature.
I have to disagree with this. Hank's gradual breakdown after killing Tuco and then going to El Paso in Season 2, and the way he sort of channelled the fear of going back into his investigation completely removed any elements of caricature to his character for me. He'd always come off as the sort of cliche redneck law enforcement type who only ever cracks a case through sheer luck to me, but now he's revealed as this mass of insecurities all wrapped around a pretty solid investigator. And Mike's 'no half measures' monologue last week has to be one of the great TV monologues, and I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of stuff going down with him next season.
I've read it elsewhere, and it rings completely true to me, but the way Breaking Bad mixes tension with absolutely pitch black humour and the human tragedy of selfish people, and sudden bursts of graphic violence; if the Coen Brothers made a TV show, Breaking Bad would be it.
Rug Burn Junky on 15/6/2010 at 04:02
Quote Posted by Fafhrd
re: Hank and Mike
I agree, with all of that, I just don't think they
completely escape it. Don't get me wrong, I love both of those characters, but if you put it on a spectrum, Jesse rises above (especially when you can see through him that much of his persona is a put-on even with-in the context of the show) and Odenkirk completely falls victim to it (forgivable, his character is funny anyway). Hank and Mike are somewhere in between. Where-as Walt and Jesse are pretty consistent, both of these guys are uneven.
Hank's character is written and arced brilliantly in spite of the on-paper caricatureness of it, but Dean Norris is hit and miss and there're still moments when his acting lapses. Unlike Pinkman, I don't feel like the actor is so indispensable such that the show couldn't survive or (or improve) if it had been cast differently. But I also don't feel like he's a liability like his wife.
Mike just isn't as fleshed out, but he also has his moments good and bad. That monologue was great, but then there are also times when I feel like he's just doing a bad impersonation of George Carlin as Rufus. Like Odenkirk he brings enough to the table in spite of it that I'm willing to forgive.
Scots Taffer on 15/6/2010 at 04:26
I agree with Fafhrd regarding Hank, he's always been a likeable character and the second season afforded him some depth (albeit of the, as Tony Soprano would have liked, the "strong silent type") but in this season he's really come three-dimensional.
Mike? Shit, I wouldn't even qualify him as a character thus far.
Quote Posted by Rug Burn Junky
Odenkirk completely falls victim to it (forgivable, his character is funny anyway).
"Congratulations. You're now the pretty one of the group."
On that note, fuck me the make-up on Jesse was amazing... sorry, da bomb yo.
Renzatic on 15/6/2010 at 04:45
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
Mike? Shit, I wouldn't even qualify him as a character thus far.
This. Right now Mike is all potential. A character that, up until the finale anyway, was more a background prop than anything. Just this calm, good humored guy who shows up when a problem needs fixing, sporting a laissez faire attitude to show he's done his very dirty job for a very long time. He been shown enough to be an interesting side character, but hasn't had nearly enough screentime yet for me to form an opinion on how good the character or actor is yet.
There's been enough to show he could potentially end up being yet another shining point in a show full of shining points, or just another flavor character floating around to boost up Walt and the rest.
