Shall we anticpate the AMC series "Breaking Bad"? I think I may.

his whole shtick is exceptional - i welcome the return of the absurd to breaking bad

did this air last night? Can't find torrents.

it did, it was a bit of a comedown after the frantic last three episodes.

Fucking Outbreak ad!

O ILx you have sold me a pup with this one. The precise moment it lost me:

"We've analysed the chemical composition of the entire human body, but we're still 2lbs short! What could be missing?"
"The soul...?"

that whole string of flashbacks didn't work for me either; it's confusing and hard to figure its relationship to anything else. i saw it as walt's (cheesy) idealized memory of the kind of life he used to have before he became a dad/chem teacher drone.

that episode is one of the best episodes of tv i've ever seen though, even with the flashbacks.

whats w/these b&w crime scene opens - stuffed animals body bags in walts drivesway

they're obv leading up to something beeg, i hope it's not a season-ending cliff-hanger but argh you kind of figure it has to be

well know were getting close once the stuffed animals start showing up

"DLZ" was just too perfect at the end!

so walter is addicted to the rush - luvs the kingpin status

ya. pretty awesome ending.

"I whipped cancer - what do I have to worry about from some vato gordo?"

"Smoking weed, eating Cheetos and masturbating does not constitute having plans"

walter on his way to make a million dollar deal while is wife goes into labor - how will he fuck this one up

Relapse subplot pretty weak and predictable, esp. the levitating off the bed shot. Esposito is a welcome addition, though!

yeah esposito ownd luv that guy

re relapse: drug addicts tend to be pretty weak and predictable

well, yeah, but what I mean is it seems like they added it in just as a 'drugs are bad mmkay' move.

No one has mentioned that this was renewed for a season 3 have they?

http://news-briefs.ew.com/2009/04/breaking-bad-am.html

Shows GREAT and getting GREATER imho

i dunno between espositos advice jesse irresponsible behavior and the fact that walter doesnt really need jesse anymore looks like the drugg plot could be setting up a schism between our two main guys - i predict walter tries to short him

one thing i dont get tho is the $1.2 esposito offered is the same number walter came up with when he was figuring their profit selling it on the street - but theyre wholesaling now so it should be much less

goddamn that was bleak

o they are really trying to turn us against walter white here

http://savewalterwhite.com/

Father, Husband & Teacher & Murderous Drug Kingpin

o they are really trying to turn us against walter white here

hardly the worst thing he's done tho. perhaps, even, one of the smarter moves.

super Tony and Chrissy, tho.

goddamn that was bleak

SPOILER!

Also I’m not sure how this isn’t the worst thing Walt has done, he could at least try and morally absolve himself of the other deaths in some way but he’s pretty directly responsible for allowing this to happen. Isn’t it his shaking of Jesse that rolls Jane onto her back in the first place?

Anyone notice the pink stuffed animal at the start?

well he did straight up chain a guy up in a basement for a couple of days and then straight up choke the guy to death in like episode 3 or 4.

This is true but dude was gonna try to stab him with the plate shard so there's at least some element of self-defence in there. I suppose there's a similar level of self-preservation going on here but it seems way more sinister.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

*****************

i don't understand why he didn't try to save her

is his thinking supposed to be - if she lives, they continue to get fucked out of their minds on heroin, generally fuck up and get arrested, get questioned about the money, and they roll on him? if so, how in the world does her current DEATH not simply lead to this scenario even quicker?? and all that aside has he simply lost every shred of decency? how in the world can he not attempt to save her from choking to death???

His thinking is she tried to blackmail him once -- she knows his secret now afterall -- what keeps her from blackmailing him again after they inevitably blow through all the money. So: better off dead. And she's corrupting jessie, his surrogate son, so better off dead. But mostly the first part. Operation's cleaner without loose cannons.

And yes, he's lost every shred of decency. That's his character arc for the season.

ok yeah that makes a bit more sense - when they have the face-off in the doorway he says "how can i be sure i can trust you?" and she says "i guess you can't" - it sorta zipped by though and i didn't quite put two and two together

i wonder if this marks the moment when him and jesse truly become enemies, even if jesse never learns about walt's role in her death. walt has no need for jesse any more. they've alway kind of hated each other.

but yeah pretty difficult to root for this guy now. the unfulfilled wish that has sustained the whole show is for walt to finally be honest w/his family, or at least his wife. it would provide the ultiamte catharsis, for him and for us. but in this episode, saul's like "what about communication?" and walt is like "communication is OUT!" .. when he shows the money to his new daughter, it's like yep - this is as close as walt will ever come to being honest. it's profoundly depressing.

Yeah it's like the tony soprano is so awful but I can't help rooting for the guy phenomenon taken to an even uglier place. But they've done it so organically (i.e. How the morally ambiguous walt that killed a dealer in season one partly from self-preservation instincts is so unrecognizable now, he's a different person, but it's almost concscious -- he likes himself better this way) that it's really admirable as storytelling.

It's weird that for all that, Ted and Skyler still make my skin crawl and I hear myself going "Dont do it Skyler!" as if I'm worried about Walt, and then have to wonder why. But then it's pretty much the same reaction as "Shit Walt, save her... oh", I like that he still has hand over his mouth as if he's slightly aghast at this "accident" he caused, that it's just another thing gone horribly wrong, yet you cant really buy that anymore.

This show really is so relentless in the shit it puts it's characters through (although "you're gonna build a robot?!" was pretty great), I find it quite hard to take. I probably shouldnt have watched 12 episodes over the Bank Holiday then...

oh see i love skyler now. i mean yeah she has her annoying tics but she's been way more patient w/walt than he deserves. the second cellphone thing - i mean he totally lied about it and she got pissed but then she never brought it up again, and has continued to be supportive and thoughtful (even if she is getting some on the side with lame-o ted). at this point i want skyler to take the fuck off with "flynn" and new baby and leave walt to stew in his own fucking juices.

No yeah, this show is relentless. And mostly with the characters we're meant to identify with, even if they're the most corrupt characters on the show.

i feel for jesse so fucking hard.

the thing with him and his girlfriend has flipped so quickly - at first he was the bad influence and she was the ray of light, the possible window into a better, healthier life. within two episodes she became a black hole of bad news.

Jesse always seems to get the worst of it, yeah. See that episode where he loses his place and has to break into the tow yard the van is parked in and just thing after thing goes wrong in increasingly worse ways. They almost use his misery for comic relief but then you're forced to identify with him as a character as real as the rest of them and it's like aw jeez, this guy is just getting the blunt end of every event.

it's kind of killing me that we have to wait a whole week for the finale

and then a whole nine months or whatever for the next (and final) series

i was impressed that they used a real newborn baby in the show.. she couldn't have been more than a few weeks old, anyway; by the way walt's excuse about not finding the size 0 diapers was indeed well-played - it is a v common problem

skyler's sister was hilar - when sky needs to breastfeed during lunch and hank's all "gross - not whil we're eating!" she says "hank, you're so... PROVINCIAL"

they live in an arizona suburb

interesting that hank comes back with los pollos hermanos - it could be a coincidence of course but maybe not - he might have just gone and busted walt's buyer, mr. careful (although he'd probably be crowing about it if so)

i sure hope walt went and picked up his car's spare tire, at least

Oh, I agree with pretty much everything you say RE: Skyler above, Tracer! It's just kind of funny how expectations get played with and how sympathies still lie with the original protagonist before you realise you're not so certain about that anymore. I know that's been brewing for a while, but he does the whole put upon, 'why is all this happening to me' routine so well. Because yeah, rationally, Skyler should get the hell away from him. It's a pity she can't come up with a rationale to do so, because she'd never be able leave him while he has cancer (although that's come close to stretching point, Im sure).

Jesse is a sorry story (I was so pleased for him when 'Apology Girl' was slipped under his door, cos I really thought they were done for) but he has himself to blame for most of it. She didnt need much urging to go and score some heroin, mind you. But mainly that was down to Jesse being depressed about one of his guys getting taken down, I was just thinking the whole time how he had one guy out on the corner all on his own, with just one gun! Srsly, I know they're supposed to be rubbish drug dealers, but if they just watched the Wire or something.

Argh, I can hardly get over how relentless it is though, the whole thing with Jesse getting kicked out, getting stuck in the middle of nowhere in the mobile home. The grinding ineptitude and unnecessary situations that crop up. The episode with Jesse trying to dish out 'justice' with the two old druggies and the little boy where you just keep thinking "Just leave man, leave!"

im thinking walts arc isnt from decency to total deprivation but rather from fear to aggression - the show i think is saying that the appearance of virtue when its based on social fear is not virtue at all - its testing this theory by putting walt under tremendous stress and simultaneously liberating him from his psychological constraints

jesses girl was obv never a nice person - walk was absolutely right that she was v dangerous to him and jesse - still completely unconscionable behavior

its funny her and walt and skylars sister and the lawyer are all these little domestic gangsters and jesse the one guy w/real experience on the street is just totally not cut out for the shit

don't forget tax cheat ted and cuban cigar aficionado hank

It's just kind of funny how expectations get played with and how sympathies still lie with the original protagonist before you realise you're not so certain about that anymore

yeah. but i finally think i reached my limit. it seems impossible for walt to ever come all the way back. this was the episode where it became totally clear that walt has lost sight of his original vision, which was a generous one. he's not now satisfied with taking care of his family. saul suggests they invent an anonymous benefactor or a long-lost uncle. walt says no. it has become about something else - about walt proving something to himself. he's an underachiever and wants to prove to the world - publicly - that he's a real bonafide badass who can take care of his family himself. the only problem is that the bonafide badass part and the taking care of his family part are sort of not playing nicely with each other.