Breaking Bad (**SPOILERS MAY BE PRESENT**)

[KevShmev]

Call me crazy, but Steve Gomez was one of the most underrated characters on the show.  The dynamic with him and Hank was always cool.  Plus, he had two of the best lines ever on the show:

1. When the cousin, who survived the hit on Hank, later died in the hospital, as the doctors were announcing his time of death, Walt and a bunch of the DEA guys were watching from outside the room, and Gomez said, "Burn in hell, you piece of shit."  Absolutely flawless delivery.

2. Early in Season 5, Hank and Gomez brought Mike in for questioning, and at one point, Mike sarcastically asks them where their handcuffs are and if he is under arrest.  Later on, when they talk about the 9 guys in jail (whom Mike was making sure got paid to keep quiet), Gomez said to Mike, "One of your guys is gonna roll on you, and then we'll definitely remember the handcuffs."  I LOVE that line.

[El Barto]

They certainly glossed over the guy's death, which was unfortunate. I get that Hank's was far more, well, everything, but Gomey's passing certainly deserved some recognition.

[KevShmev]

True.  Also, it's awesome when they bust the lawyer of those guys in prison.  When the lawyer sees Gomez and two DEA guys watching him collect the money, he nervously says, "Hey," and Gomez, with a shit-eating grin that basically screams GOTCHA says, "Hey," back to him.

[Chino]

I didn't like Gomez's character. I wasn't a fan of his dialogue. I felt like I was watching CSI (or anyone of those cheesy crime scene shows) every time he opened his mouth.

[Phoenix87x]

Just started watching the show for the first time and I just got to the talking pillow.



  

[Phoenix87x]

Well I just finished watching all 62 episodes in 6 days, and honestly that was probably some of the best television I've ever seen in my life. The first 2 seasons were pretty solid, but this show transcended into legendary territory in the later seasons.

Gus, Mike and Saul were hands down my favorite characters. Just incredible and compelling characters.

I couldn't stand Walt Jr. and I absolutely despised Marie. Jesus.

Almost every episode was solid except for the Fly one and the ATM head smash episode imo. But besides that, this show was just incredible. Bravo

[KevShmev]

Awesome.

[BlackInk]

I couldn't stand Walt Jr.

This. A friend of mine said "oh and you just sympathize with Walt Jr. because he's desabled and all", and I just couldn't see that at all. I just told him that Jr. really annoyed the crap out of me.

[Joshin U]

I couldn't stand Walt Jr.

This. A friend of mine said "oh and you just sympathize with Walt Jr. because he's desabled and all", and I just couldn't see that at all. I just told him that Jr. really annoyed the crap out of me.

But....












But....








Breakfast...

[rickhawk80]

 


I loved the show.  Didn't start watching until this past summer then plowed straight through every season in a few weeks in time to watch the final episodes live.  Fantastic television drama.

[Phoenix87x]

Breakfast can never wait...

[El Barto]

Hey, didn't I catch a lot of shit for calling Walt Jr. reprehensible? 

Something else that occurred to me the other day. Once the rednecks offed Pinkman's girlfriend (which was in incredibly poor taste, BTW), did it just never occur to him that he was sitting on top of tons of flammable chemicals buried underneath the compound those assholes resided at? In my mind it would have been crystal clear that turning the entire compound into a new Tungsuka crater would be the best possible outcome for everybody involved. Did he really learn that little from working with Walt all that time?

[Joshin U]

Hey, didn't I catch a lot of shit for calling Walt Jr. reprehensible? 

Something else that occurred to me the other day. Once the rednecks offed Pinkman's girlfriend (which was in incredibly poor taste, BTW), did it just never occur to him that he was sitting on top of tons of flammable chemicals buried underneath the compound those assholes resided at? In my mind it would have been crystal clear that turning the entire compound into a new Tungsuka crater would be the best possible outcome for everybody involved. Did he really learn that little from working with Walt all that time?

I assume because of his love for Brock (what kind of Hispanic mom names her son Brock?).  He has a soft spot for kids.

[El Barto]

Hey, didn't I catch a lot of shit for calling Walt Jr. reprehensible? 

Something else that occurred to me the other day. Once the rednecks offed Pinkman's girlfriend (which was in incredibly poor taste, BTW), did it just never occur to him that he was sitting on top of tons of flammable chemicals buried underneath the compound those assholes resided at? In my mind it would have been crystal clear that turning the entire compound into a new Tungsuka crater would be the best possible outcome for everybody involved. Did he really learn that little from working with Walt all that time?

I assume because of his love for Brock (what kind of Hispanic mom names her son Brock?).  He has a soft spot for kids.

Not sure how the peculiarly named bambino fits into it at all. The point would be to blow his tormentors to tiny bits, thereby protecting Brock far more than just leaving his fate up to the whims of his adversaries. If it's because he wants to be a part of Brock's life, that's also not likely. First and foremost the chances of him getting cut loose are round about zero. Also, Brock's gone off to live with his abuela and is infinitely better off because of it (at least now that mom's dead).

[Bolsters]

This. A friend of mine said "oh and you just sympathize with Walt Jr. because he's desabled and all", and I just couldn't see that at all. I just told him that Jr. really annoyed the crap out of me.

Then why don't you just...fucking die already? Just...fucking die.

[orcus116]

Almost every episode was solid except for the Fly one and the ATM head smash episode imo. But besides that, this show was just incredible. Bravo

wat

Fly and Peekaboo are two of the best episodes in the series.

[El Barto]

Liked Peekaboo. Hated Fly.

[Tom Bombadil]

Liked Peekaboo. Hated Fly.

Opposite for me

[Zook]

That ATM scene was a jaw dropper. Fly was kinda dumb, yeah.

[Phoenix87x]

Fly was the only episode of the entire series that I turned off. About 15 minutes in I realized what the episode was going to be and said "nope"

But 1 slip up out of 62 aint bad at all.

[Bolsters]

I didn't know there were people who don't like Peekaboo. This saddens me.

[KevShmev]

Peekaboo is really good, but I don't think it's one of the best like a lot of people seem to. 

Fly is really enjoyable the 2nd time around, but I can see why some aren't wild about it.

[Phoenix87x]

I didn't mind peekaboo at all until the drug addict parents got home and it quickly became clear that jesse was no threat to them.

The plight of the child and Jesse's comforting of him was dramatically very interesting, but I just lost interest in that last 15 minutes or so.

[KevShmev]

Yep.  It's good from a character-building standpoint in regards to Jesse, but it isn't a compelling enough episode that it warrants many repeated viewings.  Honestly, for me, the best scene in that episode is the one with Walt and Gretchen at the restaurant.

[Joshin U]

Not sure how the peculiarly named bambino fits into it at all. The point would be to blow his tormentors to tiny bits, thereby protecting Brock far more than just leaving his fate up to the whims of his adversaries. If it's because he wants to be a part of Brock's life, that's also not likely. First and foremost the chances of him getting cut loose are round about zero. Also, Brock's gone off to live with his abuela and is infinitely better off because of it (at least now that mom's dead).

I would say it's because he feels personally responsibility for him, given that he's the reason that his mother is now dead.  Besides, despite his rage, I would never peg Jesse as the sacrificial sort: I think his desire to live was stronger than his desire for revenge (except for the person of Todd, who he would have no assurance was even in the area if he decided to blow himself up).  I don't know, I don't think the whole potential situation was really a writing oversight as much as a creative decision.


Also, I'm surprised by the dislike/"meh" attitude toward Peekaboo! Love the episode, and the ending was the most disturbing moment in the series.  I am also on the "love Fly" bandwagon.  The only episode I truly disliked was "Open House", with Mrs. Purple deciding to steal random crap and then cry a lot.

[El Barto]

Not sure how the peculiarly named bambino fits into it at all. The point would be to blow his tormentors to tiny bits, thereby protecting Brock far more than just leaving his fate up to the whims of his adversaries. If it's because he wants to be a part of Brock's life, that's also not likely. First and foremost the chances of him getting cut loose are round about zero. Also, Brock's gone off to live with his abuela and is infinitely better off because of it (at least now that mom's dead).

I would say it's because he feels personally responsibility for him, given that he's the reason that his mother is now dead.  Besides, despite his rage, I would never peg Jesse as the sacrificial sort: I think his desire to live was stronger than his desire for revenge (except for the person of Todd, who he would have no assurance was even in the area if he decided to blow himself up).  I don't know, I don't think the whole potential situation was really a writing oversight as much as a creative decision.

I don't think it's a writing oversight at all. I've got nothing but praise for the writing. It's just interesting speculation about how things could have been done differently. Pinkman was a moron, but even he had to realize that he wasn't leaving the methlab alive. He was going to be a slave up to the point he ran out of methylimine and then they were going to kill him and bury him in the desert. His only foreseeable out was Walter who wanted him dead more than the rednecks. I don't know if it was the best solution or not, but I do know that I'd damn sure have had a plan in place as a fallback.

And Todd would have been the easy one to take out; he was his primary handler. My concern would have been getting the higher ups along with Todd; that's what would insure Brock's safety.

[KevShmev]

Jesse could have easily killed Todd in the scene in the 2nd to last episode where we first see Jesse taken to the meth lab to cook.  When Todd goes to get the keys and latch to hook him up to that thing on the ceiling, he is in front of Jesse for a brief moment, and Jesse could have easily strangled him to death with his cuffs the same way he eventually did.  Granted, at that point, Jesse had been beaten down and likely wasn't at full strength, but at the moment, Jesse didn't know about them knowing about Andrea and Brock (he saw the pic like a minute later), so why not just kill Todd right then and there?  Jesse had to know they were gonna kill him sooner rather than later anyway.

[Joshin U]

As demonstrated by his continued efforts to escape, I really don't think Jesse was smart enough to consign himself to death yet.  His thinking was probably that his luck would hold out eventually.  I totally agree that this direction would be an interesting direction to explore creatively, and I would probably blown up the place, myself.  But fortunately, I'm not Jesse.  Remember when Jesse essentially committed suicide by confronting the two drug dealers who killed the kid? Yeah, not the guy for rational action.

[KevShmev]

[El Barto]

The interesting part, as Cracked pointed out, was that the end result was the same either way. The oncology dream team didn't actually buy him any time. He lived two years and effectively died of cancer. It was the belittlement from his worthless family that prompted him to blow millions on treatment, and while he had already decided to cook meth at that point, he would have reached the point he needed to long before things went off the deep end. As I recall, it was paying for the treatment that caused him to have to significantly ramp up the operation.

[KevShmev]

Huh?  No, he effectively died as the result of a fatal gunshot wound.  Sure, he was suffering some more because of the cancer, but that was in large part thanks to being on the run and living in a cabin all by himself and not getting proper treatment, hence his health deteriorating quickly.  Okay, the cancer had come back prior to that, but who knows how long he would have lived had Hank not found out about him and shit hit the fan. 

[El Barto]

I'm not trying to sell their argument. I just find that there are a lot of interesting things to ponder in a show of this quality.

That said, Walt was down to days, if not hours had the bullet not got him. Furthermore, a non-cancerous person could very well have hung on Mr. Orange style after that gut shot. I actually considered it a tie between cancer/led.

As for the medical side of things, didn't the first doctor tell him something to the effect of: with highly aggressive treatment you might have 2 years? He got the highly aggressive treatment and lasted two years. Dream team doctor told him with highly aggressive treatment he could beat the thing. See above. Walt's initial notion was not to blow the money for two years, a decision plenty of people make nowadays. It was his worthless-ass family that badgered him into gambling millions of dollars on the dream team.

Seems pretty reasonable to conclude that had he followed his initial plan and just died, which his worthless-ass family finally wanted anyway, he would have made them some nice money and grown too sick to work before he turned all Heizenberg on everybody.

[Phoenix87x]

I'm sure this was discuss a couple pages back, but why exactly did Gus slit his man's throat with the boxcutter? It was the only aspect of his behavior though-out the show that seemed off.

[El Barto]

A few of reasons. A: it needed to be done. The guy screwed up and became a liability. B: he needed to teach a lesson to two people more important than Victor. C: To provide a little exposition to the fact that Gus was nowhere near as mild mannered and civilized as the air he put on. That's what made Giancarlo Esposito's portrayal of Gus the best of the series was the fact that you always knew he wasn't quite what he seemed, but there was rarely any real evidence of it.

[Lucidity]

It definitely served as a warning to Jesse and Walt that Gus was willing to go to any lengths to ensure that there were no mistakes among his employees, and could make a snap decision to end someone's life like it was nothing. Gus is very strategic in that way; he wanted to scare them.