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TwilightBlade September 8th, 2013 7:55 PM

Breaking Bad
 
http://heybiscuit.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/breaking-bad-banner-2.jpg
Synopsis: When 50-year old-chemistry teacher, Walter White, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given only two years to live, he decides he has nothing to lose. He lives with his wife and teenage son, who has cerebral palsy, in New Mexico. Determined to ensure that his family will have a secure future, White embarks on a career of drugs and crime. He proves to be remarkably proficient in this new world as he begins manufacturing and selling methamphetamine with one of his former students. The series tracks the impacts of a fatal diagnosis on a regular hard working man and explores how a fatal diagnosis affects his morality and transforms him into a major player of the drug trade.

Episodes: 59, final season currently airing

Starring: Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt, RJ Mitte, Bob Odenkirk, Giancarlo Esposito, Jonathan Banks

Honest September 8th, 2013 8:03 PM

Just finished season 1. So late to the game. :I

Echidna September 10th, 2013 6:13 PM

This show is easily the No. 1 show on TV currently. Probably even the best in the last half decade.

From a critical stand point, there is no good element in a TV show that has not been utilized to its full extent in Breaking Bad. The character development they've managed to stuff into 5 seasons is unbelievable:

(not only referring to their appearances btw)

The plot itself is great, but what make it a magnum opus in story-telling are the details. I don't wanna say anymore as to not spoil anything.

Anyways, from a more emotional perspective, Breaking Bad is simply the most immersing experience you could imagine. Every episode will make you crave for more (ironically not too different from the meth Walter cooks).

Just, 10/10.

Mana September 11th, 2013 8:48 AM

I've only ever seen the first episode, it never really caught me. I still don't understand the appeal, but that's possibly because I can't conceivably relate to the main character. His motives don't seem to match up, to me, and... yeah.

Maybe it's just not my thing.

Echidna September 11th, 2013 9:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magic Fox (Post 7828055)
I've only ever seen the first episode, it never really caught me. I still don't understand the appeal, but that's possibly because I can't conceivably relate to the main character. His motives don't seem to match up, to me, and... yeah.

Maybe it's just not my thing.

Well, you're gonna have to watch a few episodes to get the full picture. The first episode was basically a beta before they go the hang of their trademark filming and story-telling style. For me it only took one episode to get hooked, but for others it might need a bit longer.

I don't know, it's up to you and you'd know best I guess, but my personal opinion is that you should probably try to watch a few more episodes.

goldengyarados September 11th, 2013 9:21 AM

Dat last episode though...

Echidna September 11th, 2013 12:37 PM

NEWS

The Saul Goodman spin-off has just been green-lit. The spin-off show will be a one-hour prequel tentatively titled "Better Call Saul", and will serve to tell the story of how Saul Goodman became the popular defense attorney that he is.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

EDIT: Spin-off discussion thread: [Link]

Eruption September 12th, 2013 7:18 AM

The first season goes pretty slow for people looking to get into this, but it becomes easily one of the best tv shows of all time over the course of the series.

It looks set for a thrilling last few episodes too.

Rest September 14th, 2013 7:01 AM

Just watched the latest episode.

Spoiler:
Who do you think will die? My money's on Jesse.

TwilightBlade September 15th, 2013 6:14 PM

Ah, I didn't know that Saul was such a popular character. I'll likely watch the spin-off too.

Season 5, episode 14 just aired.

Spoiler:
That was the most emotionally intense episode I have ever watched. The BEST episode. So much happened in one episode. I don't know what's upset me more, what happened to Hank or Skyler/Flynn or Jesse. I'm shaking after all of this.

I was waiting the entire episode to hear Aaron Paul's favorite use of his character's catchphrase, but when Walt said it to Sky at the end... wow!

I hate not knowing what's going to happen next. Two more weeks. Unbelievable.

Echidna September 15th, 2013 7:41 PM

I... I'm speechless. I can't believe all that just happened in one episode. So many developments, so much content, such an epic.

Spoiler:
WHAT THE HELL IS GONNA HAPPEN TO JESSE OMG

Also, does Walter calling that guy at the end and getting a new identity mean that the last two episodes are gonna be set after this?
http://media.heavy.com/media/2013/08/VQ6rp.jpg

I really hope so. I've been waiting for this epilogue since season 5b started.

But 20/10 episode. No 30/10 I just.

Rest September 16th, 2013 12:19 AM

I need to recharge my heart after watching Ozymandias, but boy was that emotionally exhausting.

Without a doubt, one of the best episodes this show has ever done, and it may very well be one of the best episodes ever aired on television.

Eruption September 16th, 2013 7:37 AM

I think that is my second favourite episode after Hermanos.

Just wow really.

Spoiler:
I had the same feeling on the '*****' use, TB.

Weeaboo Name September 16th, 2013 10:08 AM

I think this face sums up that entire last episode.

http://i.imgur.com/3f6ZLpf.png

seeker September 16th, 2013 10:21 AM

Spoilers ahead.

My thoughts on the latest episode consist of the following:


Seriously though, I was getting really tired of the way Walt gets away with everything in the series. It was so Americanised, the way that the hero manages to pull it out of the bag every time, and not only that, but come out higher than before. This was/is the only piece of bad writing for me, and has bothered me about Breaking Bad the entire way though. Thankfully the latest episode at least was some sort of a saving grace on that, it was a bit ridiculous that he always came out on top... however, making it away with the amount of money he has right now couldn't exactly be considered as being caught either. This is one of the few cases where I've wanted the main character (half way through the series) to just fail. I actually preferred Hank after he did his turnaround with Marie, and even Skyler had some admirable qualities. I was most concerned about Jr's well-being, and somewhat still am. Almost all of the rest of the characters are guilty in some way.

Throughout the series, I would have been happy enough seeing Walt get away with everything in the end, if on the way he failed on some of his efforts, or at least didn't end up in a better situation when the poo hit the fan so to speak.

Echidna September 16th, 2013 10:52 AM

http://i.imgur.com/oqZJRh5.png
Quote:

Originally Posted by Abnegation (Post 7835535)
Seriously though, I was getting really tired of the way Walt gets away with everything in the series. It was so Americanised, the way that the hero manages to pull it out of the bag every time, and not only that, but come out higher than before. This was/is the only piece of bad writing for me, and has bothered me about Breaking Bad the entire way though. Thankfully the latest episode at least was some sort of a saving grace on that, it was a bit ridiculous that he always came out on top... however, making it away with the amount of money he has right now couldn't exactly be considered as being caught either. This is one of the few cases where I've wanted the main character (half way through the series) to just fail. I actually preferred Hank after he did his turnaround with Marie, and even Skyler had some admirable qualities. I was most concerned about Jr's well-being, and somewhat still am. Almost all of the rest of the characters are guilty in some way.

Throughout the series, I would have been happy enough seeing Walt get away with everything in the end, if on the way he failed on some of his efforts, or at least didn't end up in a better situation when the poo hit the fan so to speak.

I'd have to disagree with you there. Yes, at times it seemed as though he couldn't fail, but all of that was fitting with the theme of the show. One of the major symbols represented throughout Breaking Bad is Walt Whitman, along with his many poems. The most prominent themes to appear, based on said poems, have usually been about how one can be fooled by constant success, only to later come to a crash landing so to speak.

Also, and I don't remember where I saw this because it was sometime when season 4 was airing, one of the writers spoke in an interview about how their main focus was to bring him up as high as they could, in order to convey that nothing lasts forever. Hence the use of the episode title and poem Ozymandias.

Quote:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abnegation (Post 7835535)
It was so Americanised,

http://i.imgur.com/wPVzkDE.gif

seeker September 16th, 2013 11:19 AM

It's not the case of lack of failing, the issue is that every time he's on the brink of getting caught, something happens that gets him out of the bag, or he pulls a stunt to do so. Like the latest stunt whereby Jack arrived onto the scene after he was cuffed. It just seems that he does a barrel roll through a torn bush several times a season and each time walks out of it unharmed with a new rose to add to his collection. It really is a case of "I'm the untouchable super-hero." Too often his pitfalls are made into success stories, which really bothers me as it seems that it's chaos that brings him upwards each time, and his smarts take a very prominent back-seat as the show goes on. Namely in recent episodes, he gets cuffed, his money is more or less found (all due to his negligence and greed), yet somehow he manages to come out of it with 11 million dollars, Hank and his colleague out of his way (ie. the two instigators of his impending demise), Jesse in slavery (also no longer a risk), and stumbles upon some random farm in the middle of nowhere which agree to sell him their only truck. You might say that "oh but he essentially lost his family", but I'd argue he lost it a long time ago, even Skyler said she was waiting for him to die. What he lost, was, nothing essentially. He had planned to give all his money to his family, so the 11 million bucks entered his pocket so that he's free to disappear with it, also with the primary DEA agents who had been after him. I just find that while they aim to bring him as high and realistically as possible, often-times he just gets out of deep water again and again, and quite often not due to his own character.

Though don't get me wrong, I love Breaking Bad, the writing is fantastic, my only critique is that they followed the formula of making a seemingly unstoppable character and built him up using a technique whereby he just gets out of every situation where he's caught by the low and danglies (by his hand or not) and somehow it benefits him in the end. As I say, I would have been slightly more okay with him getting out of tricky situations with a slight dent, but it was like every time he did get out of one of them he came off better. It seems like his pitfalls were his opportunities, and his smarts only caused him to get caught within those pitfalls. Either way, the latest episode is a slightly more realistic representation of what the show needed more of, which is a little more main character suspense and damage.

I could go on and on, but there was no sense of fear for me when it came to Walt, yet with some of my other favourite characters I was worried what would happen to them. Walt, being a primary character who's on the brink of death due to Cancer, and who's also on the edge due to his schematics with drugs, he should be the one who I would be worried about. And in fairness, I was, but really in the latest seasons my suspense was often eased in his scenes because I felt "oh, it's Walt, it's easy enough to predict that this scene which seemingly could go either way will end up in his favour." This led to a sense of predictability in the show, you never worried about Walt throughout the series, so you don't care when he's in trouble because you just know he'll be okay. Up until the end however, but the series should be about the journey, not whether he makes it out the other end on top or not. So yeah, while the series is almost flawless, and fantastically written, Walt's risks were never binary, because he always ends up on top without taking so much as a hit. So I feel that episodes like this one are perhaps a bit late in showing him take a few personal hits, I would have liked to see him break-even on more of his tight spots if he had to get out of them, rather than always achieve progress from what seems like impending failure each time.

Echidna September 29th, 2013 9:33 PM

So, what did you guys think about that finale?
Imo, it was amazing. It was just perfect, the way it ended. Perfect I tell you. I'll elaborate on my opinion later when I'm sure I won't be spoiling too much xD

Sirfetch’d September 29th, 2013 10:01 PM

I thought that the finale was well executed and really had a perfect ending. It didn't leave you wondering what happens next because of how solid the ending of the show actually was. I felt like the story reached it's conclusion without adding unnecessary filler and without being drawn out any more episodes to the point of where it would become silly and not make sense. I am sad to see the show end, but at least it ended the way that it did which was with perfection.

Triforce September 30th, 2013 7:04 AM

I've just purchased Season 1 & 2 on Blu Ray. This is down to the fact that IGN have not stopped mentioning the final episode in nearly 2 weeks. I hope I enjoy it, though I'm wondering what it will be like compared to the TV shows I normally watch such as CSI, LOST, Fringe and NCIS.

Sweets Witch September 30th, 2013 7:10 AM

I thought it was a good ending. It was just 75 minutes of things getting done with no story-breaking plot twists or anything like that. Everybody was given their respective endings and there were no loose ties that I could notice.

Well, okay, maybe ONE.


Echidna September 30th, 2013 9:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweets Witch (Post 7855829)

Ok, I honestly think I'm gonna die. I'm sick, have a soar throat, runny nose, and have been coughing since yesterday, and this just gave me the worst laugh ever.

Seriously, what the hell happened to Huell?

seeker September 30th, 2013 10:29 AM


Echidna September 30th, 2013 6:07 PM

Well you can't expect (-SPOILER-) a person dying if ricin poisoning to be hot (-END SPOILER-), that's only for cheesy shows ;;

Sweets Witch October 1st, 2013 1:53 AM

I'm not gonna lie, I laughed when

Spoiler:
she was on the phone with Walt and he was like "What's wrong? Feel like you have the flu?"


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