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The show was starting to drag halfway through season four, they seemed to forget to turn on the cinematography and editing tricks that set the tone to most of the show—but then shortly before

Gus bites it

they remembered what they were all about and shit got way better.

I don't know if I agree that it dragged, but it definately kicked it up a gear before the end.

The shot of Walt laughing maniacally in his crawl space, while the camera pulled all the way up, was amazing!

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So on Breaking Bad, are we to assume

Jesse understood the connection of the whistled Queen song to the poison?

Also that kid being shot and being reported missing was really upsetting to me. I always want to be done with Breaking Bad because shit always just gets worse and more depressing. I still always want to know what's next though.

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So on Breaking Bad, are we to assume

Jesse understood the connection of the whistled Queen song to the poison?

Well, maybe, maybe not. In the last episode of the half-season he does think that Walt is there to kill him when he shows up with the duffel bags of cash—before he opens the door he goes and gets a gun. As the scene ends he breaks down and tosses the gun away.

Maybe he suspects. TBD.

EDIT: I accidentally soiled this post. ¬¬

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I think the whistling simply upset Jesse because they had just killed a kid and melted down his body in a barrel of chemical goop, but Walt was relaxed enough to whistle while working. He realized that when Walt says what happened to the kid upsets him he's lying.

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I think the whistling simply upset Jesse because they had just killed a kid and melted down his body in a barrel of chemical goop, but Walt was relaxed enough to whistle while working. He realized that when Walt says what happened to the kid upsets him he's lying.

Yeah that.

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I like how the filling slowly oozes further and further down the roof every time we see the pizza.

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I like that Badger later explains that the place doesn't cut their pizzas and then "pass the savings on to you" and Jesse totally calls him on how dumb an idea that is.

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I wish I was you.

Wait 'til you meet Heisenberg (the ghost of the actual Heisenberg, who appears to Walt in his dreams).

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Ok, I'm about to watch the final episode of Season 1. It's a fucking awesome series. WOW.

Here are my thoughts/criticisms:

1. I'm kind of pissed off with Rockstar for stealing so much for Max Payne. The sixth episode of the first Season had an awesome "flash forward" of the shaven-headed Walt, and because of Max Payne I totally knew what was going to happen. (I probably would have guessed what might happen, but as soon as I saw it I immediately thought of MP -- pretty lame of them to steal something so iconic if you ask me.)

2. It's so damn unrealistic. Especially in its portrayal of the drug world. For example, If you were running a drug organization, why in the fuck would you place someone as mentally unstable as Tuco (or Crazy 8, for that matter) in any sort of critical position? You can buy a psychopath to do your killing, you need someone smart and dependable to help you run stay one step ahead of the the law. You certainly wouldn't let the person running things sample the product.

And why don't either Tuco or Crazy 8 has an ounce of business acumen? Some kid brings you (a rather stupid amount of) drugs, that happens to be super high quality. Meaning you can cut it and make more money than from the same amount of the cheaper stuff. This is Good For Business. If you threaten and/or kill the kid for an ounce, you're only going to make 35K off the bag you steal. Is that worth it? Or would it make more sense to start a business relationship...?

After THE WIRE how can anyone go back to the 1980s version of drug lords? *le sigh*

3.

I kind of think his wife was a bit of an asshole pressuring him into take the treatment. I mean, don't get me wrong, I understood everything she said before Walt had his say, but afterwards she should have been cool with his choice. So when he changes his mind (and says yes to the treatment), I wanted her to have changed her's -- at least acknowledge that she'd come to terms with his previous decision. Two years of physical hell just so they can have him around seems really selfish. Or he could have at least added a caveat that he would only do the treatment until it made his life unbearable.

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2. It's so damn unrealistic. Especially in its portrayal of the drug world. For example, If you were running a drug organization, why in the fuck would you place someone as mentally unstable as Tuco (or Crazy 8, for that matter) in any sort of critical position? You can buy a psychopath to do your killing, you need someone smart and dependable to help you run stay one step ahead of the the law. You certainly wouldn't let the person running things sample the product.

And why don't either Tuco or Crazy 8 has an ounce of business acumen? Some kid brings you (a rather stupid amount of) drugs, that happens to be super high quality. Meaning you can cut it and make more money than from the same amount of the cheaper stuff. This is Good For Business. If you threaten and/or kill the kid for an ounce, you're only going to make 35K off the bag you steal. Is that worth it? Or would it make more sense to start a business relationship...?

After THE WIRE how can anyone go back to the 1980s version of drug lords? *le sigh*

It may be a bit caricatured, but I think that the East Coast drug trade is a whole different ballgame from what the Cartels are up to in the Southwest. Blood ties and personal reputation matter a lot in the latter, because the goal there is not just to make money, but to assert control over every facet of illegal behavior in the area. Hatchetmen like Tuco are good for that, and when they get caught, you can replace them with someone more level-headed and the cops take off the pressure out of sheer relief. The really dangerous thing in that situation is criminal activity not beholden to the Cartels.

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It may be a bit caricatured, but I think that the East Coast drug trade is a whole different ballgame from what the Cartels are up to in the Southwest. Blood ties and personal reputation matter a lot in the latter, because the goal there is not just to make money, but to assert control over every facet of illegal behavior in the area. Hatchetmen like Tuco are good for that, and when they get caught, you can replace them with someone more level-headed and the cops take off the pressure out of sheer relief. The really dangerous thing in that situation is criminal activity not beholden to the Cartels.

Taking control of an area requires brains and muscle. As I said, you can hire muscle easily. If you need to intimidate the police, then hire someone to do it. It makes zero sense the way its depicted in Breaking Bad. (Sorry!) Tuco is so much of a caricature that he's one step away from stroking a white fluffy cat and declaring plans to take over the world.

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Tuco is in power because of his family connections to the cartel. I don't think it was ever really implied that he's particularly good at it. I don't want to give anything away, but a lot of your complaints are addressed in later seasons. (That said, Breaking Bad is a much less realistic show than The Wire.)

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Exactly. Tuco just appeared on the scene and possessed the violence and recklessness to elbow everyone else out of the way. I don't think it's ever implied that he's a permanent fixture, but he's certainly the kind of guy crime syndicates cough up all the time.

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Tuco is in power because of his family connections to the cartel. I don't think it was ever really implied that he's particularly good at it. I don't want to give anything away, but a lot of your complaints are addressed in later seasons. (That said, Breaking Bad is a much less realistic show than The Wire.)

That's good to hear. The only way I could imagine it is that he was family, but yeah, it's still pretty far out in terms of realism (his family would do better just giving him money and letting him being a fuck up without jeopardizing the family business). They basically needed to have him be a lunatic for the story to work better -- otherwise Walt would be plain sailing with only the police to worry about. It's an artistic cheat. Still enjoyable, though :)

SEASON ONE SPOILERS BELOW!

So I just finished Season 1... A little disappointed with the season as a whole, but not hugely. The opening episode was AMAZING. It just blew me awayTM. I could totally believe that a guy could tumble down this rabbit hole (except for the behaviour of Crazy 8 - which was illogical, especially when it's later revealed he was a snitch). By the time the third episode came around, they'd completely tied up the story, so they needed to come with up another reason for him to go back into business. Now only Walt's pride is the reason he's making this stuff, so it's becoming harder and harder to sympathise with him.

Plus his situation seems to have changed. In the first episode he needed to work a humiliating job at a carwash just to make ends meet. Now he's quit his job there, plus he's on medical leave from his teaching job, but his family seems to be doing fine for money. (As as I understand it, his old partner is only paying for his medical bills, so why isn't his wife wondering about their money situation? Again, it's because it works better for the story, I think.)

(Also, did I miss something, or did he have a Pulizter Prize in the first episode? Weird how that's not been mentioned again... :-/)

Maybe they'll fix all that in Season 2, or maybe I just won't sympathise with Walt any more. Time will tell!

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The cartels throughout the series are portrayed very, very cartoonily. At best they've made them weirdly vague—why would they call themselves "the cartel"? Why wouldn't the operators on the US side of the border differentiate between different cartels that are warring just over the fence?—at worse, they really didn't do their homework. I am guessing that they're just being vague because describing the real deal is a huge bummer and may also be dangerous.

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I am guessing that they're just being vague because describing the real deal is a huge bummer and may also be dangerous.

I think that's pretty unlikely! It's not like the producers would know more than the police(!). Plus showing them being more realistic would only likely engender respect from that community, whereas portraying them as idiots is more likely to induce their ire. I think it's far more likely that they just didn't do their homework and instead focussed on creating the characters they needed to tell an interesting story. Walt would not have as many problems if they portrayed the drug world realistically; It doesn't make for good drama if everyone gets along. (They did at least address this "Hollywoodisation", kind of, in the last episode, where Jesse rags on Walt for his location for their drug deal.)

Shame to hear you don't think they don't improve things later, though :-/ It's very hard to go back to the cartoony version of crime after you've watched The Wire/read David Simon's books.

Still, Walt's an interesting character. I kind of wish he'd loosen up a bit now, though. I understood his frustrated and curt manner in the beginning because he wasn't in control of his life, plus he was terrified. Now he's become a badass, he should have relieved a bit of that, and so loosened up. So far they've only shown that coming out through an enlarged libido (I'm pretty sure chemo would kill the libido in anyone, but hey, it's all kind of cartoony, I guess). I also kind of wish they'd make his wife a little less of a bitch to him. At this point I'm finding it difficult to understand why he loves her so much (and he's going through a lot of shit for her).

Props to Bryan Cranston for actually shaving his head, though! (Unless that's some amazing makeup, in which case, props to them!)

I'm still enjoying it, though. I don't mean to give it such a hard time, it's just that it gets so much love I'm spotting the things about it I don't like. It's still great. The first episode was like "100%" (to pick an arbitrary scoring system out of the air) in my books, the worst episode has been like "90%", so far. So it's still excellent, as far as I'm concerned... just not as excellent.

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There're systemic reasons behind Walt's often off-putting behavior, but it's best for you to see those yourself. I've never seen the webisodes, but friends in the know have told me they're worth a watch. Not essential, mind.

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It doesn't get much less cartoony throughout, but "The Drug People" do get considerably more competent as it progresses. Also, Season 1 is probably the weakest season, and I think I remember it ending early because of the writer's strike.

All this is to say, you're in for a treat. It only gets better from now on.

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Ooh, wow! That's good to know. I have to say, I've blasted through four episodes of Season Two already, and I am really enjoying it again, but it's not quite living up to the incredibly brilliant pilot episode. But hey, that's pretty common, actually. Tuco bothered me a lot less in Season 2 as he wasn't seen as a successful drug baron, he was just more just a rabid dog, which worked for me.

I watched a few of the minisodes from Season 1... They were really jokey, and it kind of clashed with the show. See what you think:

Apparently the joke is that it was a man... I have to say I didn't get the clues.

#trivia: Thermite is rust and aluminium. That's all.

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