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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 might be giving Vince Gilligan too much credit, but I always imagine that was intentional. The show is seen almost entirely from Walt's perspective and to him, at first, a Tuco guy might as well be the top drug man.. As Walt gains perspective, so the Tuco character reveals more of his rabid-ness and poor judgement. He's still basically a Looney Tunes character, though.

I think they planned for Tuco to seem more powerful than he actually was, to illustrate Walt's perspective, especially considering that early Season 2 is probably something that was supposed to be part of Season 1 originally.

Also, here's the show's science advisor explaining some of the real-life science of Season 1 & 2 SPOILERS FOR OTHER SEASONS TOO, DON'T GO THERE THUNDERPEEL!

Great bit there about Breaking Bad's biggest "Chekov's Gun" (all seasons spoiler)

Ricin makes several other appearances throughout the series: In Season 3, Jesse procures enough to poison Gus Fring's dealers. In Season 4, it's the planned method to kill Gus himself. Interestingly enough, though prevalent throughout the show, the poison has yet to cause a single fatality.

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Finally caught up with the first half of season five. Amazing show.

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.)

What was it that you knew was going to happen?

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What was it that you knew was going to happen?

Walt was going to shave his head and then become a badass, taking on some gun-totting bad guys. Max Payne's opening copies it almost completely (including the shaved head). You watch it and think, "How does he end up like that?", and the rest of the story is about how he gets there. If I hadn't have seen Max Payne 3, I would have just thought, "Did I just see what I think I did? WTF? That can't happen... Can it?" But because I had played Max Payne I thought, "Oh! This is where Max Payne stole that from, then. Walt's going to shave his head and become a badass, taking on some gun-totting bad guys". And then I was just waiting for it to happen. Impatiently.

Damn you, Rockstar!

(Actually it wasn't that bad, but still. Pretty shoddy of Rockstar, I think.)

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To be fair, Max Payne looks way more credible when he jumps sideways, shoots people midair and lands on his shoulder.

Oh, no, I spoiled Breaking Bad again.

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To be fair, Max Payne looks way more credible when he jumps sideways, shoots people midair and lands on his shoulder.

Oh, no, I spoiled Breaking Bad again.

You've also spoiled the finale of Malcolm In The Middle. Well done, jerk!

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I thought the second series was pretty tedious. Felt that I had to soldier through it to get to more, better stuff - just felt that it went off the boil somewhat after the brilliance that was 1. 3 is better 4 just goes crackers and 5! HOLY SHIT! CAN'T BELIEVE THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS SPLIT IT INTO 2.

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To be fair, Max Payne looks way more credible when he jumps sideways, shoots people midair and lands on his shoulder.

Oh, no, I spoiled Breaking Bad again.

No, that'd be John Woo and The Matrix. Max Payne has a long history of being "inspired" by Hollywood :)

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Oh, I wasn't making any claims like that.

I was claiming Walter White also dual wields pistols and kills dudes, probably in slow motion.

He doesn't.

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So I haven't read anything else in this thread and probably wont for a while as I watched seasons 1-3 weekly as they aired, but for some reason haven't gotten around to watching an episode since. I just came here to say that why I was visiting my family in Albuquerque this weekend I saw that certain stores sell Breaking Bad candy, which I thought was kind of funny, and also kind of weird. If you couldn't guess it's blue colored rock candy, or at least I assume it is, I only saw it and didn't buy any.

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Oh, I wasn't making any claims like that.

I was claiming Walter White also dual wields pistols and kills dudes, probably in slow motion.

He doesn't.

Nope, that stuff had already been stolen from Hollywood before Rockstar got their hands on it.

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Another thought about Breaking Bad, and why the first episode was so great. In the beginning it's implied that he's an amazing science dude, that his research led to a Pulizter prize, but guess what: Life ain't the movies, and even though he had his moment in the sun, he's a now a struggling high school teacher, with no respect.

Such is cruel reality.

I really liked that unusual twist. But in season two, desperate for more stories, they expanded on that to change things: He was no longer shat on by the same realities we all have to face in life, he was actively wronged by his previous partners.

For me that means he's less relatable. He's no longer the victim of "life happens", he's the victim of theft. In other words, the cause of his problems is now someone else.

That seems to fly in the face of the main theme of the show: A man taking control of his life, fighting the things outside his control (e.g. his cancer, and previously, his lack of luck).

Anyways, I've probably explained that badly, it's just a thought that struck me.

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I don't know.. I thought it was very much "shit happens" He let the big chance slip him by, because he accepted the buyout. It was a lot of money for him at that point (Life! He has a family to take care of, so any money seems like a lot more, compared to a risk-charged startup) then later on that company makes it big, and he feels cheated. He feels they wronged him, and to an extent it's true, but he wasn't forced to take the buyout as far as I remember.

I haven't watched Season 2 for a long time, so maybe there's a story that explains this in another way where it feels like he was forced..

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I don't know.. I thought it was very much "shit happens" He let the big chance slip him by, because he accepted the buyout. It was a lot of money for him at that point (Life! He has a family to take care of, so any money seems like a lot more, compared to a risk-charged startup) then later on that company makes it big, and he feels cheated. He feels they wronged him, and to an extent it's true, but he wasn't forced to take the buyout as far as I remember.

I haven't watched Season 2 for a long time, so maybe there's a story that explains this in another way where it feels like he was forced..

Ah, I haven't got that far yet. So far it's just him claiming he was taken advantage of, and his ex claiming that he "left". There was no mention of him accepting any buyout.

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I don't know.. I thought it was very much "shit happens" He let the big chance slip him by, because he accepted the buyout. It was a lot of money for him at that point (Life! He has a family to take care of, so any money seems like a lot more, compared to a risk-charged startup) then later on that company makes it big, and he feels cheated. He feels they wronged him, and to an extent it's true, but he wasn't forced to take the buyout as far as I remember.

I haven't watched Season 2 for a long time, so maybe there's a story that explains this in another way where it feels like he was forced..

It's explored very strongly during moments in season five, if I remember.

He accepted the buyout because of the break with his ex, who may have left him for his partner and was also part of the company. I don't think he liked feeling he was the third wheel either, which explains his obsessive need for control in this new enterprise.

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Oh, sorry ThunderPeel. Didn't mean to spoil that bit about the buyout.. It's not a huge plot point or something.. I had no idea it was revealed in S5, actually.

Gormongous:

Now you mention it, it's the scene where he's explaining to Jesse why he won't accept the S5 buyout? Magnificent scene, and really explains a lot of Walt's motivation since the beginning.

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I feel like that should have been spoilered for ThunderPeel's sake. edit: as you noted!

But yeah, it's an interesting observation TP. The question for me at that point was, how was Walt ripped off, and was he even ripped off? He has an interesting turnaround from being okay, if a little awkward, about attending Gretchen and Eliot's party in Season 1 to

the way he speaks to Gretchen in 2

which I assume is what you're up to

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Oh, sorry ThunderPeel. Didn't mean to spoil that bit about the buyout.. It's not a huge plot point or something.. I had no idea it was revealed in S5, actually.

Gormongous:

Now you mention it, it's the scene where he's explaining to Jesse why he won't accept the S5 buyout? Magnificent scene, and really explains a lot of Walt's motivation since the beginning.

Yeah, the single line

I check it every week

reveals so much about his character

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I read in interviews that Season 2 was the only season that the writing team had planned out fully before shooting (thus the weird flash-forward segments). They felt it was too forced and reverted back to writing on the fly.

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