Amph [El Camino spoilers] If you don't watch Breaking Bad, then yes, you still are an idiot.

It's awesome that Bryan Cranston got the pizza-throwing shot in a single take.

 

That's what happens when you release the Cranston.

 

Annnnnd finished.

Pretty awesome. I feel tempted to discuss the finale here, because **** Tunick, but I won't.

But seriously: people hated Skyler? I can understand disliking her during season 1, when she was kind of too passive-agressive toward her cancer-ridden husband but, afterwards!? What's wrong with people?

 

The Patriarchy.

 

Of course Skyler is the worst because she's got lady parts and she's mean to the hero!

 

Well, if you are going to hate a female antagonist, at least hate ****ing Marie, you know?

 

Season 4!


Box Cutter... Skyler's manipulation of the locksmith was a joy to watch -the Walk effect, so-to-speak-; I think Gale (and Walt Jr.) are the most happiest people on this show; if I were Sklyer, moving Walt's car around the neighborhood would be too much work; so, looky-loo Victor get a bit ahead of himself, leading of course to...


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Gianacarlo Espositio would make an excellent T-1000... so icy, so efficient. And another great moment: Jesse assuring Mike that his & Walt's body disposable method works: "Trust us." **** out of ****.



Thirty-Eight Snub... During the beginning, I was thinking to myself "How would a gun sale between Walt and Yuri Orlov go?"; Bogdan, the $20-Million Dollar Man!; Mike + Walter + bar + idea to kill Gus= an ornery, well a more ornery Mike; Hank & Marie... the happy couple!; did Walt really think walking up to Gus' home would work the way he wanted to?; ain't nothing like a Jesse Pinkman party, because a Jesse Pinkman party don't stop. **** out of ****.




Open House... Everywhere you look, everywhere you go, there's Marie, breaking down because of the pressure; Gale's lab diary is bound to be more interesting for Hank than any softcore television porn; would a laser tag/nail spa combo be the most launderful place in the world for Saul; Skyler could always open up her own attitude adjustment clinic, given her success with Bogdan here; and of course:


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*** 1/2 out ****.




Bullet Points... Mike does what Mike does so well, even if the situation looks like it would do him in; Jesse clearly can't take much, or any of Walt's micro-managing attitude anymore; Mike clearly can't take Jesse's attitude anymore; there was something so WWE-esque about Walt & Skyler going over their script, to make sure their story to Marie & Hank goes over well; poor Gale- no respect when alive, no respect when dead***! *** 1/2 out of ****.



Shotgun... Oh Jesse, why must you fall for Mike & Gus' setup? You should be smarter than that!; Walt clearly takes the "customer is always right approach", though obviously he ends up being wrong when trying to find Gus at that Los Pollos Hermanos location; Tyrus can operate a forklift just as well as Jesse can, so boo-hoo, Walt; ***more Gale disrespect; a tipsy Walt speaks too much; and the line of the episode, which ends it of course: "Since when do vegans eat fried chicken?" **** out of ****.



Cornered... So many great quips & lines here: "As is"... Bogdan leaves, utterly defeated, and for the final "**** you", Walt uses Bodgan's 1st dollar for a soda via a vending maching; "He does blame you"... Walt is on his way to be an utter monster, but he still cares-enough about the trio of women to whom Gus is deporting back to Honduras; "Are you ready to talk?"... if things can't go smoothly between Gus/Mike & the cartel, then this world truly is a ****** up place; "I am not in danger, Skyler. I am the danger."... indeed you are, Mr. Heisenberg; "Someone has to protect this family from the man that protects this family."... Skyler ending this episode with wonderful zinger. **** out of ****.



Problem Dog... Love how Walter gets some fun in with the Challenger before having to dispose of it; okay, okay, Walt, Jesse will try his best to kill Gus via your precious ricin; loyalties clearly mean something different to Mike & Jesse; should Skyler really be surprised that Walt makes so much?; Hank doing Hank things to great degrees here: getting Gus' fingerprints via the refill at Los Pollos Hermanos, and then using that as his trump card in his meeting with Gomez & Merkert (though of course, all of Hank's suspicions do end up being correct...); Jesse at the NA meeting, concerning his true intentions there: "I made you my bitch"... "You accept that?" Wow. **** out of ****.



Hermanos... Yes! More origin material with Gus & the cartel: Of course Don Eladio doesn't see the opportunity that meth can provide; a walking, talking Tio!; adios, Max; Gus' seedy Chilean past (that of course comes up during his meeting with Hank/the DEA). The ending here, "Look at me, Hector" is so nice; everything (Walt, Jesse & Andrea) really seems to take a backseat to the more interesting Gus & cartel plot points. **** out of ****.



Bug... more of snoopy Hank, as Walt watches (and ponders) on; Skyler + Ted + the IRS= trouble; and then, the 2-best parts of this one:





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**** yeah. **** out of ****.




Salud... Walt's story to Walt Jr. concerning his father was rather riveting (as was their whole subplot here); Saul's a schmuck, but he knows an iffy-idea when he sees one (even if he had a hand in it!)- "Great-Aunt Birgit"; Ted's a major league schmuckhole (spend the $$$ where it needs to go already!); Jesse's dissatisfaction with the initial setup of the Mexican super lab (and the wry smile Mike has during part of that) is priceless; of course the cartel wants Jesse for good, and given the feelings Gus has for the cartel, it all leads to this fabulous moment:


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You don't **** with Gus. **** out of ****.



Crawl Space... Oh Ted; Gus teasing Tio at the old folks home was more of icy cool Gus goodness; Walter is getting a bit brazen in jerking Hank around; and Walt decides that enough-is-enough, wants out, well, Skyler's given Ted too much of their money, leading to...


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Chills man... nothing but chills. **** out of ****.




End Times... Speaking of chills: Brock's poisoning + Gus, Walt, and Jesse at the hospital= the tension grows!; Gomez giving the laundry manager the 3rd degree was nice (Gomez is one of my favorite supporting characters); and Gus once again outsmarts Walt (come on, Walt... killing Walt via a car bomb wasn't going to work!). **** out of ****.



Face Off.... So Jesse gets interrogates by APD, Saul gets involved -obviously-, certain information is passed along, leading to the most ingenious of plans for Walt & Tio to get what they want (Tio's DEA distraction? Priceless):


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Especially the look of rage on Tio's face as he rings his bell for the last time; RIP, Gus. **** out of ****.




Semi-random observations: So, Walt poisoned Brock? Woah, wow, holy hell, man; the Mike-Gus-Jesse dynamic in the latter half of this season was so, so joyous to watch; and Skyler... her character doesn't deserve the massive swaths of hate she gets across the internets- sure, she acts less-than-stellar a lot this season, and clearly had some issues in the past (Marie & Ted), but did she ask for Walt's cancer and the road he chose to deal with that? No. Flawed, but her issues are more than understandable; I didn't expect to sympathize more with Hank & Marie, but damned if I did anyhow.

 

Yeah, the show does a pretty fantastic job of bringing you around to Hank's side even though he starts off so incredibly annoying and ostensibly not that bright. The latter proves to be not so.

 

JoinTheSchwarz I'm actually 10-episodes into season 5, so I'll be done sooner than you think.

 

I see that job search is going well then.

 

Now that's a zinger; well played.

 

Why won't you just go away?

 

Shut up, Daveeed.

 

So who's paying for your Netflix access, Darth Tunes™, your mom or your brother?

Anyway... Really looking forward to Better Call Saul. I can't wait to see Saul and Mike again. I doubt it gets to the heights Breaking Bad did, though, but I'll be happy as long as it's any good.

 

i love saul

 

idk, looking at this set photo it looks like its gonna get pretty high

 

AMC sent me an e-mail trumpeting a "new clip" of Better Call Saul, and it was this.

 

JoinTheSchwarz If you want to discuss the series finale, then do so; I'll obviously avoid that discussion until I'm done with the series. No need to hold back.

 

He'll be done with the series later tonight, so.

 

It's like Tunick is being held captive by the neo nazis.

 

I think the hating is pretty stupid, but I think the defense has gotten overblown, too. A lot of the criticism being misogynist or just stupid doesn't mean that she's the saint suffering under Walt that she's often portrayed as, either. She's just a human. She can be selfish, she can be passive-aggressive. But most significantly, I think, is that she makes all Walt's mistakes. Just later and often on a smaller scale.

Walt breaks the law to get money for his family? Skyler breaks the law to keep money coming in to her family and to protect that gloriously oblivious idiot Ted. She cooks Ted's books, then self-righteously crusades against Walt for cooking meth. She thinks Walt is destabilizing the family and marriage, so she blows it apart by ****ing Ted. She blames Walt for driving the family apart, so she throws him out because of something he mumbles about a cell phone and refuses to even talk to him for an explanation. She condemns Walt for making drugs "for the family," but ends up complicit in his criminal empire, buying into it and becoming almost as much of a ruthless kingpin as him once she realizes how much good the drug money can do for her family. She's selfish and hypocritical, condemning Walt and using the moral high it provides to justify doing the same thing -- breaking the law and damaging the family -- and the show is even willing to let her largely off the hook for it because she repents. (Blacked out to protect Tunick.) I don't it's at all accidental that Skyler so consistently mirrors Walt's flaws, or that she ends up sucked into his empire eventually. There's a message there, and it's not that she's simply a poor tormented saint of a wife. Walt's a bad husband, but that doesn't mean she's not also a bad wife. Walt's selfishness damages the family, but that doesn't mean Skyler isn't selfish or that she doesn't damage the family, too. Walt creates the meth empire, but she eventually jumps in with her eyes open and takes to it pretty quickly.

That doesn't make her a terrible person, and a lot of the criticism is still off-base, but it does make her a very flawed human being, just the same as everybody else in the series. I can understand disliking her (I found her fascinating and enjoyed her role on the show, but she's not exactly designed to be a fun character), and I think the takeaway from many defenders that she's Walt's victim, pure and simple, and a "good guy" of the show is a terribly simplistic reading. There's very little Walt's guilty of that she's not also guilty of, and that can't simply be overlooked. She's generally not as guilty as Walt, and there are mitigating factors here and there -- like I said, she's not a terrible person -- but I find it sort of baffling the extent to which people are willing to completely overlook so much of her character just because some dumb bros want to call her nasty names.

 

Oh, no doubt, she's flawed as ****, but she wasn't a horrible monster opposing our beloved antihero Walter, as some people love depicting her.

 

WHYYYYYYYY WON'T SHE JUST LET WALT MAKE METH AND KILL PEOPLE GOD WHAT A *****.

 

Look, the set up of the show is to make you believe Walt is a victim of circumstance who is forced to start cooking meth to pay his medical bills and provide for his family, and then peel that artifice away layer by layer. Part of that "poor victim Walt" set up at the beginning is his domineering wife. That's set-up in the opening scene with the veggie-bacon and hammered home later in the pilot with her birthday present to him. She's not meant to be a likable character.

The problem is how far people took that hatred, especially as Walt's true nature become more and more evident in the later seasons. Viewers shouldn't have needed until Walt's admission to her in the finale (maybe my favorite scene in the whole show) to figure that out.

 

i'm one of the people that didn't like skyler, yet i never really knew why. she just irked me. i knew it wasn't that i hated women in general or that she was stoopid for not being a fan of her husband being a criminal. but now i think havacs explanation is pretty spot on. so thanks, i've been wondering why i disliked her so much.