Music and remixing by me
August 31, 2012 4:55 PM Subscribe
Breaking Bad Remix (Seasons 1 and 2) from the indefatigable placeboing. [potential spoilers if you haven't seen it, but then if you haven't seen it, you probably won't get it anyway]
TIGHT TIGHT TIGHT
posted by mysticreferee at 5:01 PM on August 31, 2012
posted by mysticreferee at 5:01 PM on August 31, 2012
Needs moar "BITCH" and "YO".
posted by King Bee at 5:03 PM on August 31, 2012 [5 favorites]
posted by King Bee at 5:03 PM on August 31, 2012 [5 favorites]
YEAH, BITCH! MASHUPS!
posted by secret about box at 5:07 PM on August 31, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by secret about box at 5:07 PM on August 31, 2012 [3 favorites]
I'm slinging mad volume and fat stacking benjis, you know what I'm saying? I can't be all about,like, spelling and shit.
-Skinny Pete.
Words to live by.
posted by Ad hominem at 5:07 PM on August 31, 2012 [9 favorites]
-Skinny Pete.
Words to live by.
posted by Ad hominem at 5:07 PM on August 31, 2012 [9 favorites]
Here's a gem from the secret archives:
Fallacies by Twaughthammer [SLYT]
FALLACIES FALLACIES FALLACIES
posted by mysticreferee at 5:16 PM on August 31, 2012 [3 favorites]
Fallacies by Twaughthammer [SLYT]
FALLACIES FALLACIES FALLACIES
posted by mysticreferee at 5:16 PM on August 31, 2012 [3 favorites]
"He killed her for like, nothing. I mean, he called her a skank, but she WAS a skank!"
posted by angrycat at 5:24 PM on August 31, 2012
posted by angrycat at 5:24 PM on August 31, 2012
I am currently jamming BB via netflix and just finished season 2, so this was perfectly timed.
posted by localroger at 5:44 PM on August 31, 2012
posted by localroger at 5:44 PM on August 31, 2012
Seeing Schoolteacher Walt again was poignant.
posted by Egg Shen at 5:46 PM on August 31, 2012 [12 favorites]
posted by Egg Shen at 5:46 PM on August 31, 2012 [12 favorites]
Yeah.
SPOILER
I forgot what it was like when he had hair/a soul.
posted by saul wright at 5:51 PM on August 31, 2012 [4 favorites]
SPOILER
I forgot what it was like when he had hair/a soul.
posted by saul wright at 5:51 PM on August 31, 2012 [4 favorites]
I also wish they could have worked in "I've got the talking pillow now.".
posted by Egg Shen at 6:01 PM on August 31, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by Egg Shen at 6:01 PM on August 31, 2012 [4 favorites]
This gets better every time I replay it.
posted by secret about box at 6:26 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by secret about box at 6:26 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
The instrumental break reminded me of my favorite twitter account.
posted by a hat out of hell at 6:33 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by a hat out of hell at 6:33 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
Ad Hominem, I clicked through to your profile, and then I died.
posted by King Bee at 6:36 PM on August 31, 2012 [8 favorites]
posted by King Bee at 6:36 PM on August 31, 2012 [8 favorites]
I appreciate you keeping expectations modest, but that's the best mash I've ever seen.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 6:47 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 6:47 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
Skinny P is my favorite character and Charles Baker is an awesome guy he was on /r/breakingbad answering questions for almost 10 hours. The best part is Luis Moncada is pretty active over there and asked him a question.
posted by Ad hominem at 7:06 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Ad hominem at 7:06 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
Hah, I liked this answer from that AMA:
I took my wife to the set with me once. As we were heading to my changing room, we passed Bryan's trailer. He was standing, stretched out in the doorway, in his tighty-whities, soaking in the sun and reading his script. He casually straightened up, put his hand and and introduced himself. It was classic Bryan!
I can't think of any scenes with Walt in tighty-whities other than in the pilot, so now I'm going to assume that as soon as the cameras are off him, Bryan Cranston takes off his pants.
posted by painquale at 7:22 PM on August 31, 2012 [6 favorites]
I took my wife to the set with me once. As we were heading to my changing room, we passed Bryan's trailer. He was standing, stretched out in the doorway, in his tighty-whities, soaking in the sun and reading his script. He casually straightened up, put his hand and and introduced himself. It was classic Bryan!
I can't think of any scenes with Walt in tighty-whities other than in the pilot, so now I'm going to assume that as soon as the cameras are off him, Bryan Cranston takes off his pants.
posted by painquale at 7:22 PM on August 31, 2012 [6 favorites]
I think that Q&A is where I discovered he's like in his 40s or something. Pretty amazing actor.
posted by palidor at 7:23 PM on August 31, 2012
posted by palidor at 7:23 PM on August 31, 2012
I think that Q&A is where I discovered he's like in his 40s or something.
Yeah, one of his kids is 24 years old! That's a shocker.
posted by painquale at 7:30 PM on August 31, 2012
Yeah, one of his kids is 24 years old! That's a shocker.
posted by painquale at 7:30 PM on August 31, 2012
In e AMA he mentions he did mime training for 6 years with the same trainer as Brent Spiner. Data's goofy looks and physical comedy suddenly made sense.
posted by Ad hominem at 7:33 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Ad hominem at 7:33 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
I want more of this
posted by hypersloth at 7:33 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by hypersloth at 7:33 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
I really need to go back and rewatch the first couple of seasons of BB, back when cooking meth was fun. Right now, with Walter's world collapsing around him, it's just fucking depressing.
posted by Flashman at 7:48 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Flashman at 7:48 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
I'm debating starting season one over again right now and watching straight through till sunday night.
posted by Ad hominem at 7:51 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Ad hominem at 7:51 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
Yeah I've been having the same kind of reaction watching clips from the first couple seasons.
Also I have this conflict where I kind of genuinely believe they've mishandled Walt (and I guess some other things) this season, yet some of my misgivings might just be a negative reaction to Walt having broken bad totally, which is probably the intended effect. I'd like to believe I'm okay with him being the bad guy, and that they just haven't developed him into the bad guy very well, but I dunno.
posted by palidor at 7:57 PM on August 31, 2012
Also I have this conflict where I kind of genuinely believe they've mishandled Walt (and I guess some other things) this season, yet some of my misgivings might just be a negative reaction to Walt having broken bad totally, which is probably the intended effect. I'd like to believe I'm okay with him being the bad guy, and that they just haven't developed him into the bad guy very well, but I dunno.
posted by palidor at 7:57 PM on August 31, 2012
I'm debating starting season one over again right now and watching straight through till sunday night.
I was in for a weird Keira Knightley Labor Day marathon (don't ask), but this sounds like a better idea!
posted by King Bee at 7:58 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
I was in for a weird Keira Knightley Labor Day marathon (don't ask), but this sounds like a better idea!
posted by King Bee at 7:58 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
Wow, I forgot about Detective Getz. I would love it if they brought back DJ Qualls in one more episode.
posted by sswiller at 8:02 PM on August 31, 2012
posted by sswiller at 8:02 PM on August 31, 2012
I would just like to say that while I didn't catch it the first time around, rewatching season 4 the scene that unexpectedly cracked me up hard was when Jesse is in Mike's car alone, just before all manner of (unbeknownst to Jesse) Gus-orchestrated chaos is about to go down, and he's kinda quietly rocking out to himself and singing under his breath, "Fallacies...fallllacies..."
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:07 PM on August 31, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:07 PM on August 31, 2012 [3 favorites]
Good timing. I just started rewatching the entire series last night, with the hope that I can get my gf all caught up by the time the final half-season starts next year. Already I've been noticing a lot of nice little connections - the thing with the bacon spelling out his age on his birthday that we saw at the opening of the current season (age 52) happened at the beginning of the pilot as well (age 50).
Also, the quote from Walt to his high school chemistry class - "Chemistry is about change...Chemistry is all about growth, decay. Transformation" - hearing that now, knowing what I know, makes me think that the hatred the viewer feels toward Walt at this point in the story won't stay. Something is going to happen, maybe in this next episode, to put us back on Walt's side, and when the final 8 episodes start up, we'll once again be rooting for him and whatever his plan is with his arsenal.
posted by mannequito at 8:16 PM on August 31, 2012
Also, the quote from Walt to his high school chemistry class - "Chemistry is about change...Chemistry is all about growth, decay. Transformation" - hearing that now, knowing what I know, makes me think that the hatred the viewer feels toward Walt at this point in the story won't stay. Something is going to happen, maybe in this next episode, to put us back on Walt's side, and when the final 8 episodes start up, we'll once again be rooting for him and whatever his plan is with his arsenal.
posted by mannequito at 8:16 PM on August 31, 2012
I think the fact that he makes even fans uncomfortable is genius.
On one hand we see a criminal rising up the ranks. Previously unimaginibly scary people are now nothing in comparison to guys like Gus and Mike, and Walter has bested them all so far. Juxtapose Walt's junkyard meeting with Walt's recent desert meeting. We know he cannot continue on his current arc.
I think we are seeing essentially a retelling of a typical crime movie. Scarface in particular. Hell, we have seen Walt do lines from Scarface. As in Scarface we see a guy trying to make it, and provide, but we end up with a person who's motivations are now completely different. They almost seem to be different people. They are like criminal versions of Charles Foster Kane, no longer recognizable as what they once were.
The thing that makes Breaking Bad different is that typically you do not really care about the path of destruction a criminal leaves in his wake. In a 2:30 movie you cannot dedicate nearly the same amount of screen time to the web of people the criminal touches. Wives and kids seem to be mere accessories. Until the very end we Identify with the criminal, thinking him a tragic figure when he eventually meets his downfall.
As Walt has changed so have our relationships to the other characters. We now identify with someone else, perhaps Jesse. Jesse has been transformed by Walt's force of will from a somewhat intimidating street dealer to a scared child, sucking up to Ms. White.
If it can be said that movies like Scarface glamorize crime, then I think Breaking Bad serves to de-glamorize crime. Walt is no longer a tragic hero, even the audience no longer identifies with him. He is truely alone.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:20 PM on August 31, 2012 [10 favorites]
On one hand we see a criminal rising up the ranks. Previously unimaginibly scary people are now nothing in comparison to guys like Gus and Mike, and Walter has bested them all so far. Juxtapose Walt's junkyard meeting with Walt's recent desert meeting. We know he cannot continue on his current arc.
I think we are seeing essentially a retelling of a typical crime movie. Scarface in particular. Hell, we have seen Walt do lines from Scarface. As in Scarface we see a guy trying to make it, and provide, but we end up with a person who's motivations are now completely different. They almost seem to be different people. They are like criminal versions of Charles Foster Kane, no longer recognizable as what they once were.
The thing that makes Breaking Bad different is that typically you do not really care about the path of destruction a criminal leaves in his wake. In a 2:30 movie you cannot dedicate nearly the same amount of screen time to the web of people the criminal touches. Wives and kids seem to be mere accessories. Until the very end we Identify with the criminal, thinking him a tragic figure when he eventually meets his downfall.
As Walt has changed so have our relationships to the other characters. We now identify with someone else, perhaps Jesse. Jesse has been transformed by Walt's force of will from a somewhat intimidating street dealer to a scared child, sucking up to Ms. White.
If it can be said that movies like Scarface glamorize crime, then I think Breaking Bad serves to de-glamorize crime. Walt is no longer a tragic hero, even the audience no longer identifies with him. He is truely alone.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:20 PM on August 31, 2012 [10 favorites]
Something is going to happen, maybe in this next episode, to put us back on Walt's side
Oh man, I hope they don't give him a redemptive moment.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:21 PM on August 31, 2012 [7 favorites]
Oh man, I hope they don't give him a redemptive moment.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:21 PM on August 31, 2012 [7 favorites]
Oh great. I'm not going to fall asleep anytime soon because Walter White is gonna pop a cap in my ass.
posted by special-k at 8:22 PM on August 31, 2012
posted by special-k at 8:22 PM on August 31, 2012
Spoilerish - current season talk
Walt's transition to "the dark" feels... a little forced... but Bryan Cranston rocks that role so hard, it hard to imagine the writers not trying to play that up. I understand that the show documents an arc "from good to bad: - and thats a difficult thing to pull off, no matter how you slice it - but if I were the showrunner, I would concentrate my efforts on eliciting as much evil fron Cranston as possible.
As a viewer, all this just makes me want to watch more Malcome in the Middle.
What a great actor.
posted by bxyldy at 8:43 PM on August 31, 2012
Walt's transition to "the dark" feels... a little forced... but Bryan Cranston rocks that role so hard, it hard to imagine the writers not trying to play that up. I understand that the show documents an arc "from good to bad: - and thats a difficult thing to pull off, no matter how you slice it - but if I were the showrunner, I would concentrate my efforts on eliciting as much evil fron Cranston as possible.
As a viewer, all this just makes me want to watch more Malcome in the Middle.
What a great actor.
posted by bxyldy at 8:43 PM on August 31, 2012
I don't think Walt's transformation is forced. I still can't really quite hang with the lily of the valley plot twist just because it seems so difficult to execute in a practical sense and to rely so much on Walt having a near-psychic insight into how Jesse will react in a given situation, but Walt having a huge hubris attack in the wake of killing Gus Fring? That seems very believable. A lesser show might have Walt start as a good guy who is gradually transformed into a monster by circumstance; this show is about a bad guy who uses circumstance to give himself more and more permission to act like the bad guy he is. Dire necessity makes it possible for Walt to let himself become a murderer in the beginning, but where Jesse continues to be traumatized by killing Gale, Walt's all like, yo, that was so last season? The circumstance that lets Walt be a murderer now is just the knowledge that he can get away with murder; the "Judeo-Christian morality" he notes as an obstacle to killing Crazy Eight got left behind a long time ago, and Walt's attachment to it was only ever about societal expectation anyway.
What I have noticed, though, is that Walt really isn't our viewpoint character anymore. It's infrequent that we even see Walt in a scene alone. I'm not sure whether that's a bug or a feature yet. In a strange way, it reminds me of the last third or so of Stephen King's Pet Sematary, wherein Our Hero has basically lost his mind and is digging up his dead kid and stuff, and the narrative voice of the book seems to do that thing Scorsese's camera does in Taxi Driver where DeNiro is leaving this endless tortured message on the phone for Cybill Shepherd and it's just so gutwrenching to watch that we kinda look down the hallway instead and wait for him to hang up. I'm not sure if it's that we can't relate to Walt now or if we would just find the show too unpleasant to watch from his POV. Why I'm not sure whether it's a bug is that I think it's possible the writers either can't engage with the character on that level now or just don't want to, because...well, honestly, who would? So I mean, it could represent a failure of nerve. Or it could be very intentional, shifting our sympathies to characters who are still worthy of them.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:13 PM on August 31, 2012 [6 favorites]
What I have noticed, though, is that Walt really isn't our viewpoint character anymore. It's infrequent that we even see Walt in a scene alone. I'm not sure whether that's a bug or a feature yet. In a strange way, it reminds me of the last third or so of Stephen King's Pet Sematary, wherein Our Hero has basically lost his mind and is digging up his dead kid and stuff, and the narrative voice of the book seems to do that thing Scorsese's camera does in Taxi Driver where DeNiro is leaving this endless tortured message on the phone for Cybill Shepherd and it's just so gutwrenching to watch that we kinda look down the hallway instead and wait for him to hang up. I'm not sure if it's that we can't relate to Walt now or if we would just find the show too unpleasant to watch from his POV. Why I'm not sure whether it's a bug is that I think it's possible the writers either can't engage with the character on that level now or just don't want to, because...well, honestly, who would? So I mean, it could represent a failure of nerve. Or it could be very intentional, shifting our sympathies to characters who are still worthy of them.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:13 PM on August 31, 2012 [6 favorites]
Until the very end we Identify with the criminal, thinking him a tragic figure when he eventually meets his downfall. [...] As Walt has changed so have our relationships to the other characters. We now identify with someone else, perhaps Jesse.
This might be a good place to ask a question that's been on my mind for a few weeks. The audience's object of identification is something nearly always mentioned in television criticism, and in Breaking Bad criticism in particular. (I only really took note of it when reading discussions about Breaking Bad.) Where does this notion come from? In the history of criticism, I mean. When did people start talking about identifying with the protagonist of a piece of fiction?
I ask because I've never really thought that identifying with a character is an essential or even particularly desirable feature of a work of fiction. I'm not sure what it even means, really. In some movies, one character is a clear audience surrogate: he has amnesia or is new to town and everyone has to provide exposition for him, etc. Some characters are easier to empathize with than others. I'm like various characters to various ways and in various degrees. But the notion that there's always one or at least one character that we personally relate to in a special way, or that a work is deficient if it lacks this sort of character, is something that crops again and again in criticism. Where is this idea from? I think it is a modern critical invention and not something you'd find among the Victorians. I could be wrong.
(I can kind of imagine two possible histories. Firstly, psychoanalytic theory has highly influenced criticism since the 60s; I suspect that it might be possible to trace the lineage of identifying with characters back to Laura Mulvey and Christian Metz and friends. Secondly, it might have once been something like a screenwriting rule of thumb that got elevated into something perceived as an aesthetic norm.)
posted by painquale at 9:41 PM on August 31, 2012
This might be a good place to ask a question that's been on my mind for a few weeks. The audience's object of identification is something nearly always mentioned in television criticism, and in Breaking Bad criticism in particular. (I only really took note of it when reading discussions about Breaking Bad.) Where does this notion come from? In the history of criticism, I mean. When did people start talking about identifying with the protagonist of a piece of fiction?
I ask because I've never really thought that identifying with a character is an essential or even particularly desirable feature of a work of fiction. I'm not sure what it even means, really. In some movies, one character is a clear audience surrogate: he has amnesia or is new to town and everyone has to provide exposition for him, etc. Some characters are easier to empathize with than others. I'm like various characters to various ways and in various degrees. But the notion that there's always one or at least one character that we personally relate to in a special way, or that a work is deficient if it lacks this sort of character, is something that crops again and again in criticism. Where is this idea from? I think it is a modern critical invention and not something you'd find among the Victorians. I could be wrong.
(I can kind of imagine two possible histories. Firstly, psychoanalytic theory has highly influenced criticism since the 60s; I suspect that it might be possible to trace the lineage of identifying with characters back to Laura Mulvey and Christian Metz and friends. Secondly, it might have once been something like a screenwriting rule of thumb that got elevated into something perceived as an aesthetic norm.)
posted by painquale at 9:41 PM on August 31, 2012
Where is this idea from?
Tough question, but here's one pre-Victorian data point:
posted by DaDaDaDave at 10:46 PM on August 31, 2012 [4 favorites]
Tough question, but here's one pre-Victorian data point:
Nothing can be a greater proof of the predominant egotism, which is the disease (we had almost said the vice) of refinement, than the unquenchable thirst for story, so prevalent among all kinds of readers. [...] We are become too indolent and too selfish to be easily excited or much interested, unless by mere story. We can identify ourselves with the hero or heroine of a tale. We think what we should have done, or how we should have felt, in such circumstances; and, while the dramatis personae suffer or mourn, we can congratulate ourselves on our own exemption from such suffering.And, why not, a Victorian one too:
- "Remarks on Mrs. Hemans's Poems," The Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1819
Who cannot perceive that the great heart of Aeschylus throbs with the agonies of Prometheus, when the vulture flaps his heavy wings upon the crags of Caucasus? We recognize the same suppression of individual insulated consciousness in the tragedies of Shakespeare; or, if you turn to a sister art, in the pictures of Raphael. [...] As the poet passes out of himself into the character which he delineates, so the reader must identify himself with the character when it is portrayed; and he must not only go out of himself, but out of his age, "he must forget himself, and his prejudices, and predilections, and associations, and give up his thoughts to the work he is perusing, and try to take his stand on the author's point of view."These writers are using "identify with" in somewhat different senses, neither one exactly the same as the one you find in modern TV reviews (and the author of the first passage obviously doesn't consider reader identification a mark of good fiction, even if a lot of readers want to identify with "the hero or heroine of a tale"), but the notion has a long history behind it. You could probably trace it all the way back to the ancient rhetoricians if you wanted.
- "A Summer Hour in Pope's Garden at Twickenham," Fraser's Magazine, Mar. 1844 (the quote is from a sermon by Julius Hare)
posted by DaDaDaDave at 10:46 PM on August 31, 2012 [4 favorites]
Thank you. I don't have any background in criticism or Psycology. I think that to have a compelling story you need someone to root for. I think it is probably a rhetorical trick as old as the oral tradition.
I'd love to know more about this.
posted by Ad hominem at 11:36 PM on August 31, 2012
I'd love to know more about this.
posted by Ad hominem at 11:36 PM on August 31, 2012
Interesting quotes, DaDaDaDave; thank you. Interestingly, the two authors seem to mean "identify with" in entirely opposite ways. The first stresses that to identify with a character is to place oneself in the character's situation while still hanging onto one's own personality. The second author claims that it involves forgetting anything particular to the reader and not in the text.
I don't think I have enough of a grasp on the modern conception of character identification to decide whether it's continuous with what either of these authors are talking about.
posted by painquale at 12:49 AM on September 1, 2012
I don't think I have enough of a grasp on the modern conception of character identification to decide whether it's continuous with what either of these authors are talking about.
posted by painquale at 12:49 AM on September 1, 2012
Screw a Better Call Saul spin-off, I want so see Badger and Skinny Pete in a band, travelling round having adventures and shit.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:25 AM on September 1, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:25 AM on September 1, 2012 [3 favorites]
It's not quite the same style, but this cut of various Breaking Bad moments set to the Reznor cover of Immigrant Song was superb. Beware that it contains spoilers for essentially everything up to the very most recent episodes of s5, so if you're not completely caught up then give it a pass.
posted by Rhomboid at 4:49 AM on September 1, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by Rhomboid at 4:49 AM on September 1, 2012 [4 favorites]
Fuck redemption. There's something wonderful about watching a human self-destruct or as Jesse would say, "Break bad."
*Series Finale*
- Close up shot of Walter's hand. He's holding a glass of scotch, no ice.
- The camera slowly zooms out and we see Walter in all his glory. Sitting on a lounger in a trailer in just his tightey whiteys.
- Walter has seen better days. He hasn't shaven in weeks and there's dried Kraft Dinner cheese dribble on his bare chest.
- As the camera continues to pull out, we're finally shown a full picture of the entire trailer he is sitting on.
- The walls are stacked high with "BLUE". Wall to tall stacks of broken blue glass.
- The only sound is the ticking of a clock and crickets chirping softly in the background.
- A final cut to Walter's face: "FUCK!"
Also, I have the same desire to watch Dexter finally get caught and realize he's as horrible as all of the people he's been hunting these past few years. I'm also ready for that series to be over, it's gone on for too long and mostly for the sake of fans/money.
posted by Fizz at 5:03 AM on September 1, 2012
*Series Finale*
- Close up shot of Walter's hand. He's holding a glass of scotch, no ice.
- The camera slowly zooms out and we see Walter in all his glory. Sitting on a lounger in a trailer in just his tightey whiteys.
- Walter has seen better days. He hasn't shaven in weeks and there's dried Kraft Dinner cheese dribble on his bare chest.
- As the camera continues to pull out, we're finally shown a full picture of the entire trailer he is sitting on.
- The walls are stacked high with "BLUE". Wall to tall stacks of broken blue glass.
- The only sound is the ticking of a clock and crickets chirping softly in the background.
- A final cut to Walter's face: "FUCK!"
Also, I have the same desire to watch Dexter finally get caught and realize he's as horrible as all of the people he's been hunting these past few years. I'm also ready for that series to be over, it's gone on for too long and mostly for the sake of fans/money.
posted by Fizz at 5:03 AM on September 1, 2012
There are so many wonderful notes in the show, but one that has been haunting me lately is the scene in season three with Jane and Jesse, post going to the Georgia O'Keefe museum. I think that's supposed to be a dream/day dream, because they never got there, did they? Anyway, in this dream/flashback, Jesse is dressed in his usual season 1/2 day-glo attire, acting a goof, and then you sort of realize the large transformation that has occurred in him.
posted by angrycat at 5:54 AM on September 1, 2012
posted by angrycat at 5:54 AM on September 1, 2012
I think we all know how it's going to end
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:21 AM on September 1, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:21 AM on September 1, 2012 [1 favorite]
I have nothing to add here except that when I look at the word "placeboing" I can't see anything but "place-boing."
posted by ostro at 10:05 AM on September 1, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by ostro at 10:05 AM on September 1, 2012 [4 favorites]
I think as endings for TV antiheroes go, The Shield is still the gold standard. If anything can top it, though, it's Breaking Bad.
posted by Rangeboy at 10:08 AM on September 1, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Rangeboy at 10:08 AM on September 1, 2012 [1 favorite]
I don't think I have enough of a grasp on the modern conception of character identification to decide whether it's continuous with what either of these authors are talking about.
My sense is that the modern idea of character identification falls in between the notion of putting yourself in the character's place and the notion of forgetting yourself and imaginatively "becoming" the character. When TV critics talk about whether the viewer can "identify" with Walter White or Tony Soprano or whoever, it seems that they're usually talking about a core situation or narrative structure that not only underlies the surface of the narrative but somehow competes with that surface for the reader's interest--Tony is a vicious mobster on the one hand, but he's a stressed-out businessman, husband and father on the other; Walter is a meth-slinging genius scientist on the one hand, but he's a hapless suburban dad struggling with illness and money problems on the other. When critics talk about identifying with a character, I think they're talking about the viewer's ability to see through the exciting, exotic surface of the fiction to the ordinary, recognizable everyday reality beneath--to get past the level where we have to "forget ourselves," and find the level where we can "think what we should have done, or how we should have felt, in such circumstances."
A lot of the tension in the experience of watching these shows, I think, comes from the competing urges to see the characters or the world of the show in terms of escapist exoticism or in terms of sympathetic understanding. This is probably one of the ways in which The Soprano has been hugely influential, though I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to think of earlier examples; from the very beginning, that was the hook--"he's a mobster like Al Capone or Scarface, but he goes to therapy and fights with his kids like you!" Mad Men has the tension between the 60s as this fantasy world (either idyllic or terrifying) of retro design and carefree hedonism, and the 60s as the prehistory of our own world; you can find versions of this dichotomy, deployed in various ways, in Deadwood, The Wire, Six Feet Under, even Lost.
We could say that Breaking Bad is an experiment in going from one pole of the dichotomy to the other--from "Mr. Chips to Scarface" as they say in interviews, from the (apparently) totally normal life of a suburban dad and high school teacher to the wacko adventures of a train-robbing, elaborate-scene-hatching, face-blowing-off combination of Tony Montana, MacGuyver and Dr. Doom. How thoroughly obscured does the sympathetic core of the character have to get before you stop seeing him as a potential version of yourself and start seeing him as just a villain? (This is another Sopranos legacy--recall how much more loathsome Tony got toward the end of the show.)
posted by DaDaDaDave at 11:49 AM on September 1, 2012 [1 favorite]
My sense is that the modern idea of character identification falls in between the notion of putting yourself in the character's place and the notion of forgetting yourself and imaginatively "becoming" the character. When TV critics talk about whether the viewer can "identify" with Walter White or Tony Soprano or whoever, it seems that they're usually talking about a core situation or narrative structure that not only underlies the surface of the narrative but somehow competes with that surface for the reader's interest--Tony is a vicious mobster on the one hand, but he's a stressed-out businessman, husband and father on the other; Walter is a meth-slinging genius scientist on the one hand, but he's a hapless suburban dad struggling with illness and money problems on the other. When critics talk about identifying with a character, I think they're talking about the viewer's ability to see through the exciting, exotic surface of the fiction to the ordinary, recognizable everyday reality beneath--to get past the level where we have to "forget ourselves," and find the level where we can "think what we should have done, or how we should have felt, in such circumstances."
A lot of the tension in the experience of watching these shows, I think, comes from the competing urges to see the characters or the world of the show in terms of escapist exoticism or in terms of sympathetic understanding. This is probably one of the ways in which The Soprano has been hugely influential, though I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to think of earlier examples; from the very beginning, that was the hook--"he's a mobster like Al Capone or Scarface, but he goes to therapy and fights with his kids like you!" Mad Men has the tension between the 60s as this fantasy world (either idyllic or terrifying) of retro design and carefree hedonism, and the 60s as the prehistory of our own world; you can find versions of this dichotomy, deployed in various ways, in Deadwood, The Wire, Six Feet Under, even Lost.
We could say that Breaking Bad is an experiment in going from one pole of the dichotomy to the other--from "Mr. Chips to Scarface" as they say in interviews, from the (apparently) totally normal life of a suburban dad and high school teacher to the wacko adventures of a train-robbing, elaborate-scene-hatching, face-blowing-off combination of Tony Montana, MacGuyver and Dr. Doom. How thoroughly obscured does the sympathetic core of the character have to get before you stop seeing him as a potential version of yourself and start seeing him as just a villain? (This is another Sopranos legacy--recall how much more loathsome Tony got toward the end of the show.)
posted by DaDaDaDave at 11:49 AM on September 1, 2012 [1 favorite]
That was great, I liked Hank's laughing and Jesse telling Walt he can't do it without him.
posted by arcticseal at 3:22 PM on September 1, 2012
posted by arcticseal at 3:22 PM on September 1, 2012
I forgot how far back in the series that desk bell goes, it's Chekov's desk bell. . . now where' Chekov's teddy bear eyeball . . .
posted by chaff at 5:24 PM on September 1, 2012
posted by chaff at 5:24 PM on September 1, 2012
I dunno, I used to get the "Let's see how bad he can get" thing going, but now that it's turned into raping Skylar and psychologically destroying her it's gotten uncomfortable and gross.
posted by Anonymous at 7:43 PM on September 1, 2012
posted by Anonymous at 7:43 PM on September 1, 2012
I think a pyrrhic victory is in store for Walt. He'll get what he wants, but it won't make him feel any better about himself.
The whole show has been a bit like watching the origin story of a comic book super-villain. A bit like Dr Horrible?
posted by harriet vane at 12:56 AM on September 2, 2012
The whole show has been a bit like watching the origin story of a comic book super-villain. A bit like Dr Horrible?
posted by harriet vane at 12:56 AM on September 2, 2012
I think a pyrrhic victory is in store for Walt. He'll get what he wants, but it won't make him feel any better about himself.
I think he might kill Jesse in the finale to save his empire.
posted by painquale at 1:52 AM on September 2, 2012
I think he might kill Jesse in the finale to save his empire.
posted by painquale at 1:52 AM on September 2, 2012
I don't think the end will be Walt killing Jesse. That may happen, but it will not be the grand finale to all of this. Re-watch the pilot: Jesse only appears late. This show is intrinsically about the family. If I were to guess, it would be Skyler killing Walt. That's the full circle of the show, from Walt starting this to save his family, to his family killing him. It's already been hinted at this season, with Skyler saying "All I can do, is wait for the cancer to come back.."
Chaff mentioned it above - this show loves its symbolism. From the bell to the bear, lily of the valley to meth itself, all of which, in some way, became instruments of death. Right now the ongoing symbol appears to be the spider in the jar, and to me that is Skyler, who was forced into this world totally against her will.
posted by mannequito at 2:56 AM on September 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
Chaff mentioned it above - this show loves its symbolism. From the bell to the bear, lily of the valley to meth itself, all of which, in some way, became instruments of death. Right now the ongoing symbol appears to be the spider in the jar, and to me that is Skyler, who was forced into this world totally against her will.
posted by mannequito at 2:56 AM on September 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
Skyler was a backdrop character for a long time who only eventually broke out as a psychologically interesting individual. I think Vince Gilligan has probably had the final scenes in mind as soon as he started filming the show; at that point, Skyler wasn't considered a key character.
Mind you, they also originally planned to kill Jesse off in the second season, so that'd speak against my theory as well.
posted by painquale at 3:37 AM on September 2, 2012
Mind you, they also originally planned to kill Jesse off in the second season, so that'd speak against my theory as well.
posted by painquale at 3:37 AM on September 2, 2012
From the bell to the bear, lily of the valley to meth itself, all of which, in some way, became instruments of death. Right now the ongoing symbol appears to be the spider in the jar, and to me that is Skyler, who was forced into this world totally against her will.
I think you may be right. I've been trying for a while now to figure out the relationship between the symbol of the tarantula and the symbol of the fly from, well, "Fly." That there is one seems a given. Remember that that episode has the bizarre cold open of the fly listening to the voice singing from Holly's baby monitor. Skyler is the one singing. Is Skyler's the spider's voice?
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:16 AM on September 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
I think you may be right. I've been trying for a while now to figure out the relationship between the symbol of the tarantula and the symbol of the fly from, well, "Fly." That there is one seems a given. Remember that that episode has the bizarre cold open of the fly listening to the voice singing from Holly's baby monitor. Skyler is the one singing. Is Skyler's the spider's voice?
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:16 AM on September 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
Screw a Better Call Saul spin-off
Which, if it happens, should be titled 'Skewing Douchey'.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:12 PM on September 2, 2012
Which, if it happens, should be titled 'Skewing Douchey'.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:12 PM on September 2, 2012
MOAR! This rocked my ass, for sure.
posted by ostranenie at 8:22 PM on September 2, 2012
posted by ostranenie at 8:22 PM on September 2, 2012
> I dunno, I used to get the "Let's see how bad he can get" thing going
Odenkirk's Robert Evans impression makes it all worth it. ALL OF IT!
posted by ostranenie at 8:24 PM on September 2, 2012
Odenkirk's Robert Evans impression makes it all worth it. ALL OF IT!
posted by ostranenie at 8:24 PM on September 2, 2012
Jesus Christ. Walt can't just make a deal; he has to rub his competitor's nose in it. There goes the famous pride.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 9:48 PM on September 2, 2012
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 9:48 PM on September 2, 2012
I didn't hear about Breaking Bad until Late June and binge-watched the first four seasons over two weeks. Then I was elated to discover that season 5 was (coincidentally) starting less than a week after I finished. However it sucks when you're used to watching a whole series uninterrupted and on demand, but then you... have.... to... wait.... a.......whole...........week..........to........................watch............................the.......................................................next...............
.....................................................ep........................................................i............................................s...............................................
.........................................o....................................................................................................................d.......................................
............................................................................................................................e.
Every episode. So painful. And now -- now -- you're telling me I have to wait until next year (???) to watch more episodes of this story I'm not done with? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...
posted by dgaicun at 12:53 AM on September 3, 2012
.....................................................ep........................................................i............................................s...............................................
.........................................o....................................................................................................................d.......................................
............................................................................................................................e.
Every episode. So painful. And now -- now -- you're telling me I have to wait until next year (???) to watch more episodes of this story I'm not done with? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...
posted by dgaicun at 12:53 AM on September 3, 2012
This show has always been hell to follow -- there was a wait of almost exactly 12 months between the airing of the last episode of s1 and the first episode of s2, and more than 13 months between the last episode of s3 and the s4 premiere. At least this time it's only about 10 months' wait.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:49 AM on September 3, 2012
posted by Rhomboid at 2:49 AM on September 3, 2012
Two montage sequences....
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:55 AM on September 3, 2012
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:55 AM on September 3, 2012
At least this time it's only about 10 months' wait.
At least you get another season unlike fans of, say, Caprica (which ended its only season with a preview montage of stuff we wouldn't get to see because there wasn't another season) or Stargate: Universe which was just hitting its stride when it was cancelled.
I'm about to start season 3 of Breaking Bad via Netflix, so it takes a little longer (I'm also alternating series discs with other movies). I can already see the "how bad can he get" arc getting grating. It's an interesting idea to create a main character that changes, but they've already leaned on "it's fun because it's illegal" in a couple of scenes that just totally wrecked suspension of disbelief.
posted by localroger at 6:24 AM on September 3, 2012
At least you get another season unlike fans of, say, Caprica (which ended its only season with a preview montage of stuff we wouldn't get to see because there wasn't another season) or Stargate: Universe which was just hitting its stride when it was cancelled.
I'm about to start season 3 of Breaking Bad via Netflix, so it takes a little longer (I'm also alternating series discs with other movies). I can already see the "how bad can he get" arc getting grating. It's an interesting idea to create a main character that changes, but they've already leaned on "it's fun because it's illegal" in a couple of scenes that just totally wrecked suspension of disbelief.
posted by localroger at 6:24 AM on September 3, 2012
Loved, but needed waay more Odenkirk.
posted by thinkpiece at 6:45 AM on September 3, 2012
posted by thinkpiece at 6:45 AM on September 3, 2012
Vince Gill is gonna get his ass sued off by the Czech Republic.
Better call Saul.
posted by Flashman at 7:37 PM on September 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
Better call Saul.
posted by Flashman at 7:37 PM on September 3, 2012 [1 favorite]
Yep, more Odenkirk please in the last season. I miss Saul's voice of reason :)
posted by harriet vane at 11:29 PM on September 3, 2012
posted by harriet vane at 11:29 PM on September 3, 2012
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:18 AM on September 4, 2012
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:18 AM on September 4, 2012
I posted this in Projects and in another BB post but one last plug couldn't hurt. I made this Breaking Bad - In Memoriam montage over the weekend. Check it out! Spoilers for everything.
posted by yellowbinder at 8:55 AM on September 4, 2012
posted by yellowbinder at 8:55 AM on September 4, 2012
A periodic table of deaths in Breaking Bad.
I like that the periodic symbol for Hector Salamanca is To.
posted by painquale at 12:18 PM on September 5, 2012
I like that the periodic symbol for Hector Salamanca is To.
posted by painquale at 12:18 PM on September 5, 2012
Just to say I am still watching this, and it gets better every time.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:56 PM on September 11, 2012
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 7:56 PM on September 11, 2012
the Whipped Potatoes video?
posted by mannequito at 8:03 PM on September 11, 2012
posted by mannequito at 8:03 PM on September 11, 2012
« Older Lucy got some 'splaining to do | ...Mitchells do fly I.M.C. Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by mathowie at 5:01 PM on August 31, 2012 [7 favorites]