Breaking Bad Season 3

[WarGalley]

[quote name='Mathis' post='1739392' date='Mar 30 2009, 22.50']ETA: At the beginning of this episode there was a teddy bear fished out of a pool and then lined up, in an evidence bag, with Walt's glasses and a load of other items. WTF what that about? It had no bearing on what happened susequently.[/quote]

It was a more prolonged version of what we saw in the opening scene of Episode 1. We'll find out later I guess.

[Sheep the Evicted]

I have no idea why i held out on watching this show for as long as i did. Bloody awesome. Funny and serious both at the same time.

What's annoying me though is that this grand plan isn't working. They aren't making any money. I mean yeah sure they made money - but then they have to keep splitting it and leaving it and reinvesting it untill now Walt is left with a pittance. At this rate, with this many things going wrong, there is noway Walt is gonna make 737 before his deadline. But the worst thing is that while he is doing all this financial circle jogging he is pushing his loved ones, and his sanity away.

Its seriously fucking tragic.

And i wanna find out about Walt's past already. Why on earth did a nobel prize winning genius chemist become a high school teacher ?

But the high light of this show is the Drug Lords. Everyone of them is realistically badass.

[Blaine]

I think that's the underlying theme of the show. Drugs and crime are neither as glamorous or easy as they seem to be on TV. Nor are the players as cut and dried into good people and evil people.

Which is also why I never really cared for the Tuco character. Too obvious, too cartoony and too pure crazy evil. It's boring and I already saw Scarface.

[Sheep the Evicted]

[quote name='Blaine23' post='1742150' date='Apr 2 2009, 15.35']I think that's the underlying theme of the show. Drugs and crime are neither as glamorous or easy as they seem to be on TV. Nor are the players as cut and dried into good people and evil people.

Which is also why I never really cared for the Tuco character. Too obvious, too cartoony and too pure crazy evil. It's boring and I already saw Scarface.[/quote]

And yet Tuco cares and provides for both his uncle and his cousin. Also Tuco is far, far more crazy and unpredictable then Scarface or any other dealer i have ever seen on Tv, yet crazy as he was he never once hurt "Isenburg" because that would damage his investment.

And i also forgot to say that for money this and Damages are the two best ongoing drama's with Mad Men a distant second. I just thought Mad Men was too slow.

[SwordoftheMorning]

I completely agree with Blaine. The point of the story is what might seem like a good idea in a fantasy sort of way (Hey, I know how to cook meth) becomes messy, dangerous and more costly than Walt could ever have possibly imagined when the light bulb originally went off.

Lets see, he's killed two poople, so far. One could legitimately be called self-defense, the 2nd was a lot closer to cold blooded murder than anything else. Yes, I realize Crazy Eight had the shard of plate, but Walt still had the choice to not kill him. Some will argue that for survivals sake, he HAD to do so. But thats nothing more than rationalization. He had the choice to call the cops, turn himself and Jesse in, with Crazy Eight being arrested for attempting to murder them in the first place. That would have been the "right" thing to do. What Walt did was the criminal thing to do.

Continuing on, he robbed the warehouse to get the old school replacement for psuedo, he ATTEMPTED to murder Tuco, he got the nice janitor at the school busted and deported ( I think) and he is wrecking his relationship with both his wife and kid. No surprise there, every drug dealer I have ever met in my life is a selfish fuck who basically care more about himself than any one else. Walt's "justification" is complete bullshit. He is rebelling against the role of Loserman he's played his entire life, using his cancer as an excuse. But honestly, where he has ended up at 50 is his responsibility. No one elses.

All of this makes for a fascinating show, I completely admit. I love the moral quandries he faces and the ever increasing move to the dark side he is chosing. Mesmerizing.

As for the payoff ? the grand plan .... yes. it is NOT working. and for the vast majority of the fringe players in the dope game, it doesn't. It ends up with maiming, prison or death. With the added bonus of becoming your own best customer.

[Dirk Llama]

So, the show was renewed for a third season, which is nice.

[Mad Queen]

No comments this week? Things are getting uglier by the minute and Walt is freaking me out. Walt, DBAA.

[Sheep the Evicted]

[quote name='Mad Queen' post='1747685' date='Apr 7 2009, 04.40']Walt, DBAA.[/quote]

:lol:

He's definitely crossed a line. The Walt that couldn't kill a man even at the considerable risk to his family would never even think to say that to Jesse. Steep learning curve indeed.

Am i the only one who thinks the continuous mention of these head-loving cartels is foreshadowing. I mean, you can't keep killing well-connected drug lords without [i]some[/i] consequences.

[Blaine]

I was glad that Walt had the sense to advise Jesse in the manner that he did. I also like how they handled Walt's DEA brother-in-law this week - good acting there.

But the saddest part of the episode was watching Jesse make promises that you know he can't keep. To his landlord, to his army of dealers, etc. It's going to get rough for him, I think.

[Sheep the Evicted]

[quote name='Blaine23' post='1748484' date='Apr 7 2009, 19.33']But the saddest part of the episode was watching Jesse make promises that you know he can't keep. To his landlord, to his army of dealers, etc. It's going to get rough for him, I think.[/quote]

That's the strange things i've noticed about this show. Its like in most other shows the main characters get themselves into a pickle but then, by some miraculous plot work, the problem is resolved by the end of the episode.

In BB EVERYTHING that can go wrong does.

In any other show we might be cheering Jesse's change of fortunes but the minute he said "we can be Tuco" i saw blood spatted walls and head-chopping cartels on top of abused junkies and slippery moral slopes. Though i was expecting Walt to spike the meth with poison rather then inspiring jesse to be a gun-totting badass.

Basically make your predictions as pessimistic as possible, except for protagonist death, and they are bound to come true. Even then i don't think Jesse will live for much longer.

[Relic]

I don't like Walt. At all.

[Teng Ai Hui]

I missed the first season so there were some minor things I didn't understand about last night's episode. It seems that Walt and Gretchen were research partners and lovers. She got rich, and he's stuck teaching high school. Is that right? Also, what happen regarding insurance? Did Walt not have any?

[Blaine]

Basically we don't exactly know the details of Walt and Gretchen's past. We know that Gretchen and her husband are super-loaded and wealthy off of some product that Walt believes he helped create. We saw Walter visit them at their palatial estate where they were very nice to him and offerred to help him with his treatment. Walt refused.

We saw a brief flashback of a scene of Walt's past that implied he and Gretchen were in love once. That's really all we know (or all I remember - it's been awhile).

As for Walt's insurance, I believe the treatment is new and not covered by his teacher's insurance.

[SwordoftheMorning]

[quote name='Relic' post='1749116' date='Apr 7 2009, 23.31']I don't like Walt. At all.[/quote]


Well, last nights episode sure didn't do anything to help change THAT opinion.

Again, this show is about watching a man, the best adjective to describe him probably being "weak", make incredibly bad decisions motivated by what he would selfishly consider "good" reasons.

I don't "like" him either, anymore than I liked Snoop Person, Tony Soprano, Stringer Bell, or Avon Barksdale. (Dexter and Marlo Stansfield dont even get a like) He isn't likable. He is pretty fucking pitiful to tell the truth. But watching the show does make you kinda pull for him. A lil. Until I see the squalor and deprivation that a life of criminal drug use engenders. Like we got to see last night, and the victims, the junkies and their kid both.

Walt is trying to secure the future of his family on the back of the miserable existence of people like them. The dead clerk in the store being representative of the public face the cost of the war on drugs is exacting from all of us.

Not liking Walt doesn't in any way stop me from LOVING this show. Its seriously grownup TV. Not enough of that to go around.

[Sheep the Evicted]

[quote name='Blaine23' post='1753673' date='Apr 13 2009, 20.00']Not liking Walt doesn't in any way stop me from LOVING this show. Its seriously grownup TV. Not enough of that to go around.[/quote]

It looks like the honeymoon period is over for me, probably because i have had to wait a week in between the last two episodes when i didn't have to do the same for the episodes before that.

Everything just seems too neat.

I said last week how [b]everything[/b] that can possibly go wrong does but then the main characters always find themselves coming out relatively unscathed in probability defying ways too. Look at what happened with Jesse this episode - he left that house with a fearsome reputation (" the boss is crazy yo. He squished spoochs head under an atm machine yo and he set the feds on his wife and kid. Dudes got no morals, man") and a serious profit from the atm machine.

Also, something about Walt seems off to me. I don't think we have the full story yet.

Entertaining episode none the less but these kinds of episodes just don't do it for me anymore.

Also i disagree that Walt is weak - remember that "this is not meth" incident with Tuco and the "deal with business" episode last week. Walt is definitely something, i'm not sure what yet, but i wouldn't call him weak. I would call Jesse weak though.

[Mathis]

Damn, its good to live in a country with universal healthcare.

[Relic]

[quote name='SwordoftheMorning' post='1753721' date='Apr 13 2009, 16.30']Well, last nights episode sure didn't do anything to help change THAT opinion.[/quote]


well, at least i understood where he was coming from in this last episode. He could have made his life a lot easier by not blowing up at the rich chick, but whatever. i get his anger.

what i dont get is his urging jesse to do something about the stolen drugs/money. It's not like he was willing to go do it himself. was a stupid and malicious act on his part.

[Mad Queen]

[quote name='Sheep the Evicted' post='1753807' date='Apr 13 2009, 18.49']I said last week how [b]everything[/b] that can possibly go wrong does but then the main characters always find themselves coming out relatively unscathed in probability defying ways too. Look at what happened with Jesse this episode - he left that house with a fearsome reputation (" the boss is crazy yo. He squished spoochs head under an atm machine yo and he set the feds on his wife and kid. Dudes got no morals, man") and a serious profit from the atm machine.[/quote]
That was the reason I gave up on Dexter and I hope Breaking Bad doesn't go down the same path. I think the story is still believable, it hasn't reached the level of Deus Ex Machina yet, last episode was entertaining and at the same time heartbreaking (poor kid :cry: ) and it doesn't glamorise organized crime and drug trafficking, so it's worth watching. I'm sure Walt's actions will cause him and his family irreversible damage sooner or later. My all-time favourite show, The Shield, was basically seven seasons of this and

SPOILER: The Shield S7

the payoff totally made it worth the time I spent watching it

.

I think Walt is weak too. He might be getting bolder, but it's boldness out of desperation and knowing he will be dead soon. Deep down he's still weak. He's so weak that he 'broke bad' when he got himself into serious trouble.

[Commodore]

This show has to be very careful not to fall into the trap of filler episodes, they have to maintain the high level of tension the was sustained so masterfully in the first season and the start of the second. The Shield managed to do this well.

This episode was borderline filler, it was still compelling, but easily one of the weakest of the series.

[Blaine]

[quote name='Relic' post='1754124' date='Apr 13 2009, 23.26']what i dont get is his urging jesse to do something about the stolen drugs/money. It's not like he was willing to go do it himself. was a stupid and malicious act on his part.[/quote]
I took it a different way. I actually thought Walt was trying to help Jesse by urging him to do something about the robbery. Because if Jesse didn't, someone was going to end up killing Jesse for being weak. Walt initially didn't want Jesse to go into the "business end" of things - but Jesse insisted. And if you're going to be a drug kingpin, this is what you have to do in order to keep your business in line. So the Walt's actions might have been a bit malicious (by nature of the act), but I didn't see anything stupid about it.

As for doing it himself, Walt already lost that coin toss in season 1 and had to do the dirty work on the guy in the basement. Jesse hasn't and if he's going to stay in the meth business, he's going to have to get his hands dirty eventually.