Breaking Bad

As far as i remember there are no implications of his sexuality at all (he could have been gay, but just as easily could have been straight, so why point out only bi and gay..?). And why would it even matter.
 
I never said it was a big deal, I was just saying that his relationship with max seemed like it could be a romantic one. It's not a right or wrong interpretation of the relationship as some people behind the show thought this was so too, and vince purposely left it open to the audience.

Considering how gus reacted to his death made me think that they're more than just business partners or friends. But that's just my interpretation. It was implied. I think it has significance to the story.

http://www.reddit.com/r/breakingbad/comments/1dh0vd/was_gus_gay/
 
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Ah right, i remember the dinner with Walt, he mentioned having kids? But no picture's of wife.
I suppose anyone can interpret the way they personally want then since it was left open.
 
It looks good. I mean my doubts have always been in the back of my head. Nothing from this trailer is making me uncomfortable though. It looks like Odenkirk is really bringing energy to it and the directing looks consistent. Other than that the only thing the show is going to need is that dumb luck where it actually turns out suprisingly great, like any other quality show. The premise, casting, writing, etc. all have to work or else relying on the 'breaking bad' universe edge is going to wear out fast.
 
Better Call Saul airs tonight guys! I've read good reviews from skeptical critics I respect about the show doing a lot of things right. I'm feeling pretty good about it.
 
Some review said that it'd show things after the BB timeline already in the first episode. Very excited. I certainly know what I'm watching between classes tomorrow.
 
I won't be able to watch it tonight, but I'm going to create a better call saul thread so this can shift back to breaking bad

so... y'all go there
 
ok so im rewatching it with my dad and mum who have never seen past season 1 and we just finished 4 days out an oh man i remember why this was my fav ep

cranston shows so much fucking emotion on all ends of the scale throughout this episode. grief, happiness, anger, overwhelming relief, stress. it's just insane how he manages to portray walter white so well in this show. like, every scene with him is fantastic and the entire episode is with him so

also can't forget aaron paul playing jessie. ohhhhh man do i love aaron paul. when he starts smacking the dashboard when the RV fires up but ultimately doesn't start. when he gets overjoyed when walter seems to have an idea as to how to start the RV. the way he spits out the word bitch. god i wish this show never ended.
 
BUMP

A Breaking Bad film is in the works by Vince Gilligan, reportedly titled 'Greenbrier. It will follow "the escape of a kidnapped man and his quest for freedom".

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-news/breaking-bad-vince-gilligan-breaking-bad-movie-752929/

Part of me is very excited about this, while the other feels like this conflicts with the open-ended interpretations of what happens to Jesse (who I obviously assume is the character in question) during the series finale.

But I guess Gilligan has story to tell. Thoughts?
 
Looks pointless, though the same could be said for BCS. It'll probably be good, would have rather kept Jesse's fate open ended though.

Wonder if BCS will tie in in anyway, since that show will probably still be on after the movie releases, and fans keep expecting that to have a post BB final Season. Guess they can get some of the material out with the movie now, kinda doubt Gene will be in the film outside of a quick reference, keep his story self contained to BCS.

Will keep hopes for it and watch it, though hopefully this is the last big BB related thing we get for a while.
 
I had my doubts about BCS, like I do now with this film. With the exception of half of the fourth season, my doubts were dashed with the story.

Either I expect this film to be about Pinkman, or that strange guy got his Slash and Val Kilmer pitch picked up.
 
Yeah the more I think about it, I'm more on the side of this being completely unnecessary. More curious than excited.

BCS has earned the right as its own distinguished series because the format of a continuing story allowed room to build something different. I can't see what a two hour film can accomplish other than exploring an avenue that didn't need exploring. The film would have to prove its worth and get around the big elephant in the room that BB's series finale was already as neat and finite as it gets.
 
honestly felt so....meh? a lot of flashbacks and a few new flashback scenes which all looked and felt real enough, but the over reliance on flashbacks to add context to the narrative just feels so...lazy? i imagined a whole lot more, the pacing was very BCS-esque, which doesn't really suit this tbh. i would have liked a bit more jeopardy and less meditativeness, without giving spoilers away the film felt like a pointless money spinner. i don't feel i learnt much about jesse that i didn't already know, i've only come to respect skinny pete a bit more (nice hair too!) and feel more like todd is one of the most sinister villains in tv history.
 
I actually liked that the film was more meditative because that's exactly what made Breaking Bad so special to begin with (something the finale did away with by having Walt just randomly appear in places and magically get things done). The in-between-moments of conflict that you rarely witness in crime stories is what this show, for the better part of its run, absolutely excelled at. It's what drew me to it in the first place. By the end of Breaking Bad, Walt became such a despicable character and was so far gone from any shred of sympathy, that the show conceptually took that narrative structure away from the viewer. Long are the days of taking 3 episodes to dispose of bodies, getting the RV's battery to start, or spending an entire season figuring out how to get rid of Gus. However, a Breaking Bad film about the more empathetic Jesse makes sense to bring that methodical structure and slower pace back, especially considering he's a character who (while proven to hold his own and certainly has his moments) doesn't possess the same magic, intelligence and bravado that Walt had.

Any other film about a fugitive on the run would have gone all in for the non-stop, action-packed thrill of the lead character trying to outrun the cops. This film offers that but the tension derives from its smaller, character-driven moments. Figuring out a plan and saying goodbye to Skinny Pete and Badger instead of just bolting out of there is more real and believable to me than the film serving as a 'what would I really be doing in this situation' type of story. Same with Jesse deciding to give Todd back his gun. It's especially a moment like that which makes Jesse Pinkman a uniquely interesting and deserving character to follow here. Spending a significant chunk of the film with Jesse poking around in Todd's apartment and further exploring the trauma that Jesse had to go through rather than glossing over it with mere implications helps give his story more weight. I like that there are so many unexpected, trivial hang-ups that prevent Jesse from moving on as simply as getting in a car and driving away.

In the series finale, Jesse's story ended on an ambiguously conclusive note which was fitting, but it was just a note. Not a conclusion for a character who earned the role of co-lead (regardless if the show was intended for Walt) and proved to be just as essential a character compared to the pawn/wild card/catalyst in service to Walt's story that he unfortunately becomes towards the end of the show's run. After "Ozymandias", I didn't go into this film expecting it to be anything more climactic than simply giving the character a proper conclusion. And by proper conclusion, I don't mean a love letter to the fans. Just an actual conclusion for the character who's earned one. Can I have gone on happily with my life without ever seeing this film? Sure. But I really liked it anyway. Granted I've only seen it once, but I feel like I'm going to appreciate it more on repeat viewings. It certainly avoided the problems I was worried about, but did El Camino prove its worth? I'm still thinking on that.

Also, I feel like the flashback scenes had a more thematic point than just parading old characters in and out and providing context. It definitely helps build Jesse's mindset going forward for what his future may hold. The film also still ends rather open-ended of whether he'll be okay or not. Will he learn to adapt and appreciate his slice of secluded freedom or will he increasingly crack under the pressure of solitude like Gene seems to be with every Better Call Saul season opener?
 
i thought it was ok and i actually thought the extended todd flashback was good because it added necessary context and also gave us more insight into his life during that period, which we barely got in the show. but i will say, i don't think the mike and walt flashbacks added anything other than "look it's mike and walt!" (and the walt one seemed to be sort of like "look how good of a guy walt was at first" which is dumb) but they were mercifully short at least. and this is maybe more of a nitpick, but i think jesse's known associates would have been the first place the cops looked, no? it also took them nearly a day to think to turn on the gps on the car? and of course it happens as someone is literally scanning it for precisely that? also would someone like todd even have that on his car? you'd think if you're a major drug dealer who sometimes drives dead bodies out to the desert, having something a mere warrant away from allowing the cops to track your every movement wouldn't be at the top of your shopping list

but yeah, apart from all that i did think it was enjoyable, if not really necessary. i agree it was a smart choice to just make it feel like an episode of the show for the most part and not go for too over-the-top for its own sake sequences. on that note, i could have done without the shootout at the welders shop or whatever, as that did feel like a bit of "we just need more action here"
 
oh and it also had the lazy "character has PTSD for like 12 hours and then is fine" trope that a lot of stuff like this falls into. and i get you can't really do something like that justice in a 2 hour movie, but at least coming back to it once or twice would have felt realer. particularly since the end of the movie had him essentially trapped in a small space on the drive up to alaska and would have been the perfect time to at least nod to it being difficult and triggering for him to some extent. maybe they didn't want to undercut the "happy" ending
 
I enjoyed it. like others said, not necessary but basically 2 extra hours of breaking bad, and the suspenseful, character-focused breaking bad too

so yeah I dug it
 
I've seen it twice now and after taking some time to absorb it, I decided to flesh out a deeper write-up of my thoughts here if anyone's interested.
 
nice. was hoping you'd touch on the PTSD aspect in that long of a write-up, because that honestly has annoyed me the more i've thought about it. also the more i think about the welder shoot-out the more that annoys me too. i haven't watched the show in a long time, but i feel like that whole thing doesn't really jive with his character. he only killed 3 people in the whole show, right? one of which was shown to be an extremely traumatic experience for him (gale), one of which was clear self-defense (the henchman in mexico) and todd, which was part of an ongoing traumatic experience and also somewhat self-defense. but now he just walzes into a place ready to gun down a bunch of guys clint-eastwood style? like, i realize his intent was not to kill them, and maybe you can even say the nazi torture changed him and made him more willing to do this, but still. there were 5 guys in there and he knew he may have to kill some or all of them. and we don't even see him struggling with this at all. just a triumphant shot walking away from a burning building like it's rambo or something

i dunno, i still do think it was overall pretty good, but those two things in particular just feel wrong. and it also makes me worry about BCS because it seems like they're still taking the wrong lessons from BB?? like, jesse must become the badass and earn his freedom by mowing some dudes down!
 
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