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shadowkat1. Finished watching The Breaking Bad S5 Part I Season Finale. And loved the ending.
This season reminds me a little of S2 in its slow pacing, and uneven writing.
Part of the problem is Walt and Jesse have become estranged for good reasons. And that's the heart of the series, the Walt/Jesse relationship. We've seen less of Jesse this season and more of Walt and his family or Walt and the new Jesse (the pesticide guy played by Jesse Plemmons from Friday Night Lights). Also the first half doesn't have a great deal of suspense. You know Walt can handle Mike Arbitrage. He handled Frid.
The best part of this season is Jonathan Banks portrayal of Mike Arbitrage and Anna Gunn's
terrified portrayal of Skylar White. Both are beautifully contained performances. Also both characters clearly despise Walter White and would kill him if they could figure out a way of getting away with it. They can't, so they attempt to handle him. Skylar does a better job of it. I found myself rooting for both of them, even though I knew that neither
would win. Mike is too set in his ways, and not quite clever enough. Skylar isn't ruthless enough.
Poor Jesse. Who would not have taken Walt's killing of Mike at all well. Can understand why Walt hid it from him.
And the scenes between Walt and Lydia, and Walt and Skylar in the storage shed are genius.
Both depicting how it is not money Walt is after at this point, it's power. Both women are terrified of him. Lydia literally is bargaining for her life. And gets it across to him that she can help him expand his business and take it outside the US - where in some respects it is a lot safer. 6,000 miles away from you, makes you less likely to get caught or to be attacked by rivals. The more people you have between you and your user the better.
And she's good at distribution. With Lydia it becomes streamlined, almost dull, a seamless business transaction. This is a first for Walt, well since Gus Frid - but Gus had all the power in that relationship.
This is what Mike doesn't understand about Walt, or Jesse for that matter. Neither want power, they are find just doing the job and getting paid. They don't aspire for power or for control over it.
Mike: Why couldn't you just be a cook for Frid? It was fine back then. We were safe. We each did our part. Frid handled everything else. Why'd you have to kill him and make a mess of things?
Because Frid realized that Walt wasn't comfortable just being the Cook, he wanted to be in charge. So while Mike was safe and happy, Walt wasn't. Mike's mistake was involving Walt in Frid's business. The moment he did that - he was doomed. Frid also had alterior motives that Mike didn't seem to acknowledge - which were the same as the other distributor Mike attempts to get Walt set up with - they both want to control the territory and kick Walt out of it and get Walt's competing and better product off the streets or sell it exclusively. Lydia actually is better business partner for Walt than Mike was, she's smarter, she saw what Frid was doing right - which was selling the product in a territory the cartel did not sell it in. Overseas. A different non-competing market. That gets both the cops and the cartel off your back. IF they don't see the product and its effects, they don't care. The Czech Republic isn't Hank's problem, after all.
Meanwhile Skylar just wants out. She shows Walt the storage compartment with the money in it. There's a pile of it.
Skylar: I gave up on counting it. I tried weighing it but it all weighs the same regardless of the denominations. I can't launder all of it. So I just rented this compartment and started putting it here. There's more here than we can spend in 10 lifetimes, or I could ever possibly launder through the car wash. Is this enough? Please tell how much is enough?
Walt: How much is this?
Skylar: I have no earthly idea.
And in an earlier conversation, Jesse reminds Walt that back in the day, in the beginning, Walt had figured out all he needed was 750,000 dollars to be set. He'd done some weird mathematical calculation to figure this out.
We think it is over now. Walt pulls out of the business. He has Mike and his associates who could reveal things - killed. Putting Mike down himself. He gives Jesse his final payment.
But in that very last scene, on the stool, in Walt's bathroom, hunting reading material, Hank comes across Walt's copy of Leaves to Grass and reads the note from the guy who gave it to Walt ages ago.."To my favorite office guy, WW...my stars and" - and that's when Hank puts it together. His jaw drops as he remembers the conversation he had in S4 with Walter White about a similar dedication in another notebook. Hank realizes in that moment - Walter White is Heisenberg. You can see it on his face as he begins to connect the dots and it all suddenly makes a scary kind of sense.
Now I can't wait until those final 8 episodes which will be a cat and mouse game or cat and cat game between Hank and Walter White. This is the showdown the whole series has been leading towards. And it will undoubtedly pull all the remaining characters into the mix.
The character that would have killed Hank off, is dead. Ironic. From the get-go, Mike has told Walt that Hank had to go - that Hank was their problem. But Walt can't kill Hank, Jesse, Skylar, Marie, or the kids - those are the only people that Walt cares for. What happens when they turn against him? And all he has is the storage shed filled with money and power? In some respects that would be a more tragic ending then his death. Death would be preferable. As he stated to Jesse long ago in the Fly episode in S3, he lived too long, the moment to go was before that operation, before...he killed Jesse's girlfriend, before he turned that corner...and became in body and spirit Heisenberg.
2. The problem with watching Dexter after Breaking Bad is you realize how slow and poorly written it is. I liked S4 with John Lithgow's Trinity Killer. Season 1 wasn't bad. The other seasons...sort of plodded along, then got really suspenseful, then just sort of fizzled out at the end.
First episode of S6 bored me. We'll see if they get better, if not. I'll give up on Dexter and rent something else instead. My flist, well the majority of it at any rate, was not fond of S6 Dexter and appears to have given up on the series. So far, I'm agreeing with their analysis. (Granted they were also watching Breaking Bad, which may be part of the problem.)
3. Rented the film The Woman in Black from netflix. It's the film that Daniel Radcliff did off of the psychological ghost story written by Susan Hill (I think it is Susan Hill). It's okay. Has the haunting...not happy/not unhappy ending. The ghost wins and loses at the same time.) Reminded me a little of those old school gothic horror films, except with a more contemporary twist.
Has some chills. I jumped at various points during it and hollered, but I'm an easy sell.
Someone who has been watching the Paranormal Activity flicks probably would find this dull.
I avoid the Paranormal Activity flicks like the plague. Have enough troubles sleeping thank you very much. I do not require help.
This film is tame. You'll be able to sleep after it. And Ciarian Hinds as well as Radcliff are actually decent in it. Watching Radcliff made me think - this guy would make a great gothic hero or 19th Century literary hero - he looks like them. Reminds me a great deal of a young Montgomery Cliff but with an English Accent. Those haunted eyes. I can see him playing the Jonathan Harker in Dracula, no problem. Good actor, Radcliff. Just needs better material. Same goes for Hinds.
4. Another overcast day. Somewhat glad I nixed the meetup group exploration of Governor's Island this morning. Since I slept until 9:30...didn't have much choice. It was raining, I wanted to sleep. Something I can't do on most week days, where I must drag my sorry ass out of bed at the crack of dawn (6 am) and trudge to the train station by 6:50/7 am, and in work by 8. I envy people who work 9-5 hours. I work 8-4, leave for work by 7, and get home by 5, since I have a 48 minute to hour commute depending on the trains. If I drove, it would be a lot longer - probably 2 hours, due to traffic alone, not to mention lack of parking. And a lot more expensive. (I won't bore you with why.)
This season reminds me a little of S2 in its slow pacing, and uneven writing.
Part of the problem is Walt and Jesse have become estranged for good reasons. And that's the heart of the series, the Walt/Jesse relationship. We've seen less of Jesse this season and more of Walt and his family or Walt and the new Jesse (the pesticide guy played by Jesse Plemmons from Friday Night Lights). Also the first half doesn't have a great deal of suspense. You know Walt can handle Mike Arbitrage. He handled Frid.
The best part of this season is Jonathan Banks portrayal of Mike Arbitrage and Anna Gunn's
terrified portrayal of Skylar White. Both are beautifully contained performances. Also both characters clearly despise Walter White and would kill him if they could figure out a way of getting away with it. They can't, so they attempt to handle him. Skylar does a better job of it. I found myself rooting for both of them, even though I knew that neither
would win. Mike is too set in his ways, and not quite clever enough. Skylar isn't ruthless enough.
Poor Jesse. Who would not have taken Walt's killing of Mike at all well. Can understand why Walt hid it from him.
And the scenes between Walt and Lydia, and Walt and Skylar in the storage shed are genius.
Both depicting how it is not money Walt is after at this point, it's power. Both women are terrified of him. Lydia literally is bargaining for her life. And gets it across to him that she can help him expand his business and take it outside the US - where in some respects it is a lot safer. 6,000 miles away from you, makes you less likely to get caught or to be attacked by rivals. The more people you have between you and your user the better.
And she's good at distribution. With Lydia it becomes streamlined, almost dull, a seamless business transaction. This is a first for Walt, well since Gus Frid - but Gus had all the power in that relationship.
This is what Mike doesn't understand about Walt, or Jesse for that matter. Neither want power, they are find just doing the job and getting paid. They don't aspire for power or for control over it.
Mike: Why couldn't you just be a cook for Frid? It was fine back then. We were safe. We each did our part. Frid handled everything else. Why'd you have to kill him and make a mess of things?
Because Frid realized that Walt wasn't comfortable just being the Cook, he wanted to be in charge. So while Mike was safe and happy, Walt wasn't. Mike's mistake was involving Walt in Frid's business. The moment he did that - he was doomed. Frid also had alterior motives that Mike didn't seem to acknowledge - which were the same as the other distributor Mike attempts to get Walt set up with - they both want to control the territory and kick Walt out of it and get Walt's competing and better product off the streets or sell it exclusively. Lydia actually is better business partner for Walt than Mike was, she's smarter, she saw what Frid was doing right - which was selling the product in a territory the cartel did not sell it in. Overseas. A different non-competing market. That gets both the cops and the cartel off your back. IF they don't see the product and its effects, they don't care. The Czech Republic isn't Hank's problem, after all.
Meanwhile Skylar just wants out. She shows Walt the storage compartment with the money in it. There's a pile of it.
Skylar: I gave up on counting it. I tried weighing it but it all weighs the same regardless of the denominations. I can't launder all of it. So I just rented this compartment and started putting it here. There's more here than we can spend in 10 lifetimes, or I could ever possibly launder through the car wash. Is this enough? Please tell how much is enough?
Walt: How much is this?
Skylar: I have no earthly idea.
And in an earlier conversation, Jesse reminds Walt that back in the day, in the beginning, Walt had figured out all he needed was 750,000 dollars to be set. He'd done some weird mathematical calculation to figure this out.
We think it is over now. Walt pulls out of the business. He has Mike and his associates who could reveal things - killed. Putting Mike down himself. He gives Jesse his final payment.
But in that very last scene, on the stool, in Walt's bathroom, hunting reading material, Hank comes across Walt's copy of Leaves to Grass and reads the note from the guy who gave it to Walt ages ago.."To my favorite office guy, WW...my stars and" - and that's when Hank puts it together. His jaw drops as he remembers the conversation he had in S4 with Walter White about a similar dedication in another notebook. Hank realizes in that moment - Walter White is Heisenberg. You can see it on his face as he begins to connect the dots and it all suddenly makes a scary kind of sense.
Now I can't wait until those final 8 episodes which will be a cat and mouse game or cat and cat game between Hank and Walter White. This is the showdown the whole series has been leading towards. And it will undoubtedly pull all the remaining characters into the mix.
The character that would have killed Hank off, is dead. Ironic. From the get-go, Mike has told Walt that Hank had to go - that Hank was their problem. But Walt can't kill Hank, Jesse, Skylar, Marie, or the kids - those are the only people that Walt cares for. What happens when they turn against him? And all he has is the storage shed filled with money and power? In some respects that would be a more tragic ending then his death. Death would be preferable. As he stated to Jesse long ago in the Fly episode in S3, he lived too long, the moment to go was before that operation, before...he killed Jesse's girlfriend, before he turned that corner...and became in body and spirit Heisenberg.
2. The problem with watching Dexter after Breaking Bad is you realize how slow and poorly written it is. I liked S4 with John Lithgow's Trinity Killer. Season 1 wasn't bad. The other seasons...sort of plodded along, then got really suspenseful, then just sort of fizzled out at the end.
First episode of S6 bored me. We'll see if they get better, if not. I'll give up on Dexter and rent something else instead. My flist, well the majority of it at any rate, was not fond of S6 Dexter and appears to have given up on the series. So far, I'm agreeing with their analysis. (Granted they were also watching Breaking Bad, which may be part of the problem.)
3. Rented the film The Woman in Black from netflix. It's the film that Daniel Radcliff did off of the psychological ghost story written by Susan Hill (I think it is Susan Hill). It's okay. Has the haunting...not happy/not unhappy ending. The ghost wins and loses at the same time.) Reminded me a little of those old school gothic horror films, except with a more contemporary twist.
Has some chills. I jumped at various points during it and hollered, but I'm an easy sell.
Someone who has been watching the Paranormal Activity flicks probably would find this dull.
I avoid the Paranormal Activity flicks like the plague. Have enough troubles sleeping thank you very much. I do not require help.
This film is tame. You'll be able to sleep after it. And Ciarian Hinds as well as Radcliff are actually decent in it. Watching Radcliff made me think - this guy would make a great gothic hero or 19th Century literary hero - he looks like them. Reminds me a great deal of a young Montgomery Cliff but with an English Accent. Those haunted eyes. I can see him playing the Jonathan Harker in Dracula, no problem. Good actor, Radcliff. Just needs better material. Same goes for Hinds.
4. Another overcast day. Somewhat glad I nixed the meetup group exploration of Governor's Island this morning. Since I slept until 9:30...didn't have much choice. It was raining, I wanted to sleep. Something I can't do on most week days, where I must drag my sorry ass out of bed at the crack of dawn (6 am) and trudge to the train station by 6:50/7 am, and in work by 8. I envy people who work 9-5 hours. I work 8-4, leave for work by 7, and get home by 5, since I have a 48 minute to hour commute depending on the trains. If I drove, it would be a lot longer - probably 2 hours, due to traffic alone, not to mention lack of parking. And a lot more expensive. (I won't bore you with why.)