Spritenaut 32 Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 IMO, I can't see Paul's movie career working out. He strikes me as a lot like Sarah Michelle Gellar: just way more of a presence and big deal on the small screen. I'll be surprised if we're still comparing Aaron Paul to Sarah Gellar ten years from now. Not that SMG's career has been particularly noteworthy since Buffy ended (Unless the Crazy Ones somehow goes on to be a massive hit, it looks like Boreanaz and Hannigan will enjoy much better post-Buffy careers). Paul has never struck me as a star in the making. I kinda think he'll end up a decent actor who had one breakout role, and never quite escapes the shadow of that role. There are a lot of stars like that. Sometimes it's a result of being typecast by the breakout role. Sometimes, it's a "water finds its level" sort of thing. (Also, Need for Speed looks like a really bad choice for a followup project.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antacular Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 From the trailer, his line "We'll settle this on the road" tells me everything I need to know about his potential movie career. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Holy shit, Walt Jr. is the new Gustavo Fring. Instead of running a Los Pollos Hermanos to provide a front for his meth game, he runs a Pancake House franchise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Binge watching Breaking Bad was the best way for me to watch it. I did that all the way up until the final season. I was happy doing it that way too because it added to the suspense of that final season. I would hate watching the whole series like that, though. I just finished binge watching Season 5 in three days. I was on board with how much better is was than having to wait week-to-week, month-to-month until tonight. Watching the last six episodes with no time to step back was soul killing. After "Ozymandias" I felt kind of queezy. Then when they killed Andrea in the 2nd to last episode, I was done. I wanted to tap and stopped the episode. I was like, "If I needed to feel this sick to my stomach I could watch videos of puppies being put down in a shelter or something FUCK THIS FUCKING SHOW!!!!" I might have been able to deal in a "red wedding" way if it was spaced out more. But I was already pretty down and that was just, like, too far. I like dark shit, but that was too much. And it hurt the finale a little. I just had not a shred of sympathy left for Walter in any of his scenes, and I wasn't rooting for him at all. Not after that. I mean I didn't have much before that and was rooting for the fucker to die at least since he refused the buyout from Declan. I think some of the emotion of it was lost on me because of that. fuck that fucking guy forever. I was also pissed he killed Lydia, but that's just because I kind of identified with her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Just a head's up that a lot of y'all are gonna be getting some "likes" for some year-old ass posts now that I can finally read this thread. Did Jesse get a happy ending,or just a superficial happy ending? Yeah, he's alive and that's good. But he's got no money, his family have disowned him, both of the women he loved are dead, the cops may or may not be after him not to mention a ton of emotional scarring. It reminded me a bit of the Buffy ending. What the fuck is he going to do now? I sort of got the maniacal laugh given the rush he must have been feeling. But I wish they had stayed on him a little longer. A lot of the talk upthread was about whether he was better or worse overall than just another dead junkie...but the amount of emotional torture he's been through was beyond anything like that. The guy is going to self destruct now anyway...only now he has good reason to. I'm kind of amazed at how much everyone no-sold Andrea's death on here in favor of the coolness of the ending to "granite state." I'm starting to get it a little now that I've had time to step back, but I was just floored at that. She was by far the most innocent adult on the show, practically the show's symbolic embodiment of innocence and of every last spark of hope for Jesse to ever be redeemed. Why would this show introduce a plot point (Walt leaves the money for his kids via threatening Gray Matter) that wasn't going to come true? Mike tried and failed multiple times to leave money for his granddaughter. Walt found a way around that. Accept it. This is one of the few things I still can grant to Walter is just the sheer unbeatable competence of the man. If there is any triumph in this spirit-death stew of a final season, it is what joy can be taken from watching someone brilliant be brilliant. And I guess with pretty much everyone around him already dead or destroyed, the last episode gave us the ability to see him be brilliant without there being any potential negative side effects...he pretty much already hit all of those. Is Walt really pissed off at Grey Matter? I thought he was just pissed off at finding out that Blue Sky is still being sold around the world. Leading Walt to realise that Jesse is still alive since he's the only other person that knows how to make it. I think Badger nailed it on Talking Bad, saying that any time Walt's significance is challenged, or that he's thought of as a "sweet man," he becomes incensed and wants to make it a point that he isn't a nice guy and that his actions should be recognized for their magnitude. So I think hearing that Blue Sky is still being sold leads him to believe that the Brotherhood is keeping Jesse alive to make it, making even more money off of what Walt has referred to as his life's work. All through life he never received the recognition he thought he should have, and he we were again, with Walt in the same situation he was in with Grey Matter all those years ago, having it pointed out to him by Gretchen and Elliott that he's in that situation once again. Blue Sky being in production means his family is still at risk as well. Then, in the background, you have Walt wanting all the moneys. So that's you fuel. Gretchen and Elliott discrediting Walt and referring to Walt as this sweet man, stripping him of his significance, is simply lighting the match. Walt is Heisenberg, goddammit. He is the one who knocks. He is the fucking danger. And now there's hell to pay. A motivated Heisenberg with nothing to lose is the most dangerous man in the world. I am so fucking pumped up for the finale. How the fuck am I and Gonzalez the only people who liked this post? It's great and it's one of the things that might make me appreciate the "Walt" side of "Granite State" more. That interview managed to hit every single nerve the guy had all at once. Gray Matter, calling him a sweet little man, someone else making money on his work, someone claiming that Heisenberg isn't really a big deal, someone throwing money around just to show off. I love how many major plot turns hinge on some tiny coincidence. How many times Walt was essentially done until some tiny thing sparked him back on again. I also love how Walt's driving issue, unlike Gus Fring's, was never one that could be solved...ever...by any one action. That flashback to Hank inviting him on the ride-along triggered this feeling like Walter White was essentially a reminder that any of us, if given the motivation, means, opportunity to break out of the life we are leading and follow our deepest impulses, would probably end up doing a whole lot of damage. That if you allow yourself to pull back far enough, the modern world we all tow the line in can seem incredibly stifling. There's just a little CLOCKWORK ORANGE in it...like, we're stuck with this choice between giving up our true animal strength and submitting to the bland shallow oppressive suburban plastic world that the show began with (which in season one we see a lot of in Marie and Hank and Walt's miserable Walmart life) or following that freedom and experiencing the true pain of the bloodthirsty world of the real jungle. I, for one, would like to think that at any given moment I would choose the Mike path and look around Walmart, have another shot of Icee or Slurpee and think, "Fuck it, this ain't that bad. Millions of people over thousands of generations survived miserable conditions and endless war starvation and death so that I can drink this slurpee and browse the discount DVDs at Big Lots without getting torn apart by bandits or mountain lions. I'm cool with that." I can say at least this. Whenever I'm now confronted with some affront to my pride at work or find myself stuck browsing TJ Maxx with my wife and getting that "what kind of world is this" feeling, my first impulse now is to think "What would Saul do." And the answer is always "Saul would chill the fuck out and just be happy no one is chasing him at the moment." Like, the "moral" of Walter White is that there are other ways to make your way through life. There are models to emulate on this show...not Walter, not Jesse, not Hank, not Skyler. Pretty much Saul, and maybe Mike. I learned shit about how to be, like, solid from those dudes. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I'm so happy you've completed the journey. I'm actually really excited because my girlfriend has only watched the pilot and that was a long time ago, so now I get to re-watch the entire series. At the very least, I'll get to watch a number of episodes with her when I'm hanging out with her. So, it's been awhile after the finale, but I still get goosebumps whenever I THINK about the end of Granite State. Walt going though calling Walt Jr. and having that blow up in his face, then sitting there, watching Elliot and Gretchen on Charlie Rose. And then maybe one of the best moments in TV history happens when the full theme music starts to play and you see a Walt who was completely defeated have his moment where it's like he hears Mickey saying "I din't hear no bell! GET UP YOU SON OF A BITCH...because Mickey loves ya." The county cops roll up and all that's left is the glass and shit. is. on. Goddamn that's awesome. At some point, I need to go back and make a list of my favorite Breaking Bad moments. I did get a chance to re-watch an episode recently it was the one that starts out with another amazing moment where Walt demands to hear his name and when what's his nuts says "Heisenberg," Walt comes back with "You're goddamn right." I remember when I first saw that thinking that it would be insane if that's what Walt would say, and then he said it, and my mind was blown. However, it got me wondering what movie I saw that from to think of that line and for Walt, who was very impressionable, to repeat the same thing. Anyway, such an amazing series. After some time has passed and after re-watching the Shield, I now think it's probably my all-time favorite. I don't know if it's the best, but it's definitely my favorite. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I wonder what would have happened if all that time ago, Walt had just not been able to escape from those cuffs when Mike was going to make the big deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I wonder what would have happened if all that time ago, Walt had just not been able to escape from those cuffs when Mike was going to make the big deal. I was rooting for that at the time. It was so the right move. But it's hard to imagine Walt giving up. It may have taken awhile, but with $5 million in his hands he would have done something to get his blue flower. Probably through Lydia. One of the things the threw me binge watching was the radical change of pace. Back in season one they didn't let anything slide by offscreen. They even made a whole episode out of just needing to show Walt explain his absence (the fugue state episode). Most shows would have jumped over something like that to get back to the "story" rather than making that part of it. Nothing was allowed to be shortcutted or just wiped past. We're following him hour by hour it seems. The first four seasons were only about nine months. The first two seasons apart from the last two episodes are less than a month total. Then the last season was, what, a year and a half or something. It was dizzying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Breaking Bad is also the perfect example of how it only takes 1 to 3 bad decisions to completely fuck up your life and those are decisions where you don't even think will lead to your complete downfall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Yeah. Or another way of thinking about it, we're all 1 to 3 glimpses/chances at being a bigshot away from going full-on jungle ape. We have the same humidifier as Lydia. My wife was pretty proud of that since she picked it out and Lydia was pretty thorough about stuff like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swift Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Just a head's up that a lot of y'all are gonna be getting some "likes" for some year-old ass posts now that I can finally read this thread. Regrettably, I don't recall making any ass posts. I wasn't aware others had either, but then I guess there was a bunch of spoiler tags I didn't click on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstout Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 I'm gonna spoiler this out of paranoia: I think one of my favorite things about the whole series is as things unfold, there are multiple points where events pretty much scream to Walt "this would be a really, really good time for you to cut bait and get out NOW" and he never does. He keeps going back to that stove eye that's burned him on multiple occasions. So he finally gives up after the speech from Skyler about the money, relaxes, lets his guard down and gets nabbed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Just a head's up that a lot of y'all are gonna be getting some "likes" for some year-old ass posts now that I can finally read this thread. Regrettably, I don't recall making any ass posts. I wasn't aware others had either, but then I guess there was a bunch of spoiler tags I didn't click on. I mean ass-old...and also year-old. A tautology to be sure. But you might note it was 2:56 in the dawn and I had just finished watching six straight episodes and my eyeballs were dry and my brain was squirming. You can perhaps, pardon my inelegance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 5 - Lydia begs Mike to let her live and Mike's line - "They're not going to find you." Having a young daughter made 5 stand out a lot. Not just the fear of dying and not being there for them but the sense of abandonment that would come over them from never finding out what happened to you. Why did you leave without explaining things and saying goodbye? Hard shit to think about as a parent. Along that line, Mike having to leave his granddaughter in the park was pretty heartbreaking. But Andrea's kid has got to be the worst situation. What is left for that kid to even process? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driver Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 In the episode with the balloons Mike dropped his grand daughter off at his daughter's house. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antacular Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Walt didn't have to sell his half of the business. Don't blame his poor investment acumen on the hormones of others. Best moments of the series are "You're Heisenberg," followed by "Best to tread lightly" to Hank, the end of granite state, the videotape confession, and finally Gus' death, complete with tie adjustment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offspring515 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 BRRRRRRROCK LES...sorry, force of habit...Brock has a Grandma who babysat him, I assume he'd go to her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 I don't remember if they showed him but was Brock in the house when she was murdered? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Spanish Waiter Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 I don't remember if they showed him but was Brock in the house when she was murdered? No it was Goldberg 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigertooth Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 Like, the "moral" of Walter White is that there are other ways to make your way through life. There are models to emulate on this show...not Walter, not Jesse, not Hank, not Skyler. Pretty much Saul, and maybe Mike. I learned shit about how to be, like, solid from those dudes. I know Hank is highly disliked around here, but I'm trying to figure out how he's less of a 'solid dude' than two guys who have voluntarily gotten involved in criminal undertakings. Calling a shyster lawyer a solid guy is beyond me. Mike is at least a straight shooter, but he's still a killer for hire who screwed up his life to the point that he can't even see his family. Hank doesn't have the competence of a Walt, Gus, or Mike, and personality-wise I'm not saying I'd like to hang out with a blowhard cop. But Hank's a family man who dedicated his life to getting the bad guys. Seems pretty solid. If you stayed out at a bar too late and got too drunk to drive home, who on this show would get out of bed and come get your ass? Hank. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted March 19, 2014 Share Posted March 19, 2014 I was thinking more along the lines of who has a more realistic attitude about how the world works and how to survive in it. Hank, like Walt to some extent, is a bundle of unrealized ambitions and obsessive drives coupled with an uncompromising view of good and bad. He's hiding plenty of desire and anger and stuff too.My thinking about Saul and Mike both is that they recognize the way the world is and have a more distant more realistic perspective that isn't based on ideals but on experience that they've actually learned from. I mean, it's not like I'm looking for a model of how to position myself in a criminal empire, but just for how to roll with things without getting consumed by them. I'm thinking, like, who's general attitude is more conducive to a regular guy like me 1) not exploding into a ball or frustration and impotent rage 2) not being a huge dick to people all the time Being like Hank would probably mean doing at least one of those things at least some of the time. I liked Hank a lot and I was a little disappointed they tried to darken him up at the end in how he treated Jessie who by that point he should have probably seen as a good-hearted dupe rather than a piece of shit. That felt a little forced. But I'm not looking for a career mentor. But there are lots of situations where it would be better to react like Saul than like Hank or Walt or Jessie. Like, your boss balls you out for no reason and tries to belittle you or something. If you're Walt you immediately start plotting his death. if you're Hank you punch him in the fucking face because that's what he deserves. If you're Saul, you roll with it in that moment and start building your escape plan without making a big scene...just in case there's no easy way out... in other words, you react based on the reality of the world rather on some sense of good guys/bad guys. Long term that's probably a better way to operate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUkered Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 Gretchen and Elliott discrediting Walt and referring to Walt as this sweet man, stripping him of his significance, is simply lighting the match. Walt is Heisenberg, goddammit. He is the one who knocks. He is the fucking danger. And now there's hell to pay. A motivated Heisenberg with nothing to lose is the most dangerous man in the world. I am so fucking pumped up for the finale. How the fuck am I and Gonzalez the only people who liked this post? It's great and it's one of the things that might make me appreciate the "Walt" side of "Granite State" more. That interview managed to hit every single nerve the guy had all at once. Gray Matter, calling him a sweet little man, someone else making money on his work, someone claiming that Heisenberg isn't really a big deal, someone throwing money around just to show off. I love how many major plot turns hinge on some tiny coincidence. How many times Walt was essentially done until some tiny thing sparked him back on again. I also love how Walt's driving issue, unlike Gus Fring's, was never one that could be solved...ever...by any one action. That flashback to Hank inviting him on the ride-along triggered this feeling like Walter White was essentially a reminder that any of us, if given the motivation, means, opportunity to break out of the life we are leading and follow our deepest impulses, would probably end up doing a whole lot of damage. That if you allow yourself to pull back far enough, the modern world we all tow the line in can seem incredibly stifling. There's just a little CLOCKWORK ORANGE in it...like, we're stuck with this choice between giving up our true animal strength and submitting to the bland shallow oppressive suburban plastic world that the show began with (which in season one we see a lot of in Marie and Hank and Walt's miserable Walmart life) or following that freedom and experiencing the true pain of the bloodthirsty world of the real jungle. I, for one, would like to think that at any given moment I would choose the Mike path and look around Walmart, have another shot of Icee or Slurpee and think, "Fuck it, this ain't that bad. Millions of people over thousands of generations survived miserable conditions and endless war starvation and death so that I can drink this slurpee and browse the discount DVDs at Big Lots without getting torn apart by bandits or mountain lions. I'm cool with that." I can say at least this. Whenever I'm now confronted with some affront to my pride at work or find myself stuck browsing TJ Maxx with my wife and getting that "what kind of world is this" feeling, my first impulse now is to think "What would Saul do." And the answer is always "Saul would chill the fuck out and just be happy no one is chasing him at the moment." Like, the "moral" of Walter White is that there are other ways to make your way through life. There are models to emulate on this show...not Walter, not Jesse, not Hank, not Skyler. Pretty much Saul, and maybe Mike. I learned shit about how to be, like, solid from those dudes. I specifically sought out Craig's old post to like it after reading this because it completely encompasses how I felt about the episode. Since the day after that episode aired, my wallpaper on my work computer has been that pissed off snarl that Walt gets on his face when Elliott says "The name - that's where his contribution begins and ends." I missed a lot of these posts when the episodes were airing because I was straight up conspiracy theorist, tinfoil hat wearer about avoiding spoilers, potential spoilers, anything. When I read that someone had stolen a script from Bryan Cranston's car, I basically stayed away from anything Breaking Bad related online. I normally don't care one way or the other, but I wanted to finish this show completely blind. And I love your post piranesi. You put it into words better than I ever could. It's a little frightening what it might say about me, but I understood Walt's motivations the entire show, and that's why I rooted for him right up until the very end. When Gretchen and Elliott said that bullshit on TV, I was like OHHHHHHHH YA DONE FUCKED UP!!!!! And like I mentioned before, Walt gets that look on his face and then the music kicks in not longer after and I was about to fucking explode. I don't know what Walt would have had to do to make me turn on him. I didn't care if he burned down all of Albuquerque if he had to do so to get his revenge. From the moment he gets in his car after blowing up Tuco's lair and starts screaming and beating the steering wheel, I was like "I get this guy." (I'm not a psycho - promise - although if you follow the stories in the GTA thread, you may disagree.) On a final note, I can't remember any other show that has gotten such physical reactions out of me. When Hank got shot mid-sentence My face was literally exactly like Walt's. No hyperbole - my jaw stayed dropped until the commercial break. Dammit, now my obsession is completely reignited. Looks like I'll be marathoning this yet again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 I don't think Elsa received enough props for calling what happened to the White's home in the flash forward. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elsalvajeloco Posted March 25, 2014 Author Share Posted March 25, 2014 I don't get enough credit for a lot of things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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