Once you read that article in the last link I posted read this : http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/inde ... g_the.html and for fun : http://www.savewalterwhite.com/
i don't know why everyone is calling Walt a "Monster"... He's just a bid-ness man trying to get by....
Thanks for the interview link. To me this show seems to be about addictions at many levels. With Walt, what might have started as a desire to help his family out financially in case of his probable death has turned in to an addiction for danger. We could see this starting in the first season as he got off on the dangers confronting him by various gangsters. In this season it really felt obvious when he went after the would be cookers on the HomeDepot parking lot. All in all he is a selfish punk. And selfishness is the root of being a monster.
I finally caught up all the way to the end of season two. While the nation is going hype-crazy over "Mad Men" I think that "Breaking Bad" is actually the best current progressive drama. It may not be as pretty to look at as "Mad Men" with its amazing midcentury modern furnishings and clothing and all that, but I'll take the gravitas of Walt's multilayered duplicity over that of the Sterling Cooper boys any day. Ah heck what am I saying both shows are great. I LOVED the episode that opened with a narcocorrido video by Los Cuates de Sinaloa. For years I've thought that conjunto was one of the best-kept secrets of Mexican music (at least in the USA) and it was a real mind-blower to see them singing about the mysterious Heisenberg at the opening of an episode. Brilliant. Y'all know what "Heisenberg" refers to, right? In a word, uncertainty. If Skylar got that upset over what she's figured out thus far, what will happen if Walt really comes clean? Yikes. Ring-a-ling-a-ling oh brother-in-law... I think it's super-cool that the producers cast an actor playing the kid with Cerebral Palsy who actually contends with the condition himself. I didn't realize that until I saw an interview with him. Good actor. Another little detail that struck me as brilliant is how several of the agents in the DEA office have little busts of Jesus Malverde on their desks. For those who don't know he was a sort of Robin Hood figure during the Mexican Revolution who has become literally the "saint" of narcotrafficantes in Mexico. There are public shrines for his veneration in Culiacan, Sinaloa. Too weird. The serendipity of the plane crash reminded me of numerous uses of synchronicity in the media in the past decade or so, starting with "Amores Perros" and copied in "Crash" and so on. Real cool, and I love how the beginning of almost every second season episode opened with a flash-forward to the aftermath. At this point I'm assuming that the bodies being removed in some of those vignettes are from the crash. Although the viewer was invited to suspect that they were Walt and Jesse, they obviously aren't. I reckon most of us knew that they weren't in advance. As regards whether or not the series is "black comedy," I'd say that's just an aspect of the show, to keep it from being overly heavy, and to contend with the unlikeliness of the premise. Early on in the first season there was a lot more of it. As the series progressed towards the end of the second season, there's almost none. Sorry to see the landlord chick go. She may not have been trustworthy but she was a complex and interesting character and her affair with Jesse was actually very touching. I suspect that her father will play a significant role in the third season (?) I haven't found any announcements of when the next season will resume. Does anyone know?
Thanks for the little info Dean. I always wondering why he picked "Heisenberg" as he never explains it. Can you shed a little more info on that ? why do you know that is means uncertainty ? And I think they are still working on season 3, I dont know a date, but I'm positive they will promote the hell out of it when its time to come back.
Not Dean, but Heisenberg was a physicist playing in Einstein's ballpark... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Heisenberg Walt just grabbed an alias out of his head, and it so happens that he has a big brain...most cookers have names like "Taco McDonald" or "Sue Da Fedd"
That's just my interpretation. Walt, being someone who excelled in a field of science in college, would certainly have heard of Werner Heisenberg, a physicist whose postulations in the 1920s led to the "Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle" which says that pairs of physical properties (e.g. speed and location) of an observed particle can't be known with precision at the same time. The more precise the measurement of one property, the less precise the other is likely to be determinable. There's a philosophical resonance to the postulate that if I recall correctly was discussed in that context in the classic popular interdisciplinary books "Goedel, Escher, Bach" and "The Tao of Physics" in the late 1970s. It's heady stuff and as someone who gets headaches when trying to understand quantum physics, I'm not the best qualified to explain it. Suffice to say that I think it was a conscious wink-nod to the audience on the part of the show's writers. One the one hand it could have been nothing more than a respected name that just popped into Walt's head when he had to come up with an avatar to protect his real identity, but I think it also has to do with how people close to Walt such as his DEA brother-in-law is confused about the identity of the meth chemist with mad skills in the Albuquerque region, and also how his own wife is struggling with and often misreading cues about Walt's mysterious disappearances, behavior, and cover stories. The Uncertainty Principle suggests that in effect, reality is altered by perception of reality. The name is probably best thought of for its metaphorical resonance than any literal interpretation, but I'd be very, very surprised if anyone involved with the show claimed that the name was coincidental and insignificant, especially given the significant non-coincidence of the event at the end of the second season. The show is going somewhere which at this point remains indeterminate. EDIT: Excellent point scottygee. He risks giving his own game away unintentionally. The DEA already knows that they're not dealing with some idiot meth chemist by virtue of the purity of the blue stuff, and possibly by virtue of his evasive tactics, which are intelligent. The name "Heisenberg" further indicates an astute knowledge of the sciences. Walt has a little Freudian slip problem, as Skylar found out when he was drugged during the pre-op scene.
Good to hear that people are still getting turned on to the show. Hopefully Mad Men hype will draw even more people in since AMC airs Breaking Bad immediately after. If you're a fan of commentary or behind the scenes stuff, check out the Breaking Bad podcast for insight from creator Vince Gilligan and occasional guests. http://blogs.amctv.com/breaking-bad/podcasts/
Just saw Emmy results. Nice to see Bryan Cranston get some accolades for his work. Mad Men did well too. AMC is definitely making it's presence known. In my mind, it almost makes up for the streak of dissing The Wire for all those years. Almost.
so has anyone seen the new episode just finished watching it can someone explain why all those mexican people where crawling to that shrine also who are those two mexican guys
They were some sort of quasi-Catholic/pagan Penitentes or at least based on that sort of religious ritual as is practiced by some sects in New Mexico. The shrine was to La Santa Muerte who among other aspects is revered by some Mexican narcotrafficantes. I have some other thoughts about that scene but I'll save them because I'm in the middle of the episode right now. What Kirkland said.
I loved that truck ride across the border scene in the opening episode...I am wondering if the two 'brothers of death' are in some way related to the 'head-on-turtle' guy from last season...this should be another great season!
They killed Danny Trejo too soon. I know he is a "movie star" but he could of cameoed for years. The second bad guy was dope, he had a strong part in "training day" "Ever had you fudge packed in COP ?!?" "tight, tight, tight," as snorts the blue... awesome! What is up with the new bad guys? Are they twins?!? seems lame... maybe cause the GI Joe twins were lame.
Nope He did his dirty work out of love for his family, she did her dirty work out of hate and just to get back at him. Not to mention in her conversation with her lawyer after all she said, when it came to a solution she did bring up that fact that he has cancer and "things may work themselves out"
I think they've been teasing Skyler and Ted since last season and the fact that they cashed in on it was pretty ballsy. The episode had a hell of an ending though and it definitely upset me. Compounded with Hank and Jesse, I think it's one of the most depressing of the series. The podcasts are back this year and insightful as always. http://www.amctv.com/originals/breaking ... -podcasts/
Such a depressing episode. I've been wondering whether Skylar isn't going to blackmail Walt into using that money to bail Ted out of his financial troubles. This show rules.
I forgot about that, there is no way Walt will do that though. I think he would honestly kill his ass first before letting his hard earned money go to the guy who is banging his wife.
man, one of the best episodes of TV ever..... mental warfare between Walt and Skylar. First when Walt comes home and he knows the cops can't do a thing to make him leave. She gets back at him with the nuclear bomb. rough... back to cooking
Random thoughts... Who wears a shiny gangsta suit and openly carries a big polished axe in broad daylight to an intended execution? Is it just me, or are the narco-twins a bit more cartoony than anything else about this show? I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. "Breaking Bad" is reminding me more and more of how aspects of "A History of Violence" were a bit cartoonish too, yet scary and "real" anyway. I'm starting to think of the show as sort of a graphic novel ... it helps with the verisimilitude issues, for example EVERYONE wearing those blue "remember the victims" ribbons. I found it significant that at a certain point, Skylar stopped wearing hers. She has her own tragedy to contend with. I wonder how many tries it took to get the pizza on the roof so perfectly? Love that scene. The comedy of pathos. What will happen if Walt Jr. aka "Flynn" finds out about his dad's secret profession? What will his reaction be? Is it possible that Skyler will get to a point where Walt Jr. finds out via her? Would he default to Uncle Hank as his "dad" or would the revelation eventually somehow bring him closer to Walt Sr.? What about Hank Schrader? He's a goofball, but he likes Walt, and is dead-serious in his anti-drug convictions. It seems almost inevitable that he'll eventually learn about Walt, or at least suspect him. All roads lead to Heisenberg. In the most recent episode Saul Goodman pretty much asserted his own criminality, and just how manipulative his corruption can be. Seems his relationship with Jesse and Walt can only lead to further complications ... will they turn on him at some point, or will Saul become their de facto boss-in-crime? What is Gustavo Fring thinking at this point? That he has Walt in the palm of his hand despite Walt's refusal of a generous offer, or that Walt is becoming a potential rival? Because he called off the twins, I'm assuming that for now, he has further plans for Walt. He's very good at hiding his emotions, but gives juuuust enough away to show that he's thinking, thinking... I didn't know that "pollos" or "chickens" was Mexican Spanish slang for "stand down," but now I know.
Hank may stroke out when he finds out (and you know he will) that Walt is Heisenberg...that ticker issue can't keep popping up for no good reason. The kitchen scene at the end was so brutally bitchy---that Skylar really is a piece of work---I imagined steam coming out of Walt's ears as he stifled his rage... It is interesting that Walt keeps saying that he is not a "bad guy" and Jesse admitted that he was...I wonder if the Skylar deal is enough to push Walt to the dark side?
