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Urghh just rewatched the end scene of Ozymandias again. I dont remember getting hayfever every other time watching that but the sisters crying then Walt dropping big fat tears got me choked up.
Breaking Bad
Eh?
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...-works-1158881
Vince Gillian is working on a Breaking Bad movie sequel, presumably centered around Jesse.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...-works-1158881
Vince Gillian is working on a Breaking Bad movie sequel, presumably centered around Jesse.
It's unclear if the two-hour project will be released theatrically or made for television.
I saw. Pretty hyped.
I think, when Better Call Saul just ended up being Expanded Universe Breaking Bad, maybe he realized this is just the kind of story he likes to tell, and is good at telling, and that there's an appetite out there for him to fill out the world he made a bit more still.
I think, when Better Call Saul just ended up being Expanded Universe Breaking Bad, maybe he realized this is just the kind of story he likes to tell, and is good at telling, and that there's an appetite out there for him to fill out the world he made a bit more still.
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There are a tidy handful of interesting characters in this universe, so doing things like this should succeed nicely. Better Call Saul has proved that point, especially since it not only borrowed Saul Goodman, but also Mike and a few others, all of whom seem to have interesting side stories going on.
Since only Walter White's actual story/life ended at the end of Breaking Bad (well, aside from characters who died earlier, like Mike and Hank and Gus), there are still plenty of characters whose futures we would be interested in seeing. I may have been cautiously optimistic before Better Call Saul first aired, but having seen all those episodes so far, I'm totally in for this movie idea.
Since only Walter White's actual story/life ended at the end of Breaking Bad (well, aside from characters who died earlier, like Mike and Hank and Gus), there are still plenty of characters whose futures we would be interested in seeing. I may have been cautiously optimistic before Better Call Saul first aired, but having seen all those episodes so far, I'm totally in for this movie idea.
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Pretty sure that was test-footage for a Cocktail remake.
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__________________
“I really have to feel that I could make a difference in the movie, or I shouldn't be doing it.“
Joe Dante
“I really have to feel that I could make a difference in the movie, or I shouldn't be doing it.“
Joe Dante
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Interesting we still have a viable 12 years old Breaking Bad thread. 
__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.
I hated Skyler. I would more or less agree that she works as a character to propel the plot - and everything in that show is meticulously done - but I really truly disliked every bit of her ...
Is something lacking in me that I thought she was just fine? A woman of great gumption, organized, pragmatic, hard-working, a very loving mother, helping Walt whenever she could, giving money to Ted to save his sorry ass (misguided IMO). I could go on.
I simply don’t know why this woman is excoriated.
I’ve read this comment many many times in various places (from mostly men, I would say), but nobody ever explains why.
Is something lacking in me that I thought she was just fine? A woman of great gumption, organized, pragmatic, hard-working, a very loving mother, helping Walt whenever she could, giving money to Ted to save his sorry ass (misguided IMO). I could go on.
I simply don’t know why this woman is excoriated.
Is something lacking in me that I thought she was just fine? A woman of great gumption, organized, pragmatic, hard-working, a very loving mother, helping Walt whenever she could, giving money to Ted to save his sorry ass (misguided IMO). I could go on.
I simply don’t know why this woman is excoriated.
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Ya'll object to me moving these posts to a Breaking Bad thread? It's worth discussing but if it goes on it fits better there, won't get drowned out by movie posts.
No, just kidding. Could care less if they stay or move.
Good question, I only noticed it fairly late in life. God knows. I’d imagine it’s something internal, rather than ‘nurture’.
So, Skyler.
I’ll preface this by saying emotion towards characters - or anything, for that matter - is uncontrollable. You can just about explain why you like something, but you can’t change it, or force yourself to like something/someone you don’t. No matter how much I read that she’s admirable and strong (something I appreciate, in an abstract kind of way), that doesn’t change my feeling.
The money she gave away wasn’t hers to give. That’s it, plain and simple. It’s all very well to argue Walt was supposedly making it for her, and hence she’s free to do as she pleases with it, but that’s just not how life works. In a ‘normal’ situation (real life, I’m not addressing suspension of disbelief atm), the wishes of a dying person are sacred a priori. It may well be she won’t accept Walt will really die, that she’s in denial, but in short, he’s terminally ill, and she is disregarding his wishes about the money he is killing himself to make. (But then again, I will admit I feel very strongly about that plot device - same with A Most Violent Year. The moment Anna takes Abel’s money without telling him, she’s dead to me as far as sympathy is concerned). Whether Skyler gave it to Ted or a cat charity or rolled joints out of it is irrelevant, as far as I’m concerned. The way Walt reacts to it, laughing hysterically, made my stomach physically spasm. (Edit: it also amuses me that if you have a film where a woman is saving money for anything, and her husband/boyfriend takes it, he’s a ‘scrub’ and monster by default).
The ‘cushion talk’ scene. Marie says it all. What incredible, surreal arrogance could make anyone feel they could make a decision whether another person should live or die? Incidentally, there’s a new film about euthanasia, supposedly a love story - disability rights groups annihilated it for suggesting death is the only way out. That’s a bit more extreme, but it poses the same question: whose decision and whose business is it? I haven’t seen that, so can’t comment, but Walt’s decision not to do chemo is informed as can be (what with his knowledge of biochemistry) and made in a sober and reasonable state. Trying to bully him out of it because she can’t face living without him is just... low. And the worst kind of uncaring. It’s like literature’s most dysfunctional relationship in Wüthering Heights, when Heathcliff says he won’t let Cathy rest in peace even in death, only so she stays with him as a ghost.
Which brings me to a small summary: I never felt she had any real compassion or understanding towards Walt. Sounds ridiculous, but I’m talking before we get used to him being a psychopath. Why drag him to Elliot & Gretchen’s? It’s pure humiliation. Why disclose his diagnosis without his permission? (As someone with medics in the family, that one makes my skin crawl. Marie seems to echo the sentiment during the cushion talk scene, though she never mentions the disclosing issue).
I do agree - and this is not a cop out, I mean it - that she’s extremely well done as a character. I like her a bit more when she becomes Mrs. Heisenberg, but even then, I don’t know whether it’s her that really changes or her approach to the situation, if that makes sense. I guess here’s the crux of it: I do see all of her decisions make perfect sense, rationally speaking. I just can’t root for her emotionally. I’m not saying she should have supported him or rooted for him when he was poisoning kids, obviously. But the way Jesse demonstrates his disapproval of the way H. likes to do business felt much more organic to me.
Finally: we can see from the get-go that W and Jesse have some kind of chemistry, call it what you like. They like spending time together. Yet she bullies & insults & puts Jesse down in that kind of pseudo-middle class way all the time. And that’s, like, the only person her dying husband likes to spend time with. I don’t know.
Anyway, disclaimer: I’m not expressing myself as precisely as I’d like today, and in any case, that topic might take a small essay and 10-odd hours to set out properly. But to be fair, I’ve seen BB a few times, and I can’t say my feeling has significantly changed on this subject.
Edit: yes, I’ve consciously taken the ‘Skyler is a real person approach’: real life, I’m not addressing suspension of disbelief atm.
So, Skyler.
I’ll preface this by saying emotion towards characters - or anything, for that matter - is uncontrollable. You can just about explain why you like something, but you can’t change it, or force yourself to like something/someone you don’t. No matter how much I read that she’s admirable and strong (something I appreciate, in an abstract kind of way), that doesn’t change my feeling.
The money she gave away wasn’t hers to give. That’s it, plain and simple. It’s all very well to argue Walt was supposedly making it for her, and hence she’s free to do as she pleases with it, but that’s just not how life works. In a ‘normal’ situation (real life, I’m not addressing suspension of disbelief atm), the wishes of a dying person are sacred a priori. It may well be she won’t accept Walt will really die, that she’s in denial, but in short, he’s terminally ill, and she is disregarding his wishes about the money he is killing himself to make. (But then again, I will admit I feel very strongly about that plot device - same with A Most Violent Year. The moment Anna takes Abel’s money without telling him, she’s dead to me as far as sympathy is concerned). Whether Skyler gave it to Ted or a cat charity or rolled joints out of it is irrelevant, as far as I’m concerned. The way Walt reacts to it, laughing hysterically, made my stomach physically spasm. (Edit: it also amuses me that if you have a film where a woman is saving money for anything, and her husband/boyfriend takes it, he’s a ‘scrub’ and monster by default).
The ‘cushion talk’ scene. Marie says it all. What incredible, surreal arrogance could make anyone feel they could make a decision whether another person should live or die? Incidentally, there’s a new film about euthanasia, supposedly a love story - disability rights groups annihilated it for suggesting death is the only way out. That’s a bit more extreme, but it poses the same question: whose decision and whose business is it? I haven’t seen that, so can’t comment, but Walt’s decision not to do chemo is informed as can be (what with his knowledge of biochemistry) and made in a sober and reasonable state. Trying to bully him out of it because she can’t face living without him is just... low. And the worst kind of uncaring. It’s like literature’s most dysfunctional relationship in Wüthering Heights, when Heathcliff says he won’t let Cathy rest in peace even in death, only so she stays with him as a ghost.
Which brings me to a small summary: I never felt she had any real compassion or understanding towards Walt. Sounds ridiculous, but I’m talking before we get used to him being a psychopath. Why drag him to Elliot & Gretchen’s? It’s pure humiliation. Why disclose his diagnosis without his permission? (As someone with medics in the family, that one makes my skin crawl. Marie seems to echo the sentiment during the cushion talk scene, though she never mentions the disclosing issue).
I do agree - and this is not a cop out, I mean it - that she’s extremely well done as a character. I like her a bit more when she becomes Mrs. Heisenberg, but even then, I don’t know whether it’s her that really changes or her approach to the situation, if that makes sense. I guess here’s the crux of it: I do see all of her decisions make perfect sense, rationally speaking. I just can’t root for her emotionally. I’m not saying she should have supported him or rooted for him when he was poisoning kids, obviously. But the way Jesse demonstrates his disapproval of the way H. likes to do business felt much more organic to me.
Finally: we can see from the get-go that W and Jesse have some kind of chemistry, call it what you like. They like spending time together. Yet she bullies & insults & puts Jesse down in that kind of pseudo-middle class way all the time. And that’s, like, the only person her dying husband likes to spend time with. I don’t know.
Anyway, disclaimer: I’m not expressing myself as precisely as I’d like today, and in any case, that topic might take a small essay and 10-odd hours to set out properly. But to be fair, I’ve seen BB a few times, and I can’t say my feeling has significantly changed on this subject.
Edit: yes, I’ve consciously taken the ‘Skyler is a real person approach’: real life, I’m not addressing suspension of disbelief atm.
Last edited by AgrippinaX; 12-07-20 at 08:55 PM.
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I'm sure I've said this before, possibly even earlier in this thread, but I think the Skyler thing is usually (not necessarily in this case, but usually), just a matter of disliking a character because they interfere with the protagonist doing cool stuff, or generally stand as an impediment to interesting plot developments. Which kind of makes sense...except the idea of a story is to think of it as if it were a real thing, in some ways.
One of those ways is asking whether the characters is being reasonable in their own world. Skyler, as an actual person, is completely right and eminently reasonable in trying to restrict Walt's actions, for the most part. I get why a viewer might think of her someone who spoils the fun, but thought of as an actual person she's obviously not.
Of course, she becomes a bit more complicated later, when she starts to look the other way and become complicit. When she becomes more "likable" to that same sort of person, actually.
One of those ways is asking whether the characters is being reasonable in their own world. Skyler, as an actual person, is completely right and eminently reasonable in trying to restrict Walt's actions, for the most part. I get why a viewer might think of her someone who spoils the fun, but thought of as an actual person she's obviously not.
Of course, she becomes a bit more complicated later, when she starts to look the other way and become complicit. When she becomes more "likable" to that same sort of person, actually.
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