Breaking Bad All Over Again

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Bump! Alan Sepinwall, who's my go-to TV critic, has a book coming out called Breaking Bad 101, and there's an excerpt from it over on The Ringer about the big (moderate spoilers for Season 4!) Walt/Gus showdown, and how it surprises some people in part because it represents a slight shift in the perspective the show has had up until that point (even though there was technically no reason to think it had to keep exactly the same perspective).

I really like the idea of implicating the viewer with it it, too, simultaneously allowing them to unabashedly cheer certain things, while reminding them afterwards of what's actually happening when you stop thinking about it in pure protagonist/antagonist terms.

Worth a read!

I particularly like something the excerpt only briefly touches on...

WARNING: "Breaking Bad Season 4" spoilers below
...the idea of the last vestiges of Walt's better angels metaphorically "dying" in Crawl Space, underground.

I'll have to rewatch some and think about it more, but I feel like this might be one of those ideas that makes even more sense the more you look into it.



Oh man, I've been rewatching parts of this because of Better Call Saul (and there are some wicked callbacks I never noticed!), and it got me inevitably rewatching my favorite parts of the whole series.

At this point I think the last five episodes of season 4 are the most compelling stretch of television I've ever seen. In order, they are (spoilers!):

Bug (Walt and Jesse physically fight)
Salud (Gus poisons the cartel)
Crawl Space (Walt cackles after discovering the money is gone)
End Times (Brock poisoned, first assassination attempt on Gus)
Face Off (ya 'know)

What an insane stretch. Every single episode ended in totally jaw-dropping fashion.