Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad was a pretty good show with inconsistent writing and pacing. A few cartoonish moments undermined the verisimilitude it had previously established. I was not surprised to discover that the scripts were being written during production. I was really impressed at the worship this show received on the internet, but hey, it's worlds better than The Walking Dead.

Alright... The show has taken a very depressing turn on this fifth season. Curriously enough, so far I have found this season and the fourth to be the weakest ones. I can't really say what it is, but maybe I am just not good at all this "rooting for the bad guy because he has good reasons" thing. I mean, GoT is different, we are talking about a fantasy land with dragons and in which everybody is cruel. But Breaking Bad has made me sick of every single character - and I know that was intentional, but also took a lot of my pleasure from it. I mean, I can't root for Walter after everything he has done: from threatening Jesse a million times, to mentally abusing Skyler, ordering numerous deaths, poisoning Brock and bombing the nursery home. Some of these things were "survival" stuff, but a lot were ego and his obsession with Jesse too.

Then there is Jesse, who seems to be the "emotional" side we should root for, but I don't know... He is the big victim, yes his whole life has been ruined numerous times. But he also had plenty opportunities to take an exit. The guy had millions on his hands, and refused to quit the meth schemes... Because? Why did he go back to cooking meth on season 5? He had a tremendous lot of money and was happy with Andrea. I do feel sorry for him but also he had everything to have a happy ending multiple times and always turns his back to it.

Hank... Well, I want him to get Walter. But it's not gonna happen. And I never hated Skyler but this season she is at her worst. She hates Walt, she sees him as dangerous, yet makes Hank's life difficult and helps Walter get away with everything. Hello Skyler-hating club, I'm joining you. As for Marie, Flynn and baby Holly, sorry but I don't care about them at all. They got no characterization throughout the series so there you have it.

And then there's the actual antagonists... A bunch of nazis and an anxious sociopathic single mom? I mean, Lydia is a good character I think, in the way you would never expect someone on her position (being a single businesswoman raising a child) to be so evil and greedy. But the nazis part feels so forced. I mean, couldn't they be just violent guys? Did they really need all those tatoos screaming "I'm evul! Hate me!"

Not gonna lie, the characters I actually cared about were Gus and Mike and both died in ways that felt very out of character as they used to be calm, calculating guys who just got outsmarted in their own game. Breaking Bad is of course a brilliant series (see, I just wrote a giant post about it on a GoT forum), and I thought during season 2 that it could even take the number 1 rank on my list. But they took very unsympathetic turns, I think. Gus was an excellent villain. Maybe have him stick to the end, as a worthy oponnent to Walt. Or make me think Hank had an actual chance of getting Walter. Because I don't think at all he can make it. This season has just been kind of boring, making me hate Walter every second more, and feel all the more sorry for Jesse, while building up these other antagonists. Let's see what these four last episodes got for me.

So I finished it. I'm happy with the finale. I liked how Walter admitted the villain he was (when talking to Skyler), so that there is no doubt he never did anything for his family or even for money, or "empire business". He liked it, is all. And he was good at it. This confession makes the whole series have a lot more sense. The sense of freedom that his death sentence by cancer gave him made him embrace this and sacrifice everything else... Yet, during his time in reclusion, after the defeat by Jack in the desert, it seems he came to realize how much harm he caused to everyone. I was afraid the ending was going to be some sort of redemption on him, or of him being full Heisenberg and getting away again.

But no. Surprisingly, we had Walter admit his evil and, instead of redeeming himself, fixing the best way he could the lives he had ruined the most: Skyler, Flynn, Marie and Jesse; and take revenge on those who actually ruined his: Elliot, Gretchen, Jack and Lydia. So he made the first two give his money to Flynn (while scarring the shit out of them), gave the coordinates to Hank's body, and freed Jesse - from the nazis and from himself, when Jesse refused to kill him, that was when Jesse actually murdered the father-figure Mr. White that he depended so much on. Oh, and of course, poisoned Lydia (that was very forced but I'll take it).

I like to think that the two billionaires will give Flynn's money to him, and he and Skyler will take it and live a life of comfort. Marie will probably always be unsteady and unhappy after what happened but may find some peace with Hank's body being found, and Jesse...

Well, Jesse was my favourite character in the end. His ending was very much open to our imagination, eh. I like to think the DEA will find Walter's body on the lab, and after the blue meth stop showing up, will assume he was the cook there. There will be a lot of fingerprints there, so even if Jesse's are found, I don't believe he will be in such a big trouble - and even if so, I believe Marie can testify that he was working with Hank to catch Walter. He can then say how he got captured by the nazis and forced to work for them: he will have the marks in his body as evidence. Now, I don't think he has a lot of money left - he may have some, or the police may have confiscated it all... But that doesn't really matter at this point. When he was captured by the nazis he looked at some birds at the sky. Now he is like those birds: a tabula rasa, free and ready for a new start. Writing this brought tears to my eyes. Such a beautiful road for a deuteragonist. Of course, you can think he will be caught and rot in prison, or even commit suicide for all the horrors he has been throught. But I see his ending as happy... He sure as hell paid for his wrongs. Now he gets the chance to live.

That's it. Not the best show I've ever seen, but definitely made top 5. Will be even better on rewatches now that I know where it is headed. Sorry for the long posts guys.

Good one! Hadn't thought of Brock. I think he will definitely try to get things right from that momment on, and have a good life (maybe provide for Brock so that he gets a better life than him).

The more I think about the finale, the happier I get with it. At first I was like "wtf? What will Jesse do now? Did Walter Jr get his money? Will Skyler stay depressed?", but the general idea is that these character who suffered too much yet had a good heart had a happy ending, and somehow will "get over" everything they went through. How that will happen is up to us. But Jesse's last scene, and the money Walter left with the Grey Matter dudes are good indicators that Jesse and his family will find their ways to happiness. Yeah, I loved this finale. Just decided to forget that an automatic M60 killed all the nazis, but that's an innocent nitpick. The scene was very badass anyway.