Just watched the premiere last night. Season's off to a good start!

I think the Doctor Who revival is a contender for top spot on my list too.

Others are addictive but I wouldn't say they're the best. Like Sons of Anarchy. Can't look away from that one but it's not the best show ever. It's also not one I have to watch right away but feel comfortable catching later On Demand.

The few episodes I've seen of Psych were really good too. It's just hard for me to get too involved in a new show on my schedule.
Spartacus is another one that I catch on repeats when I get around to it. Archer is on there too. A few others. These are all ones I wouldn't put above homework on my important things to do list.

I'm holding out hope. Season 3's finale was the first to have such a blatant one.

Vince Gilligan discusses the season finale:

http://m.tvline.com/2011/10/breaking-bad......preview/

He also clears up one or two items about last night's episode, that might have puzzled viewers (like how did Gus KNOW?) (Answer ... he didn't ... the last scene has been misinterpreted by many).

I had a nice little Breaking Bad moment: I had lunch with a woman who is seeing the actor who plays Gus. She talked to him that night and told him I was a fan and he said to say hello to me.

It is a great show, one of the gutsiest and best on TV. The question I have is how are they going to wrap it up on sunday so it can continue for another season. Yes, and I think the producers have already said it is going to end with the worst day of Mr. White's life. as if it could get any worse for him.

The most interesting aspect of the show is that unlike any other show, we watch someone who was basically a good person become evil. That kind of arc for a protagonist just never happens.

Actually there really hasn't been any cliffhangers.
The end of season 3 was never supposed to be a cliffhanger.
There was this weird camera move that everyone thought it suggested that Jesse didn't shoot Gail.
That was never the meaning. You were supposed to know that Jesse shot Gail.

I am sure it will end with something mind blowing.

Randi

I did, but even then I considered it to be a cliffhanger. Given Walt's situation at the time.

Sure, but that makes every episode a cliffhanger.

Basically I am saying that they don't do the "Who shot JR?" cliffhangers.

Randi

Walt certainly performs more and more evil acts as he slips further to the dark side, but I'm not sure that Walt was ever actually presented to us as a "good" person (even if the writers may have intended otherwise).

I just re-watched the first episode of the first season and a summary follows. I was going to watch it again anyway, in preparation for the end of this season.

While I watched, I was looking for evidence of "good" in Walt. Here we go ...

We are introduced to Walt.

We see him working out just after 5 am on a midget sized stair-master, while staring (obsessing?) over an award he received for being a contributor to research that led to a Nobel prize for others.

We see him having unwanted veggie bacon thrust upon him by his wife for his morning breakfast to celebrate his 50th birthday.

His son comes to the table and complains (for the "million billionth time") about their old, run-down, frequently non-performing hot water heater.

Then, at Walt's school, we see him give a passionate lecture about chemistry to a class of mostly bored and inattentive students.

The scene shifts to Walt working at his second job after school, working the cash at a car wash. He takes crap from his boss. Is forced to "degrade" himself by working outside, filling in for an absent employee, doing wipe downs. On his birthday. Instead of being at home celebrating his birthday and enjoying a special time with his family. The worst of the students in his class happens by and mocks / laughs at him.

He finally gets off work, and drives home in a car that is falling apart.

He arrives home and walks in the front door to a surprise party for him, filled with his friends and family. (On a side note, whatever happened to all of those many friends in later episodes / seasons? Seems like the entire family went into recluse mode soon after the first episode.)

Walt's brother-in-law is the star of the party, and lands a couple of verbal put downs on Walt. (It's funny to see Walt fumble with Hank's gun, given what comes in later seasons.) Walt gets a polite cheer from the crowd for his 50th, but right away the entire room is mesmerized by Hank's performance on the tv news at a drug bust. Walt practically drools at the money shown on screen, that was recovered at the bust.

The party winds down. The loving couple (Walt and Skyler) retire for the evening. With the happy couple in bed, an exhausted Walt enjoys (well, not really, considering that little Walt won't wake up) some halfhearted hand based stimulus from his wife as she monitors one of her Ebay auctions. While this goes on, Skyler quizzes him on his weekend plans and goes over his jobs list (you've gotta paint the spare room this weekend, never mind the science exhibit at Los Alamos you want to see). Not entirely clear whether Walt gets his in the end, but at least Skyler received more than her reserve price in the auction. Her item sold for $56! Go Skyler!

Okay, so now Walt is back at the car-wash. Coughing, shortness of breath, he collapses on a wet concrete floor. Ambulance guy checks him over. Bad news. MRI scan follows. You know the diagnosis.

Later, at home, Skyler is on the phone trying to convince a bill collector that the "check is in the mail". Walt is gloomy, keeping his medical news from his family. Skyler hassles Walt a bit for charging something to the wrong credit card.

Now it's back to the car-wash. Walt explodes in rage at his boss and quits / walks out.

Walt is at home in the evening, sitting in the dusk, throwing lit matches into his dirty, in-ground pool. He phones Hank, wanting to take him up on an earlier offer to go for a ride-along on a drug bust.

The next day, the bro-in-laws check out a drug bust in progress. Walt quizzes the cops a bit about meth labs. DEA does its stuff. Walt wants to scope the lab out for himself. Before that can occur, Walt sees a former student of his (Pinkman aka THE CAPN) sneak out of the drug house undetected by the cops and DEA. Walt's jaw drops and he utters a wow at the sight of Jesse's lady friend.

Later that night, Walt tracks Jesse down in order to learn how to get into the profitable career of meth cooker. Walt presents Jesse with an offer he can't refuse (especially when a bit of blackmail is thrown into the mix).

The next morning, Skyler is going on about her career as an author. Marie gives little positive encouragement. (Skyler is an author? I'd forgotten about that. So have the writers.) Marie also deduces that the love life between Walt and Skyler ain't that hot.

Back to Walt. Ripping off school supplies in order to do his meth lab start-up. Getting close to cooking time! But first Walt has to verbally beat down Jesse, and start showing him who the big dog really is.

To the credit union for some quick cash to cover some other start-up expenses (buying an RV). Jesse grills Walt about his motivations. Walt responds that he is "awake". (Awake as to how the world really is?)

Later, Walt and family are clothes-shopping. An (underage?) youth verbally mocks Walt's son (from a distance). Walt exits the store through the back, leaving his family behind (probably disappointed that Walt apparently ran away from the incident). But Walt circled around the store, reenters from the front, and physically assaults the main youth who was disrespecting his son. Big dog roars.

(I think that's the first bit of "good" in Walt that I saw ... trying to isolate his family from his own bad actions.)

FINALLY ... time to cook meth in the desert.

Cook is done ... Jesse goes off to sell the product and runs into a spot of trouble with his potential distributors.

They all go back to see Walt ... and Jesse's pals are not too happy to see Walt ("He's with the DEA!"). Hilarity ensues. Walt and Jesse are both about to die at gunpoint. But Walt has a plan. Walt notches his first two kills.

A reinvigorated Walt goes home and has special loving relations with his wife, of a sort that are still possibly illegal in several States.

---

Summary: I think in the first episode, Walt was originally presented to us as a genius-level, frustrated, and beaten down man. With an unhappy marriage, disappointing career, and money troubles. Who 'broke bad' in a big way the first chance an opportunity presented itself to him.

I think we all, myself included, have come to think of him as a good man that was corrupted ... but looking back, I see very little (if any) evidence of Walt ever being all that "good" a person in the first episode. I think he was always harboring bad thoughts and was just too frightened and insecure and beaten down to act them out. Until there was a trigger (his diagnosis).

Anyway ... discuss, if you like.

You are right... mostly.

I mean he was not a "good" man, but he wasn't a "bad" man either.
So if he isn't bad, he must be good. He just wasn't this super nice guy.
He was unassuming, rejected, nothing special.

If you read the interview, he grew that mustache on purpose because it made him look like a nobody.
Now he does the goatee thing.

But you are right, he did harbor these feelings and the 'being told you're going to die' brought them all out.

Randi

Lol. That was a pretty neat season finale. The funny thing is that some of the important details about the finale were leaked and mentioned on various message boards (like IMDB) nearly a week ago (or longer) and people, for the most part, thought they were just too crazy to be true.

After the season finale, Gus Fring goes back to his summer job...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HcBHQb4qug
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kjtZnutHHU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5SV0Cfb4kw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4jxZoBtHug

(Yes, that really is a 24-year old Giancarlo Esposito as "Mickey".)

Hoo man. That was brilliant.

Dig the socks man...

That was one fantastic season finale! I loved when Gus calmly walked out of the room after the explosion only to have the camera pan around him to reveal what appeared to be a severe migraine.

:eek:

So let me get this straight. This is a show about a guy who falls on tough times so he decides to manufacture dangerous narcotics for the purpose of trafficking?

My initial thought was WTF!!! HOW did he survive that... Awesome ending!

So I was wrong. No cliff hanger. But after they found out what poisoned the littled boy, I was pretty sure what the reveal was going to be at the end.

I'd say that's it in a nutshell.

Well that's the cliffhanger, isn't it? Did Walt poison the boy? We have to wait 'til next season to find out.

Good thoughts,

Bob

Yeah- just like "Hamlet" is about a neurotic prince who wanders around his castle talking to himself, or like "The Crucible" is just about a bunch of superstitious Puritans who decide to hang witches.

You're confusing the premise of the show with what it is "about."