Breaking Bad: Full Series Retrospective

[Music] cancer you got it right I get it now that's why you're doing all this you want to make some cash for your people before you check out the problem with that times are getting hard [Music] guess these times don't get no better take my true True Love by her hand lead her through the town say goodbye to everyone goodbye to everyone take my true love by hand the following is an in-depth story analysis if you haven't seen Breaking Bad El Camino or just to be safe Better Call Saul you may want to before watching this video in 2007 AMC decided to deviate from their namesake of airing American movie classics and debuted their first original drama program Mad Men the period piece was a critical darling and Breaking Bad the crime drama that would follow only a year later would be met with similar Acclaim the bull shows only managed to Garner a modest audience their freshman years with a steady stream of Emmys bolstering the Network's confidence in both series Mad Men and Breaking Bad were both able to march on until they concluded by the will of their Show's creators rather than the cruel hand of cancellations the 2010 saw additional wind in AMC sales first in the form of basic Cable's biggest hit ever The Walking Dead drawing in enormous audiences at least a fraction of whom stuck around and led to a rising tide lifts all boats situation ratings-wise with the rise of streaming services Breaking Bad also became a Mainstay of the Netflix home page which was a I did one of the sales Rising tide I'm out of boat metaphors but it was good so tremendously good in fact that breaking bad's final season saw viewership double nearly triple in the case of the finale and this increase was largely attributed to the symbiotic relationship between cable television original programming and burgeoning streaming services a tenuous friendship since Netflix had every intention of seizing some of AMC's territory and AMC knew it but for the moment let's all pretend to get along how refreshing it is to open one of these retrospectives without having to ominously allude to the show's inevitable downfall if anything the playful argument to be had is over how exceptional the show's successor is and which of the two is top dog but before we go slipping through time to see what canonically started it all let's talk about what actually started it all say its name this is Breaking Bad foreign [Music] follows the strange journey of Walter White and underachieving chemistry genius who found himself stuck working the two undesirable jobs of public high school teacher and car wash professional and also found himself in the even more undesirable position of having terminal lung cancer with at best a year or two left on the clock he keeps his diagnosis a secret from his wife and child for goes treatment and instead decides to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine with the aid of a former student so he can build up a posthumous War chest for his family after a ride along with his DEA brother-in-law Sparks the Sinister idea well the majority of the series does center around the trials and tribulations of building and maintaining a drug Empire the first season is actually less about orchestrating drug deals and more about orchestrating murder Walter White and a student cohort Jesse Pinkman wind up with both a corpse and a hostage on their hands when their drug deal in the pilot goes south leaving the pair with two equally undesirable tasks they flip a coin to determine who will execute the disgust-inducing process of dismembering and dissolving the bodies and acid and who will tackle the less grotesque but more visceral duty of snuffing out their conscious captive the structure of breaking bad's first season is interestingly an inverse of every Following season Breaking Bad seasons typically start with some hemming and hawing about morally achy decisions the characters made the previous season the meat of the Season involves a handful of heists Capers and shootouts that are tense yet pulpy and the culmination revolves around Walter White crossing a line and doing something really bad season 1 of Breaking Bad turns the order on its head the season ends with a thrilling goofy Heist sequence but it starts with Walt strangling a humanized victim after imprisoning him in an undignified horrific way and weeping afterwards it was an incredibly smart decision on the writer's part to torture Walter White with moral crossroads right off the bat instead of faffing around with tongue-in-cheek action because that gets us right to the thing Breaking Bad is most known for Brian cranston's performance in the leading role a guy opens the story and get shot and you think that of me no I am the one who knocks yeah it turns out Hal Wilkerson or Hal no last name depending on the episode had a lot more tricks up his sleeve prior to Breaking Bad Brian Cranston was most well known as the father from Malcolm in the Middle but as a kid raised on Malcolm in the Middle I already knew he had serious chops going in but even I wasn't prepared for what a tour to force this series would be it's a credit to both Brian Cranston and the writers that a character as morally dubious and eventually outright monstrous as Walter White never really loses me I pull up clips on YouTube and see that Walter's villainy or I watch Better Call Saul and realize what a good thing they had until that stupid son of a [ __ ] had to blow it up and just had to be the man but then I go back and I watch Breaking Bad front to back and in the context of the story and the events swirling around him I have to admit I'm kind of with them the whole way obviously I'm not saying his actions are right or Justified it's more like a slip and slide of moral atrocities gliding the audience along one of those giant 700 foot one people build on the side of a hill covered in canola oil so you get moments of Triumph for a criminal scheme with a tweak of chemistry goes according to plan and he can celebrate with him then there's paranoid moments where he generates its Hemorrhage meme murder scenarios that probably didn't need to be its hemorrhythmi murder scenarios where you think okay I'd probably do that too but there's also moments where he's hindered by his pride he suffers rejection then lashes out on the next person he sees even when they're just trying to support him or he just completely embarrasses himself by misreading social situations Walter White is a complicated character who regularly commits actions that might permanently lose the audience's sympathy it's an absolute Triumph of the show doesn't need to rely on repeated expository monologues or narration or a ghost Father Figure to keep us on board Ryan cranston's expert performance provides all the window we need into understanding what makes Walt tick even when we're just watching him embarrass the [ __ ] out of himself well hey Walt what's wrong with you it's also a neat trick that our reactions to Walt serve as our own sort of test of character as audience members he's a morally ambiguous lead and despite his unrelatable life and death circumstances it's easy to reflect on our own ethical boundaries and capacity for corruption thanks to cranston's charismatic portrayal Walter White is a relatable scumbag protagonist and not in the masturbatory I'm the showrunner the main character is me exploring my faults and writing the show is my make-believe therapy session way other shows fall into not to be outdone by his co-star Aaron Paul turns in an equally revered performance as Jesse Pinkman throughout the series he's most well known for his show stealing speeches in the later Seasons that are just like acting demo reel fap material but I think he worked his best miracles in season one Hollywood has a bad habit of botching Street talking drug dealer characters that lead a grungy way of life but Jesse Pinkman comes across as appropriately sleazy in the first season lending the show that grimy Edge it was aiming for that would have been lacking if our window went to the criminal underbelly of the land of enchantment too sanitized Jesse's use of shall we say less than PC language only managed to age like fine wine over the years further emphasizing just how much Walt is slumming it by teaming up with a man who despite our sparse glimpses into his fragile soul is undeniably a dirt bag starting out well you can dress up like if you want not me Jesse and Walter's frequent bickering also contributes to an often overlooked aspect of the first season and that's how downright funny it is whether it's black comedy mined from the human soup that comes spilling out of Jesse's second floor bathtub Pratt Falls absurd and awkward exchanges and cover-ups or just marveling at how utterly ill-equipped Walton Jesse are for this life of crime Breaking Bad is hilarious that's what we need we need a distributor now do you know anyone like that yeah I mean I used to until you killed him the prevalent humor in the first season was also a necessity to keep its already small pool of viewers coming back week after week given the premise of the show in the early days how could we have any idea where this was headed nowadays breaking bad's more action-heavy crime Thriller elements have all entered the pop culture Consciousness which serve as enticing reasons to watch in and of themselves but put yourself in the mind of a viewer in 2008. we had no idea this was headed toward Fried Chicken mess smuggling Empires underground labs trained robberies cartel assassinations exploding wheelchairs exploding heads on Turtles none of that as far as anybody knew this was and forever would be a street level show about a washed up chemistry teacher sling in math as he slowly died of cancer which is about as Grim as log lines get the moments of black comedy and absurdity add a sufficient amount of levity to keep breaking bad from veering into self-serious dower territory that saps energy from the viewers a trap its sister show on AMC The Walking Dead would regularly fall into get off the toilet get off the toilet while the series Came Out Swinging with its a story The Writers were definitely finding their footing in the first season and there are some stock television Elements Incorporated into the first season that don't quite click the writers haven't locked in on the defining character trait that Walter in particular gets off on winning the day in these high stakes Do or Die battles of wits instead going for the broader theme of crime itself is fun because transgressing legal taboos is titillating the idea is inconsistent with the events of the season and the quiet scenes where the concept is discussed are written pretty stilted The Writer's Hearts definitely aren't in it and I'm glad they zeroed in on making that a character trait of Walter White in later Seasons instead of some sweeping theme across the entire Breaking Bad Universe I was under the impression um these were illegal yeah well sometimes forbidden fruit taste of sweetest where does that come from and why was it so damn good ah it's illegal I did it for me I liked it the show was also married to Conventional a-story and B story structure in season one and since we've yet to meet the show's expansive criminal Entourage that unfortunately means whenever we're getting those high intensity episodes where Walt and Jesse share an a story the B Story Goes to the yet to be fleshed out characters Hank and Marie most distractingly in the season 1 finale where Walt and Jesse are cooking up thermite breaking into a chemical facility and cooking meth in the basement of an open house all to avoid incurring the wrath of murderous drug dealer tuko Salamanca only for that nail-biting race against the clock to get repeatedly interrupted by detours to the soon to be aborted story arc of Marie being a kleptomaniac the show flirts with anxiety induced hallucinations a few times that never really wind up as part of the house style and the most notable aspect where they're finding their footing is the cinematography it's still a good looking show in season one with well-known cinematographer John tole serving as the DP for the pilot and Ronaldo Villalobos taking over for the rest of the season but it wasn't until season two when Michael slovas was take over for the rest of the series the show just looks better and better every year until the end of bull series every frame is like a painting yeah got Drool on the mic just looking at it after cleaning up the mess they made in the pilot and the subsequent mess they made out of that mess Jesse and Walter part ways Bringing Down the tempo so Walter can reveal and discuss his diagnosis and refuse a little treatment with his family both failed meth cooks are presented with opportunities to walk the straight and narrow that would hurt their pride Jesse by becoming a sign spinner and Walt by taking money for treatment from his former business partner Elliot and his former lover Gretchen the pair opt for cooking meth over swallowing their pride but when it comes to moving the product Jesse's doing it one teenth at a time not a problem for Mr Pinkman but Walt is you know kind of on the clock here a fine justification for aggressive expansion a method of operating that Walt will continue to function under even as the excuse of a cancerous ticking clock Fades away in order to sell in bulk the pair strike up an uneasy partnership with the aforementioned tuko Salamanca a few improvised explosives and emerging badass villainous Persona and a shiny new pseudonym later and their business relationship is cemented with the season ending on the Cliffhanger of tuko brutalizing one of his own henchmen after he accidentally offends him oh damn man look at that look whoo that's messed up compared to every Following season it's not exactly the mother of all Cliffhangers but there's a really good reason for that just like Chuck and Pushing Daisies the debut season of Breaking Bad was truncated by the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike which meant shaving off the planned 8th and 9th episodes that would cap off season one I don't want to give the show too hard of a time for leaving things off on a less than climactic Note given circumstances were sort of out of their control I'll make fun of an actress's performance the season after she had a brain aneurysm but this this is too far for me okay my defense brain aneurysm thing didn't know about that when I wrote the script where are my dragons of course the strike put the writers in a bind on how to leave things off on an enticing hook and of course this also denied audiences the most famous Breaking Bad trivia tidbit of all Jesse Pinkman was supposed to die at the end of season 1. it makes for a real fascinating many world story imagine how different Breaking Bad would be if the writer's strike hadn't happened but in truth Vince Gilligan has confessed that they knew Aaron Paula's Jesse Pinkman was dynamite in the role and Striker no they wouldn't have the stomach to follow through with offing the character so prematurely so that season 1 of Breaking Bad a stellar start though not exactly a taste of what is coming next it's also a pretty amusing insight into just how far discourse around marijuana has shifted over the last 15 years when Skyler learns her husband has been smoking weed you'd think she just found a prostitute's head under crawl space with a full season lined up for its sophomore year and three of the most renowned characters in television history about to make their appearances let's jump over to season 2 to watch ABQ become even more alive what is that conjecture are you basing that all that he's got like a normal healthy brain or something did you not see him beat a dude to death for like nothing since such a large slice of the first season revolved around discussing cancer treatment with family the care and feeding of a hostage and a recipe for how to make a dude smoothie there was actually surprisingly little time devoted to manufacturing and distributing meth for a show about two meth Peddlers season two of Breaking Bad is structured much more like how I assume audiences imagined the show would be from the beginning the logistics of running a small-scale meth business there's an episode about where Jesse recruits as dealers there's an episode where they have to handle a dealer getting arrested there's an episode where they have to handle a dealer getting robbed there's an episode where they have to handle a dealer getting shot there's an episode where they have to deal with their shoddy RV leaving them stranded in the middle of nowhere Act 2 of the second season borders on case of the week which might contribute to some of the backlash I've seen toward this season in recent months not like people are out there trashing this as some sort of sophomore slump but the series saw a research urgents in popularity with people catching up for the Better Call Saul finale and I've noticed a lot of first-time viewers ranking season 2 as the worst chalk that up in part to the divisive resolution to the black and white cold opens peppered throughout the season teasing some ominous mass casualty event at the White House no not that one but I believe it's also because such a large chunk of the season is spent in pseudo case of the week mode watching Jesse LARP as a drug kingpin is endearing with occasional left field gut punches as unexpected traumatic events come to spoil as fun but compared to the barn burner three-parter that kicks off season one The Extreme tension of season 3 The captivating battle of wits in season 4 and the nightmarish end game that burns every character's world to the ground in the fifth season I can understand season 2 being the odd man out I love it all the same especially because of the events that transpire in the final two episodes which really sealed the deal for me but even the mid-season is an exciting ride for all the terrible things that happen to them during those few short weeks where there in the show these really were the Halcyon Days of the drug Empire as Walt will later recall in the episode fly remember when all we had to deal with was being stranded in the middle of nowhere with no water in people's heads being crushed by ATM machines those were the simpler more innocent times but before we get to Jesse becoming the new tuko we of course have to contend with tuko still being the old tuko their partnership established at the end of the previous season things turned sour quickly when the henchman he tuned up goes Belly Up Now witnesses to a murder Walt and Jesse start making Hasty plans to poison tuko while tuko starts making Hasty plans to abduct them kill Jesse and flee with Walt to Mexico so they can keep the meth making dream alive Raymond Cruz is intimidating enough in the role as is and the introduction of his seemingly senile Uncle Hector Salamanca is a stroke of absolute genius again with hindsight having seen both series it's one of those things where we all know Hector salamanca's mind is still sharp despite his health issues but on a first viewing you have this armed trigger-happy psycho abusing meth ready to fly off the handle at the slightest misinterpretation of a erroneous ding from a senile old man of questionable mental faculties the Epic episode is a masterpiece of anxiety and the tension ratchets up even higher when Hector thwarts their poisoning attempt by revealing he is not nearly as senile as they thought and is completely aware of what Walt and Jesse are up to it's iconic why don't you like them to you you don't trust him Hank turns up looking for his missing brother-in-law Walt and he and tuko wind up having a little high noon at the OK Corral while the DEA is all too happy to indulge Hank's built up tough guy persona and celebrate him killing one of Albuquerque's most despicable gangsters he's secretly wrestling with post-traumatic stress after the incident and his mental health is not helped when he witnesses an improvised explosive device with an unusual delivery method while on assignment in El Paso hey welcome to Hank was kind of a one note Gruff loudmouth in season one humorous as his crassness was it's great that the character gets fleshed out this season this Macho Man Persona is a crutch so he can attempt to brush off the horrors he has faced but to maintain the facade he rejects opportunities to open up about what he's going through it's an interesting parallel to Walt who is clearly integrating Hank's manly man mannerisms into his Heisenberg Alter Ego buying into the front Hank was presenting in the first season unaware of how much it's currently inhibiting his brother-in-law's maturity and emotional stability yeah it's great clocked by his wife answering a burner phone and hot off a disappearance he can't explain away Love Is On The Rocks for Walton Skyler in fact since Jesse is in the driver's seat when it comes to the meth operation a majority of Walt's storyline this season involves his desperate surface level attempts to save his now struggling marriage and his more impactful detrimental actions that speak for themselves in a gun is is absolutely fantastic as Skyler white and this season in particular is a showcase for her from the initial betrayal confusion and shock following Walt's disappearance to a conditioned annoyance as he continues on with his constant Vanishing and blatant lies in fact one of the two major climactic payoffs of the second season rests almost entirely on the shoulders of Anna Gunn the scene where she uncovers Walt's laundry list of lies and leaves him it's a whirlwind of emotions not to mention it puts the now more ruthless than ever Walter in his place right as he's finally starting to feel content with his life after a whole season of lamenting the success of his supposed moonshot cancer treatment seemingly because he got his hopes up that yeah he'd do this little meth cook scheme for a few months and cash out and wasn't terribly invested in like caring about life anymore an ungrateful selfish attitude and yet once again one I can kind of Darkly sympathize with stay and I will tell you everything it's a Pity that turning in such a well-realized performance led a subsection of the show's audience who disliked the character to direct their ire at the actress who portrayed her specifically I generally have little sympathy anytime I see Hollywood celebrities whining about internet trolls because usually they brought it on themselves by going on Twitter and shooting their mouths off but anagon never did anything to hurt anybody like that and the amount of online hostility directed at her was just awful to see it got so bad that she wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times regarding the way her character served as a Rorschach test revealing the true colors of some viewers prior to the show's fifth season and she's notably distanced herself from the Breaking Bad pop culture Zeitgeist while her fellow cast members are out there relishing it how sad is that you're one of the stars of one of the greatest series of all time but the experience has soured because your portrayal of a conflicted wife with a bit of a Karen streak forced to play the role of the bad guy to cover for the crimes of your increasingly sociopathic husband was too good bummer I'm just the [ __ ] mom who wouldn't cut you any slack the most significant addition to the main cast this season is of course James Morgan McGill doing business as Saul Goodman with Walt contending with a failing marriage and Jesse contending with spiraling drug addiction the black comedy of the first season is less readily available in year two and what better way to address that than by interjecting an outright comic relief character who isn't taking either of the Duo's personal issues seriously did you not plan for this contingency no well well it's time to plan for it would you start struck button I'm just saying okay shut up Saul Goodman is also essential from a plot perspective as a fixer he knows a guy who knows a guy and the endless potential of his criminal connections enables the world of Breaking Bad to expand the size of its cast the intensity of the stakes and the nature of the drama surrounding Walt's money the original intent was for Walt and Jesse to sort of outgrow Saul and leave him behind going into season three after striking their deal with Gus but I'm sure I don't need to explain why the character of Saul instantly became a fan favorite and was so popular that he stayed on the air longer than Breaking Bad itself so if you want to make more money and uh keep the money that you make Better Call Saul Solas are liaison to the other two main cast additions joining us late in season two Gus Fring and Mike ehrmantraoud by their own admission the writers had no idea just what either of these two characters would become at this point in the show's run and at the end of season two they're just here to function as plot devices Gus says the mystery benefactor who can solve all their financial woes in one Fell Swoop and is also a contrast to tuko tuko was violent and unhinged Gus's cold and calculating and Mike Ehrman trout was literally supposed to be Saul but they couldn't get Bob odenkirk's schedule to work while shooting the season finale what do we do uh send it a new guy say it Saul's Pi Vince Gilligan has stated he enjoys scenarios where Saul is stressed out and taking things seriously because it demonstrates just how dire the circumstances are when even the comic relief character is freaking out and it's a tactic he would employ every season after over and above service wise this is over and above you and I survived this oh I'm seriously rethinking my pricing yeah how do I pay you for so they didn't have a smarmy scene where Saul jokes his way through the cleanup and then rewrite it for Mike from the ground up that was definitely meant to be Saul slapping Jesse around so yeah they're plot devices but that being said Giancarlo Esposito and Jonathan Banks still imbue these new players with a lot of character in The handful of scenes they're given the development they receive in season three and especially season 4 evolves them into some of the strongest characters in the entire series hell there's a good chance one of those two is your outright goat but before we jump to season three let's cover what exactly Mr Urban trout was called in to cover up the overdose of Jessie's girlfriend Jane All Season Jesse has been dating this girl Jane who he later learns is a recovering heroine addict it's sweet to see Jesse crawls his way out of homelessness curbs using the hard stuff takes control of his life and he gets the girl too but with the death of his friend after Walt demands an ill-advised expansion Jane joins him in some guilt-induced using and she starts him down in even more horrifying path heroin Jane is yet another compelling character wow another one it's almost like the show's good or something because there's moments you resent her and moments you pity her she is just as manipulative as Walt at times but she's being puppeteered by her own addiction it's an engaging portrayal of an addict and the episode where she meets her untimely End Phoenix is among my personal favorites where every other Breaking Bad season ends on some exciting if increasingly morally dubious life or death Showdown the second season ending is just misery all these characters setting out with the best of intentions than making the worst most selfish choice at the last minute Jesse and Jane plotting to flush their drugs and flee the country with Jesse's money then getting high one last time and while leaving home to try and save Jesse's Soul then letting Jane die and refusing to save her at the last minute because she's enabling Jessie maybe because she's a potential whistleblower who got the best of you much more likely you didn't kill anybody [Music] more than anything Jane's death is the Catalyst to the final payoff of the Season as teased in the episodes 737 down over and the finale ABQ Jane's father Donald an air traffic controller causes a mid-air Collision that kills 167 people while distracted on the job due to grief this resolution to the multiple cold opens met a mixed reception from audiences on the one hand it's a terrifying example of how nasty the unintended consequences of her actions can be it also sets up a morbid chain of blame surely Donald Jesse and Walt all hold themselves responsible with none understanding just how much of a role the others secretly played on the other side of the coin with the expansion of the drug trade and piece of cartel violence with both the tortoise bomb and Ballad of Heisenberg in episode 7. I don't know I guess people were expecting something bigger my response to that is sure you're allowed to have big expect rotations but what's the cut off at a certain point you must realize there aren't enough hours left in the season for the writers to establish and then execute some massive cartel shootout so by the start of the finale it's like if you think the plane thing is unearned what would you have preferred if the cartelic rolled up on 308 negro Royal Lane in a tank out of nowhere or something I mean what did you think the cousins tuko mentioned in episode two we're just gonna show up with the white residence and try to kill them all out of nowhere like that would ever happen anyways let's kick off season three I have made a series of very bad decisions and I cannot make another one why did you make these decisions for the good of my family then they weren't bad decisions Walt and Jesse's do-it-yourself drug Empire may have netted the pair a cool half million dollars each but given the Venture had utterly disastrous consequences on their personal lives effectively ruining them Waltz out of the game and Jesse's in rehab in fact the conclusion of season two was so unbearably depressing that the third season makes quick work of returning to the black comedy well to take the edge off it's also a solid tactic to build back some sympathy toward Walt since most of the dark humor revolves around his reaction to the Wayfarer 515 Collision like what you have on an airliner and well anyway the seat was standing perfectly upright in his front yarn right next to his Sea-Doos there was still a pair of legs buckled into them human legs Jesus age Christ I've never stood idly by allowing someone to choke to death to cover my own criminal activities indirectly leading to a plane crash but thanks again to Brian Cranston Walt's obvious soul-crushing guilt and desperate attempts to convince himself he shouldn't feel responsible are inherently relatable it may not have been on such a scale but I think we've all been just as evasive when it comes to confronting our own guilt at some point in our lives nobody on the ground was killed and that I mean an incident like this over a populated urban center there's some sort of collision radar on the jet that may not have been working properly now that's public record you can look that up neither plane was full you know the the 737 was was what uh maybe two-thirds full I believe right yes not really I blame the government and Walt's culpability in The Terror at 10 000 feet isn't the only thing the man's in denial about Skyler's kicked him out of the house is seeking divorce and doesn't want Walter around their son Walt Junior and understandable position since she's deduced that he's a drug dealer who's been paying their bills with his ill-gotten gains however to all the world it just looks like she callously dumped her cancer-stricken husband out the front door as soon as he could take care of himself Hank suspects Walt of two-timing Skyler but Marie's not buying it and while Junior doesn't know what to make of his mother growing increasingly distant and stonewalling him why you gotta be such a a [ __ ] hey hey hey hey hey hey no no no no no no Hank losing the family you ostensibly set out on this meth making mission to care for is an equally Bleak predicament to be in but if Walt's foray into the criminal under ability of society has taught him anything it's that he's a man of action who can get anything done if he wants it done this turns out to be a completely wrong lesson to take away from his experiences and apply to his marital life as his persistent increasingly pitiful bids to return to his old home rapidly morph the tragedy of his failing marriage into a farce we are happily married I am happily married I am happy what what the what the hell are you doing in there you got dipping sticks this all comes to a head when Skyler refuses to implicate Walt in any criminal wrongdoing leaving her with no cause to have him dragged out of their home by the cops when he barges his way back in instead she tries a back door method of extricating Walt from her life pun may be intended by fooling around with her boss Ted Beneke though the news that she [ __ ] Ted does send Walt flying off the handle in another hilarious impotent display of frustration with his collapsing personal life it's not enough to drive him from the house with Walt content to hang out in the cuck shed to maintain the illusion of his formerly innocent life well I guess not exactly content it's unbelievably awkward only made worse by the knowledge that Saul and Mike have been privy to some of your most undignified moments thanks to bugs planted throughout the house to keep tabs on the spouse who knows too much the lesson here did you bug my house yeah but I didn't know it was your house did I you'd moved out well Walter White is out of the game because he doesn't want to be the villain unaware he's becoming a domestic villain outside of the drug trade Jesse attempts to steer into the skid after the horrors of the last season and commit to being evil wearing his felt goatee while he waits for the real one to grow in he and Saul pull a scheme on his parents to get his old house back well below market value and he gets back in business cooking the blue stuff I haven't mentioned that in the video yet have I their mouth is Blue by now don't worry about it but Jesse is running into the hiccup that I had in high school nobody wants to get stuck as his lab partner no matter how amazing that product is Gus is firmly in the Jesse is a no-go Camp though he is willing to pretend to strike up a deal and a ploy to get Walter back in the saddle or off the wagon whatever is the more apt phrase Walt triumphantly confronting Jesse with the Revelation that Gus was just using Jesse to get to him smugly detailing the social manipulation plan to get Walt to cook meth again that he also fell for or is just so classic Walt you believe I have some proprietary kind of selfishness about my own formula Cloud's my judgment but it doesn't absolutely not in the Fallout of season two there's a lot of emotions and transformation for our lead characters to wrestle with the audience gets its first taste of Gustavo Frank's grander machinations and his ability to manipulate others although he doesn't come across as the grand chess master he's intended to be just yet because Walt is such an easy Mark there's also more demonstrations of Mike the Smooth Operator they still are writing an incredible performances of Brian Cranston Aaron Paul and Anna Gunn are enough to carry the First Act of season three on their own but with Walt out of the game for nearly half the episodes it's safe to say season 3 is a slow burn compared to what came before this is where tuko's cousins come in to tide the audience over almost like the writer's way of saying we know we're starting off with a fairly deliberate Pace would two Stone Cold Hit Men coming north from Orange Mexico to murder some random characters like almost every episode be enough to satiate your bloodlust you degenerates wow season three is really two slow burning fuses that culminate in two Dynamite two-parters sunset in one minute at the mid-season and half measure full measure for the finale Sunset puts Hank hot on Jesse's Trail ending in a tense sequence where both Walt and Jesse are trapped in their erstwhile mobile meth lab with Hank camped outside waiting for a warrant Walt's able to wriggle his way out of that one but after destroying the evidence and receiving a beating from Hank Jesse is left with pretty much nothing in exchange for Jesse letting Hank off the hook and refusing to press charges Walt Cuts Jesse in on his deal with Gus but not before one of the most effective Reflections on the relationship between the two characters delivered by Aaron Paul I have never been more alone I have nothing no one all right it's all gone as if that confrontation weren't explosive enough one minute also concludes on the attempted assassination of Hank Schrader at the hands of tuko's cousins the entire sequence is an absolute nail biter not to mention there was the heavy implication that Hank may actually die here especially after Walt went to the trouble of partnering with Jesse to save Hank's skin plans being all for nothing seconds after you make a sacrifice to set them in motion is a recurring theme in the Breaking Bad Universe Hank vs the cousins is the action sequence of the series and even on a re-watch knowing that Hank is going to walk away from it or well be rolled away for the time being it still puts me on the edge of my seat every single viewing [Applause] with hankin treatment and Walton Jesse going about their day-to-day at Gus's underground lab the series pumps the brakes again Walt's able to score some brownie points with Skyler by paying for Hank's treatment after she cooks up a story about Walt being a gambling addict though she also can't shake the feeling Waltz somehow involved in the botched hit on Hank and then the brakes really get pumped with the 10th episode of the season the bottle episode fly in which Walt fixates on a fly in the underground lab and he and Jesse Endeavor to swat it it was Ryan Johnson's first divisive directorial entry in a beloved series but Lord knows it wouldn't be the last do I personally love it or hate it gotta admit I love it in a microcosm of the Season as a whole it's a slow starter but after Jesse dopes up Walt with sleep meds and Walt starts rambling about regrets and attempting to pinpoint the perfect moment for the cancer to take his life that perfect moment that leaves his family with the money but prevents all the death and horror that concluded season two it's enthralling like could be a stage play level enthralling and once again oddly relatable if you're watching that episode while having a Dark Night of the soul and for two guys trying to swat a fly in a lab there's also a palpable sense of tension this wouldn't be the first time Walt divulged the damning secret well under the influence where's your phone your cell phone did you bring it which one the conclusion of the Season sees Jesse and Goss at odds after Jesse learns Gus's dealers use kids to carry out hits presumably after getting the idea while listening to the song come out and play for The Offspring when Gus says no more children in the dealers extrapolate that to mean in existence Jesse takes matters into his own hands and decides to ice the dealers and stuck in the middle trying to mediate his Walt already on thin ice for bringing the ever unreliable Jesse on board split between keeping the peace despite an inherent distrust for Gus's organization and staying true to his partner despite his tendency to go off half [ __ ] Mike's captivating no more half-measure speech has the unintended consequence of cementing Walt on team let's save Jesse as opposed to team let's kill Jesse and while prevents Jesse's imminent Demise by appeasing the gods with an Aztec sacrifice thank you Jesse goes into hiding to avoid a bolt in the head courtesy of Mike who cleans house when the cartel comes after their organization in a sequence that establishes one the cartel is going to mess with operation Gus next season and two if you're gonna go after Gus Mike is going to be your biggest obstacle Walt continues working in the lab now with Gus's hand-picked partner Gail an affable nerd with whom Walt has a friendly Rapport after months of antagonism with Jesse but who also not so secretly is studying up to become Walt's understudy as soon as Gail feels up to the task its apparent Gus is going to send Walt to the farm out of town where he can Frolic and play with all the other chemists so despite Gail being nothing but friendly and even going so far as to feign incompetence to delay Gus's obvious impending termination of Walt out of professional courtesy Walt puts Gail in his crosshairs no understudy means too bad for Gus you're stuck with me but when Mike intercepts Walt on his way to kill the one-man Geek Squad Jesse has to do the hit instead Waltz racked up a bit of a body count by now so so murder is becoming old hat for him but Gail is actually Jesse's first added to the Jesse Pinkman trauma pile you don't have to do this it's a hell of a cliffhanger to cap the season tense and exciting in its execution dark and troubling in its moral horror and enticing us to return next season as we can only imagine how the Los Pollos Hermanos team will react to this massive wrench in their plans at first I was going to talk about how it's a little bit forced that Gus is so determined to off-walter because it's just making more trouble for himself when Jesse was the real issue all season it's a bit odd when you're watching the grand battle of wits in season 4 and then think back and go oh yeah this all started over like the misunderstanding about getting two Street dealers executed without the proper paperwork and permits huh season 4 needs to be Gus versus Walter and they had to contrive it a bit but that's probably just me overthinking things with the benefit of hindsight surely they thought executing a 50 year old man in an underground hideout would be the simplest part of their jobs that day Gus didn't realize it would turn into a major problem he'd have to deal with and really the last problem he'd have to deal with I mean they couldn't possibly have imagined the kind of stunts Walt would pull off next season so on The Gunshot Fade to Black that all film students Envy season 3 is over it's time for the penultimate season and The Ultimate Showdown Fight Night the terminal treacherous teacher versus the criminal chicken crisper two men enter one and a Half Men leave that was Hank's one and only lead now what if he puts two and two together and he goes after Jesse for the murder goes after him how on his Rascal scooter that perhaps sounded insensitive all according to plan Gus is in a bind unable to kill Walt and Jesse since he needs to keep the underground lab humming maybe you should have buried some meth in the backyard little rainy day meth emergency fund after treating the underground lab like a rage room with only one object named Victor in it Gus leaves Mike Walt and Jesse to clean up the body of the henchmen unlucky enough to get spotted at the crime scene before putting them back to work and with that the uneasy partnership continues Walt and Gus have to work together but both men are plotting to kill the other at the first opportunity so Walt sets about to either speech check or circumnavigate the Nai omnipotent mic while Gus gets to work grooming Jesse to take over the lab worst case scenario he takes over and we firewald best case scenario he gives us the all clear to get payback for flunking him all those years ago Vince Gilligan stated intent over the course of the series was to take Walter White from Mr Chips to Scarface and since season three heavily explored his hesitance and ultimate refusal to take the final off ramp before committing to this bad choice Road and season five is the Scarface Years season 4 is a bit of an in-between season not too nasty but not nice either Walter is behaving less like a criminal mastermind and more like a brat for the majority of season four in part as retribution for the increasingly hostile work environment Gus has created underground which Walt refuses to take lying down but also because he's got the sort of Damocles hanging over him and is just teeming with frustration with every aspect of his life when he has to go through the motions like nothing is wrong almost like he's frustrated his family doesn't recognize he's got bigger fish to fry even as he's categorically stating they've got nothing to worry about true to form this petulant lashing out isn't without a core of humanity he's cracking under the pressure are well waiting for the other shoe to drop Walt is also growing increasingly reflective on his past mistakes now that the end is near even seemingly taking responsibility for all the suffering Jesse has endured since being dragged into his employee using his son as a proxy that's part of the tragedy of the end of the season also approaching The Gallows Walt was able to evaluate his priorities with Clarity and took himself to task for all he's done to dismantle his own family since he first started spinning this Web of Lies but then when he wins the day at the end all that potential development goes out the window I won I beat Gus Fring I'm the [ __ ] man in a way winning the day was the absolute worst thing that could happen to Walter White as a human being because it was the final nail in the coffin convincing him that he's just too cool for school sort of like Barney stinston acting like a complete [ __ ] all night than waking up hungover behind a dumpster self-esteem still intact I'm awesome with a meth Kingpin to bring down the absolute last thing Walt wants to think about dealing with is the IRS but just because you don't care about the IRS doesn't mean they don't care about you and in order to continue funding her brother-in-law's Physical Therapy Skyler white takes it upon herself to purchase the car wash Walt used to work at and use it to launder his filthy drug money I'm all for expanding the role of straight laced characters and getting them tied up in illicit activities in any series but there's a problem for most of the Season Skyler isn't taking on a new role within the series she's taking Saul's role most of the Saul scenes this season involve Saul pitching really uncharacteristically bad cons so that Skyler can point out the obvious flaws and then propose another much better con it was already mildly irritating in the context of Breaking Bad but now that we have Better Call Saul it's heartbreaking my headcanon is that the season being set in 2009 so all finally signed up for Facebook at the start of the Season he started stalking Kim's page it dug up some messy emotions and he's been secretly day drinking all season but yes Saul was uh finally useful [Music] the whites aren't the only people who have to be concerned with eluding IRS suspicion Skyler's former boss and lover Ted Beneke is back in the mix when over half a million dollars of unpaid taxes are uncovered by the IRS if he doesn't pay his back taxes the IRS will take him to court which means they'll turn a watchful eye on his former accountant Skyler as well and then she and Walt will get caponed after Skylar gives him a sizable chunk of Walt's Nest Egg so he can pay off his tax man and he rather gallingly starts spending the money on it for volatis instead schadler ultimately has no choice but to send Saul's hired goons to shake him down and force him to write a check to the IRS cool you happy reasonably what would make you unhappy this is the [ __ ] not doing what he's told of all the Dopey Crooks in the Breaking Bad Universe Ted is probably the most frustratingly stupid we'll get to Betsy and price later so when he breaks his neck attempting to flee hewell and kubi it plays just as funny as it does shocking this would also be the third time in three years a character played by Christopher cousins meets his demise because he didn't look where he was going you're not now step away from them [Music] the only person having less fun than going through an audit is Jesse Pinkman catatonic after being tasked with murdering Gail and attempting to drown out the Sorrow by occupying his every moment of free time with drugs and partying supervising the spiral from a distance Mike is eventually assigned to babysit Jesse by bringing him along as a quote-unquote bodyguard while he goes to collect dead drops but this is also secretly a ploy to Stage a robbery so Jesse can save the day his confidence bolstered and with new responsibilities helping him dare to say no to drugs Gus begins driving a wedge between the dynamic duo by giving Jessie's life purpose Walt's pride and obvious need to be the smartest guy in the room have led to him tearing Jesse down frequently but now Jesse feels like a vital part of the organization as opposed to just some dude with opposable thumbs who can follow directions as he displays more and more Ingenuity and loyalty he's becoming the guy despite Mike's initial insistence that he isn't you are not the guy you're not capable of being the guy I had a guy but now I don't you are not the guy season four is most remembered as the season where Walt and Gus go to war but the real kickoff of the battle of wits isn't until the end of episode 11. the majority of season 4 is a cold war between the two occasionally nothing short of a frigid War it's easy to forget after watching the whole thing but the pace of the majority of season 4 is very deliberate Waltz waiting around to die Jesse is either zonked out of his mind or going through the meticulous motions of tedious mic work Skyler's doing taxes there's a fan Theory going around Saul's day drinking the whole time the writers even returned to the Marie kleptomania well for a one-off episode just to fill the Time season 4 has a much slower Pace than other Breaking Bad seasons and until we get a glimpse of the grander designs for the season when we learn about Gus's history with the cartel in the 8th episode there are some episodes that are just short on momentum definitely less noticeable when you watch them back to back on a streaming service oh but watching it when it first aired week to week after waiting a whole year to see what would happen next only to witness an episode that could be summarized in like five sentences that just shows the characters are all still sad and paranoid I was getting antsy if only I knew one day I would watch another penultimate season of Television that was even more slowly paced oh young slip maker there are so many things I have to warn you about and yet tragically I cannot aside from Walton Gus the other major Showdown this season is known for is Gus getting even with the cartel as we learn in a flashback in the episode our monos when Gus first approached the leader of the Juarez cartel Don Eladio with an offer to supply them with methamphetamine Eladio had Hector Salamanca execute Gus's business partner and as would later be confirmed in Better Call Saul lover Max this adds a sympathetic angle to a character who was previously defined simply by his intimidating demeanor and unfathomably vast criminal resources doubly impressive because of how little screen time is actually devoted to all the cartel Shenanigans Gus's Feud with the salamancas in the Juarez cartel absolutely dominates the run time during certain segments of Better Call Saul but in Breaking Bad the writers directors and stars do a lot with a little they didn't need all the time in the world not when every cartel adjacent scene winds up this iconic the origin flashback Gus taunting the now wheelchair-bound Hector Jesse faking his way through a demo cook at the cartel's lab in Mexico and of course Gus's vengeful Mass poisoning that brings a lifetime of building his drug Empire with an ulterior motive to fruition it's so awesome really the only problem I can think of is that because it was so awesome Giancarlo Esposito was now doomed to play Gus Fring in every role he's cast in Forever somebody gotta write a family sitcom where he plays the bumbling Dad and everybody goes what the super serious guy from Breaking Bad how can he be funny but then he turns out to be amazing in the role then everything will have gone full circle giancarlo's agent my business contacts on the channel page let's make it happen [Music] foreign with the cartel dealt with and Jesse proving himself just as competent a cook as Walt while they were on their little road trip Gus is left with only two loose ends to tie up the pain in his ass Walt and Hank who got his hands on Gail's lab notebook and has been breathing down Gus's neck on the independent hunch that he's secretly a math Kingpin Jesse still won't approve of Walt being killed but Hank I'm sure he'd be all for it so Gus drags Walt out to the desert to fire him from his position as meth Chef De Cuisine and to give him the heads up that he's gonna kill Hank and he'll kill his whole family if he tries to interfere he then immediately lets Walt leave unsupervised at which point Walt instantly interferes listen I'd know Gus is Riding High after his Triumph South of the Border and has this air about him like he's untouchable now but he didn't even have the good sense to detain Walter who hasn't respected a single threat Gus made until the job was is done of course Walt was gonna try and turn the tables on you if he gave him the chance this is what happens when you start making moves without waiting for your head of security to recover post shootout Mike would have never let this [ __ ] fly or else you'll do what did you say Walt tips off the feds to Hank's imminent assassination then rushes home to secure his cash so he can use Saul Goodman's vacuum cleaner repairman to set his family up with false identities so that they can avoid Gus's wrath entering his crawl space he finds his money has been given to the IRS to pay off Ted's back taxes meaning he just put himself and his entire family on Gus's hit list with no way to Spirit them all to safety the money Skyler where is the rest Skyler where is it's an absolutely terrifying sequence watching all the simmering setup slowly developed over the season suddenly tied together Walt waits around for Gus's assassin to show up and it turns out the Assassin is Jesse Jesse's new girlfriend's son Brock has been poisoned did Walt do it as one last screw you to get back at Jesse since he ended up siding with Gus did Gus do it as a false flag so Jesse Pinkman would give them a A-Okay to ice Walt or is Walt pulling the biggest Bluff of his life to try and convince Jesse that Gus is doing the false flag thing so he'll get one last chance to turn the tables on his former employer neither Jesse nor the audience is privy to who the perpetrator is but Jesse ultimately sides with Walt when he reflects on Gus's lackadaisical response to his own dealers using and then murdering a child foot soldier as an audience it's compelling to want to believe when it comes to the tail waltzman ends it would spare him from Crossing yet another villainous boundary and set us up for a cleaner Heroes vs villain Showdown for the finale not that it isn't going to get morally gray enough even if Gus were the poisoner Walt plots to blow up the chicken man with a pipe bomb but needs an on monitor location to put his plan in action and Jesse tips him off to the retirement home he frequents to harass his longtime foe Hector Salamanca the audience has already come to understand and the few unpleasant lines we've had The Misfortune of hearing him speak aloud why Hector is a bad dude and why Gus hates his Hot Wheels ass so while convincing Hector to go out in a blaze of glory and take his lifelong foe out with him winds up the first time Walt sides with the greater of two evils within the Breaking Bad universe but it will not be the last Hector and Gus's final confrontation is absolutely captivating despite the relatively minor screen time devoted to their Feud and Breaking Bad the direction and performances lend the sequence a tremendous amount of gravity thanks to the strong execution it comes across as a fitting method to kill off the Beloved character of Gustavo Frank if they'd handled it poorly Hector may have seemed like little more than a dinging ex machina with little Brock on the mend Jesse Reveals His poisoning was actually a misunderstanding he ate poisonous berries from a plant known as lily of the valley and then the Revelation comes that the audience both dreaded and somewhat anticipated you guessed it lily of the valley freshly purchased sitting in Walt's backyard Brock's poisoning was part of his master plan all along season 4's final few episodes are some of the highest highs Breaking Bad ever achieved so much so that any misgivings you have about the early episode's slower Pace are likely to be retroactively forgiven Walt's going into the final season with a chip on his shoulder where it turns out his plan wasn't just to survive Gus Frank's Empire his plan was to take it over you asked me if I was in the meth business or the money business neither I'm in the Empire business there's a math Empire really something to be that proud of meet the new boss I don't think we're alike at all Mr White to the old boss in the aftermath of burning down Gus Spring's meth Empire literally in the case of the underground lab it suddenly Dawns on Walt and Jesse that Gus's constant surveillance of them means it's only a matter of time before his laptop is decrypted and they're id'd and arrested with the aid of a very recalcitrant mic the newly formed criminal Triple Threat pulls off a goofy and exciting caper to destroy the evidence incriminating them by rigging an industrial magnet to the back of a box truck and cranking the bad boy up to 11. credit cards you want that plastic work in a militant you know I can foresee a lot of possible outcomes to this thing and not a single one of them involves militime well Mike Jesse Walt and a paranoid former cohort of Gus by the name of Lydia rodart Quail all managed to stay One Jump Ahead of the law man nine other previously unseen white-collar Crooks instrumental to Gus's former distribution Network were not so lucky to keep the skittish Lydia from putting out hits on all of them just to give herself Peace of Mind Mike instead Endeavors to pay the nine men off so they'll keep their big mouth shut the setup episode Hazard pay is a cad long-winded but the point is that Walt has every intention of keeping the business alive and now Mike is compelled to work with him despite the bad blood between baldi's purchasing a pest control company as their new cover Walton Jesse set up mobile Labs within the vacated houses set to be fumigated to operate with impunity within the city limits while Mike handles distribution and from there the first half of season 5 takes on a vibe reminiscent of season 2 just on a larger scale the logistics and obstacles of running a meth Empire day to day since the final Eight Episodes completely throw the rule book out the window I think endeavoring to let audiences get comfy in a new status quo was a wise move on the writer's part but much like season two 5A has met a bit of a backlash if you just feel the season is aimless in the first half I'm gonna go ahead and white knight for it for a second gliding overall is only the eighth episode which is even earlier than Salud the previous season and has won the events of major consequence really transpire not to mention between the magnet stunt and the Train Robbery the season is peppered with some of the most exciting Breaking Bad action in the show's run leading up to it where I can see you having issues with the first half of season 5 as if you're in this for the Jesse of it all because Jesse has very little to do in the first half of the Season he's the only one of the main Trio without any real skin in The Game and his role in the first aid episodes largely involves playing team mom and keeping the peace between Walt and Mike who was effectively replaced him as the deuteragonist Aaron Paul has imbued the character with so much life over the series run whether he's shouting his latest big dramatic speech demonstrating the ever so gradual shift from burnout to fixer or indulging in Sinister hedonistic plots to sell meth to vulnerable people that are later hilariously undermined by his own compassion so yeah it's a shame you do have to wait eight episodes for him to get some real material Beyond just asking everybody to get along he's good with this stuff okay just give him a chance if you kill him you're gonna have to kill me hey hey stick out of mine all right go for it in order to keep their meth business afloat Walt Mike and Steven Universe over here need to get their hands on the rarest of chemicals McGuffin lamine teaming up with Pest Control Lackey Todd elquist they siphon an amount off a train that will keep them running for ages but will go undetected by the shipping company after heavily heavily heavily stressing just how crucial it is that no Witnesses observe them drinking the railroads milkshake Todd impulsively guns down a child witness dirt biking through the area before Walton Jesse can protest no no no Jesse can't take the Casual stream of casualties that come with this line of work so he quits and Mike is quick to follow when the DEA seizes all of his buyout money and puts him on the Run Walt ever the kind-hearted partner delivers Mike's bug out bag but expects the names of his nine men in lock up in return when Mike refuses and fires back with the dressing down of a lifetime Walt shoots him to co-style and by that I mean over like nothing he could have gotten those names from Lydia who has been team jail Massacre from square one and killing someone just because they insulted you is obviously a new low not exactly the badass you were earlier in the episode with the say my name strutting icing Grandpa through the windshield on his way out of your life forever is just petulant this whole thing could have been avoided shut the [ __ ] up let me die in peace we're in the final season now which naturally means Walter is at his most evil I get that defeating Gus swelt his pride and Walt's head has never been bigger except in the El Camino flashback but the writers lay Walt's arrogance and villainy on a little too thick for my taste first the idea hammered into the audience the season that he instigated the conflict with Gus because he was thirsty for respect and wanted to be top dog is a bit rat Connie Walt did a lot of nasty [ __ ] in the process of taking out Gus but in season three it started because he chose to save Jesse's life and in season four Gus made it pretty apparent that his continued existence and Hank's continued existence were mutually exclusive to quote Chuck McGill Walt has a way of doing the worst things for reasons that seem almost Noble but this half of the Season glosses over that the other issue is his interactions with Skyler this season after Fanning an attempt on her life to get the kids out of the house Walt insists she stick around and spends their time together actively fermenting her it just reads as a cheap way to make sure the audience recognizes that Walter has completed his transformation into bad guy and also leads to an awkward relationship shift going into The Season's second half Vince Gilligan made it no secret that he flew by the seat of his pants season after season and there was never a detailed road map for the series Beyond Walt's gradual moral corruption so the fact that Skyler becomes suddenly aggressively teamwalt to the extent that she talks him out of turning himself in at one point is pretty jarring hot off the heels of eight episodes of Walt treating her like absolute trash or you can run off to France you're gonna close the curtains change the locks this is a joke come on Skyler you want to take me on you want to take away my children that isn't to say evil wall doesn't have his moments of absolute Joy the admission that he's in the Empire business because he has nothing else left to live for at this point Rings true the iconic say my name scene is well remembered for a reason but the less remembered do you really want to live in a world without Coca-Cola line is just chef's kiss and the scene where he gets the list of names from Lydia and she's afraid to give it to him without insurance because she thinks he'll kill her after she does and he gaslights her and mocks her for thinking he'll instantly murder her in front of a dozen Witnesses when that is in fact exactly what he was planning to do is hilarious so you put that list in my hands and in your mind I immediately just murder you just right here in this restaurant please of course immediately gliding overall the mid-season finale shows us just what Walt had planned for those names teaming up with Todd's Uncle Jack who's got an interesting tattoo that's probably going to be a maze he has all nine of Gus's former conspirators and their lawyer executed in the span of two minutes with the aid of the Aryan Brotherhood the first of two stylish musical montages in the episode with the second coming as he then gets to work complete uninhibited for several months only giving up the game when Skyler shows him the pile of money he's raked in too vast account let alone launder out of the game and with the kids back in the house stability and prosperity returns to Walter's life and the series ends on a touching sentiment sometimes all you need to do to earn your happy ending is team up with skinheads and murder everyone who ever crossed you but just as Walt is ready to return to domestic Bliss Hank takes an unfortunate poo at their home searching for reading material he stumbles on a copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass gifted to Walt by none other than Gail betteker Gail's acknowledgment at the front of the text Sparks Hank's suspicion and after pouring over Case Files the following day he knows for certain Walt is Heisenberg foreign T's worst case scenario was at his door but it's not quite as bad as it seems just yet Skyler refuses to take the off-ramp Hank offers her ready to portray her as a blameless victim of her husband if she testifies against him and even refuses the off-ramp Walt offers her willing to turn himself in if she promises not to turn over the drug money he's buried out in the desert instead she talks Walton to writing things out aware that his cancer has returned once again and fairly confident Hank doesn't have enough to convict him on Walt's plan is to make a false confession tape implicating Hank as part of the drug Empire a flimsy he said she said Band-Aid solution but his payments for Hank's Physical Therapy lend credibility to the LIE Hank's plan is to keep his Discovery a secret from the agency waiting until he has damning evidence on Walt in an effort to avoid the fate of his former boss who lost his career thanks to his Oblivion obviousness to his friend Gus frang's double life and Marie well Marie's plan is probably the most straightforward just kill yourself what must I do to convince you people die oh very clever Wharf needless to say this end game material is all Dynamite stuff the show is still firing on all cylinders at this point when frequently with television the double life main characters lead will either never be uncovered before cancellation or be uncovered long after the original showrunner has left the series and the writing has turned to [ __ ] Breaking Bad pulled the trigger on this juicy material while still in its prime and it's fantastic his money stashed away Walt's effort to tie up his other loose end the guilt-ridden Jesse Pinkman by buying him a new identity in Alaska blows up in his face seconds before the pickup Jesse comes to the realization that Walt was behind Brock's poisoning all along pair that with his increasing awareness of how Walt manipulates him during moments of vulnerability and heavy suspicion that Mike's flight from Justice was cut short by Heisenberg's take no prisoners Mo and Jesse's on the warpath to [ __ ] over Walt any way he can and still love me and offered that [ __ ] Mr White he boys the brook he poisoned the Brock at you you helped him after half a season effectively on the bench Aaron Paul gets to play all of Jesse pinkman's greatest hits in the aftermath of this Revelation fragile vulnerable broken Jesse hot-headed rapid pain shouting Jesse comically rightfully paranoid Jesse driven by a cold righteous anger Jesse calling Walt gay one last time for the road Jesse and after Walt allies with Uncle Jack to have Jesse assassinated Jesse sets a motion a plan of his own to beat the devil at his own game exploiting Walt's aggressive defensive as cash that Jesse has been witness to many many times tricking Walton to believing he is found and is burning his buried treasure Jesse and his secret Ally Hank are able to track Walt's car to the burial site and record a few murderous confessions to Boone all that's left to do is slap the handcuffs on Heisenberg and call it a day who's that coming over the horizon oh it's Jack ready to fulfill his end of the bargain to assassinate Jesse and while he's at it he can spring Heisenberg from his DEA captors despite Walt's pleas and offers to pay them off with his fortune Jack kills Hank and his partner Gomez especially since he's realized they're sitting right on top of the fortune and he can just take it anyways do what you're gonna do at the request of Todd Jack leaves Walt with a single barrel of money to roll home through the desert while the rest of the gang rolls off with Jesse to keep him as a meth cooking slave I'm gonna take this moment to address another common criticism I see of season five and that's that Jack Welker is a poor replacement to Gus Fring as the villain I mean yeah simply put he's not intended to be a replacement to Gus Fring he's only really the antagonist in the final two episodes it's kind of an inverse of the backlash I saw between Seasons two and three of Boardwalk Empire where the second season was this falling out between main characters who were family both literally and figuratively then the third season was about defeating a scene stealing season Arc villain Boardwalk Empire season 3 got the what the hell all we're doing is a season Arc villain complaint but Breaking Bad season 5 people complained what the hell where is the season Arc villain so when the blatantly Evil Jack showed up I think some people people glommed onto him correctly anticipating a showdown with him would occur in the finale but expected his villainy to be more of a defining trait of the season when in reality 5B is about Hank and Jesse bringing Walt to Justice I understand everyone has different tastes and there's a myriad of different reasons you might dislike season five but if your one and only reason for calling it the worst is because Jack is a weak villain it's kind of like saying the second season of Dexter is the worst because Lila's the worst villain Walt tries to skip town with his family but upon learning that Hank is dead Skylar pulls a knife on him and Walt Jr calls the fuzz what the hell is wrong with you well family it's a heart-wrenching scene really a heart-wrenching episode as things go from bad to worse and Walt's life ends in utter Calamity he's made his bed and he's got a lie in it but damn Ozymandias is a haunting watch and the follow-up episode Granite State just piles on the misery Jesse is tortured and his girlfriend is killed to retaliate when he tries to escape his awful predicament and Waltz slowly dying in a cabin the nationwide manhunt too hot for him to be set up with any halfway desirable new identity the whole episode is basically one big knife twist to remind us all that they've made their own fate and they have to live with the consequences crime doesn't pay kids okay did you all learn your lesson good now here's the finale where crime totally pays I kid of course Walt still lost the things most important to him his family and as he often reiterated the memory of the man he was you want them to actually miss you when you're gone but but he does go out in an orgy of Heisenberg self-satisfaction confessing to Skyler he did in truth do all of this criminal [ __ ] for himself and then doing a whole bunch of stuff for himself before Cashing Out threatening Gretchen and Elliot into sending his drug money to his son via a trust poisoning Lydia massacring Jack and his gang with a machine gun booby trap and freeing Jesse from his captivity finally dying from an errant gunshot wound with a slight smile on his face moments before the police had the chance to catch him it's an immensely satisfying conclusion and to some people it was a little too satisfying not to me I loved it I think it was perfect and that outro music by a kid named Badfinger is just the cherry on top but I know a handful of people hated Walt's guts by this point and didn't consider the single episode Purgatory of Granite State enough of eight comeuppance before he got the chance to sort of redeem himself and go out on his own terms to those unlucky viewers there was always the comfort of imagining feline was a dream sequence and Walt died in the car on his way out of New Hampshire cold and alone I say was because El Camino would come along half a decade later and make no bones about Mr White's fade hey I've still got time let's do El Camino six years after the conclusion of Breaking Bad Vince Gilligan wrote and directed a follow-up film that details the events immediately following Jesse's escape from Jack's compound titled El Camino actually full title was El Camino a Breaking Bad movie and the even Fuller title was El Camino [ __ ] if we knew we were getting a Breaking Bad movie we wouldn't have killed off Todd tanzi's centricity is definitely the most defining feature of the film of all the Breaking Bad Alum flashbacks peppered throughout the movie his are both the most extended and the most memorable as he forces the enslaved Jesse to help him dispose of his cleaning lady's body after she discovered his stash of cash he may not be tormenting Jesse Ramsay Bolton style but his casual demeanor Like Jesse is less of a slave and more of a work pal is just as eerily dehumanizing even as it's apparent his intentions are just to be sociable nothing more so I hear you I'm gonna help you paint maybe yeah um if we have some time left over aside from the perverse jovial bizarreness of Todd El Camino is an exciting little Thriller with some well-directed and truly gripping sequences that dropped the Show's old habit of dramatic irony in favor of Jesse as an audience eyes in unaware that things aren't always as they seem the hostage Showdown with the cops who turn out to be impersonating police officers is definitely a highlight but it's also a thriller that lets some audiences down because let's face it at the end of the day it is just a thriller and it's Shackled by two big constraints that the show preceding it didn't have to contend with one we all know what has to end with Jesse's Freedom Vince Gilligan reportedly planned an ending where Jesse sacrifices his freedom to save a life but every collaborator on the project talked him down knowing fans would Riot if Mr Pinkman didn't get his happy ending and two were so far into the end game that almost every character Jesse had a meaningful relationship with his dad his final reunion with Badger and skinny Pete is touching it in character the rest of the flashbacks more of a mixed bag certainly not performance wise just as they demonstrated in Moss and Ozymandias the actors and writers are perfectly capable of convincingly stepping into versions of these characters back from earlier stages of their development my issue is more about how the flashbacks are distributed in terms of story structure the plot of El Camino follows Jesse's attempts to find Todd's hidden money before the cops do so he can buy himself a fake identity in skip town culminating in an eastwood-esque shootout with one of Todd's former collaborators who got his hands on the Lion's Share of the cash after that thrilling final shootout the problem is like the movie's over but there's still about 15 more minutes left to be spent on the denuma I don't know why I just hate that word seeing yeah [ __ ] Jesse and still employed teacher Walt yucking it up in a diner half a decade after the show concluded is wonderful glorious fan service but it's treated like Brian cranston's surprise reprisal of the role is the climax of the movie when really it's more of a treat for the fans and the climax is already done and dusted the first time I watched the movie I was like oh there must be another big action set piece coming up where Jesse has to elude the cops or something I thought the movie was over when he defeated the wicked welder but I guess it's not but then it was all this to say the cameos well handled in a vacuum as its own little scene but reserving it for the film's finale like a novelty hasn't aged particularly well if you're new to Breaking Bad and watching it for the first time the time gap between Productions will be lost on you since in context El Camino begins before the Breaking Bad finale has even wrapped and on top of all that the novelty of Brian Cranston reprising the role isn't all that novel now as he eventually come back and do it again multiple times and Better Call Saul which brings us to Better Call Saul was it Christmas was it Kwanzaa it was slip and fall season despite their shaky track record in modern pop culture there's no denying that the Allure of a prequel series is enthralling sci-fi worlds have the opportunity to depict Rich histories that previously existed as fascinating lore bits fantasy settings can detail the grand Legends the original Works referenced or maybe it's as simple as wanting to see additional Adventures of a character who met their demise in 2015 Breaking Bad Creator Vince Gilligan and Breaking Bad writer Peter Gould joined forces wait a second I don't have time for this I'll catch you all at Better Call Saul in the next video see ya where's the other half [ __ ] [Music] [Music] [Music] so

Channel: Slip Maker

Views: 879,410

Keywords: okbuddychicanery, kid named finger

Id: I7-0CR2-jsM

Length: 80min 24sec (4824 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 31 2022