I've got a 3 episode backlog now. I dislike Walter so much at this point that it's hard to continue. I guess I'm a shallow viewer, I need a protagonist I can relate to in order to stay interested. :-)
Well, that and I've been more or less totally obsessed with Tekkit to the point of lost sleep and the exclusion of other activities... I seem to be the only one with the bug on our server. :-)
I don't think I'd lack quite as much self awareness as Walter does, but maybe. He's so fucking bullheaded about common sense things. Ego is everything for Walter.
You would act like a narcissistic sociopath, given similar circumstances?
During the "say my name" scene we were like "what kind of terrible human being would find this scene cool?" And yet, I get the impression more often than I should that someone is still writing Walter/the show as if he is a 'cool dude.'
They stepped it up in the fifth season and finally started acting more like this dude is a sociopath, and a narcissist, and a horrible human being (and probably always was, even pre-show, pre-cancer) but there's still this lingering feeling that 'hey this guy is a nerd role model because he knows some shit about science."
Yeah. As I said, I'm kind of fucked in the head. If I went through that kind of nastiness I'd probably lose my already tenuous grip on sanity, rather like Walt over the course of the show.
I excused the pride in the beginning because it was still within the realm of an average and decent human being who is perhaps a bit insecure, but after seeing him brutally mistreat Jesse for basically no reason, clash with Gus and Mike over STUPID and petty sticking points again and again, and basically dig his own grave... I'm officially out of Camp Walter.
To be fair, I think that's where the writers want everyone this season. It wasn't that long ago that Jesse was the primary antagonist.
Walt is a pretty great deconstruction of the classic Greek hero. Hubris is his one flaw, and he is forced into circumstances that try him in order to save his family (like Odysseus sailing back to find his wife). However, the brilliance here lies in that instead of being blinded, or maimed, or otherwise wounded by his hubris, hubris is Walt's wound. It festers and grows and consumes him, until he actually becomes the archetypical villain.
W/r/t what Dave said, I feel that the scenes where it feels like Walt is being written as a "cool dude" are actually a byproduct of these scenes being written with Walt showing the most indifferent sort of sociopathy possible. Since I think that human beings largely equate a nonchalant attitude and a blase apathy towards major decisions and events as a type of "cool," it's easy to see how one might draw your conclusion; however, I feel that the writers are mainly using this as a device to show just how detached from his atrocities Walt has become. It's sort of like how Alan Moore was horrified to learn that people idolized Rorschach and found him cool, while he intended his attitudes to demonstrate a baseline psychopathy rather than any noble sense of purpose.
I've been sympathetic to Walter and while I've lost all my sympathy towards him, I've still found him incredibly fascinating and why he acts the way he does.
One thing a buddy of mine pointed out was how in earlier seasons, how Walt would break from his normal persona to occasionally be Heisenberg because he was riding off the adrenaline rush from the whole thing. And now he's kind of the opposite where he's always Heisenberg until he's at his house being Walter White again, when interacting with his kids and Hank.
Since I think that human beings largely equate a nonchalant attitude and a blase apathy towards major decisions and events as a type of "cool," it's easy to see how one might draw your conclusion; however, I feel that the writers are mainly using this as a device to show just how detached from his atrocities Walt has become. It's sort of like how Alan Moore was horrified to learn that people idolized Rorschach and found him cool, while he intended his attitudes to demonstrate a baseline psychopathy rather than any noble sense of purpose.
I definitely give the writer's credit, because he's developed into such the dark anti-hero. I think the closest television character he can be comparable to is Vic Mackey. The main difference is that Vic became so absorbed with being a cop that everything became detached, while Walt has been intentionally fueled by helping his family throughout the whole series (Or that's why he reasons to himself to why being a Meth-Kingpin is good)
Another example of a bad person being a hero, on the same network even is Don Draper. Don is such an despicable character because he represents a lot of the negative thinking of the time period, but because he is successful, suave, and a fantastic salesman/public speaker, people ADORE HIM.
One thing a buddy of mine pointed out was how in earlier seasons, how Walt would break from his normal persona to occasionally be Heisenberg because he was riding off the adrenaline rush from the whole thing. And now he's kind of the opposite where he's always Heisenberg until he's at his house being Walter White again, when interacting with his kids and Hank.
The Walt/Heisenberg duality is about all they talk (and circle jerk) about on /r/breakingbad.
That and how every extraneous set item is foreshadowing something. I mean, the show clearly uses subtle foreshadowing, but they get a little berserk about it.
I've never been sympathetic to Walter. Jesse and Mike were really the characters to follow this season.
Yeah, Walt was tolerably sympathetic through about the first half of series one. I could see myself doing something illegal to save my family--to an extent, an extent that Walt promptly exceeded.
By about halfway through series two, Walt has stopped being an anti-hero and is an anti-villain, slowly developing to the outright villainy of season four, and at this point he's both a villain and a sort of body of plot inertia; that is, though he is one focal point for the series, his decisions and actions really just serve as a catalyst for the more interesting devlopment of the people he was (and is) involved with. Sail's notes on Jesse and Mike are really good examples of this, as well as the development of Hank from this sort of quasi-3D plot figure to a character with huge depth who might end up being the immovable object to Walt's unstoppable force.
I think Vince Gilligan is very aware of all of this, as well. Consider the conversation about the "inertia" of the Crystal Ship in the half-season finale.
One thing a buddy of mine pointed out was how in earlier seasons, how Walt would break from his normal persona to occasionally be Heisenberg because he was riding off the adrenaline rush from the whole thing. And now he's kind of the opposite where he's always Heisenberg until he's at his house being Walter White again, when interacting with his kids and Hank.
The Walt/Heisenberg duality is about all they talk (and circle jerk) about on /r/breakingbad.
That and how every extraneous set item is foreshadowing something. I mean, the show clearly uses subtle foreshadowing, but they get a little berserk about it.
The show doesn't forget ANYTHING that happened in previous seasons. That's the beauty of it. Especially when they bring back characters from 1-2 seasons into a new season for a great season. I loved the way they brought back characters like Tio and Mike.
I think that's the one weak point of the series. Walter/Heisenberg as necessary plot device. You KNOW he's not going to back down. You KNOW he's not going to have any epiphany. You know he's going to fly headlong to rock bottom at full velocity and that's that.
You know this because otherwise the show would end, unless Vince is gonna pull a fast one and do the last 4 episodes in prison or pull an 80s movie style retirement-from-heinous-crime arc at the very end, which he isn't.
Well, Walt's out. The last episode did a really good job of attempting to humanize him and show that he wants to fix himself. But, since Walt's instincts for self-preservation trump literally every moral and law, it's quite possible that once Hank asks the question that needs to be asked, Walt is going to jump back into his old ways full-bore.
I don't see a hit on Hank being out of the question at this point. The last boundary to be crossed is Walt hurting the family he claims to protect in order to save his own life. Failing that, we know he has a fake ID from the season premier's foreshadowing opening, and that Saul's "vacuum cleaner" is still a huge Chekov's Gun that's sitting on the table, loaded and safety-off.
I recently got one of my friends to watch the show by hankering him with the first three episodes (Which I believe decides if that person will enjoy the show or not) and he has watched all of Seasons 1-4 within 2 weeks.
Also, if you guys have Netflix, they put the first 8 episodes of Season 5 up for instant streaming.
Just six more days...and if this show can stick the landing, I believe it could stand as the greatest show of all time.
Comments
Finish up *just* as the last episode airs, so as to avoid spoilers.
I've got a 3 episode backlog now. I dislike Walter so much at this point that it's hard to continue. I guess I'm a shallow viewer, I need a protagonist I can relate to in order to stay interested. :-)
Well, that and I've been more or less totally obsessed with Tekkit to the point of lost sleep and the exclusion of other activities... I seem to be the only one with the bug on our server. :-)
During the "say my name" scene we were like "what kind of terrible human being would find this scene cool?" And yet, I get the impression more often than I should that someone is still writing Walter/the show as if he is a 'cool dude.'
They stepped it up in the fifth season and finally started acting more like this dude is a sociopath, and a narcissist, and a horrible human being (and probably always was, even pre-show, pre-cancer) but there's still this lingering feeling that 'hey this guy is a nerd role model because he knows some shit about science."
To be fair, I think that's where the writers want everyone this season. It wasn't that long ago that Jesse was the primary antagonist.
W/r/t what Dave said, I feel that the scenes where it feels like Walt is being written as a "cool dude" are actually a byproduct of these scenes being written with Walt showing the most indifferent sort of sociopathy possible. Since I think that human beings largely equate a nonchalant attitude and a blase apathy towards major decisions and events as a type of "cool," it's easy to see how one might draw your conclusion; however, I feel that the writers are mainly using this as a device to show just how detached from his atrocities Walt has become. It's sort of like how Alan Moore was horrified to learn that people idolized Rorschach and found him cool, while he intended his attitudes to demonstrate a baseline psychopathy rather than any noble sense of purpose.
One thing a buddy of mine pointed out was how in earlier seasons, how Walt would break from his normal persona to occasionally be Heisenberg because he was riding off the adrenaline rush from the whole thing. And now he's kind of the opposite where he's always Heisenberg until he's at his house being Walter White again, when interacting with his kids and Hank. I definitely give the writer's credit, because he's developed into such the dark anti-hero. I think the closest television character he can be comparable to is Vic Mackey. The main difference is that Vic became so absorbed with being a cop that everything became detached, while Walt has been intentionally fueled by helping his family throughout the whole series (Or that's why he reasons to himself to why being a Meth-Kingpin is good)
Another example of a bad person being a hero, on the same network even is Don Draper. Don is such an despicable character because he represents a lot of the negative thinking of the time period, but because he is successful, suave, and a fantastic salesman/public speaker, people ADORE HIM.
That and how every extraneous set item is foreshadowing something. I mean, the show clearly uses subtle foreshadowing, but they get a little berserk about it.
By about halfway through series two, Walt has stopped being an anti-hero and is an anti-villain, slowly developing to the outright villainy of season four, and at this point he's both a villain and a sort of body of plot inertia; that is, though he is one focal point for the series, his decisions and actions really just serve as a catalyst for the more interesting devlopment of the people he was (and is) involved with. Sail's notes on Jesse and Mike are really good examples of this, as well as the development of Hank from this sort of quasi-3D plot figure to a character with huge depth who might end up being the immovable object to Walt's unstoppable force.
I think Vince Gilligan is very aware of all of this, as well. Consider the conversation about the "inertia" of the Crystal Ship in the half-season finale.
You know this because otherwise the show would end, unless Vince is gonna pull a fast one and do the last 4 episodes in prison or pull an 80s movie style retirement-from-heinous-crime arc at the very end, which he isn't.
I don't see a hit on Hank being out of the question at this point. The last boundary to be crossed is Walt hurting the family he claims to protect in order to save his own life. Failing that, we know he has a fake ID from the season premier's foreshadowing opening, and that Saul's "vacuum cleaner" is still a huge Chekov's Gun that's sitting on the table, loaded and safety-off.
I recently got one of my friends to watch the show by hankering him with the first three episodes (Which I believe decides if that person will enjoy the show or not) and he has watched all of Seasons 1-4 within 2 weeks.
Also, if you guys have Netflix, they put the first 8 episodes of Season 5 up for instant streaming.
Just six more days...and if this show can stick the landing, I believe it could stand as the greatest show of all time.