Breaking Bad

[clocker]

I'm conflicted about the cousins.

Mostly, I don't care for the elemental, "force of nature" bad guy(s) trope.
It worked perfectly as Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men but seems almost like an easy ploy in a serial TV format.

The cousins didn't seem rooted in the same reality as everyone else in the show...they simply showed up when the plot needed them and then disappeared into the ether.
They seemed an almost supernatural aspect in a show that has painstakingly shown the very real forces shaping the other characters.

I also thought the axe was an affectation employed simply for shock effect and was totally out of character (even given the cousin's flimsy character development).
A pro hit man is going to forego an easy head/kill shot to walk around a public shooting scene and retrieve an axe?

Come on.

[megabyteme]

For me, the cousins were a reminder that there is a much nastier, professional alternative to the small-town, let's-make-it-into-the-business-through-trial-and-error way of doing things. They were dark and ruthless- it was their way of life from early age. Walt may want to be Heizenberg, at times, but he is torn by outside forces that keep him grounded in the real world. The cousins were not torn by anything- everything they knew had only one reality.

This also mirrors Hank's reluctance to go to "the big time".

As for No Country... that character got old for me after about 30 minutes. I won't even begin to defend that one.

[ted]

I didn't like the cousins at all. I felt like their presence during season 3 really slowed the show down. Actually, the first several episodes of this season felt really stale compared to the earlier seasons. There was a lot of bickering mixed with overly dramatic portrayals of the cousins in their quest for revenge, but very little progress in the main storyline.

The pace seems to have returned with the latest episode, and luckily the cousins storyline finished before taking up the entire season. That being said, I still think the show is very enjoyable. I guess it's to be expected that there will be some parts that aren't as great as others, especially when the first two seasons were so good.

[hoodevil]

fantastic episode S03E07, I hope for more.

[mpryme]

how do you think the show will end. e.g. with the cancer returning and walter dying?

[damanryechea]

what station is it on?

[Skiz]

what station is it on?

http://tinyurl.com/r2562u

[clocker]

So, Walt finally gets a close look at the reality of the world he now inhabits.

As scary as the twins were, ultimately it's become obvious that compared to Gus ("Chicken Man"), they were only a minor threat.
The twins were completely focused on revenge and didn't appear to be very good multitaskers.
Gus on the other hand, knows everything and is clearly focused on a much larger and more intricate scheme, a scheme that Walt is only now beginning to glimpse.

I think Walt has always viewed himself as the smartest guy in the room (which, being a teacher, he usually was) and the realization that Gus is not only smarter and more devious than he but more critically, is infinitely more ruthless, is going to bring out a Heisenberg v2.0...a much more extreme bad guy than we've seen so far.

Walt has been deluding himself by thinking that he had the luxury of whether to be a bad guy or not.
He thought he could choose to walk away and reform but it's clear that he's not the player he thought he was, that Gus has been ahead of him from the beginning.

Besides the set piece scene of the twin in the hospital room, last night's episode seemed pretty calm but the building pressure was palpable and will explode soon, I think.

[ikarus]

i really like this show and caracter development is great but "fly" episode was so boring that i almost gave up on it

[megabyteme]

Very good assessment (from a full month ago, nonetheless!) of what unfolded, clocker!

Just finished watched the season finale (got a very good chuckle out of Walt's reoccurring broken windshield) and liked how the characters have "grown" into their now full-on criminals.

There is also a subtle, yet glaring differe4nce between the last two season finales- last time, Walt had indirectly caused the deaths of the passengers of two planes; this season is one-on-one, direct murder of an "innocent" party. Walt unflinchingly took out two very dirty individuals last week, too...and he did it as Walt, not Heisenberg.

I really love this show!