Breaking Bad

[mfunk9786]

Amazing work, but jeez, does that sound disgusting.

[Andre Jurieu]

Amazing work, but jeez, does that sound disgusting.

Yeah, I understand the need for the blue raspberry pop rocks, but black licorice hats sounds like an awful thing to put into ice-cream (why not just oreo cookies?). Odd, since some of his other ideas sound like they would be pretty good flavors (I would track down Sterling Scooper and Dude Food if they were real).

[flyonthewall2983]

Oreos with blue raspberry Pop Rocks is better?

[Andre Jurieu]

Oreos with blue raspberry Pop Rocks is better?

Touché. Yeah, I thought about it afterwards and realized that's not a great combo of flavors either. I would think the blue pop rocks could stand on its own really.

[flyonthewall2983]

Then the joke is is that B&J's is selling Meth-flavored ice cream.

[Andre Jurieu]

Then the joke is is that B&J's is selling Meth-flavored ice cream.

Yes.

[mfunk9786]

...that's the joke.

[flyonthewall2983]

Even if they did put Oreos in, it would still be a better marketing tool for the new season than anything AMC has done. So far, there's just a 15-second teaser and a photo gallery. You'd think there'd be something more juicy in terms of a teaser.

[Cronenfly]

I think (next to) no promotion is the best promotion in this case, given the slate-clearing way in which last season ended, with any number of possible ways forward left to the imagination. After the leaked photo online of the finale's big surprise, AMC's clamping down on info of any kind was probably the best way to maintain buzz. I don't see anything they could do to raise fan anticipation higher than it already is.

[mfunk9786]

Took the words out of my mouth.

[matrixschmatrix]

Welp, finally gave in and got on the bus- and three episodes in I'm already desperately wishing I'd bought more than the first season and calculating whether or not it's worth extra money to get the next one here by Tuesday. Though from what I've heard, the second season isn't the series' strongest, so maybe I should buy it and the third at the same time.

[Murdoch]

The second season is mostly an "in-between" season, a build-up to what's to come that doesn't have any big season-long story arcs (although the first and second seasons sort of blend together in my head so others can correct me if I'm wrong). I'd put it on equal ground as the first, but it can't compare to the third and especially fourth seasons.

[domino harvey]

I stopped watching halfway thru season two, just couldn't be bothered any more. At some point are any of the supporting characters even remotely interesting?

[mfunk9786]

Yes. Yes yes a million times yes. Finish Season 3 and if you still walk away, you're free to go. But stopping where you stopped should be criminal.

[Cold Bishop]

Interesting to hear these opinions... for the longest time, it seemed people loved Season 2, but disliked Season 3. In my opinion, last season was the best, and really set the new bar for what a TV drama should aim for. (I'm practically resigned at this point that 5 must end up being a comedown).

The supporting characters definitely get more involved throughout Season 2. I was worried throughout the first season (especially after the shoplifting scare) that the series would give into the habit for tv dramas of going off on side-character subplots only tangentially related to the main one, but the show definitely surprised me with how it managed to keep everything in focus... and did you bail before Bob Odenkirk became a recurring cast member?

[domino harvey]

My last ep was the RV battery dying. The Odenkirk character was the first entertaining supporting character but he was also pretty cartoonish and seemed like he wandered in from a completely different show

[mfunk9786]

I don't know of a lawyer who advertises on television who isn't pretty cartoonish, but that's besides the point - Saul Goodman becomes a bit more believable as things roll along. Anyway, the 2nd season ends with a weak bit of "this whole season has been building up to..." plotting, so asking you to continue on will be equal parts rewarding and frustrating... until you get to Season 3, that is. Really, this is a juice is worth the squeeze situation if there ever was one. The show goes from guilty pleasure to essential all-time great drama series pretty quickly after Season 2 is over and done with.

[Professor Wagstaff]

If my memory of the episode order is correct, that means you never met the Gus Fring character who is among my favorite villains of all time. I was still more of a casual fan through season 2 but mfunk's assessment is spot-on. It has its faults but at the same time opens the story up for spectacular work in the third and fourth seasons.

[knives]

Gus doesn't appear until the very end (like last two episodes) of season two. I like the first two seasons a lot, but it really grows into itself during season three.

[flyonthewall2983]

Oreos with blue raspberry Pop Rocks is better?

Touché. Yeah, I thought about it afterwards and realized that's not a great combo of flavors either. I would think the blue pop rocks could stand on its own really.

I think it'd probably taste better if it was sorbet instead of ice cream.

[swo17]

I stopped watching halfway thru season two, just couldn't be bothered any more. At some point are any of the supporting characters even remotely interesting?

Clearly you neglected to follow my instructions!

[matrixschmatrix]

Just burned through the second half of the first season tonight- whatever other qualities the show has or lacks, it is intensely propulsive, and very easy to click on to the next episode when you finish one. Which I didn't find to be the case with, say, The Sopranos.

I'm surprised to see how quickly Walter's murderous rage and need for power have developed- it's a logical place for the series to go, but I would have thought they would play him as a guy out of his depth for longer. After seven episodes, he's already a guy who seems relatively unconcerned about who gets hurt as long as Walt gets to stoke his masculine pride.

[knives]

I think it was there from the beginning to be honest. Remember the scene in the pilot where he kicks the kid at the store. It's just a matter of him accepting the world he has ventured into.

[matrixschmatrix]

True, and I like how quickly the pilot's sense of Walt's self-realization through violence (it's hard not to see him kicking the shit out of the douchebag as a heroic act) curdles into a feeling of disgust at the self that is realized that way.

Also, is it just me or does Jesse get much smarter about halfway through the season? In the pilot and the Cat's in the Bag/Bag's in the River duo, it's not clear that he's a lot smarter than the Skinny Pete/Badger set, but he seems much more capable of independent thought, decision making, and learning as soon as we spend much time with him without Walter there. Particularly as soon as we visit his family, and find out that he isn't from the background one might expect. In the commentary on Crazy Handful of Nothing, Gilligan mentions that the plan was originally to kill Jesse off at the end of the season- I wonder if the turn in the character came at around the time they decided he should stick around.

[knives]

I think Jesse is just a really good adapter and very empathetic (which is super important in season four). It's not that he's especially traditional smart, at least as I see it, as much as he has that practical smart.