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Brianruns10 wrote:I think the questions of how he got it into the packet, and how he got her the packet, fall under the category of reasonable suspension of disbelief. Remember that Walt is the same guy who, the shows asks us to believe, erased a laptop hard drive in a police evidence room using a magnet, pull of a heist of chemicals from a train, and orchestrated the hits on ten (or was is 11?) inmates in three separate prisons all within two minutes of each other. In the world of Breaking Bad, if such a man can do all that, why is it such a stretch to assume he figured out a way to tamper with a packet of artificial sweetener?

Agreed. Although Stevia is not an artificial sweetener.

I don't personally take issue with the Stevia thing, but the setup might have something to do with it. In all those scenarios just listed, we see pretty much from start to finish how they play out. Implausible though they may be, we see them occur, and the events we see seem to make sense, so we accept that they happened. With the Stevia, we're told that it happened but are not shown how. I think that makes a difference.

Amazon just put up a new listing for a barrel-less version of the Complete Series Blu-ray set, for a more agreeable price of 161 dollars. No release date yet, though.

My partner and I just finished watching the series. It may have been due to over-hype, but I can't say the show met the (very high) expectations I had going in. I mostly enjoyed it--the acting was consistently great, and there were moments in "Ozymandias," "Crawl Space," and "Granite State" that were truly remarkable, chilling, surprising, etc.--but on the whole I was frustrated by what I found to be a lack of depth and dimension to the characters and the material as a whole. Yes, all of the characters grapple with various moral/ethical questions at different points in the series, but the relationships ultimately seemed very plot-driven to me, and I wish that they had given interesting minor characters like Walter Jr. more to do than merely react to Walt. It may just be personal taste, but I thought The Sopranos handled this kind of material much better, balancing crime-oriented plot arcs that were consistently gripping and suspenseful with very nuanced character work and writing. Skyler struck me as being the richest character here, and her development felt all the more impressive considering that she starts off as very one-note in Season 1.

I also found myself annoyed at times by what felt like a self-satisfaction on the part of Gilligan and the writers, particularly as the show progressed and gained traction with fans and critics. They seemed waaay too taken with their own cleverness in plotting this show and making each new development "awesome," especially given that certain turns of the plot do seem a bit forced, as has been noted in previous posts. There are admittedly some great twists. Other touches, both dramatic (Season 2's plane crash/teddy bear conceit) and comic (the pizza on the roof, etc.) left me scratching my head. A good potboiler, but it often felt like it was straining for a profundity that wasn't there.

I did enjoy the final episode, but again my response to the series as a whole was somewhat lukewarm, so the stakes were not so high for me at that point. I do agree the finale suffered from having Walt go up against villains in whom there was little investment on the part of the viewers. Jack and his men are basically MacGuffins who allow Walt to perform a last redemptive gesture by saving Jesse.

Understand that I'm not trying to troll or bash the show here, merely working out my own response to it. FWIW, my partner and a good many friends and acquaintances seem to have enjoyed this quite a bit more than I did, so it might not have been my thing.

My most burning question: why does the car wash sell a large selection of greeting cards?

ianthemovie wrote:My most burning question: why does the car wash sell a large selection of greeting cards?

Oh, I've seen plenty of greeting card racks at various car washes in the American Southwest. I think what you really mean is: Why are the greeting cards located so implausibly and unbrowsably out of the customers' reach behind the counter? It's funny but that's one of the few details that took me out of the show's final episodes for a moment. You can see the production designer's impulse to cover up that bland background with something colorful and interesting, but it just feels so untrue to that location to put the cards there.

I'll admit having been inside very few car wash offices (the few times I've been to a car wash it's been a drive-thru type deal), so that's helpful to know. But yes, it seems like it would be hard to browse when they're kept behind the register!

I believe at one point Walt and Skyler mention also selling energy drinks, which made me wonder whether it's supposed to be akin to a convenience store. Still, I never really noticed any other convenience-store merchandise (candy, gum, etc.) aside from the cards and a few displays of car accessories. I guess it probably was a decision to avoid having characters at the register standing in front of a solid colored wall.

The only walk-in/wait-inside car wash I've ever been at was with my grandmother when I was a kid, and the place seemed to cater exclusively to older clientele who either did not want or could not be trusted to drive their own car through a car wash themselves. This was probably twenty years ago, but I'm pretty sure I remember post cards, greeting cards, and a spinner of cheap paperbacks-- they know their clientele. Perhaps the Whites are going for those impulse "Oh shit, I need a card for my aunt. I'll take the bunny card too" customers

Given Gilligan's penchant for out-of-nowhere plot devices (ex. the Roomba) I wouldn't have been surprised if that greeting card rack suddenly played an important role in the last season. Walt leaves a secret message for Lydia in a bunny card which she is instructed to buy at the register, but it gets intercepted by Walter Jr., who becomes wise to his father's criminal enterprise, etc.

I am guessing they also had tourists in mind too, as I imagine the location was not that far from any major highways that connect the southwest because it didn't look like it was in the city at all.

Just watched No Half Measures: Creating the Final Season of Breaking Bad. Watching the raw footage of some of the more pivotal scenes from the final 8 really hammered home how good a note this went out on.

The greatest moment of this show nobody talks about in great detail is when Mike briefly but instinctively pulls his gun on Fring in the first episode of the fourth season.

I enjoy "Ozymandias", but I still think "Crawl Space" is the best example of the show's synergy of script and style.

As far as individual episodes I think I liked the bottle episodes the most, especially "4 Days Out".

Movie is in the works, written and directed by Gilligan with no word on how much the original cast will be returning - though I'm seeing rumors it could be completely focused on Jesse Pinkman post-where we left him in the finale

It will be called Greenbriar, of all things.

Greenbriar might just be the code name they're shooting under.

Sounds just like a Gilligan episode title though, the sort of thing that doesn't necessarily reveal itself until you see it

I wonder if this would act as a wrap-up to Better Call Saul too

I really hope the massive success of Breaking Bad hasn't Kevin Smith-ed Vince Gilligan out of making anything that exists outside of that universe until his creative energy is totally spent. I'm still somewhat puzzled as to who wants this movie, outside of Aaron Paul - Better Call Saul is very good but even that is overstaying its welcome a bit.

The movie will be called El Camino and will drop on Netflix on October 11

This is pure speculation on my part, but there have been persistent rumors of some surprise project playing Telluride, and this would sure fulfill the ‘surprise’ element of that gossip.

Netflix Latinoamerica jumped the gun, posted a Spanish-subtitled teaser-- get it while it lasts