Breaking Bad

[Kormodd]

I wouldn't consider his weight a factor if it was just plain pickpocketing. But taking someone's pack of cigarettes and replacing it with a duplicate pack seems like it would require some dexterity (also, how would they know how many cigarettes Jesse has in his pack? As a smoker (I'm trying to quit -- don't bust balls), I would know something was up if I had five cigarettes left and then suddenly had fifteen in my pack). Plus, yeah, his having large sausage fingers (I think that's how Saul described them in one episode) makes it seem even more unbelievable.

[CSW]

Great post, Wes! Robot Jesse is my new preferred ending!

With regards to the book in the bathroom, I actually really liked that. Until it was reveled in the first ep of the back-8 that Hank was pooping in the en-suite toilet in Walt and Skyler's bedroom.

I did not like it then as I'm sure there is a main bathroom that guests would use, rather than walk into someones bedroom and drop a stinky deuce 10 yards from where they sleep. NOT COOL HANK.

[cavorting with nudists]

I think Dean Norris has said something like Yeah, well, if you're in the home of a family member, and you're there all the time to the point where it's almost like a second home, you go to the big, spacious bathroom. I'd probably give my wife's brother-in-law a dirty look if I found him doing it, but hey, it's Hank, he feels entitled.

[B_Buster]

However, I thought that the whole thing was pretty great way to show the repercussions of the drugs business and how it negatively reaches into wider society.

This is another reason I dislike the show. The repercussions of the meth business is hardly shown at all in Breaking Bad. Showing how Walt's high standards have contributed to the death and destruction of its users obviously might spoil our "rooting" for him. At least The Sopranos didn't shy away from the damage its criminal characters were causing to other people (and not just other criminals).

[nec13]

However, I thought that the whole thing was pretty great way to show the repercussions of the drugs business and how it negatively reaches into wider society.

This is another reason I dislike the show. The repercussions of the meth business is hardly shown at all in Breaking Bad. Showing how Walt's high standards have contributed to the death and destruction of its users obviously might spoil our "rooting" for him. At least The Sopranos didn't shy away from the damage its criminal characters were causing to other people (and not just other criminals).

That's the one aspect of the show that I find most bothersome. It doesn't do nearly a good enough job of conveying to the viewer the lives that have been decimated by meth use. In the first few seasons, the writers at least made an attempt to show the deleterious effects that meth had on those that use it (i.e. Jane, Jesse, Wendy, that methhead couple). That seems to have been abandoned in subsequent seasons, however.

[cavorting with nudists]

Some uncharacteristic schoolmarmishness from Mike. I have noticed this, and I assume it's a conscious choice on Vince Gilligan's part, and I imagine the thinking went something like: "We're not going to spend a lot of screen time on afterschool-special-type warnings on the danger of drug abuse. Our audience is made up of adults, and if they know what the word 'meth' means, they know it's bad shit, and it would just look like we're covering our ass."

In any case it's pretty funny to think they avoid it because it might spoil our 'rooting' for Walt. Yeah--obviously their primary concern is to keep us rooting for Walt.

[Kormodd]

I think that aspect will be highlighted more in the upcoming episodes, provided Hank doesn't kick the bucket. Hank has said several times that Walt has "ruined lives" by producing meth, and I think he'll continue to be outspoken about it. Walt has consciously separated himself from the actual dealing and use of meth, and I have a feeling (though I could definitely be wrong) he'll get a glimpse of the horror meth has inflicted on people's lives before the show is through.

But I don't know that most people who watch the show really root for Walt, at least not after the 2nd - 3rd season. He's committed unbelievably despicable acts, and the only admirable thing about him at this point is his ballsy, clever ways of getting out of seemingly hopeless situations (but even then, these generally involve him doing something horrible).

[cavorting with nudists]

Not to be a nag on the subject, but I actually think this:

I have a feeling (though I could definitely be wrong) he'll get a glimpse of the horror meth has inflicted on people's lives before the show is through.

...would kind of suck. Walt deserves a lot of suffering before he dies, to be sure, but if any of that suffering takes the form of seeing what his product has done to its users, that would be a sentimental retreat on the show's part.  It would mean that he still has a conscience left. He's become fully a monster; let the writers stick it out to the end.

(The only way he could credibly be affected by witnessing the ravages of meth would be if Walt Jr. were using it, but that would be too hokey for belief.)

[B_Buster]

Hey, I'm not the guy who came up with the idea that viewers are rooting for Walt. Yet it comes up all the time on Talking Bad (and I'm glad to say not on Breaking Nutz--as the Executive Producer I won't have it). Samuel L. Jackson even suggested that he's rooting for Walt because he's a super badass or something equally idiotic. Also, did The Sopranos turn into an afterschool special when they showed the effects of its criminal characters' behavior? Hardly.

[Kormodd]

Not to be a nag on the subject, but I actually think this:

I have a feeling (though I could definitely be wrong) he'll get a glimpse of the horror meth has inflicted on people's lives before the show is through.

...would kind of suck. Walt deserves a lot of suffering before he dies, to be sure, but if any of that suffering takes the form of seeing what his product has done to its users, that would be a sentimental retreat on the show's part.  It would mean that he still has a conscience left. He's become fully a monster; let the writers stick it out to the end.

(The only way he could credibly be affected by witnessing the ravages of meth would be if Walt Jr. were using it, but that would be too hokey for belief.)

I'm not saying that Walt would give a shit. He definitely wouldn't. I think, though, that Hank will (or might) try to show Walt the suffering Walt's caused by creating this awesome high-quality meth product, something that no one on the show thus far but Hank has cared about.

And yeah, Walt Jr. becoming a methhead would be immensely stupid.

I hope they have Gilbert Gottfried on Talking Bad at some point; his rendition of the "I am the one who knocks" speech was Oscar-worthy (while SLJ's was just stupid and embarrassing).

[fonpr]

Hey, I'm not the guy who came up with the idea that viewers are rooting for Walt.

Anti-heros are getting all kind of talk, these days.

Probably means the concept will soon be dead.

[cavorting with nudists]

Hey, I'm not the guy who came up with the idea that viewers are rooting for Walt.

But you are the one who came up with the idea that the makers avoid showing the consequences of meth use because that "obviously might spoil our 'rooting' for him."  If that was uppermost in their minds, maybe they shoulda rethought that poisoning-a-little-kid idea.

[Crusherkc]

Hey, I'm not the guy who came up with the idea that viewers are rooting for Walt.

Anti-heros are getting all kind of talk, these days.

Probably means the concept will soon be dead.

From your fingertips to G-d's peepers, Fredericks.

[CSW]

I think Dean Norris has said something like Yeah, well, if you're in the home of a family member, and you're there all the time to the point where it's almost like a second home, you go to the big, spacious bathroom. I'd probably give my wife's brother-in-law a dirty look if I found him doing it, but hey, it's Hank, he feels entitled.

That must be a difference in housing between the UK and the US. My en-suite bathroom is little. The main bathroom that a guest would use is much larger, and this is also the case in other people's homes I know of with more than one bathroom. That said, actually more houses of people I know have only the one bathroom, as houses here are older etc. In fact my buddy's house still has the old style outhouse toilet that was the norm in the Victorian era. (He has an indoor bathroom as well and the actual toilet outside is a modern replacement from the original one.)

I'm sure me talking about the differences in bathroom setups between newly built suburban Albuquerque homes and urban/sub-urban homes built in the late 1800's in the North of England is exactly what Vince Gilligan was trying to get started when they wrote that scene,

[CSW]

Mike's point about the Soprano's is valid. There were quite a few episodes showing how what those guys did fucked over "innocent bystanders" going about their day-to-day business.  The gardener/landscaper guy comes to mind. There was no doubt that all of those guys were a blight on the areas of New Jersey they were operating in.

As for rooting for anti-heroes, some people might be. I generally am not rooting for them to "succeed" or "win" but I am hoping for the most entertaining story possible. So if that means Tony Soprano beating Ralphie to death, or Don Draper cheating on his wife with his ex-wife who he cheated on repeatedly, or Jax Teller throwing a guys off roofs, or Walter White becoming the meth emperor of the South-West, so be it. I leave it up to the writers to decide if they can get "win" and get away with it forever or not.  Which made it fun when David Chase refused to make that call and let you to decide for yourself.