Breaking Bad - Season 3!!!

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Re: Breaking Bad - Season 3!!!

    Originally posted by Qazworld View Post
    finally caught this season: jesse is one of the greatest characters on TV, yo.
    I'm going to be more pissed off than Aaron Paul if he doesn't win every award he is eligible for.

    Well, probably not. I have come to realize a long time ago that the Emmys are a complete joke.

    Comment


    • Re: Breaking Bad - Season 3!!!

      anyone else think the next step is for jesse/walt to takeover the chickenhead's turf?

      Comment


      • Re: Breaking Bad - Season 3!!!

        Hard to say. Not sure if Walt would "want" to run that kind of business

        I can't imagine what the writers have up their sleeves for next season.



        Comment


        • Re: Breaking Bad - Season 3!!!

          Originally posted by Qazworld View Post
          anyone else think the next step is for jesse/walt to takeover the chickenhead's turf?
          I think that's the next step. Vince Gilligan said he wanted to do 4 seasons, and basically turn Mr. Chips (Walt) into Scarface then kill him.
          Excedrin Migraine. Red Bull. Fade in.

          Sinister Scrawlings

          Comment


          • Re: Breaking Bad - Season 3!!!

            lameo fan nuthuggin' fan boys.
            I rock it for Jesus and I'm in love.

            Dreaming the impossible dream, working towards realizing it one day at a time.

            http://johnnyatthemovies.wordpress.com/

            Comment


            • Re: Breaking Bad - Season 3!!!

              http://www.deadline.com/2010/08/brea...n-amc-website/

              Comment


              • Re: Breaking Bad - Season 3!!!

                God@mmit...



                Comment


                • Re: Breaking Bad - Season 3!!!

                  Finally am through Season 3. I don't watch many current television shows, so I don't have much to compare this too (save The Wire), but I was disappointed with this season.

                  Everything about the show remains very good, but the story logic and characterizations seem to have failed. I still like the writing, the drama, the situations, but this show, though very strong, cannot be in the same category as The Wire, and here's why...

                  One thing I really liked about The Wire is that in the different seasons they examined different sectors of society (the press, the unions, the schools). We would focus in on different characters while others would take a back seat.

                  In BB, we pretty much stay with Walt, Jesse, Skyler, and Hank/Marie. And it feels like the conflict they keep giving these characters is very artificial, as well as ways to keep throwing them together when they would not be.

                  Hank is traumatized by what he saw when in El Paso, but that does not prevent him from starting fights in bars and obsessively going after Heisenberg. The writers obviously want to keep Walt and Hank on some kind of collision course, but it seems so contrived as to not be believable.

                  The same goes for Jesse and Walt. They keep finding ways for them to partner up, but it just feels silly that time and again they find themselves in some kind of pickle where they have to help each other out of some life and death struggle. It worked amazingly well in season one. In season two it was a little bit much but I overlooked it. But now, after season three, it's annoying.

                  The characterization of Walt remains strong, and I like him the most. The actions of the other characters are not making sense and wildly inconsistent. I don't understand Hank's obsession with Heisenberg. An excuse not to go to El Paso? But why is he so afraid of that but not the Abq underworld which seems just as treacherous?

                  I wonder if the writers are aware of how annoying and stupid Skyler has become. Is there one scene in this entire series where she doesn't have a scowl on her face. She hates Walt so much I just don't get it (even before the divorce she always seems one tick away from loathing him). And this is the woman he so desperately wants to reunite with? Why? And her brilliant idea about blackjack and to help Walt launder money. What a moron. If Walt is ever caught, not amount of her bookkeeping skills will hide that Walt's drug money went to aide Hank. And that is the end of his career, as a DEA agent's recovery money was funded by a meth producer. Idiotic!

                  And Hank goes from being a jolly, fearless wisecracker to a blubbering mound of goo (he had already seen many horrible things before El Paso) while Marie, the shoplifter and all around dysfunctional person suddenly becomes a rock. I haven't seen such fast turn arounds since the days I watched pro wrestling and the good guy became the bad guy and vice versa every other week.

                  Jesse...what to say. I know he's supposed to be a bit of a moron, but his character is all over the map. He's dark, he's brooding. He's noble. He's a schemer. He's devious. And what bothered me most about season three was that the plot point that sets in motion all the conflict is patently absurd. This kid, who has almost died twice, been beaten severely many times and has never had two nickels to rub together decides that, after about a week or two of work, he's being screwed by Gus who's giving him $1.5 million for three months of work. Uhhh....so it's better to try to push meth to your recovery group? That's the path to prosperity? In The Wire, we know why Marlo wants to be on the street corner. That's who he is no matter how much he has. But Jesse? He'd rather try to push a few crystals with his idiot junkie friends rather than make no trouble and collect the million due to him? Really?

                  And this brings me to the use (overuse) of coincidence in the plotting of the episodes. It worked once or twice in the first two seasons, but as with other problems became annoying and non-believable in the third.

                  Walt is going to be axed by the twins, but luckily Mike (what's up with this guy? he starts off as a gumshoe type but ends up being Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando by the end; and isn't he 70 years old?) happens to be outside Walt's house when the twins show up. How many times can people be lucky like this?

                  And another big plot point for the last several episodes. Jesse just happens to be in a recovery group, and the woman he tries to seduce to hook on meth is the older sister of the kid who killed Combo? Come on.

                  Which brings me to Gus. I love this character and the way he is played. But he's styled as a careful, practical man who hides in plain site. Yet, for reasons we don't know, he devises an elaborate plot to kill key cartel members. Real careful and pragmatic to take on the cartels? And the reason he has to go to the hospital to kill the other twin is because this twin could talk and tell who gave the order to go after Hank. But why wouldn't he have thought or known this would be reported to the cartel the moment he gave the go ahead to the twins to switch from Walt to Hank? And what if they had both survived to go back to their bosses to say Gus told us to do this and bring all this heat down? Real careful and not in keeping with his character.

                  Which brings me back to the two thugs Walt runs over. In the meeting in the trailer Gus says these two street scumbags are trusted associates of his. They are? Really? The careful man is not insulated from bozos like these? It's all so contrived to keep the conflict and the shoot outs coming.

                  I still think this series works because the characters are compelling (and I love all the choices for the secondary characters and the actors who play them), mainly Walt and Cranston's acting, but it feels like the writers have totally lost control of the characterizations and any kind of sensible plot.

                  Am I alone in this? For these reasons, this series can't be put in the same league as The Wire, though I would place it solidly in the next tier.
                  Quato Lives!

                  Comment


                  • Re: Breaking Bad - Season 3!!!

                    I was going to start with this: "Hank is traumatized by what he saw when in El Paso, but that does not prevent him from starting fights in bars and obsessively going after Heisenberg."

                    because you didn't seem to understand that the motivation behind the bar fight, and the obsession with Heisenbarg was precisely because of what happened in El Paso, but then I read the rest of your post, and I don't have the time.

                    Suffice to say, I disagree with just about everything you said (and adamantly disagree with your characterization of Skyler in season 3...since she didn't turn stupid until this fourth season), and I think it's the best written show on television right now.

                    Having said that, I did have my doubts in some episodes of season 4, but it's still a great show.

                    HH

                    Comment


                    • Re: Breaking Bad - Season 3!!!

                      I don't remember there being a direct link between El Paso and the Heisenberg case. I thought El Paso was a general promotion and what he saw was so traumatizing that he was afraid to go back. But rather than admit that he latched on to Heisenberg as an excuse to stay. And the bar fight was an effort to pump himself up, to prove to himself that he was not afraid. Maybe I missed something. If so, I might concede that point but it simply felt like a contrived reason to keep him somehow tethered to Walt and what he is doing.

                      I still like the show a lot. I think the writing is strong in general, but I think they basically decided they would throw consistency and story logic away a bit in favor of these life and death struggles and keeping all the main characters intertwined and butting heads. It was amazing in season one but by season three i lost faith in it somewhat and it rapidly felt caricaturish rather than authentic.
                      Quato Lives!

                      Comment


                      • Re: Breaking Bad - Season 3!!!

                        I thought Season 3 was excellent. I was late to the Breaking Bad party, so I still haven't seen Season 4. But it has easily propelled itself to one of my favorite shows of all time.

                        SPOILER WARNING

                        The only thing about Season 3 that slightly irritated me was how fast Jane turned money hungry. Is it realistic? Of course, that much money in a bag could change anyone, especially a junkie. But part of me just wishes the only problem she posed was just the impact she had on Jessie. Walt's decision to let her die was so interesting because his motives weren't 100% clear. Was it to save Jessie by removing her as an influence? A wake up call? Or to eliminate the blackmail problem. Maybe all of them.

                        But even with that said, her death and Jessie's subsequent reaction was one of the most moving television moments I'd seen in a long, long time.

                        Can't wait for Season 4 to hit Netflix or DVD.
                        Ring-a-ding-ding, baby.

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X