this is what comes of blood for blood, Hector.

[pocochina]

Who wants to talk to me about the first four seasons of Breaking Bad? EVERYONE, THAT'S WHO!

It’s hard to stick with (I’ve been “watching” BB since it first went on Netflix Instant months ago) because ugh, as much as I can watch violence of much greater magnitude if it’s clearly fantasy, it’s still hard for me to distance myself from realistic human

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[eowyn_315]

Who wants to talk to me about the first four seasons of Breaking Bad?

ME ME ME ME!!!

It's kind of funny to me that you found BB hard to stick with, because this was one of those shows where I started out watching it like a totally normal human being, and gradually started going faster and faster until I was mainlining episodes one after another because I couldn't pull myself away.

I think the pacing of it is part of what pulls me in? It starts out almost agonizingly slow - not because it's boring at all, but because it's just so dedicated to the little moments, the details and quirks of reality that most fiction just skims over because it's not exciting to watch your characters fumbling through the practicalities of their situation. It's kind of like Mad Men in that sense where you watch an episode and feel like nothing really happened and yet it was the most incredible hour of television. Except that with BB, the stakes are a lot higher, so I have that need to know what happens next that makes it hard to stop watching, even while I'm enjoying the slow unfolding of it all.

(It kind of makes me sad that, as the finish line looms on the horizon, they've definitely picked up the pace and things like Walt's plan with the lily of the valley at the end of S4 feel like they've taken storytelling short cuts by not walking us through exactly how he did it step by step. Which says a lot about my expectations, because that's par for the course and I wouldn't even blink at it on most shows.)

Even more distressingly, there are times where it’s hard not to sympathize with him a little.

I kind of LOVE this, even though it makes me uncomfortable? Because it's such a deliberate subversion - you usually go into a show expecting to like and sympathize with the protagonist, and then it's kind of uncomfortable when you get a truly unlikable character that challenges all your protagonist privilege-induced instincts. But we're so plainly encouraged to loathe Walt - that's the entire point of his character arc - that it's the genuinely sympathetic moments that catch you off-guard.

I came into it knowing that she gets a lot of hate from viewers for like, being female at us and everything, so I was obviously prepared to adore her just on principle.

Hahaha, if I could've predicted anything about your reaction to this show, it'd be that you'd love Skyler. :)

I adore Jesse.

Haha, GOOD. Jesse is my fave. There is a meta cooking in my head re: all the parallels between him and Skyler, in the way that Walt manipulates them into staying with him and how they've kind of switched roles, where Skyler used to be the one who was emotionally attached to Walt and Jesse was just a business partner, and now Skyler's the one who stays for pragmatic reasons (because she knows exactly how trapped she is but there's nothing she can do about it) and Jesse is the one who stays in this abusive relationship because he needs Walt's ~love and approval.

[pocochina]

Agreed, the pacing is phenomenal.

I kind of LOVE this, even though it makes me uncomfortable? Because it's such a deliberate subversion - you usually go into a show expecting to like and sympathize with the protagonist, and then it's kind of uncomfortable when you get a truly unlikable character that challenges all your protagonist privilege-induced instincts. But we're so plainly encouraged to loathe Walt - that's the entire point of his character arc - that it's the genuinely sympathetic moments that catch you off-guard.

ooooh, yes, exactly.

aw, I would love to read your thoughts about Jesse.