"What happened?" "I won."
We finished season 4 of Breaking Bad at lunch today and I am STILL overwhelmed with FEELINGS about it. This is actually really surprising to me because I was just telling BrynnMcK the other day that while the show is interesting, it hadn't (up til then) really grabbed me emotionally. I cared to see where the characters were going, but was not that invested beyond curiosity. I felt like the show had been way too blown up (ha ha) by critics and was feeling uncharitable towards it (and Walter White in particular). And then season 4 happened.
I'm not even sure where to start. Maybe with my feelings about Walter, which are, to put it lightly, MIXED. The beauty of what happens in season 4 is that you realize the first three seasons of deconstructing Walt have led to - as the pilot, I believe, promised - transformation. Because it turns out that, yes, as a matter of fact, he IS the type of guy who would kill a kid. (OMGWTFBBQ.)
And the thing about Walt...the thing about Walter White is that I never have liked him all that much. It's like shades of Thomas Covenant (something I explicitly said to AHH at the beginning of S4). This main character is so flawed, in such unlikeable ways, that you have to build people around him that you care about. And I like Skyler and Walt Jr just fine (though TBH by the end of S4 I was side-eying that little shit hard for his comments to Skyler), but man. Hank?! I did not see caring about Hank coming! And Marie and her obsession with purple. But what's MOST fascinating about season 4 is that although I do care about those supporting characters, the people I was most interested in were the ones who turned out to be the main characters' primary antagonists: Gus Fring and Mike the bodyguard guy. (OH MY GOD I LOVE MIKE SO MUCH.)
I don't even know how to explain why I like Gus more than Walt when they are so eerily similar. I think because Gus' ugliness is contained? IDK! It's the magic of this season that even as he was sitting in the car in front of the nursing home, music swelling beautifully, I desperately did not want him to go inside since I knew there was no way it could end well. AND HE'S OSTENSIBLY THE BAD GUY. I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS SHOW AT ALL.
Of course there's Jesse, which I think we as an audience can all agree is probably the most sympathetic of the characters. And hooooooly shit when he inevitably finds out everything Walt has done (HE'S GOT TO FIND OUT, RIGHT?), that is gonna be one hell of an explosion. SURELY the end game has to be Jesse killing Walt. Or at least coming at him. But Walt has transformed. Walt isn't Walt anymore, he's the guy who won. HE'S THE DANGER. HOW RIGHT THAT TURNED OUT TO BE.
What the show ALSO miraculously managed to do, though, was HIDE that transformation in the episode where Walt gets kidnapped by Gus and taken to the desert and ends under the house, laughing his ass off. In that and the next episode, I legitimately felt sorry for him. He seemed like he had crossed a threshold and finally realized that all these consequences he was suffering were actually do to his own bad choices, and not just other people being ~inexplicably~ mean to him. (Oh my god, Walt's COMPLETE BLINDNESS to his own culpability just INFURIATES me. And he is the WORLD'S WORST APOLOGIZER.)
BUT THEN. HE POISONS THAT KID. Theoretically. I mean I'm still not sure how exactly that would have happened, but we conveniently have no idea where he is for a good portion of the episode before Brock gets sick. And that last shot of S4. THAT IS SOME CHILLING SHIT RIGHT THERE. And the fact that I CAN TOTALLY BUY that he poisoned Brock is what really matters here. This is not the Walter of season 1. This is new Walter and he is way more terrifying than Gus Fring. Gus was not passionless, but he was controlled and not as imminently selfish, IMO, as Walt is. I think. I'm all confused. I really liked Gus even though he took a box cutter to that dude's neck. I FEEL LIKE A TERRIBLE PERSON NOW. STUPID SHOW.
Two seasons ago I was like, "Well, this is a good show, but I'll never watch it again." Now I'm like, "hmmm...maybe I should re-watch all of season 4 immediately." SIGH.
I can honestly say that season 4 of Breaking Bad is not only one of the greatest seasons of TV that I've ever seen, but it makes the first three seasons better upon reflection.
Now onto season 5, which Netflix doesn't have any of yet, but it looks like we're starting to record the episodes on AMC JUST IN TIME as we're getting 5x01 next week. Woo! (Also I'm totally unspoiled, so please help me stay that way.)
ION: Someone needs to take this bag of Banana/Coconut Snackaroons away from me before I eat them all.
This entry was cross-posted at my Dreamwidth account. Please comment here or there. (
comments at DW)
I'm not even sure where to start. Maybe with my feelings about Walter, which are, to put it lightly, MIXED. The beauty of what happens in season 4 is that you realize the first three seasons of deconstructing Walt have led to - as the pilot, I believe, promised - transformation. Because it turns out that, yes, as a matter of fact, he IS the type of guy who would kill a kid. (OMGWTFBBQ.)
And the thing about Walt...the thing about Walter White is that I never have liked him all that much. It's like shades of Thomas Covenant (something I explicitly said to AHH at the beginning of S4). This main character is so flawed, in such unlikeable ways, that you have to build people around him that you care about. And I like Skyler and Walt Jr just fine (though TBH by the end of S4 I was side-eying that little shit hard for his comments to Skyler), but man. Hank?! I did not see caring about Hank coming! And Marie and her obsession with purple. But what's MOST fascinating about season 4 is that although I do care about those supporting characters, the people I was most interested in were the ones who turned out to be the main characters' primary antagonists: Gus Fring and Mike the bodyguard guy. (OH MY GOD I LOVE MIKE SO MUCH.)
I don't even know how to explain why I like Gus more than Walt when they are so eerily similar. I think because Gus' ugliness is contained? IDK! It's the magic of this season that even as he was sitting in the car in front of the nursing home, music swelling beautifully, I desperately did not want him to go inside since I knew there was no way it could end well. AND HE'S OSTENSIBLY THE BAD GUY. I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS SHOW AT ALL.
Of course there's Jesse, which I think we as an audience can all agree is probably the most sympathetic of the characters. And hooooooly shit when he inevitably finds out everything Walt has done (HE'S GOT TO FIND OUT, RIGHT?), that is gonna be one hell of an explosion. SURELY the end game has to be Jesse killing Walt. Or at least coming at him. But Walt has transformed. Walt isn't Walt anymore, he's the guy who won. HE'S THE DANGER. HOW RIGHT THAT TURNED OUT TO BE.
What the show ALSO miraculously managed to do, though, was HIDE that transformation in the episode where Walt gets kidnapped by Gus and taken to the desert and ends under the house, laughing his ass off. In that and the next episode, I legitimately felt sorry for him. He seemed like he had crossed a threshold and finally realized that all these consequences he was suffering were actually do to his own bad choices, and not just other people being ~inexplicably~ mean to him. (Oh my god, Walt's COMPLETE BLINDNESS to his own culpability just INFURIATES me. And he is the WORLD'S WORST APOLOGIZER.)
BUT THEN. HE POISONS THAT KID. Theoretically. I mean I'm still not sure how exactly that would have happened, but we conveniently have no idea where he is for a good portion of the episode before Brock gets sick. And that last shot of S4. THAT IS SOME CHILLING SHIT RIGHT THERE. And the fact that I CAN TOTALLY BUY that he poisoned Brock is what really matters here. This is not the Walter of season 1. This is new Walter and he is way more terrifying than Gus Fring. Gus was not passionless, but he was controlled and not as imminently selfish, IMO, as Walt is. I think. I'm all confused. I really liked Gus even though he took a box cutter to that dude's neck. I FEEL LIKE A TERRIBLE PERSON NOW. STUPID SHOW.
Two seasons ago I was like, "Well, this is a good show, but I'll never watch it again." Now I'm like, "hmmm...maybe I should re-watch all of season 4 immediately." SIGH.
I can honestly say that season 4 of Breaking Bad is not only one of the greatest seasons of TV that I've ever seen, but it makes the first three seasons better upon reflection.
Now onto season 5, which Netflix doesn't have any of yet, but it looks like we're starting to record the episodes on AMC JUST IN TIME as we're getting 5x01 next week. Woo! (Also I'm totally unspoiled, so please help me stay that way.)
ION: Someone needs to take this bag of Banana/Coconut Snackaroons away from me before I eat them all.
This entry was cross-posted at my Dreamwidth account. Please comment here or there. (
comments at DW)