I just watched the first episode of the first season. Where the hell have I been? This show is brilliant! Trying to get a hold of the individual episodes but struggling at the moment. Anyone got a copy of it they can seed to me?

I had to dig this up... why?

JULY 15th! It's going to be the best...although a bit annoying that they're going to drag out this series to next summer too

So... how far into the season do you think we'll have to wait until we catch up to the opening scene from the first episode?

I'm thinking that that will be in the last episode as a sort of cliffhanger.

I guess that answers that.

Do you mean last episode of the first half of season 5? That would be similar to what they did with the 737 back in season 2.

Surely I'm not the only one who during that scene expected Walt to shout:

"WE HAVE TO GO BACK JESSE!"

:p:

So i've watched all 4 seasons on netflix now and enjoy it but still feel kinda underwhelmed.

First the positives:
The character of gus is great. His back story is genuinely interesting and i sympathize with him more than mr.white or jesse

Character arcs are always handled well. Chances are if he/she was introduced as a minor character, the show will makes sure to not let him/her go to waste or not leave loose ends.
Though the extent to which they go about this is also sometimes a flaw

The cinematography starting with the 3rd season is great. The overall visual quality of the show may be the best part about it. The sterile hazmat drug lab aesthetic gives the show a unique feel(much like gilligans other show-xfiles)

The notion that all the "higher ups" in the meth world are intelligent, cultured, educated entrepreneurs is a fun hook.

Now for the bad:

Character motivation is awful. Jesse wants to risk his life peddle meth to people in rehab even though he is already getting paid 1.5 million securely.

Walt has seemingly not had cancer for 3 seasons (the whole point of his shaved head and hysterical behavior i thought) yet it just simply continues to escalate.

Tethering in elements or subplots from earlier seasons is great but the show overdoes it. Does walt and his wife really need to purchase the carwash from season 1? It hinders the scale and was an unnecessary retread.

Jesse's character was originally not supposed to live past the first season and it's noticeable. The show just trickles down without in set direction. The end of the 3rd season reaches the peak of the relationship with gus and walter, and then the 4th season peddles it back just so you can use that same conflict again.

They more or less "walt-ify" jesse, meaning they use the same gimmick of giving him a shaved head and a bad ass attitude abruptly. Out of the blue jesse is now a hard nosed killer. The contrast between him and walt is still there but it's no longer the endearing teacher-student relationship of prior, and i feel the show is weaker for letting that dynamic go.

Anyone else catch the little X-Files reference with the bank in the most recent episode? I thought it was pretty neat.

The show is back on August 11th. Simply cannot wait to see it - its one of my favourite shows of all time since I started watching last year thanks to a recommendation of a friend. I've found watching Walt's character progression nothing short of fascinating from grounded family man to someone who's more morally corrupt. Bryan Cranston plays him fantastically I think. I cannot wait to see the inevitable chaos now that Hank has uncovered Walt.

Understatement of the century. I think "completely morally bankrupt" would probably be a better term.

Tbh I think you're right, especially after he poisoned Brock. I hope that's addressed in the coming episodes - seeing as these episodes are going to conclude the whole show they might use that as motivation for Jesse to kill Walt maybe?

I'm doubtful they'll use Jesse to kill Walt. I'm actually still quite doubtful that Walt's gonna die at all. I reckon season 5.1 might actually offer him a chance at redemption. Whether he takes it or not is hard to guess though.

Nope missed it but I did however catch a zombie wearing Jesse's hat in the finale of the walking dead...

So what are you guys thinking about Better Call Saul, the spinoff based on Saul Goodman that's going to start up in February? I liked Saul as a character quite a bit, but it could go down either way. I get the feeling that the dark humour is going to be a bigger part of this show than in Breaking Bad.

Didn't know that was even a thing. I'll have to go watch a trailer or something if there is one. It sounds like it's just gonna be him getting *ssholes out of trouble which will probably be a terrible show. If there is character development and he ends up with a new client like Walter White than it will end up being compared to Breaking Bad. Sounds like an uphill battle for maintaining steady viewers.

They'd probably take it in another direction like Frowns said. I can't imagine them doing another super serious linear epic drama.

Well, they have the brains behind Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan and Bob Gould, writing it so it'll be clever if nothing else. Mike Ehrmantraut will be in the cast too. Only weird thing will be it's set 6 years before the events that kicked off BB. Both Saul and Mike are playing characters 11 years earlier than the end of BB yet they are gonna look awful old.

If this turns out to just be the back story of Mike and Saul I retract my previous post. I could definitely get into that if the writing is as good as it was for BB. I enjoyed both of those characters.