definitely agree with that sentiment. concerning walter/skylar, I find it pretty boring but being passive-aggressive is really the best skylar can do because Walt is a huge baby and anything more would send him into a fit. doesn't make for very good watching tho. women are NAGS. NAGS!

Yeah, it feels like Walter's storyline has gone nowhere since the first episode. He runs around frantic telling people he's tough and then just embarrasses himself, over and over. I do see what they're doing but I was kind of rolling my eyes are certain points. Also, the last scene of this week's episode - I think the 'someone has to protect this family from the man who protects this family' line was supposed to be a total zinger but Skylar's disappearing just irritated me and when she came back and she was just doing that passive aggressive stuff again, I got bored. Like, again? We're doing the whole Walter acts weird and Skylar is pissed off at him again?

I'm sure there is a lot of good stuff to come but it feels like it is just spinning on its wheels at the moment. I've definitely felt unsatisfied for a couple of weeks now at the end of the episodes.

walts parts have been pretty boring but i think that's kind of the point. he can't do anything, he's isolated from pretty much everyone of importance. clearly the development of the show is centered around jesse/mike/gus and hank

skylar has been pretty intolerable the entire series, same with marie

Let's cut the PC feel-good bullshit for a second: the crippled kid's annoying as all jesus fuck too. Every season I hope it's him that dies first, then Skylar "the Bitch" (good name for yourself, Sky! Thanks!) and hopefully Marie's in the car shopping with her or some shit too, illogically stealing more toys and trinkets like a stupid little girl.

but really tho, the wives are pretty much afterthoughts. I don't think it would be that difficult to think up an interesting part for either of them. but I have seen the characters trigger rage on FB similar to the paragraph above so maybe they're doing something right.

I disagreed with jamie that walt was pathetic in the opener, but if not then he really is pathetic now. that's good. I don't think his segments necessarily need to be boring or essentially amount to filler, though.

Bryan Cranston was always a first choice to play Walter White. As a long time fan of the American television series Malcolm in the Middle, Vince Gilligian was familiar with Cranston's work and wrote the part with him in mind. There is speculation that Breaking Bad was written as an alternate universe, in which the character Cranston played in Malcolm in the Middle (Hal) was born to a different family, but Gilligan has denied this.

donuts in the charger scene isn't doing much to refute this

That last couple of minutes with Walter in the crawl space laughing in desperation and total brokenness was probably the best thing this season, and Walter as a character needed a moment like that for me to understand how the hell he could ever be interesting again after the majority of this season. I mean it was just on, so I've got a bit of adrenaline pumping at the moment, but that moment was really scary and intense, the direction and the music was excellent and the addition of that phone call from Marie crying about Hank being in danger while Walt was still howling in the background finally brought what made this show interesting in the first place back into focus, which I really don't think has been here that much this season which has mostly been a let down for me. The last couple of episodes seem set up to be pretty good, though.

A lot of people on the internet have been talking about how cool they think Gus is, but I've never really felt it. I know they've been trying to make him very intimidating and all, but this backstory he's been given this season has only made him now less of an enigma and more of a - I dunno. I guess I find the cartel stuff all a bit phony, I don't really think this show has the weight of knowledge about that kind of thing behind it and the dealings with them have felt a little colourless. I think Breaking Bad works best as a personal kind of story, and just use characters like Gus as symbols for organisations like the cartel.

Anyway, after this episode I'm sick of him and his shit. This is probably intentional, but the way that Tyrus guy is just totally silent all the time and only opens his mouth to give a snarky single word answer has really been grating on me. Mike was doing it a lot earlier in the season and I got tired of him then, too. Actually I don't really like any of the characters on this show, if they all die I won't be that broken up about it. I want to see what Walter does next, though, which is what I've been waiting for for about 6 or 7 episodes now, and that's the main reason I'm still watching it. I guess they're getting back to that now?

yeah that was good. and yeah ty is really annoying. I understand if they wanted to drive home the point that Walt is entirely cut off and out of the loop, but there's a few too many scenes of him silently standing there with a snarky smile

idk gus is scary. not WAY MORE SO than Tuco, which is what they're going for/think they've achieved. never thought he was cool or badass. could use a little more background concerning how he came to be capitalism personified, to be a lil trite

yeah zzz

I thought it was all right but I dunno...we'll need to see how this all pans out. There have been several dumb plot maneuvers since the introduction of the cousins at the start of season 3, and I think they have added up to a series which is kind of off track whilst still maintaining the superficial mission statement of corruption through bad choices and indulging in your worst instincts. It feels like everything is 30 degrees in the direction of shitty, but there is still enough overlap with good stuff to make it worth watching. I'll be watching it every week as it airs, anyway, so I'll probably post what I think here. I wouldn't have thought to post here with anything if the topic didn't come up on the main page though, which is saying something. I just watched it and thought, 'Okay'.

I guess I could go into some of the basic inconsistences, like Gus apparently being stupid enough to keep backlogs of criminal activity on a laptop in the office of his public business, but those are pretty much obvious. The show doesn't want  to operate on that level of reality, which I enjoy, but it also insists on involving these realistic aspects as plot points, so it's kind of poorly conceived in that way. Also there are characterization gaps - Walt was almost at his current level of aloof malevolence at this exact point last season, smirking in satisfaction at Gale's death, but then they backtracked way back to him being just a bit bull-headed and also very cowardly, and now suddenly he snaps right into evil mastermind. I think this all could have been done much more consistently last season, without the need for the ridiculous child-poisoning detail. That feels extremely ham-fisted, and pretty disappointing for a show which for me the main attraction is the experiment of this transformation of its protagonist. They were going along just fine until a lot of this Fring bullshit, and now everything keeps jerking around all over the place tonally. They could bring out a great season still, from here, this episode had enough moments in the script that I thought were smart with Walt's character to keep my interested. I don't like Mike, he's irritating now and the writers are too obviously proud of him as both a creation and a person.

yeah it was ok, but was more like a mid-season filler episode. it leaves me a little apprehensive about what they could possibly achieve this season, tho I'll probably be watching every episode as it airs too

the cousins stunk up the place

glad you're still watching, earl, looking forward to blabbing some crud here

I'll read all the blab. I read through the thread and WOW was I dumb just as a word of caution to anyone who might try the same

this season is kinda dumb so far i don't know if i feel like talking about it that much

you kinda have to think mike is mega awesome badass to enjoy most of the episodes since like the start of last season. the second episode probably would have been interesting if the character wasn't completely wrung out in season 4

this episode was OK I guess but really just more of the same scenes we've been seeing the whole series

Cast member Betsy Brandt told TODAY.com that, "[t]here is a big director that would like to direct the last episode as a movie and put it in theaters.

100 bucks says it's tarantinitoes

Yeah, definitely underwhelmed with this season so far. Feels very much like it's retreading the past 4 seasons instead of focusing on wrapping up the series and dealing with the inevitable aftermath of everything that's happened so far.

"Hey guys, against all odds we're alive and not in prison, what should we do next? I know, let's cook some more!"