Breaking Bad: "Felina"

It's over guys.  It's really over.  There's no more new episodes of Breaking Bad.  That finale definitely sent the series out in a high note.  For the fans of Breaking Bad who love Heisenberg the badass, this was the finale for you.  In the end, Walter White wins.

I'll take you back a few seasons: Remember when Walt's family held an intervention to get Walt to take treatment for his cancer.  Even though Walt eventually relented, he said he didn't want to take treatment.  He wanted to make his own decisions for once.  He wanted control.  And that's really what this has all been about for Walt.

Well, Walt controlled his own destiny.  He mapped out his death so the cancer couldn't take him and neither could the cops.  He made sure his family would get the money in a brilliant ploy.  Shame on us for thinking he wouldn't find a way to get the money to his family.  Vince Gilligan and his team of writers managed to have their cake and eat it too: Walt would lose everything, but he also wins.

I'm a little frustrated because I don't see how Walt managed to get the ricin into Lydia's tea.  I think internet fanboys will closely examine and figure out a way - or Talking Bad will tell us.  But from what I saw, I couldn't figure out a window.  That's a little annoying unless I can go back and see the moment. (Update: I'm an idiot.  It was in the Stevia.  Still, a little too convenient that she goes to same place, same table at 10 a.m. every day for my liking. Whatever, small complaint)

Other than that, Walt got to make his rounds and say his goodbyes to who he wanted and his fuck yous to who he wanted.  He goes back to Gretchen and Elliot and I assumed - as I'm guessing most viewers did - that he was going to go on a murdering spree and start with those two.  But Walt's more calculating than that.

His meeting with Gretchen and Elliot also served another purpose.  He showed them how much money he made to them.  He "earned" it.  He's showing them how he achieved the same type of success as they did.  Granted, he kind of ruined his life while earning it, but he did do that.

Then he goes to say goodbye to Skylar.  As that conversation with Marie dragged on for a little too long, I became all too aware that Walt was already in it.  I suspect most people were.  That scene perhaps worked less for me because I completely expected that unfortunately.  That's not to say I need to have every scene be unexpected, but it was played sort of for shock value and it didn't "shock" so it didn't work.

He also says goodbye to Holly.  He gives his wife his final gift, a free pass out of the court proceedings - at least presumably.  He can't say goodbye to Junior unfortunately, because he's being closely guarded.  But he does get a last look at him - I don't think Junior would be as forgiving as Skylar because he's not as morally compromised.

So I guess Walt kind of does free Jesse after all?  Haha, well that's funny how that worked out.  He went on a suicide mission so that other people wouldn't take credit for his work.  He originally planned to kill Jesse too I'm guessing.  But when he found out that Jesse probably already paid for his crimes by being a slave, he saved him by jumping on top of him and taking a bullet to the side.

Side note: people who thought the ricin was for Walt?  Really guys?  Walt's not exactly the type of person who would kill himself.  He's especially not the person who would give himself a poison that would slowly kill him in the process.  Gunshot to the head?  That's the way to go, not ricin. 

When Walt asks Jesse to kill him, you could read it two ways.  He didn't really want Jesse to kill him.  He wanted Jesse to decide to not kill him in fact.  Or he could have wanted Jesse to kill him for all the shit he's put Jesse through.  I'm not sure which.  I think it's the former though.  

Thank you Vince Gilligan for giving Lydia and Todd the deaths they so richly deserve.  Jesse gets to enact revenge on Todd, who is one of the worst people on any TV show I've seen.  Emotionless bastard.  Thank you for giving Lydia, so willing to let other people kill, but so unwilling to see it for herself, the death she deserves.  A slow, grueling death that she learns will happen from Walt, whose murder she just ordered.

Jesse gets to go live in Alaska and live with his crimes and be thankful he's alive.  He'll probably go check on Brock and see if he's alright, but otherwise he is probably getting as far away from ABQ as he possibly can.  Who knows what he'll do with his life, but it won't involve meth!  Jesse gets a happy ending!

So Walter White, person who says he's done it all for his family all along, finally admits to Skylar that he did it for himself.  Well done, Walt.  Well freaking done.  You stopped rationalizing.  Finally.  That was the scene that made me love this finale.  Walter White grew as a person while also killing like 10 people.  But hey that's Breaking Bad for ya!

In the end, Walter White wins.  Last episode could have been the finale as well where he lost.  But this was the episode for Walt fans.  I'm not really a Walt fan, but I don't object to this finale.  He redeemed himself enough that I feel reasonably happy he got what he wanted.  He wanted evil people dead and himself dead so maybe that's why I'm happy he got it, but still....

It's over guys.  It's been fun talking Breaking Bad with you.  I might be talking about the series as a whole next week, but at least for episodes, this is my last episode I'm reviewing.  Thanks for reading.

Top 10 Breaking Bad Episodes

In preparation for the final episode of Breaking Bad's run, I decided to write the top ten Breaking Bad episodes.  To be clear, these are the 10 episodes I think are the best, not necessarily my favorite episodes.  Most of them feature something shocking happen naturally.  This was written before the finale so that episode wasn't taken into consideration, but I don't think it would find it's way on here anyway.  If it would make it on this list, you can safely put Breaking Bad as my choice for the greatest series of all time.  So anyway, first the honorable mention episodes.

Honorable Mention
Better Caul Saul: Season 2, Episode 8
This episode deserves worthy mention for being Saul Goodman's first and best episode to date.  That's right, this is his best episode, his very first.  This is the episode you should watch to prepare for the upcoming series Better Call Saul.  With that said, there's also the great pre-credits sequence where Badger gets busted by the cop.

Hermanos - Season 4, Episode 8
This is really just here for Gus' flashback scene.  It gives the character of Gus more development.  Season 4, by the way, has by a good amount, the most episodes I considered.  This scene was also important for establishing Gus' need for revenge on Hector.

End Times - Season 4, Episode 12
Spoiler alert for the rest of this list: Face Off makes the list.  I consider End Times and Face Off to be kind of the same episode.  So consider Face Off's position to be both End Times and Face Off.  You can't really just watch the latter episode without the former otherwise it loses its value.  I mean they foreshadow Lilly of the Valley in this episode.

Say My Name - Season 5, Episode 7
Better Call Saul is Saul's best episode.  Unfortunately, Say My Name is Mike Ehrmantraut's best episode.  At least it's Jonathan Bank's best episode.  Besides that now iconic line, this episode features Jesse disillusioned with Walt, refusing to work with him anymore.  "Shut the fuck up and let me die in peace." (Gilligan really does find the most appropriate deaths for the big characters)

Confessions - Season 5, Episode 11
If you don't remember, this is the episode with the table side guacamole, the video confession of Walt claiming Hank is the mastermind, and the episode with the cliffhanger where Jesse almost burns Walt's house down.  Yeah, this is a pretty good episode to say the least.  He also coldly tells Walt Jr. about the cancer returning so that he will stay with him instead of going to Aunt Marie's.

10. Dead Freight, Season 5, Episode 5 
I realize I just named three season 5 episode in a row, but I guess that's just the way it's going.  Dead Freight is one of the more fun episodes in the series - until the end at least.  It's an awesome train robbery in the West.  And then an important, monumental event happens in the series - Todd kills Drew Sharp, a kid who just wanted a spider.  The pre-credit sequence makes the episode a lot better the second time you watch it - almost like a string of inevitable things will happen and he dies every time - sort of like what's happening to Walt over the series.

9. Sunset - Season 3, Episode 7
Breaking Bad reached a new peak with this episode - a peak they would further ascend in just the next episode.  With about 20 minutes to go, Hank is at the RV with Walt and Jesse inside of it - and there's still a ton of episode left.  Then they get out of it by getting Saul's assistant to call Hank and claim she was at the hospital.  It's cruel and it leads to Hank beating the shit out of Jesse.  It's a great and suspenseful hour of television.

8. Phoenix - Season 2, Episode 12
This is Walt's turning point from basically good man who just wants to provide for his family to a monster.  You could argue that Walt saved Jesse by murdering Jane.  You could argue that "Jane had it coming." (I cringe just writing that.)  But you'd be wrong.  He didn't let Jane die because he wanted to save Jesse.  He killed Jane because she was an enormous pain in his ass and not letting him control Jesse.  This episode also features what Walt proclaimed was his "perfect time to die" in a later episode.

7. Half Measures - Season 3, Episode 12
Half Measures features a lot of great scenes.  The pre-credits opening scene is one of Breaking Bad's better montages featuring Wendy, a hooker, doing her thing to the song "Windy," a classic hit song by The Association.  Walt tries to save Jesse by telling Gus about it.  Gus tells the two drug dealers - "No more children."  I think they misinterpret (or Gus is an extremely cold dude) and kill the 11-year-old Tomas.  Then the ending sequence happens where Walt runs over the dealers with a car, shoots one directly in the head, and says "run."  Walt goes on to ruin all his good deeds in the next episode, but hey at least he saved Jesse here.

6. Crawl Space - Season 4, Episode 11
The back half of Season 4 of Breaking Bad is the best stretch of this series ever.  Every episode escalates the action.  The ending was able to convey perfectly the feeling of everything closing in on Walt until he devolves to madness, laughing like a maniac.  It also features the funny scene of Bill Burr and Lavell Crawford (who I fear will forever be stuck in that hotel room) getting Ted to pay the IRS already.  Then Ted tries to escape and injures himself.  The image of Ted in Season 5 takes away the humor in that fall a bit though.

5. Pilot - Season 1, Episode 1
For as good as the pilot was, it's kind of amazing to be able to say that there were four episodes that exceeded it.  Hell, some of the episodes I have below it might technically have been better.  But the pilot draws you in immediately and while Season 1 may have not been your cup of tea, I don't think anyone stopped watching BECAUSE of the pilot.  It forces you to find out how this man has come to this point - in his tidy whities driving an RV with three passed out people in it.

4. Salud, Season 4 Episode 10
Jesse gets taken to Mexico to teach the cartel how to cook blue meth.  Jesse straight up owns their top chemist in a scene where he skeptically dismisses Jesse.  Jesse cooks 96% quality, pleasing all there.  Then he finds out he needs to stay there and Mike informs Jesse that if Jesse stays, everyone is staying.  So the audience is clued in that something is up - and that something comes to beautiful fruition when Gus kills the cartel using poison (If you want the music to that scene, it's called "Tidal Wave" by The Oh Sees).  Walt also shares his first "real" moment with Walt Jr. after he got beat up by Jesse in "Bug."

3. Face Off - Season 4, Episode 13
Like I said above, you can't really include this episode without End Times.  Walt has finally gone just about as far as you can go - poisoning a kid.  You could say "Well Walt knew that kid wasn't going to die," to which I say "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?" - Anyway, the conclusion to Gus' death is perfect, his lone weakness being his downfall.  So sad to see you go Gus and I'd much rather you better Walter White than the Neo Nazis in Season 5.

2. One Minute - Season 3, Episode 7
I think this is a bit of a surprise, but I assure you this pick is for much more than just the scene where Hank survives the cousin.  Hank finally just accepts his punishment and admits to his crimes.  Then he goes into the elevator and Marie and Hank cry their eyes out.  Hank has reached a state of acceptance and tranquility and he's finally himself for the first time since he shot Tuco.  And then he gets shot four times.  Dammit.  Go back and watch this episode and you'll realize how damn good it is.

1. Ozymandias - Season 5, Episode 14
Maybe this is recency bias, but I think this episode goes down in the annals of TV history.  Wow what an hour where the audience pretty much has everything they have been waiting for happen in a single hour.  Right away, Hank dies and thank you Vince Gilligan for giving him an awesome death.  (Also R.I.P. Gomie)  Walt loses most of his $80 million in cash.  (69 to be exact.  Oh Gilligan, you dog)  Walt tells Jesse about Jane which should theoretically squash any theory that Walt will save Jesse in this final episode.  Jesse is held slave to the Neo Nazis, perpetually forced to cook meth.  Walt and Skylar get in a knife fight.  Walt steals Holly.  Walt finally does one decent thing for his family, albeit laced in truths and very real hate.  This hour of television is among the most heartbreaking and shocking as television can ever get.

Hopefully the finale can find its way on this list in the future and hope everyone enjoys this article as a precursor to the final episode!

Pilots - Part 2

These are part timely, part shows I didn't have time to watch the first time around because I was watching other pilots.  This is basically pilot week, and while some shows have their pilot earlier or later, it appears this week is the standard.  These shows were a combination of wanting to actually watch the show and seeing it on Hulu so fuck it.

The Goldbergs (Tue., ABC, 8:00 p.m.)
The Goldbergs gets the likely treatment I'm giving The Crazy Ones.  There is so much negative buzz that I will only watch it if it's free on the internet.  Well, this show was free on the internet.  And it sucks just as much as I feared.

If you like Jeff Garlin screaming, this is probably the show for you.  I personally didn't find him funny at all in this show because his humor is basically just straight up screaming.  Well, that's not really fair.  Everybody in this show screams.  Troy Gentile stood out for being particularly bad at acting as Barry Goldberg.  And as unfunny.

Verdict: Never planning to watch this again and I suggest you don't even start.

Hostages (Mon., CBS, 9:00 p.m.)
There's definitely a huge concern about a show when I did not enjoy the pilot episode AND I have serious doubts about if this could be stretched out over a season much less multiple ones.  (If it's a hit - and I have no idea if it will - it will definitely be multiple seasons).  I was mostly bored by it though.

Dylan McDermott plays a comically over the top FBI special agent who usually helps hostages escape, but instead is holding a doctor and her family hostage.  The doctor, played by Toni Collete, is the one performing a routine surgery on the president and McDermott for some reason wants to kill him.  It has something to do with his sick wife, but there is no indication of how in the world those two things could possibly be related.

Each of the family members is holding a secret from the rest of the family and it's really not that interesting.  I don't know if it's the writing, the acting or a combination, but I could care less about their problems.  Also, this show kind of suffers from "Well there's no way they will kill anybody in the first episode" so the tension just wasn't there for me, despite the music's best efforts to tell me there was tension.

Verdict: It's kind of intriguing enough to where I will follow along to see if it's good, but not enough to where I'll watch it until I know it's good.  So I most likely just watched my last episode of this series.

Lucky 7 (Tue., ABC, 9:00 p.m.)
This has an intriguing premise, although displays a message that is well-explored.  A group of seven gas station employees dream of winning the lottery and play it every week.  When they do win, they find out that they have just as many problems with money as they did without.  That's not really a bad message, but if the show plans to just show seven people who prove that and none of the stories are about how a person's life got better, it'd come across annoying and unrealistic to me.  Money doesn't solve your problems, but it's also not like it won't help you either.

The people themselves weren't terribly interesting.  An ex-convict who needs to get money to pay back for his former life?  Original.  A future father who needs money to get his own place for his wife and kid?  This could have worked if I didn't hate the wife, who basically just threatened to leave him in the episode if he didn't get money.  That's a loving relationship right there.

Anyway, I really liked the scene where they showed that the members won the lottery.  Some of the scenes worked, some of them didn't.  But I didn't like a lot of the characters so I'm not really sure how good of a strategy that is.  Or at least I'm pretty sure that wasn't the creator's intent.

Verdict: This will be cancelled soon anyway after such terrible ratings so don't bother.

The Michael J. Fox Show (Thu., NBC, 8:00)
The biggest thing that a comedy pilot needs to do is make the viewer want to see these characters again.  Humor, at least at first, is kind of a secondary thing.  That's why the MJF Show works for me.  The show is pretty tongue-in-cheek about Fox, his Parkinson's, and other people's reactions to his Parkinson's.

Michael J. Fox plays Mike Henry, a retired news anchor with Parkinson's.  But he basically plays Michael J. Fox post-disease.  He's famous so a lot of people stop him on the street and tell them how somebody they know also has Parkinson's, or Alzheimer's.  I really liked the pilot, but the second episode was more sitcom cliche than I would have liked.

The supporting cast is top notch.  Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad) is good as the wife.  Wendell Pierce (The Wire) is basically playing Bunk in this show but as a newscaster.  Of the kids, Juliette Goglia made the best impression.  I guess Katie Finneran is a regular in the show, but I don't see her point really.  Neither of her story lines worked and it was the least funny part of the episode for me.

Verdict: The second episode leaves me worried, but I'll watch because I see potential in the show.

Playlist
1. "A Song from Under the Floorboards" - Magazine
2. "Punching in a Dream" - The Naked and Famous
3. "X Gone Give it to Ya" - DMX
4. "Too Close" - Alex Clare
5. "Master Hunter" - Laura Marling

Pilots - Part 1

I watched four pilots in the past two days.  My mission is to accurately describe, give my opinion on, and tell you what I think of these shows in just three paragraphs (and one verdict).  The reason I chose Mom was because of its cast, The Blacklist because of James Spader, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for Joss Whedon, and lastly, Trophy Wife, also for its cast.

Mom (Mon., CBS, 8:30 CT)

This show has a live studio audience that laughs when jokes aren't funny, cheers when a popular guest star appears on screen, and literally "Awwwws" when something cute happens.  This show should work better, but it has the stain of a Chuck Lorre sitcom on it.

If you want to see talent wasted by poor writing, despicable human beings, and unrelatable characters, this is the show for you.  Anna Faris plays the titular character, a recovering alcoholic mother who hates her own mother, Allison Janney.  Faris is the only character who doesn't seem like a terrible person, excluding the kids because they don't really count.

Anyway, French Stewart appears as a somewhat funny Chef who would by no means be employed in real life due to health codes.  There's Nathan Corddry, who plays Faris' manager and lover.  He's also married.  But it's cool because his wife is bitch.  But he can't divorce her because her dad owns the restaurant.  This is the kind of stuff the show comes up with.  Anyway, this is one of those shows where the audience will wonder why Faris chooses to put up with her mother's shit and for this episode at least, the answer is that her daughter improbably wants her mother - who she hates - to talk to her grandmother - who is all of the worst qualities of her mother magnified.

Verdict: This is likes Dads, but inoffensive and slightly funnier.  Don't watch.  Much better comedies exist.

The Blacklist (NBC, 9:00 CT)
The Blacklist had an interesting, yet troublesome start to begin its series.  The amount of improbabilities that happen in this one episode is a little too high for my liking.  The writing is mostly predictable when it's supposed to be shocking.

James Spader plays Raymond Reddington, a criminal's criminal who willfully lets himself get caught.  It's not hard to figure out why he gets caught.  He wants to spend more time with his daughter, fresh-faced agent Elizabeth Keen.  That's kind of a spoiler, but it's kind of not.  For one, we don't really know if that's true yet.  For another, they telegraphed that she was his daughter so blatantly and obviously that they might as well had a neon sign in the background that pointed to Keen and said "THIS IS REDDINGTON'S DAUGHTER."

Spader obviously steals the show as he elevates the material above what it actually is.  I don't know if this is a good show or not, but I'm guessing Spader will hide how bad it is for a long time before I figure it out.  Or the writers will figure out what they want and just do a better job.  Either way, I'll be watching with a similar type of quick hook I had with The Following last year.  Points in this favor are that it's much better than The Following was.  (I gave up on that show after two episodes so faint praise)

Verdict:Watch it for James Spader; Can't guarantee quality.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (Tue, ABC, 7:00 CT)
The triumvirate of Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen has created a slick show of basically awesome spies.  The pilot was more style than substance as the only fleshed out character was Mike Peterson, an undiscovered superhero.  The rest are introductions, explosions, impossible technology, and a lot of exposition.

Clark Gregg is the marquee name as Agent Coulson.  That feels odd just saying that.  I don't think it's a spoiler to say that he apparently faked his own death to motivate the superheroes in The Avengers.  (Don't worry: That death rang kind of hollow anyway since nobody in the audience likely gave a shit about him).  The next most famous person is Ming-Na Wen, who played Mulan and was a long-running character on ER.  The rest of the characters are relative unknowns and, with the notable exception of Chloe Bennett as Skye, make little impression in the pilot.

Angels fans will appreciate J. August Richards in the pilot as Peterson and Firefly fans will appreciate Ron Glass.  While Whedon's influence on this show will probably be minimal, either his impact was high in the episode or his impact on his fellow creators has been high.  In this episode at least, this was clearly a Joss Whedon show as the dialogue is snappy and original.  Also, he subverts your expectations and I was surprised three times in the pilot.  The pilot shows promise.  Hopefully, they can build off that.

Verdict: Watch the pilot.  Approach the series with a heavy dose of skepticism that Agent Coulson and four actors who could be mistaken as characters on a CW show - I don't mean that as a compliment either.

Trophy Wife (ABC, Tue, 8:30 CT)
Trophy Wife had a fast-moving, character-laden pilot that's kind of a lovely mess.  Bradley Whitford plays Pete, a twice-divorced newly married family man with three smart, manipulative kids.  His new wife, Kate played by Malin Akerman, is much younger than he is.  I hope they explore why they are together in future episodes.

Whitford's first divorce with Diane (Marcia Gay Harden) produced two surprisingly likable and well-acted kids who are NOT mad at their dad for marrying a new mom.  Akerman gets a head start in earning the affection of Hilary, played by newcomer Gianna LePera, in a funny sequence in this episode.  The other kid is played by veteran actor, Ryan Lee, who despite being born in 1996, has appeared in 35 titles according to IMDB.  (Such as Super 8 and This is 40)

Whitford's second divorce with Jackie (Michaela Watkins) produced a lone, adopted Asian kid, Bert.  He cons his babysitter in the the pilot and is the most memorable kid of the three.  The pilot managed to interject everyone of these characters in the plot, which is why it's kind of a mess.  But it's a carefully plotted, well-written mess.

Verdict: Definitely watch - All-Star cast, good writing, and an impossibly endless supply of ideas that could come from this premise.

Playlist
1. "I'll Be Doggone" - Marvin Gaye
2. "Two Princes" - Spin Doctors
3. "Sometimes" - Cam Meekins
4. "Maps" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
5. "Illuminate" - Ab-Soul ft. Kendrick Lamar

Breaking Bad: "Granite State"

75 minutes left until Breaking Bad is officially over.  And from my perspective, they will need all 75 minutes of it, because I don't know how they'll wrap this series up in that short amount of time, especially given Breaking Bad's usual pace.  I don't doubt they will and I don't doubt that it will end up being perfectly paced, but it's just hard to see right now.

This episode scaled down a little - to say the least - from last episode.  It's a piece-mover for the end of the series really.  This was still good television, it just kind of seems like it was almost like the premiere of a new season.  You're not really judging it yet because almost everything in the episode will pay off later.

But then again, a few things happen that are shocking still.  I liked how they did the opener, defying our expectations a bit.  First of all, Robert Forster is the vacuum repair man!  And it's a real shop!  Saul understandably wants to get out of town and that will be the last we will see of Saul in this series I think.  That was a nice way to tie up his story while also still making sure to keep it relevant.

Walt has fallen far.  He deserves every bit of it and I'll speak more on that later - just for you people who somehow are still on Team Walt.  He tries to intimidate Saul to get him to stay with him, but Saul's had enough of his shit.  Sure, Walt pathetically having a coughing fit probably didn't hurt.  But it shows just how powerless Walt is now.

Meanwhile, Jesse.. oh Jesse.  That small slimmer of hope that Jesse would escape vanished this episode.  It makes sense that the Aryan Brotherhood would have cameras and have other means of making sure Jesse won't escape.  But they need to make sure Jesse won't even attempt to escape anymore and they kill Andrea.  This was actually kind of necessary for the time skip because it would help explain why Jesse would never escape.  He wouldn't even risk Brock getting killed.  He has a soft spot for children.

Todd somehow amps up his creepiness.  Man, is he a creepy fuck.  First of all, after breaking into the White residence, Todd creepily plays nice with Skylar - you know while her baby is being threatened - and wants to make sure that she won't tell the police on Lydia.  I doubt Skylar will or did I suppose.

Then he meets with Lydia and gets that business going.  They did make passing mention on why they are continuing to cook when they already have $69 million.  Part of it is because the writers can't have Jesse killed, but enough of it makes sense to not be terribly obvious in my opinion.  I mean they do need Jesse to cook 96% and Todd does know Lydia will do business with him if he can provide that quality of meth.  So really the only stretch is that the Aryan brotherhood would agree to this.  They don't really seem like the smartest people so I'm not bothered a lot by that stretch of belief.

So we skip to what I assume is around the time when the flash-forward happened to begin the season.  They show the passage of time by having Walt grow out his hair and his beard.  Walt is super depressed and lonely.  That scene where he pays $10,000 just for an hour of company is one of the saddest things I have ever seen.

He reaches a point where he wants to give money to his family, but Walt Jr is not having any of that.  Good for him.  Money has compromised far too many people, but it's clear Wal... I'm sorry Flynn will not be one.  So then Walt has lost all hope and just decides to turn himself in for the good of his family.

Except you know a little thing called Walt's ego happened.  He cannot take his former partners claiming Walt had nothing to do with the company.  His pride is being threatened.  So he changes his mind, presumably buying that gun that he bought in the flash forward, then returning to get the ricin, and likely plans to go out with a bang.

People who claim that Walt has always done this for his family?  You're watching this show wrong I'm sorry.  Walt was offered his full treatment for the price of nothing and he rejected it due to pride.  HE NEVER HAD TO MAKE METH.  If he truly was looking out for his family, he would have swallowed his pride and accepted that money.  It's all about Walt and his pride.  He needs recognition, and he needs to do it himself.  How more people haven't seen this is beyond me.

 I mention that because it's a nice parallel to what happens in this episode.  Walt's downfall is his pride, his ego.  So he needs to actively choose to do something that could harm his family when there are alternative options.  If he was cooking meth because he had no other choice: because he needed the money and he wanted to set his family up for his death, it'd be different.  But he had a choice.

I have zero idea how there are still people who are Team Walt.  Either it is physically impossible to dislike Bryan Cranston and people let that affect their opinion of Walt or there are more fucked up people in this world than I thought.  I think I rooted for Walt far longer than I should have, because really letting Jane die should have been the straw.  That is unforgivable and people who think she had it coming, you need help.  I'm sorry.  And people who think Walt's family betrayed him?  Seriously, what fucking show are you watching? /end rant

I don't know how many months they skipped, but it made perfect sense.  From what I'm watching, it seems like nothing super important happened between Walt escaping and Walt choosing to return to the ABQ.  The Aryan brotherhood didn't go anywhere which means Jesse didn't go anywhere.  They have most likely done the same thing for months, forcing Jesse to make meth, selling it to Lydia.  Nothing really new happens.

Skylar and Flynn are still trying to recover a semblance of the life they once had.  They aren't going anywhere.  I'm not really sure there's anywhere else to go with Marie's story.  I mean she was well-acted by Besty Brandt, but her entire relevance was being married to Hank and being sister to Skylar.  The characters are all in some sort of purgatory waiting in place for Walt to come back and screw up all their plans.

75 minutes left.  One week.

Why Dexter sucks now

(I wrote this post before the finale.  I read what happened in the finale, because I couldn't care less what happens anymore.  And it was so much worse than I could ever have imagined.  I said I was going to watch the final season, but I don't think I will after hearing (SPOILER) Dexter is a lumberjack now.  Way to top yourself on being awful, Dexter writers)

There are three types of people who have seen Dexter: people who gave up sometime a few seasons ago because of its drop in quality, people who continue watching because of some weird need for finality, and people who watch because they think it's good.  I'm in the second camp.  I've seen up to the first episode of season eight, which was ok.  I have no strong desire to continue watching but I will when I get back in St. Louis just for the sake of finally finishing the show.

If you try to argue with me that season eight is different, that it's better, just don't.  I've been sort of following along on recaps/analysis and it seems to be suffering from the same problems it has since about season five and even before.

I'm writing this for myself by the way and not to convince anyone.  Anybody who still watches the show fits in two of the categories above and I doubt one post will convince someone to change their views on the show.  And obviously people who have given up on the show are pretty dead-set on their views.  So this is just me venting my frustration against the show.

Ok, to the point of the post: Why do I think Dexter sucks now?  Well, for starters, the show never makes Dexter pay for his crimes.  There are basically no consequences.  And since he doesn't feel emotion mostly, there's very little internal moral debate going on with him.  He's just killing people with little consequences either internally or externally.

I'm not sure you can really argue that he's suffering no legal consequences.  It's stupid.  I'm going to speak more on Miami Metro later, but basically everybody just assumes Dexter is innocent despite an ENORMOUS amount of circumstantial evidence.  It's one thing if you have nothing to convict him.  It's another to just completely ignore it and go about acting like Dexter isn't even a possibility.  They have one character who is suspicious each season and anybody who he/she brings those suspicions to assumes they are batshit crazy because that's what the plot requires for Dexter to continue maintaining the status quo.

TV shows like this by nature are problematic because they want to stay on the air.  Dexter is no exception.  A compelling show about a serial killer shouldn't be eight seasons, because at some point, he needs to get caught.  Or he needs to suffer personal friendships.  Dexter sucking recently is mostly due to their need to make sure they maintain the status quo - Dexter kills bad people, insert person who thinks Dexter is nuts/guilty, create a compelling Big Bad, and when a new season begins, act like nothing ever happened.

The real problem I have with the show is character consistency in that it has none except for Dexter.  Characters don't seemingly make their own decisions, they make decisions based off allowing Dexter to get away with it.  The best example is that Deb shoots LaGuerta for some fucking reason.  Sorry, that's not in character at all.  You have to build your characters to that point, you can't just skip them from Point A to Point D.  Deb needed to further lower her moral line in order for that to be believable.  She went from "I can barely accept my brother is a serial killer" to "murdering an innocent person for my brother who is a serial killer."

As a side note, Miami Metro may just be the worst police unit of all time in television shows.  That's saying something considering shows like this usually have poor police catching the bad guys.  Miami Metro takes it to the next level.  They are so bad at their job.  They are only as good at their job as the plot demands it so whenever they randomly get good, it's obvious the writers need them to be good at their job and it's frankly jarring.  It's also weird how it seems the writers act like they are supposed to be good at their job.  Like in some weird universe, they are considered good at their job and the audience is supposed to just accept that they have a weak spot when it comes to anything related to Dexter's story.

This show is also the king of having something in the plot go nowhere.  How many story lines just get dropped and forgot about?  Remember when Quinn used to be suspicious of Dexter?  Well at some point in the show, he replaced Doakes and filled Doakes role, but somewhere along the line, they just stopped that.  I'd say more ideas, but I genuinely don't remember and I'm not re-watching it to find out.

The show largely has gone off the rails because it never solved its supporting characters problem.  Few of the supporting characters were genuinely interesting even in the first two seasons.  They weren't a large problem early on either because they minimized their role, they didn't matter as much because Dexter was still a fascinating character, or I was able to effectively ignore them.  Also, Doakes was a genuinely interesting character mostly because he was on to Dexter's shit and obviously he had to go.  They never really successfully filled the void left by his departure.

But man the creative team ran out of ideas after Season 4 and just recycled previous story lines with a little twist.  Hell, after Season 2, the quality of a season largely depended on the Big Bad of the season.  That's why Season 4 was so good and the beginning of Season 7 was strong.  The Big Bad was interesting, well-acted, and provided a good opponent to Dexter.

I guess my biggest problem overall is that this is a show for people who like to see Dexter succeed.  I don't know, I was kind of hoping that he would pay for his crimes in one way or the other - like Breaking Bad.  I don't want to spoil Breaking Bad, but let's just say that it's pretty obvious that Walt's choice to become a meth kingpin was a poor one.  I'm no morality watching TV member, but it's kind of stupid to just watch a serial killer kill other people with justification without really the show indicating that they think he's wrong.

He's deviated from Harry's Code too many times and killed or been responsible for enough innocent people's lives that at this point, that he should pay - not necessarily even go to jail.  Maybe he gets ousted but they have no evidence, Deb stops talking to him for good unless he changes, etc.  Even if you accept that he's got this impossible to control urge to kill people and he's justified in killing other terrible people, he's way past that point.  Hell, he's making Debra face who she is as a person and forcing her to make moral compromises.  But Deb will come around if she already hasn't - like I said I haven't seen most of Season 8 - because for some reason, the showrunners seem to want Dexter to have his way.

As a side note, even the seemingly good parts of Season 7 that I liked made me stretch belief.  Yvonne Strahovski's (Hannah) relationship with Dexter was enticing at points, but the way they introduced it was ridiculous.  One of the most unearned sexual tensions between two characters I have ever seen was when they first met.  And anytime the two got lovey dovey was cringe-worthy.

I'm sorry if this post seems a little too much like rambling and jumping around.  I mostly just wrote this free form style so it may show in this.  And I fully realize that a large majority of my complaints are due to why I watch TV shows so if you watch it for a different reason, they wouldn't hold up for you.

I just find post-S4 Dexter uninteresting, boring, predictable and implausible.  I am indifferent about what happens because ultimately I know how it will end up: Dexter is free to do his own thing.  This could all be irrelevant if the finale somehow proves my point wrong, which I haven't seen yet.  I don't think it will, but I'd be delighted if it did.

I'm sorry for ragging on one of your favorite shows - you know who you are - but that's what makes TV great.  It allows for differing opinions and differing audiences.  I just needed to express this because I'm frustrated with the show and I'm reminded every time I see a tweet praising the show.

Note: After this post, I became aware Grantland did a similar type post and did it much better than me so I would recommend you go read that.

Playlist
1. "Caring is Creepy" - The Shins
2.  "Shining Star" - Earth, Wind & Fire
3. "Bad Day" - Chiddy Bang
4. "Still Waiting" - Sum 41
5. "Gimme the Loot" - Notorious B.I.G.

Rectify Review

Rectify is a show about a man who was sentenced to death row and is miraculously released from prison after 19 years.  This is a very good show, but I really don't think it's for everyone.  It can be perceived as really slow, although I've never been bored watching it.

He's released from prison so naturally we wonder if he's guilty.  But it really doesn't matter if he's guilty or not for you to enjoy the show.  He's been locked up, and separated from human civilization - separated from windows or even going outdoors.  This show is about him trying to adjust to a new surrounding and enjoy life.

If I tried to explain what the show's high points were, there's no way you'd watch the show.  Somehow, minor things such as the character finding old 90s music and just dancing away to it make you feel all giddy inside.  It's really hard to explain, but those moments are as satisfying as any explosive gunfight in another show.

The reason this show works is the acting of the lead, Aden Young.  He finds that hard line between being compelling and creepy.  He somehow does this and makes the audience think he's just misunderstood while also making us acknowledge why the town perceives him the way that they do.

Another standout performance is by Abigail Spencer, who I had never heard of before this show.  Now, I want to watch everything she's in.  She's the reason Daniel is out of prison - she fought hard for years, presumably thinking he didn't do it.

And the show makes it ambiguous whether he did it - he was released due to new DNA evidence, but he also confessed to the crime which may have been due to coercing by the police.  Either way, I don't think it matters a lot.  Either he didn't do it or he did it and he's a changed man.

One thing I have come to love about the show is how it seems to defy what you would think would happen.  Since not much actually happens, I'm talking about the characterization that takes place.  The expected route to take is avoided and a few times I was delighted that the writers decided to not go the easy route.  These characters are complex human beings.  No person is good or bad.  This paragraph could, verbatim, be applied to Breaking Bad.  I'm not comparing the two, but that cannot be a bad thing for this show.

Overall, the show is a slow, methodical drama that takes its time in going through its storylines.  Each of the episodes vaguely represent a typical episode structure especially for any story involving Daniel.  There are more than a few scenes of just Aden Young enjoying various things in life that he doesn't enjoy in prison.

So I recommend this show to people who watch television for characters and not for people who watch shows for the action.  Standout performances and good writing help the show not seem as slow as it really is.  This show is probably my third favorite new show behind The Americans, which I really loved, and Orange is the New Black, which I also loved.  A second season has been ordered by Sundance so feel free to watch it and not worry about its cancellation.

Playlist
1. "Animals" - Martin Garrix
2. "Feel it All Around" - Washed Out
3. "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" - Creedence Clearwater Revival
4. "Losing My Edge" - LCD Sound System
5.  "The Fountain" - Future Islands

Double Feature: Derek & Brooklyn Nine Nine

I got to be honest: I had zero interest in this show.  The pictures of Ricky Gervais as Derek on Netflix certainly didn't help at all.  An IMDB rating of 7.5 - which is by no means a good source of the quality of a television show (it has since improved) - confirmed my suspicions in my mind that the show wasn't that great.

Then on twitter MLB pitcher Brandon McCarthy threw his full fledged recommendation for the show.  I looked at the show a little more closely and realized it was seven episodes and had the length of a 30 minute show.  So why not try it because it's little time commitment?

Needless to say, I don't agree with Brandon McCarthy.  It's not exactly a bad show.  I commend it for being different than just about anything else.  The thing about being different though is that it doesn't always work.  I don't really think this show works for me.

There are genuinely moments in the series where it's fantastic.  Those moments aren't common enough to overcome my problems with the series.  Just to be clear, Ricky Gervais plays Derek genuinely and in an inoffensive way in my opinion.  Derek is ambiguously assumed to be autistic, but we don't really know.  So Gervais the actor isn't the problem.

Its shot in documentary style made famous by The Office.  This is one of the problems with the show.  There's little reason for it to be shot this way.  I frequently wondered how they got certain camera angles which was distracting.  Also, it's not really used in any sort of positive way on the show.  I didn't see any benefit to it, maybe other than it appears more realistic.

The show frequently repeats itself, which gets irritating.  For instance, we're reminded 1many, many times about how great of a guy Derek is and selfless he is.  It does this a lot whether by side character or something Derek says.

The home is run by Hannah, played by Kerry Godliman.  She's sympathetic enough and interesting.  Then there's Dougie, played by Karl Pilkington, who is funny due to his general outlook on life.  Then there's Kev, who as worthless as characters come.  He doesn't go to the home, he doesn't work there, but apparently he goes there and gets drunk and makes rude remarks referencing sex.  His appearance makes no sense on the show.  His scenes are too hit-or-miss comedy-wise as well.

I've watched three episodes and while I'm sure it has some of the better ones later in the season, I don't have much desire to watch them right now.  It's a different series that aims high and unfortunately seems to miss a lot.

Brooklyn Nine Nine 

I heard a lot of positive buzz about this show before watching the premiere which caused me to watch it at least partially.  But it exceeded those expectations that had been created by that buzz.  It's pretty funny.

I suppose this show is long overdue.  Cops shows have existed for a long time and it's long since become a tired genre.  But I don't remember a time when a comedy about cops was pitched mostly because the source material wouldn't lend it self to comedy.  Or so it seemed.

Andy Samberg, who plays detective Jake Peralta, is the star of the ads, but I think this show is more of an ensemble after watching it.  At least so far, none of the characters seem like deadweight.  This is kind of what happens when you put a bunch of funny people in a show with good material.

Andre Braugher, formerly of The Wire, is hilarious in his deadpan serious response to anything that would make a normal person laugh.  Melissa Fumero plays Jake's partner and she creates an interesting character I want to find out more about in the coming episodes.  Their banter, I presume, will be an ongoing source of humor.

Filling out the rest of the roster is Jo Lo Truglio (Superbad), Stephanie Beatriz (I assume this will be her breakout role should this show succeed), Chelsea Peretti (who you'll recognize despite not knowing why), and Terry Crews.  All of them have something that makes them stick out, which hopefully will get expounded upon in later episodes.  I also wonder how they'll treat the more serious aspects of police work, which they understandably avoided in this episode.

Overall, the pilot was very good filled with humor throughout the episode.  I'll be watching the show for the rest of the year and assume it will be one of the best comedies this fall.  (Also, Michael Schur is in some way involved with this show as he co-wrote the pilot but I'm not sure how so talented people are in this show both behind and in front of the camera)

Breaking Bad: "Ozymandias"

*OBVIOUSLY THIS POST IS FILLED WITH SPOILERS AND WHILE I HAVEN'T HAD A WARNING BEFORE THIS, THIS EPISODE NEEDS A SPOILER WARNING.

Well, a lot of stuff just happened that I don't think I've actually processed yet.  I spent the last hour not thinking about Breaking Bad and calming down.  How did I do that?  Well I did laundry, washed dishes, picked up my car from my sister - constantly doing stuff.  Now I've had time to process what just happened, I can make a calm, measured analysis on Breaking Bad.

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HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!

Sorry, that was necessary.  I mean I was thinking that in my head - and sometimes saying it aloud to myself - during almost the entire episode.  BAM - BAM - BAM.  Something shocking happened every other minute it seemed.  We - the audience - didn't get a chance to catch our breath for the whole hour.  I'm almost grateful I saw this with commercials or I may just be in an ambulance right now suffering from shock.

Well, the start of the episode was predictably not the shoot-out.  Breaking Bad has a tendency to do that.  As Aaron Paul said on twitter, they showed the first scene with the lie that started it all.  It began Walter's slowly declining relationship with his family culminating in a later scene tonight.

The scene did two further things besides provide the audience with a bit of humor seeing how far they've come: it strangely emphasized that they were going to name the baby "Holly" which I found weird until he stole Holly from Skyler.  I guess that was sort of a foreshadowing.  Also, the scene focused on the phone by the knife set, which juxtaposed nicely with a later scene when Skyler took a fucking knife and stabbed Walt with it.  Sorry, back to the episode.

Rian Johnson did a phenomenal job directing this episode.  You had the call between Walt and Skyler by the knife which was a good choice (and also foreshadowing).  Then the cool scene where we transition from old Walt to present day.  It was a bit different in that you see Walt disappear, then Jesse, and then the RV.  Then the pre-credits roll and we see the cars aligned for the shoot-out.

Instead of continuing the gunfight, this episode just had the guns stop and then silence as the audience is on the edge of their seat wanting to know what happened.  Then we see Steven Gomez is dead.  That was a given.  We see Hank bleeding getting a decent shot to his leg.  Then he crawls to the rifle and it becomes apparent that Hank has no shot of living.  (I also liked the shot when Hank is crawling and you see the Nazis walk towards Hank)

Walt really gives it his all trying to save Hank's life.  Unfortunately, it was obvious that they were going to have to kill Hank.  Walt is an idiot and gives away that he has $80 million dollars buried in the ground.  As Hank says, "You're the smartest man I know and you're too stupid to realize that he made up his mind 10 minutes ago."

Remember when Walt said that he was doing this for his family?  Well he lost his family the moment Hank was killed.  I think Walt knew that.  Then he lost his money - or most of it - when he tried to save Hank.  I'm fairly certain he used a large majority of his barrel of money to get out of town so now he seems to literally have nothing.  No family, and the money is basically useless when its only used to hide yourself.

Marie goes straight from Hank's call to Skyler trying to make things right with her now that Walt has been caught.  That scene was painful to watch even if you hate Marie because the audience knows Hank is dead and yet she seems to bring Hank up every second possible reminding the audience Hank is dead.

I'd say Hank's death was appropriately badass.  I think he would have been done via machine gun in real life, but I'm happy to suspend disbelief so we he can have a death befitting his character.  He goes out like he's been all series.  Refusing to bend his morals and not begging for his life.  Sorry, but I respect Hank way more than Walt.

Then for about five minutes, I thought they were going to kill Jesse - which is actually kind of amazing because I assumed that he would live for sure until at least the final episode.  But no, Vince Gilligan decided to say "Fuck you, Jesse fans" and made a scenario that was somehow ten times worse than him dying.

Jesse finds out that Walt killed Jane, that Walt will get away, he gets tortured, he's held captive, and he's forced to keep cooking meth because they are threatening him with Andrea and Brock.  And this happens moments after he's convinced Walt will finally pay for his deeds.  Cruel. What the hell, Vince?  This makes me convinced that they will have Jesse come out on top by the way, because really are they going to leave his story on such a down note?

Oh yeah, and Walt Jr. found out about Walt.  That disappointed me because I have been asking for that for forever and they needed to kind of rush through that.  Still, it worked fine and honestly, what I was wanting probably would have exceeded the acting abilities of RJ Mitte.  He did fine here.  Also, I laughed out loud when Skyler told him to put on his seatbelt and he responded with "Are you shitting me?"

Hank and Gomie die, Jesse's held captive, Walt's separated from his family with a new identity, and millions of people around the world are collectively recovering from that onslaught of an episode.  Not sure they can top this episode.

Ok so it's pretty clear that they are going to skip a bunch of time next episode and if it were my bet, we finally reach the point where Walt is buying a massive gun at Denny's.  I can't believe we have to wait a week for that.  Two episodes left of what is looking like the best series ever.*

*Besides The Wire.  This is coming really close to that though and could surpass it.

Rewind: The Simpsons: Season 2

Note: This is my honest opinion on the show.  Keep in mind when reading this that my expectations are sky high.

Season 1

I'm undertaking an impossible task in my mind.  I'm trying to review and grade what many consider to be the greatest comedy television show ever made.  In theory, I'm approaching the series as a person who will be untouched by nostalgia and will be one person's voice on how the show has aged in the two decades since it aired.

My credentials for why I'm the right person for this task: Outside of maybe a few episodes I have no recollection of having watched, I had never seen the show before I started.  I think I saw The Simpsons Movie, but I don't remember liking it and I don't remember basically any of the movie.  Then again, my tastes in 2007 were much different than they are now.

I'm not quite totally sure what I expected, but this show is different than whatever that expectation was.  I didn't expect the characters to be like... human beings.  I didn't expect - except for the occasional visual sight gag - for it to be easy to envision these characters existing somewhere in real life.  It was rather foolish of me given its reputation, but that is something that for whatever reason caught me off guard.

I also expected it to be a lot funnier.  Am I alone on this?  It seemed like a lot of the humor came more from satire and the situations, and rarely resulted in anything more than a slight chuckle.  I will say the season gradually got funnier and funnier as the season progressed.  Still, I'm talking like one or two laughs in episode one to four or five by the end.  It's a little low for its reputation.

The good news -for me at least - is that the second season marks a strong improvement on the first.  The momentum is rising and its not hard to believe that the peak of the show is on the horizon.  To put it in another way, the weakest episodes of Season 2 reminded me of the best episodes of the first season.  That may be a slight exaggeration, but only a slight one.

I know there are maybe a couple episodes in this season that are considered "classic" episodes, but I can't say I agree a lot.  To me - and this is coming from a newcomer so feel free to take this with a grain of salt - a classic episode of The Simpsons (and this is rather arbitrary) contains a hilarious episode of television coupled with social satire and strong character beats.

This is my expectation at least because I don't think the second season provided me with it.  The show nailed down the character beats and social satire, but they haven't quite figured out in my mind how to couple that with laugh-out loud humor.  I don't require my comedies to have laugh-out loud humor, but I feel this show is the exception only because I have extremely high expectations.  I wish I could approach this having no knowledge of the show's history, but I do and that will of course color my perception.  Classic may be the wrong word.  Perhaps "one of the best episodes in the series" would be better.

A few episodes however did stick out in my mind.  They either were funnier than the rest of the pack, had a more touching story, did something that stuck out as original, or I just happened to like it better.  I loved "Treehouse of Horror", which I'm excited about because I know it's an annual feature.  "Dead Putting Society" had its weaknesses, but I loved the Ned Flanders scenes (and I'm aware some of the things he does in this are inconsistent with what he became, but that doesn't really affect a newcomer).

"Bart Gets Hit By a Car" is good mostly for Lionel Hutz, as voiced by Phil Hartman.  It's also the first appearance by unethical Dr. Nick Riviera.  "The Way We Was" lacked humor but was sweet and also featured the first appearance of McBain.  I don't think I'll ever not find McBain funny.  "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" was pretty brilliant for going the unusual route of condemning the common man and for Danny Devito, who made a memorable and sympathetic character in 22 minutes.  (Well him and the writing)

"Lisa's Substitute" is a great episode of television not because it's funny, because it's got three great story lines that are harsh and real - things I don't think cartoons did before this show.  It seamlessly interjected Bart's run for class president, Lisa's crush on a substitute teacher, and Homer's feeling of inferiority as a parent.  You are emotionally empty if you don't find the ending of this episode to be touching.  Episodes like this are what I didn't expect from The Simpsons.

The second season managed something the first season did not in another aspect.  It sneakily made me care about the characters.  I can't pinpoint an episode or time when I started to care what happened to them, but by the end of the season I did.  I feel like Homer is a fully fleshed out character at this point as is Lisa and Marge.  Bart is very much a caricature in my mind and I'm not sure he ever becomes a character, but this season wasn't it.

Overall, this show seems right on the brink of greatness.  It's got everything except for the laugh-out loud humor.  I don't know if this show will ever get to laugh-out loud humor, but that is my lone complaint about the show thus far.

I am completely geared up to love the third season.  I care about the characters, the show's quality has improved drastically since it's inception, and it gets funnier each episode.  I've been introduced to guest characters and already have a fondness for certain ones. (McBain, Flanders, Lionel Hutz)  I don't know when I'm going to start the third season, but I can virtually guarantee that it will come a lot faster than the time between the first and second seasons.

Hope you enjoyed this and since this is a post on a very well-known and loved series, I'd love to hear your thoughts on my post.

Playlist
1. "Vitamin C" - Can
2. "Incinerate" - Sonic Youth
3. "Lovely Day" - Bill Withers
4. "Bad Moon Rising" - Creedence Clearwater Revival
5. "Stabbed" - Brotha Lynch Hung ft. Tech N9ne & Hopsin

Breaking Bad: "To'hajiilee"

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WOW!  So that just happened.  Each episode I've been impressed and shocked at how fast the plot is escalating and then I remember we only have "x" amount of episodes left in the series and it makes sense that the dominoes are falling as fast as they are.  That still didn't make this any less shocking.

Ok so I guess I'll start at the end of the episode since that's the freshest in my mind.  When Hank, Gomez, and Jesse showed up in the desert to greet Walt, I think we all knew that some way, somehow Walt was getting away.  That led to the inevitable conclusion that Hank and Gomez would probably end up dead.

And we all probably knew that Todd's cousins would ignore Walt and go towards the site anyway.  So while I was expecting the ending to some degree, it didn't lose any of its shock value because Hank's probably going to die.  Hank, the character we've spent five seasons with, will die most likely.  The deaths are going to start and main characters will start falling.

What a brilliant, brilliant plan by Hank and Jesse to outsmart Heisenberg who was tricked every step of the way.  First off, they go after Huell in a sort of genius idea to make Huell think he's going to die.  Poor Huell.  Basically, the writers came up with a plausible way for Huell to rat.  He thinks Jesse is dead (with a convincing picture) and it's hardly a stretch to assume that Saul would rat on him as long as it benefits Saul.

He reveals enough information for the rest of the plan to work, which basically is just that the money was in barrels.  They take a picture of the barrel with money inside of it, send it to Walt, and convince Walt that Jesse is going to burn the money.  I'm pretty sure Jesse has burned money before in this series so I think Walt takes this threat seriously.

Jesse remains a weakness for Walt as he would never believe Jesse would rat on him.  He doesn't even think it's a possibility.  As a side note, I think Todd's cousins knew that Jesse was a rat or a possible rat and it could have been a reason they decided to go to the site - besides the fact that they are crazy.

So Jesse's threatening to burn money he doesn't have and Walt falls hard for it.  His ego wouldn't allow his money to be burned.  Walt had the picture and he thinks Jesse found the GPS for his car, but if Walt would have put a little thought into it, how in the world would Jesse have obtained that information?  He'd need to be a cop because no way in hell would that company release that to an average citizen.  Then he would have known Jesse was working with Hank.

But Walt doesn't even think that's a possibility so he freely admits to all of his crimes, unknowingly screwing himself over.  He realizes it just in time to call his Nazi buddies to set up the end of the episode.  Now is the time when Walt starts getting people he cares about killed.  Does he still care about Hank?  At least enough to not want him killed.

Walt made a solid gamble on going to Andrea's and thinking it would lead Jesse there.  It probably would have worked too if not for the fact that Hank had Jesse's phone.  Either way, Walt was maybe a bit too confident it would have worked - which is usually the case with him.

The episode's open was probably the weakest of the season though I think that's more because of how strong the previous four were.  Walt is SO good at making meth, he's made Jesse his near equal and Todd a solid 76%.  Lydia would be satisfied except Todd's not sure how to make the meth blue.  I think needing Walt to teach Todd (and the millions of potential profits) provided Todd's cousins the necessary motivation to shoot at the end of the episode.  They need Walt and they need him alive.

I guess I should mention that they telegraphed Hank's potential death pretty clearly.  His phone conversation with Marie was as obvious a signal of "HEY THIS CHARACTER WILL DIE" as any I've seen in a while.  I know Hank's not dead yet, but if he survives this, he's Superman.  Also the flash-forward in the premiere indicates Walt is both free and without family so Hank dying would heavily support that.

Things are escalating quickly and the ending is near.  Still unclear how they get to the flash-forward from this point, but it's at least a little clearer.  Walt's arrested right now, but he looks to be free very soon - kind of - and he's likely responsible for yet another death.  Can't wait until next week.

Breaking Bad: "Rabid Dog"

Four episodes left.  So far I'd say that season five part two has lived up to its hype.  Walt looks primed for destruction and yet, I still have no idea how in the world he gets to the point where his house is abandoned and seemingly everyone knows he is Heisenberg.

The tension was high throughout the entire episode for me.  Inexplicably, I thought something would happen when Walt Jr. and Walt were having a conversation by the pool.  This season has accomplished the dichotomy between nothing happening and anything possibly happening.

In the open, Walt walks into his gasoline-infested house looking for Jessie.  I was on the edge of my seat that entire time expecting Jesse to jump out at Walt - even though that wouldn't really be a Breaking Bad thing to do.  They spent a good four minutes or so on the scene and it was a false alarm.  But it worked because we spent the entire time wondering where the hell Jesse could be.  His car was exactly how he left it when he planned to burn Walt's house down.

Walt tries to cover his tracks - and actually in my opinion comes up with a very feasible story.  If Walt wasn't always full of shit, his family would have bought it.  But not even his clueless son thought he was telling the truth.  If I were Walt, once Walt Jr. presented the story that Walt passed out, he should have jumped on that.  But his pride got in the way like it usually does and he doesn't want to come across weak.

Walt Jr. is really easy to buy off - not that I blame him though.  I mean that car would buy me off from wondering too much about where my dad has been.  This time it's a sweet hotel.  I still await the day when Walt Jr. finds out. Please let this happen sometime. Please.  I think RJ Mitte is a good enough actor to pull this off - not that it would be a very easy scene to play.  Mitte nails any material he's given in my opinion.

So Saul Goodman really thinks killing Jesse is the way to go.  He compared killing Jesse to Old Yeller.  Interesting comparison.  (I found it funny - any scene where Saul tries to make a euphemism for killing somebody, it's usually hilarious).  And in a surprising scene, so does Skylar.  Skylar has become a very interesting character.  It's really easy for her to say to kill him though since she's not involved and will never see it.  (Which is why it's surprising, but ultimately makes sense)

But that scene definitely nailed down that Skylar has long since been compromised.  I don't think there's a greater anti-drug message out there than this show.  Sure, you might make money (although you probably can't cook meth like Walt can - in fact, I'm going to go out on a limb and say you can't), but you only compromise your morals and just about everyone you care about as well and put yourself and everyone you love in danger.  So yeah go ahead and try it if you want.

The Jessie reveal was satisfying.  When we left him, I'm not sure I could buy that he would just "change his mind" as Walt puts it.  Well, he didn't.  You see Hank has shown a penchant for following his targets on his own accord many many times so it was not a dues ex machina thankfully.  So he saves Jesse from burning Walt's house down - not unselfishly because he realizes burning his house down in the long run really won't hurt Walt like Hank wants to hurt Walt.

So he takes Jesse under his wing and gives him a place to sleep.  Bringing him into the office wouldn't have made a lot of sense because there is no evidence.  I assume either Hank realized this or he wanted to make Jesse comfortable.  Either way works.  Jesse presumably tells a story that we have watched unfold over five seasons - from his point-of-view.  I'm sure this won't be the last time we see his testimonial before the season is over.

So Jesse becomes a "snitch," which I don't have a problem with.  The stigma over "snitches" is unfortunate and odd.  It's mostly due to television shows involving characters who have that stigma - but in their case, usually being found out resulted in death.  Here? Oh Jesse might be able to sleep at night and look at himself in the mirror.  Those aren't that important I guess.

Walt agrees to meet Jesse in person and despite everyone giving him advice that he needs to get rid of Jesse, he does not plan to do it.  He wants to explain to Jesse why he did it.  He wants Jesse to think highly of him because he looks at him as a son.  It's some kind of abusive father-son relationship, but usually fathers still care in some creepy and weird way for that son.

In a bit of extreme coincidence, Jesse sees a rather large man who looks like he's protecting Walt.  If he really had a plan to kill Jesse, I think it would have been more subtle.  Nonetheless, it's a rather large coincidence, though I think the show has had worse ones so it didn't bother me a whole lot.  I'm still a Jesse fan and I've stated I wanted Jesse to kill Walt, but this might be just as good.  Jesse's call to Walt was pretty awesome and properly scared the shit out of Walt.

Walt calls Todd as result to kill Jesse and I don't think that was a very good decision by Walt.  It's probably part of Jesse's plan in fact which we probably won't find out until we see it play out - just a guess.  Walt started the season with four things against him and now two of them are teaming up.  Cancer doesn't appear to be a huge threat in the immediate future and Lydia is nowhere to be found in this episode.  Hank and Jesse though have the most motivation and want to see him utterly destroyed.  Walt's imminent destruction is coming.