re: My Biggest Beefs With Breaking Bad

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Again, you appear to be confused about where the talent part comes into play. It isn't in setting the thermostat to 75 degrees and dumping a pre-weighed amoutn of aluminum into a vat, etc. etc. It's in designing that whole process from scratch.

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You appear to not understand that it's not just the process, but the understanding of the process. Sweet frick, dude, even if it were a simple recipe, which the show goes to great lengths to say and demonstrate it's not, you don't think there are people who can follow a recipe better than another? My wife makes a mean boeuf bourguignon, but there is no way in frick she could do it as well as Julia Child, even though it's Julia Child's recipe.

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Again, you appear to be confused about where the talent part comes into play

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Walt was waaaaaaay more talented than Jesse.

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It isn't in setting the thermostat to 75 degrees and dumping a pre-weighed amoutn of aluminum into a vat, etc. etc. It's in designing that whole process from scratch.

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It sounds like you're agreeing with me now. I'm confused.

My biggest issue with BB is the fact that they skimmed over one of the moments that I was looking forward to the most during the whole series.

I know Jr. gets a lot of hate here but I liked the character. He was the only thing on the show that wasn't tainted. He was just an American teenager dealing with a disability and a father with cancer. He was oblivious to the horrible things his parents were doing and they kept that him that way the almost the entire series--which they should have.

However, I fully expected a devastating reveal in Season 5. I wanted to see the pain and the confusion and betrayal on Jr.'s face as he's confronted with the truth that his hero was in fact the villain. And that his mother knew everything and she never went to the authorities. She put his and his infant sister's life in danger and was complicit in keeping him duped. I wanted to see his innocence replaced with disbelief and destruction of faith in those he trusted most.

Instead we got a semi-violent confrontation where Jr. was forced to defend his mother without knowing exactly what was going on and an angry phone call later on down the road.

I just think VG passed up a great opportunity to make the most out of character that was nothing more than one more person to keep a secret from.

That is a great point about Jr. It would have been a very interesting storyline.

yea we're def. at a point of agreeing to disagree.

I think Gilligan gave Walt Jr. enough of that IMO. I don't think that kid could have pulled off anything better anyway.

As someone else said he's Anthony Jr from the Sops or Glen from Mad Men.

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But if my grandmother had made it exactly according to the recipe, then my mom's would taste exactly the same. And then if I followed that recipe I could make one and it would be exactly the same.

Hell, I can't cook a think, but you should taste the punkin pie I make.....according to my mom's recipe. Tastes just like hers (quite delicious).

And so the question then becomes: is cooking meth more like making my grandmother's cheeseball, or more like making my mom's punkin pie. I submit that it's like the pumpkin pie. Walt had a painstakingly precise set of steps to follow. There was no spitballing. There was no playing it by ear. It was recipe, followed to the letter.

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It's not just a simple recipe, guy. How are you not getting this? And why is it a fricking hang up? Walt, like every cook who really understands the way things react to each other and understands why they do things a certain way, could make adjustments where adjustments needed to be made. In theory, recipes are designed to get you the same product every time, but in practice, even with a detailed, thorough recipe, there are changes, small differences that occur. Walt can account for these because he's a chemist. Jesse cannot because he's not.

This is very fricking simple and I feel like now you're just trying to argue for the sake of argument rather than actually trying to change anyone's mind.

All of your "beefs" with the show are so insignificant as to be borderline trollish. King George's issue with Jr's reaction (or lack thereof), Freauxzen's suggestion of an issue with Marie's rather pointless kleptomania storyline, those are legitimate. Walter being a better "cook" than Jesse is not. It was explained numerous times in the show and has been thoroughly beaten to death by the posters in this thread.

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yea we're def. at a point of agreeing to disagree.

I think Gilligan gave Walt Jr. enough of that IMO. I don't think that kid could have pulled off anything better anyway.

As someone else said he's Anthony Jr from the Sops or Glen from Mad Men.

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For me, Anthony jr on sopranos wasn't a poorly written character, he was just an annoying little brat. I think Walt jr(and Marie) were poorly written.

The other guy nailed it on the head why Marie was poorly written, the shoplifting subplot was awful.

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My biggest issue with BB is the fact that they skimmed over one of the moments that I was looking forward to the most during the whole series.

I know Jr. gets a lot of hate here but I liked the character. He was the only thing on the show that wasn't tainted. He was just an American teenager dealing with a disability and a father with cancer. He was oblivious to the horrible things his parents were doing and they kept that him that way the almost the entire series--which they should have.

However, I fully expected a devastating reveal in Season 5. I wanted to see the pain and the confusion and betrayal on Jr.'s face as he's confronted with the truth that his hero was in fact the villain. And that his mother knew everything and she never went to the authorities. She put his and his infant sister's life in danger and was complicit in keeping him duped. I wanted to see his innocence replaced with disbelief and destruction of faith in those he trusted most.

Instead we got a semi-violent confrontation where Jr. was forced to defend his mother without knowing exactly what was going on and an angry phone call later on down the road.

I just think VG passed up a great opportunity to make the most out of character that was nothing more than one more person to keep a secret from.

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This is an interesting take. I definitely did not expect such a reveal and thought the manner in which Jr was utilized in those two scenes was consistent with the overall utilization of that character.

In other words, I actually would have found it odd if they all of a sudden made an attempt to "get more" out of that character in that it wouldn't have been congruent with his depiction over the entirety of the series. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that maybe you don't go trying to add depth to a one-dimensional character at the last minute.

And I don't think Jr was a bad character, just a limited character.

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the only part I couldn't go with (and laughed at plot wise) was when Walter and Skyler blackmailed Hank with the videotape.

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Agreed, that was terrible

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My biggest issue with BB is the fact that they skimmed over one of the moments that I was looking forward to the most during the whole series.

I know Jr. gets a lot of hate here but I liked the character. He was the only thing on the show that wasn't tainted. He was just an American teenager dealing with a disability and a father with cancer. He was oblivious to the horrible things his parents were doing and they kept that him that way the almost the entire series--which they should have.

However, I fully expected a devastating reveal in Season 5. I wanted to see the pain and the confusion and betrayal on Jr.'s face as he's confronted with the truth that his hero was in fact the villain. And that his mother knew everything and she never went to the authorities. She put his and his infant sister's life in danger and was complicit in keeping him duped. I wanted to see his innocence replaced with disbelief and destruction of faith in those he trusted most.

Instead we got a semi-violent confrontation where Jr. was forced to defend his mother without knowing exactly what was going on and an angry phone call later on down the road.

I just think VG passed up a great opportunity to make the most out of character that was nothing more than one more person to keep a secret from.

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This too. And for that very powerful reason. He was the only "good" person on the show.

Honestly, I think a big issue of Breaking Bad, both for the good and certainly the bad, was focusing SO MUCH on Walter. Granted, he was a good character, but for the narrative, he only became one at the expense of "could have beens" like Jesse, Marie, and Breakfast. I thought each had a much better arc boiling under the surface that was seriously sacrificed.