Gyroscopic Investing

MediumTex wrote: Did anyone else love the opening of that episode where the guys were singing in the field?

It was almost like that song helped explain what was going through the minds of the Mexican hit men who were looking for Walt as well as the overall arc of the story.

When I first saw the musical bit, I couldn't quite figure out what it was trying to say.  Looking back on it, it makes perfect sense. 

It's three minutes.  Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPx42dMj ... re=related

Yeah, I was hoping they would continue to use that device to explain and give background in the show.  Unfortunately they didn't.

Gustavo Fring is a great character.  imho Gus the smartest fictional Mafioso character.  Gus makes Michael Corleone look dumb by comparison.

It would be great if Villigan (aka BB show writer/leader Vince Gilligan) made a spin-off show about Gus, show his backstory.  Presumably Gustavo was in Chile connected to the Pinochet regime.

btw, don't you hate the long waits in between BrBa seasons?

i thought gustavo was great as well, smart and ruthless, you have to admire his moves, he is playing 3d chess in a checkers world.. i also liked how Walter was watching and learning from him...

MediumTex wrote: Did anyone else love the opening of that episode where the guys were singing in the field?

Yes, this was cool!  Apparently this is a form of music known as "narcocorrido", which seems to consist of upbeat, mariachi-like Mexican songs about the adventures of drug traffickers.

In this narcocorrido we learn of Heisenberg, a "homey" who is "dead but just doesn't know it yet".  (Guess it's all relative for a man with terminal lung cancer.)

MediumTex wrote: When I first saw the musical bit, I couldn't quite figure out what it was trying to say.  Looking back on it, it makes perfect sense. 

I, for one, cannot resist a teaser like that.  What struck you later about the song?

Lone Wolf wrote:

MediumTex wrote: When I first saw the musical bit, I couldn't quite figure out what it was trying to say.  Looking back on it, it makes perfect sense. 

I, for one, cannot resist a teaser like that.  What struck you later about the song?

In retrospect, I interpret the song to be conveying the basic mental state of the Mexican hitmen.  The lyrics seemed to convey their simplistic interpretation of where they were going and what they were going to do without conveying any fear or judgment, which would be consistent with their basic cold bloodedness.

I think we heard the song before we met the hitmen, so that's why I had trouble figuring out exactly what it was trying to tell me.

Another interpretation, of course, is that the song just conveys the basic outlaw narrative that Walt's life had become, albeit from a Mexican perspective.

Given what we learned about the hitmen later, though, when I see the song now it seems like this was basically the song that was going through their heads as they went about their business. 

When my wife hears me talking about Breaking Bad she just shakes her head.

***

In general, I think the music in Breaking Bad is terrific. 

Remember the episode with Jesse's girl...friend in the opening and the song "Windy"?

Outstanding:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlqwpq7xycU

BTW, for anyone who missed it, here is a link to the excellent New York Times Magazine piece from this past summer that turned me on to the show in the first place.

It's a really good piece of writing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/magaz ... television

Just witnessed what might be one of the shows best moments thus far.  I will try not to spoil it but it involves a Pontiac Aztec, 2 drug dealers, and some high-velocity lead.  Walt is certainly transforming.

Maybe Walt should "diversify" & talk half his cash stack & buy gold coins.  The latter would possibly be more portable/smaller/easier to move quickly in an emergency.

MediumTex wrote: Remember the episode with Jesse's girl...friend in the opening and the song "Windy"?

Those ellipses were specifically designed to make us all think that they'd used Rick Springfield music on Breaking Bad, weren't they?  :)  I'm sure that's coming in season 5.

Good article from the NYTimes, by the way.

Lone Wolf wrote:

MediumTex wrote: Remember the episode with Jesse's girl...friend in the opening and the song "Windy"?

Those ellipses were specifically designed to make us all think that they'd used Rick Springfield music on Breaking Bad, weren't they?  :)  I'm sure that's coming in season 5.

Maybe they will have "Don't Talk to Strangers" playing as a stranger is doing something very bad to someone who was too chatty.

Picture a Breaking Bad derivative of the "Hip To Be Square" bit from American Psycho.

Hip to be Square scene is here (warning--disturbing--though quite funny):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzN3qO-q ... re=related

MediumTex wrote:
Picture a Breaking Bad derivative of the "Hip To Be Square" bit from American Psycho.

Hip to be Square scene is here (warning--disturbing--though quite funny):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzN3qO-q ... re=related

That is a top-ten all-time best movie scene.

This scene has to be one of my favorites (of many) from Breaking Bad. For some reason I didn't catch the foreshadowing in the beginning of the episode, so it took me completely by surprise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O47UY80V ... re=related

(Note the Howard Dean scream at the very end... apparently it's the new Wilhelm Scream.)

Awesome scene.  One thing I wonder is where they get the worst of the meth heads on this show.  Don't tell me it's just makeup. 

Tortoise wrote: (Note the Howard Dean scream at the very end... apparently it's the new Wilhelm Scream.)

Great scene and really good ear catching that Howard Dean scream!  Once you notice it, it's completely unmistakable.

I write video games as a hobby and several years back I sampled it myself as an in-game sound.  I had no idea this had become common.  (It's a great scream.)

I think this is one of the most satisfying scenes from the show so far. 

It's from season 4 and might be a tiny bit of a spoiler if you haven't seen it yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMEq1mGpP5A

Breaking Bad starts up again on Sunday July 15.

Petty exciting.

Last season.

the wiki page this last season is actually going to be split into 2 subseasons, iirc 8 episodes starting July 15 as you mentioned, & then the last 8 eps from the final subseason in Summer 2013.

I'm gonna try this time to skip Breaking Bad until the subseason ended, then watch it.

btw, this random podcast "Breaking Good" is pretty good.  It's 2 30ish IT guys are good at noticing subtle hints/meaning that "The Villigan" (head writer/BB boss Vince Gilligan) & the other writers include in the show, plus they're funny.
http://baldmove.com/category/breaking-g ... d-podcast/

cabronjames wrote: the wiki page this last season is actually going to be split into 2 subseasons, iirc 8 episodes starting July 15 as you mentioned, & then the last 8 eps from the final subseason in Summer 2013.

I'm really mad about this.  The writers had a definitive goal to wrap this up in 5 seasons.  I agree with this because a lot of popular tv shows go on for way too long with no end in sight and lose their edge.  Splitting up the last season into two "mini-seasons" makes it seem like AMC is just trying to milk the popularity a little bit longer.  It's just like the last Harry Potter movie that was split into two parts to increase the franchise's gross ticket sales.  From a finance standpoint it makes a lot of sense, but I hate how financial decisions often intersect with art.  At the very least they could air the last 8 episodes sometime in the Fall/Winter instead of making the fans wait a whole year to see the conclusion.

I thought it was worth mentioning that Netflix now finally has Breaking Bad season 4 online for anyone that isn't yet caught up.  This, folks, is great television!

The season premiere was excellent.  Lots of new paths to go down.

rhymenocerous wrote: I'm really mad about this.  The writers had a definitive goal to wrap this up in 5 seasons.  I agree with this because a lot of popular tv shows go on for way too long with no end in sight and lose their edge.  Splitting up the last season into two "mini-seasons" makes it seem like AMC is just trying to milk the popularity a little bit longer.  It's just like the last Harry Potter movie that was split into two parts to increase the franchise's gross ticket sales.  From a finance standpoint it makes a lot of sense, but I hate how financial decisions often intersect with art.  At the very least they could air the last 8 episodes sometime in the Fall/Winter instead of making the fans wait a whole year to see the conclusion.

I have some experience in this area. We're better off as fans waiting until next year for the last 8 episodes. The more compressed the time frame of the episodes, the worse the writing will be.

You may not understand how TV writing works, but they don't have all 16 of those episodes written yet. They probably broke the main story arcs (i.e. they know that in Episode 12, the DEA agent brother-in-law will learn of X and confront him <sanitized for possible spoilers>).

They definitely don't know all the subplots and they definitely will change how the characters get to those major story points, when they actually write the episode. The scripts are written about a week before production. It takes a long time to write one episode. They normally have a team of 6+ writers, and each writer takes 1 to 2 months per episode. They stagger the due dates so that the team as a whole has one episode done per week (because one episode gets shot, produced, and aired each week), but it can take 2 months per script to get written.

Yes it sucks to wait until next summer, but the final product will be better for it. There's a reason why day time soap operas are horrible and ridiculous. It's because they have to write a new 1 hour episode on a daily basis with no breaks, ever. I want the writers of Breaking Bad to take their time, get a few months off to recuperate and recharge their creative systems between half-seasons, and then spend a month or two breaking stories as a whole before splitting off to write each individual episode.

16 episodes is a lot for a season of a serialized 1 hour drama. 13 is usually max that's done because more than that and it's hard to break the stories in one year. In essence you can argue AMC did us a favor because otherwise they'd have done a 10 to 13 episode season. Instead they broke it up to allow the writers to give us 16 episodes total, which wouldn't be possible in one season. The writers aren't making widgets with the potential to work 2x longer and make 2x as many. They need time to create the stories.

As far as AMC milking it for profit, consider the alternative. They don't milk it for profit, get less profit, and can't afford to spend money on shooting new pilots to test. New pilots are the R&D of TV land and they cost $3M to $5M each to shoot, and most of them never become actual shows. I want AMC making as much money as possible, so they can funnel it back into R&D and develop great shows in the future.

Tonight's episode with the train robbery made me feel like I was going to have a heart attack.

I think it's impressive that, in a sense, Jesse has slowly evolved into the brains of the operation.

It was Jesse's idea to use a giant electromagnet to destroy the laptop in the police's evidence room. And in tonight's episode, Jesse was the one to suggest they pull off the methylamine heist in a way that would completely avoid detection even after the theft.

Walt may be the intellectual workhorse with his Caltech Ph.D., but Jesse has evidently transformed into the one who surprisingly comes up with the brightest, outside-the-box ideas when the chips are down. Compare that to the Jesse from the first season who didn't even realize he was capable of tying his own shoelaces. That's some good character development.

I couldn't believe the ending to last night's episode!!! They've turned into Gus.

Also, this is pure speculation, but we have "Jesse" Pinkman and several allusions to "Jesse" James.  Jesse James was shot in the back of the head by a member of his own crew.  Foreshadowing perhaps?

I'm surprised that we are this far into the season (and post-Gus) and they're still not cooking again.

I don't see how they can possibly tie all of this up in just 11 more episodes (3 more this year and 8 next year).

Given how rich and textured the story has become (with so many supporting characters coming into their own), I really do wish that they would just come out and say they are going to do another 24 episodes or so.

The pace they are moving at now suggests that one way or another things are going to feel rushed at the end.

It's hard not to wonder how Mike has lived as long as he has doing the kind of work that he does.