Tag Archives: Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad: 504-“Fifty-One”

In the fourth of episode of Breaking Bad‘s final season, much of the season’s plot has been put on hold to take a moment and focus on the dynamic between Walter and Skyler. Their rapidly deteriorating marriage is the major focus of this episode. Words are exchanged, things are said, and Walter continues to be the most intelligent man on the entire show. Meanwhile, Mike, Walt, and Jesse are looking to find a way to handle Madrigal, who may or may not have betrayed them.

What could have been this episode’s strengths end up being the major weaknesses. The emphasis on how much of a raging bitch Skyler is, versus how much of a controlled family man Walt is – makes itself apparent within the first five minutes of the episode, where Walt gets himself and his son extremely expensive cars. The sequence is oddly hilarious and I’m not sure how much I was supposed to laugh, but I’ll admit I was definitely cracking up.

I never liked episodes that focused on Skyler, and here we see everyone in a panic because of her. She’s really the only reason everything isn’t going according to plan, and what she says to Walter at the end of the episode is unforgivable and wrong. She may have proved herself momentarily a couple seasons back, but she’s just reverted to her old nosy, selfish, and frankly unintelligent ways. On the other hand, Marie is proving to be a valuable addition to the White family. She and Hank (who’s losing weight faster than a cancer patient, ironically enough), are definitely stepping up to the plate as both siblings-in-law to Walt and Skyler, but also as aunt and uncle to Walter Jr. and Holly.

Stepping away from all of that, though, another major issue I had with this episode was the mild usage of Jesse and Mike, and the complete absence of Saul. Breaking Bad works mainly because of the chemistry between Walter and Jesse (I swear, these [Breaking]bad puns are completely unintentional), but the lack of that here is really apparent. That is, of course, until the end.

*SPOILERS*

Jesse buys Walt a watch for his 51st birthday. In fact, he’s the only person to get him a gift and it’s a beautiful watch that Walt genuinely likes. He wears it, brings it back to Skyler and explains to her that the watch was given to him by someone who was pointing a gun at his head just a couple weeks ago. They’re now good partners and friends, so if their relationship can be mended, so can Walt and Skyler’s marriage.

He then leaves and takes the watch off, putting it on his nightstand. It ticks, and ticks, and ticks, and as the seconds get closer to the next minute, the ticking becomes louder and more intense until the end where it sounds like a gun cocking or the minute hand changing (or both).

I’m thinking that the watch is either bugged (unlikely) or that it’s merely a visual representation of Walt’s literal ticking clock. It’s possible that the cancer may come back and kill him since, as of this point, there isn’t anyone on the street who serves as some kind of imminent danger. But I guess we’ll have to wait until Sunday to find out.

3/5 Bears


TV TRIVIA: This episode, titled ‘Fifty-One’ in reference to Walt’s 51st birthday, aired the same night as the latest episode of HBO’s Newsroom, which was titled ‘5/1’. Weird. Right? No. Whatever.

Breaking Bad: 501 “Live Free and Die” Review

This is it, folks. The final season of “Breaking Bad” is underway and fans couldn’t be more excited and devastated at the same time. It’s been a long and hard journey for Walter White, which means it’s been a nail-biting and intense past couple years for us at home. The final season starts with a bang. If you didn’t get a chance to watch “Breaking Bad” last night, here’s what you missed:

The episode begins with Walter White in an unspecified state eating at a Denny’s on his 52nd birthday…alone. He’s looking pretty roughed up and he’s actually sporting a full head of hair for the first time in literally years. He makes small talk with Lisa, the waitress serving him, and she reveals that he’ll get his meal free with valid identification. He reluctantly agrees and hands her a license. She responds with something to the effect of, “New Hampshire, huh? You’re a long way from home.”

They continue talking and a mysterious man enters from the background. He’s out-of-focus but the camera follows him, leading us to believe that he has some importance in this scene. Sure enough, a few seconds later Walt makes his way to the bathroom. He slips the man an envelope and the man slips him some car keys. The unnamed man asks Walt if “it” is leaving the country. Walt replies, saying that “it” isn’t leaving town. He leaves the restaurant quickly, leaving a $100 bill under his untouched plate of food.

In the parking lot, Walt grabs a duffel bag full of something that isn’t revealed. He finds the car to which the keys he was just handed belongs, and in the trunk is an M60 with upwards of a thousand rounds. An instruction manual is placed neatly under the gun, and after staring at it, putting the duffel bag in the trunk, and closing the door, the main credits roll.

Going back to present day, the White family is in a frenzy over the death of Gus, Walt’s former boss. Skyler is on the phone with Walt and asks him what’s going to happen next. Walt replies with, “We’re safe.” She asks if he knows anything about Gus’ death, only to be met with statement, “I won.” Going back to the White household, Walter cleans up everything he used to make the bomb, and puts the Lily of the Valley plant, the one he used to poison Brock, in his trunk just in time for Skyler and Walter Jr. to come home. In the bedroom, Skyler confesses to Walt that she’s relieved he’s alive, but that she’s scared of him. She leaves the room and Walt says, “Oh shit.”

Cut to Hank and Merket in Hazmat suits investigating the remains of Gus’ underground lab, which has now been turned into a big pile of nothing. Two unrecognizable bodies have been left, and after Merket tells Hank that he’s allowed to say, “I told you so,” Hank sees a charred piece of metal and plastic. The two theorize what it could be and Hank ends the scene with, “Maybe a camera?” We then see Mike, who is still recovering from his wounds. He’s being told that Gus is dead and he speeds away in his car.

A few miles down a dirt road, he runs into Walt and Jesse, almost running into them. After planning to shoot Walt, Jesse convinces Mike that he has something important to say. Reluctantly lowering his gun, Mike listens to Walt who says that they’ve all been caught on the cameras. The only way to clear their names completely would be to erase all the memory from the computer. The only way to do that, of course, would be to steal the computer…or would it? In the midst of an argument between Mike and Walt, Jesse chimes in with the idea of a magnet. Magnetic forces usually destroy computer hard drives, but where can they get a magnet big enough to do the job?

The junkyard! The three bald-headed criminals visit Old Joe who says that they can put his car compactor magnet into a U-Haul truck and park it in front of the police station. They can then turn on the magnet, destroy the computer, and be out of there before anyone sees them. Meanwhile, Saul visits Skyler at work to reveal the news that Ted Beneke, who was thought to be dead at the end of Season 4, is in the hospital and has “just woken up”.

She pays him a visit but is shocked to see his condition. He’s attached to a metal head brace that is literally drilled into his head. His head is shaved and he looks like he hasn’t slept in days. In a surprisingly touching scene, Ted promises Skyler that the only thing the police know about is the fact that he tripped and fell. It was a freak accident and he swears that because of his wife and kids, he wants no trouble and won’t ever breathe a word of what happened. Call me crazy, but I don’t see things ending well for Mr. Beneke.

Back to Mike, Walt, and Jesse, they’re able to successfully destroy the computer (at least they’re pretty sure they did), and make it away without being caught, but Walt turned the magnet on so high that they truck tipped over. They’re forced to ditch it and make it away in Mike’s car. When asked why he knows the computer was destroyed, Walt simply says, “Because I say so”.

The next morning the cops go through pieces of evidence piece by piece. They get to the laptop and report it as damaged and in pieces. We see that the frame of one of Gus’ photos was also broken during the incident. It’s revealed that bank account information that had previously gone unnoticed was hidden behind the picture, written in pen in the lining of the frame.

Saul tells Walt about Skyler helping Ted to pay off the IRS. He’s upset Saul never told him about her giving away more than $600,000 of his money to the man she was sleeping with, despite Saul explaining that it’s just good business. When Walt starts yelling at him, Saul says “we’re done.” Walt walks behind the desk and gets in his face: “Were done when I say we’re done.” Walt tells Skyler he heard what happened to Ted. She says Ted won’t talk and Walt proceeds to lean in for a hug. In an equally chilling and terrifying moment, he says “I forgive you.”

This is a great and dynamite start to the final season and I’m literally on the edge of my seat waiting for the next episode. The directing is the best “Breaking Bad” has to offer. By not overdoing the innovative shots the show is known for, the suspense is heightened even more than it needs to be due to its gorgeous photography. The music fit the mood perfectly. Specifically, a scene where Walt tries to hide all the bomb-making materials ended with a deeply haunting and fascinating fade out that reminded me a lot of the score for Insidious.

As for the cast, everyone is back and ready to play. Bryan Cranston becomes more and more intense every season, and his voice is close to resembling that of Christian Bale in The Dark Knight. Jesse’s importance to the show is becoming more defined and I feel like he’s going to play a pivotal part in the series’ climactic scenes. All in all, “Breaking Bad” is off to a great start and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season has to offer.

The GrizzlyBomb 2012 Comic-Con Preview!

It is that time of the year again and it is time to revel in the wonders that is the San Diego Comic-Con 2012! One of the biggest things this year for our site is that we will actually be in attendance and representing GrizzlyBomb as we go to the biggest place where news on comics, television, movies, and video games breaks every minute from July 12th-15th and of course we will document it all. We are going to be on the show floor and I will be your guide and your way in to panels, booths, and probably pictures of the lovely booth babes so please visit as much as you can during the next week because we’re going to be knee-deep in some fun stuff.

Over the years, the panels have become some of the biggest places where announcements are made, stars have shown up, great Q&As have been done so we are going to do a preview on what we think will be some heavy hitters and must sees in San Diego.

Continue reading The GrizzlyBomb 2012 Comic-Con Preview!

Breaking Bad/AMC Being Dropped By Dish Network!

Breaking Bad is arguably the best show on television right now, and along with its stellar cast, directing, writing and acting, it’s one of the most engaging stories I’ve ever seen. So engaging, that it’s only a week and change away from debuting its new season, and that still feels like an incredibly long time. Unfortunately, the wait could be even longer for Dish Network subscribers, who are SOL when it comes to getting AMC this year.  Dish is another satellite TV provider that has at one point or another, failed to make a deal with a popular cable network, and the drama spills out into the public, and fans of that channel have to get involved themselves.

“Dish has not discussed rates with us at all,” AMC said in today’s statement. Dish customers have lost some of their favorite shows because of an unrelated lawsuit which has nothing at all to do with our programming.”  [Ad Age]

Basically, Dish says that AMC is charging too much for its channel with its shows with low ratings, (Walking Dead, Mad Men, ) and AMC says that Dish is dropping them because of an unspecified 2008 lawsuit that would lose Dish money, to the amount of $ 2.5 billion. A similar thing happened with FX/DirecTV a year or so ago, and years before that DirecTV and G4, only G4 is such a terrible channel DirecTV decided to not accept their deal and now DirecTV is G4-less. That’s ok though, because G4 has never had anything close in quality to the worst show on FX or AMC combined, and that includes reruns of Two & A Half Men. How this keeps happening, I don’t understand. Perhaps there’s just a constant cycle of lawsuits that are on hold indefinitely to stymie cable and satellite providers, and some great TV Pope declares who will get what network approval every 10 years.

So the Great TV Pope has declared that unless Dish and AMC can come to some agreement, AMC, IFC and We TV will be dropped from Dish. How will they get their dose of Zombies, Meth Drama, Men in Suits, Experimental Indie Cinema and Women’s Programming now?

On an interesting side note, FX was originally going to pick up Breaking Bad, until the president of FX thought that Walter White would make one male anti-hero too many for their channel.

We had three dramas with male antiheroes and we looked at that script and said, ‘Okay, so here’s a fourth male antihero,’” Landgraf recalled. “The question was: ‘Are we defining FX as the male antihero network and is that a big enough tent?” [EW]

I suppose this means that no matter what, at some point every Satellite TV customer, would have to have worried about not getting their fix of Breaking Bad. What with FX’s fans’ main rallying cry being to save It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, in some alternate universe somewhere it very well may have been “Save Breaking Bad! Tell FX you love meth!” Mostly, I’m just glad I have DirecTV right now…