US: Breaking Bad Season 5 Part II - The finale.

i watched this for the 2nd time over the christmas period (over 4 years since the last) and it still holds up well though i forgot how things don't really get going until gus gets involved and i was relieved at how they updated the cameras as the first few seasons on blu ray are a bit glitchy

however one thing still narks me. why didn't hank call for back up? he clearly had signal as he called his wife before the shootout, to brag how he'd busted walter so as soon as he saw the vehicles roll up or even if he waited until they drew their weapons, why not call for a swat team to come and save the day? ok the obvious answer is that's how the story had to go but still in terms of a realistic scenario, he'd have called for back up. i doubt very much they would have surrenedered had he shown his badge but again, why didn't he?

still, the series still rates an 8/10 for me
 
The ending for Hank doesnt make sense, its all off the books and ridiculous handling for someone responsible for so many deaths and major organised crime. The ending for ehrmantraut also, he is breaking all his own rules doing that and the only answer would be he opted to die that way or had lost all his previous good judgement. If either of them had regularly taken risks like that in their careers they would have never made it that far.
Gus ending works as he was deliberately biased by personal involvement and revenge
 
Just watched that YouTube clip last night, very good.

I watched this through for a second time since seeing it when it aired and have to say I was a little disappointed. I'm not sure what I expected, but I guess as I watched Game of Thrones through a second time and enjoyed it even more, as more things made sense, I hope I would enjoy this even more. It's different with BB though, the greater enjoyment comes from the story and not knowing what will happen. I guess this time as I knew, it just wasn't as great. I still rate it as the best TV show I've watched, but it's just not as good for me the second time.

Some of the big events, big scenes that stuck in my mind seemed almost anticlimactic the second time through.
 
Yeah this is one show I'm likely to never watch again. It was all down to the suspense. BB has always taken second place to The Sopranos for me, and coincidentally I just started my 3rd session of it a couple of nights ago.
 
Saw that clip last night too and laughed my way through it. Those two still have brilliant chemistry together. I've got BB on my Netflix queue but I'm not sure I can bring myself to watch it again for the reasons above. It was just too good first time round.
 
nah I have to disagree, just the way BB was filmed with no words or any dressing needed was framed well, I could watch it just for that generally. It will be worth watching back on a nice 4k tv one day. I'm fairly good at forgetting stuff then being to watch it all over again but I think I'll need 10 years as I seen it too much on youtube since

I think it makes it to the all time list with a few others, sopranos, the wire and a couple I dont know
 
I watched this again a few months back. Having watched it from day 1 religiously then watching it all back before the final series. Had still forgotten a number of bits and the order of things. Will be good in a few years time to blitz through bcs then this to put it all into chronological order.
 
First couple of seasons were fantastic!!

I thought the last 3 seasons, apart from the odd episode, were mediocre.

Maybe I need a second viewing but I don't think I will ever watch it again. I was kind of relieved when it all ended.
 
for those saying it loses something on rewatch, I'd agree like any truly great show (Sopranos, The Shield, The Wire) the brilliance of the story/plot/certain events is lost

however with Breaking Bad there is an incredible amount of meaning hidden within the series in terms of foreshadowing, use of colour (especially!), recurring themes, stuff that you can pay more attention to on a rewatch...

there's a youtube vid I think called Reflections on Heisenberg that analyses the first 3 seasons (reflections are another thing that is used a lot for symbolism) and some of the stuff that is beneath the surface is incredible.

I'm sure more astute watchers picked a lot up the first time through, but still - for example, Hank's eventual end is actually glaringly obvious in retrospect, it is foreshadowed pretty much through the ENTIRE series (Tuco, then the twins, as well as some other stuff). Walt's first meeting with Gus they first recognise each other for what they are when they see each other in a reflection! Just before Walt does the 'one who knocks' speech he takes off his top so that he is now in 'Heisenberg' colouring as he reveals part of that persona to Skylar...

That is how I came to appreciate the show even more and I already considered it GOAT (with The Shield being my actual preference I just realise it isn't quite as good)
 
melmac said:
First couple of seasons were fantastic!!

I thought the last 3 seasons, apart from the odd episode, were mediocre.

Maybe I need a second viewing but I don't think I will ever watch it again. I was kind of relieved when it all ended.
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First half of season 5 is incredible. I could watch those episodes back to back any day all day especially the train heist ep.

At this point though I think better call saul has more memorable moments. It's slow going but I value meaningful consequences to plot points which BB didnt really deliver on until season 5 and BCS has had in spades since season 1.

Vince learnt a lot in making BB which you could say he has perfected for BCS.

There are of course much better shows - wire,Sopranos,shield. All timeless through execution and arch(s) but BB is easily top 10 of all time mainly because it didnt wimp out,it did get really dark and it did turn an ordinary man into a drug kingpin. They had balls if nothing else.
 
DreadNiK said:
for those saying it loses something on rewatch, I'd agree like any truly great show (Sopranos, The Shield, The Wire) the brilliance of the story/plot/certain events is lost

however with Breaking Bad there is an incredible amount of meaning hidden within the series in terms of foreshadowing, use of colour (especially!), recurring themes, stuff that you can pay more attention to on a rewatch...

there's a youtube vid I think called Reflections on Heisenberg that analyses the first 3 seasons (reflections are another thing that is used a lot for symbolism) and some of the stuff that is beneath the surface is incredible.

I'm sure more astute watchers picked a lot up the first time through, but still - for example, Hank's eventual end is actually glaringly obvious in retrospect, it is foreshadowed pretty much through the ENTIRE series (Tuco, then the twins, as well as some other stuff). Walt's first meeting with Gus they first recognise each other for what they are when they see each other in a reflection! Just before Walt does the 'one who knocks' speech he takes off his top so that he is now in 'Heisenberg' colouring as he reveals part of that persona to Skylar...

That is how I came to appreciate the show even more and I already considered it GOAT (with The Shield being my actual preference I just realise it isn't quite as good)
Click to expand...

Yep, agreed, there's loads of foreshadowing that I hadn't noticed the first time round. For example:

  • when they find out Walt's cancer is in remission in season 2, Hank says "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in again". At the end of the previous episode Saul referred to how Walt could transfer himself into a Corleone
  • again in season 2, Jesse watches Skinny Pete squash a beetle, then later in the same episode Jesse watches the junkie squash her husband/boyfriend's head with the ATM
  • there's a bear falling from the sky on the mural in Jane's room
  • there's a flashback to a young Hector Salamanca sitting in a chair that strongly resembles a wheelchair
  • Jesse refers to "that Terminator ****" when talking to Gus, then when Gus gets his face blown off he looks a lot like the Terminator, plus in Gale's apartment there's a skull with parts of the face discoloured, kind of like they've been burned off
  • Walt tells the story of how the Gustav cannon was destroyed by an explosive, then Gus Fring gets blown up
  • my favourite one is that Walt calculates he'll need $737,000 to leave to his family, then a 737 crashes from the sky at the end of the season. Plus the titles of episodes 1, 4, 10 and 13 form 'Seven-Thirty-Seven down over ABQ'
There are probably loads more I haven't thought of as well.
 
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