Those five episodes -- Bag/River, Grilled, Down, Peekaboo, and ABQ -- those are the ones where I was first like, "Gods, what am I watching here? This is amazing" and found the show so incredible. And of course after the godly ABQ episode, that's where I was fully prepared for everything else in the series. (Well, up until Ozymandias. Nothing can prepare you for Ozymandias.)
Gale <3 I think, if I had to choose right now, Gus is my favorite character. Gale was my favorite at the time of his death, though, and I think he still might be in my top three (along with Gus and Marie)? I mean this show is full of great characters so I could never really rank them, but I fucking loved Gale. He was adorable and sweet and him dying was awful. Oh, yeah, you know what belongs in the "hard to watch" list that I named earlier? Gale's phone vibrating but he can't hear it because he's singing over his music like he was doing so adorably early on. :(
That scene where Gus tells Gale he might need to take over for Walt because of Walt's cancer <3 Gus is the bomb.
Mike! I don't know why I didn't mention Mike Ehrmantraut yet, but I loved him. He was a badass, he was supportive of Jesse a lot of the time, he was very professional, he was comical in his gives-no-fucks attitude, and he voiced my opinions on Walt a lot of the time. Loved him. And loved his death. It was a VERY fitting and emotional sendoff for him, I felt, and maybe the ultimate turning point in Walt's character. Certainly one of them. Mike was great. His "No more half measures" speech, I've watched maybe like five times since finishing the series, because it's just compelling, the way he tells the story. I love it, and Jonathan Banks did well here.
Seriously, though, I alluded to it earlier, but Dead Freight was amazing. Such pure Breaking Bad right there.
I don't really have anything to say on Lydia herself, but what I will say is holy fuck, she looked awful in her final scene in Felina. She looked so fucking horrifying. That was really dark and upsetting to see, just the pure terror in her eyes as Walt tells her that she is now slowly dying thanks to him. Fuck.
I want Los Pollos Hermanos. It sounds delicious.
"What's a MILF?"
Oh, god, you know what also belongs in the hard-to-watch category is Ted's final scene. That was awful. I was not a fan of Ted's, at all, I thought he was a total douche from pretty much the moment he was introduced and he only got worse... but gods, he did not deserve that fate. And that wasn't what Skyler wanted either, at all, so to watch Ted be so fearful, begging her not to hurt his family... I feel so horrible for both of them. That was an absolutely magnificent scene, and I loved it. (Ted himself I never liked one bit, though. I fault him for Skyler's affair far more than I fault Skyler, actually. She was just trying to get him out of his house, but Ted was just going for someone he knew was emotionally vulnerable - without knowing how god-awful Walt was - just because he was attracted to her. Boo Ted.)
Seriously, though, that whole Anna Gunn Emmy-winning scene in Fifty-One was amazing. I saw Anna Gunn talk about it as her single favorite scene in the series and say that it was basically a three-act drama in itself, and seeing her word it that way, that made me really appreciate the complex of it and now it's one of my favorite scenes in the series. The development of the power structure, as Skyler first has her plan to get Walt out, but then Walt is calling that power into question by berating her, and finally she breaks with her "I DON'T KNOW!" It was all so well-done, both of the actors felt so believable in it and it all felt so fluid and natural, yet at the same time it told this amazing story in such a short timeframe... and then we get Skyler telling Walt, as if it's obvious and he was a fool to have any question what she was thinking, that she's waiting for the cancer to come back, and whatever semblance of a marriage they might have had is gone.
I fucking loved the callback where in one of Jesse's parties or whatever, they're ordering a pizza from that place where you cut it yourself. That might be the funniest moment of the series, actually. <333
Walt's early chemistry lectures were super fun. I loved them, I loved how they had those double meanings that set up his storyline or explained who he was.
Jesus, the whole reason I started typing this just now was because I wanted to get it posted before the Better Call Saul premiere, but I didn't even mention SAUL GOODMAN! Although, I mean, there's not a ton to mention -- he was just fucking funny, and I think he got a great sendoff. Still, though, I loved Saul every second he was on screen. He always livened things up, and seeing how he increasingly wanted to bail on things as things got way out of hand before he finally took his leave... He's a tragic character in his own right, really, even if that tragedy is behind the scenes. I can't WAIT to watch his series, since it should add a lot to someone who was an intriguing, entertaining, and even emotional character on BrBa but whose intrigue/emotion mostly stayed behind the scenes.
Donald Margolis, speaking of behind-the-scenes tragedies, how about him? Fuck. He might be the most purely tragic character in the series. I don't think I even need to explain why, but seriously, I feel awful for this guy and how his final moment of lenience towards his daughter led to her death, so many innocent people dying, his horrible guilt, the death of his career, and his suicide. All because he felt bad for her and decided to be lenient once. Fuck. Poor Don. :(
Hector's actor is so fucking great. It's amazing how much emotion we got out of him with 0 dialogue (outside of the flashback.) His last scene, in particular, shows so much emotion with zero words. He manages to become a developed character on his own without a single word, and that's great.
I've looked over part of the BrBa page on color, and that just shows how much fucking amazing care they took into this show. I can't wait to read through all of it. If it all was really intentional then that's just amazing. Major props to whoever went through and compiled all the colors all the characters wore.
And, similarly, I loved all the little easter eggs I missed the first time around: Walt's pants appearing in Ozymandias <3 Flynn eventually getting Raisin Bran Crunch <3
Hmm. I feel like I've said most of what I want to say here. Most things of substance, anyway. If I think of anything else, I guess I'll just add it in the comments? I could go through specific episodes and the most emotional scenes of the series, but I already took care of that for myself on my Facebook so I feel like I've sufficiently expressed my thoughts on that, even if it wasn't here. That said, here's my top 21 episodes ranking, for anyone who's curious -- I'm sure that there could be some good discussion from that, because I have a lot to say on all of those episodes since they ranked so high; I just didn't want to type it all out here when I already have done so elsewhere. But if anyone is interested in why I ranked certain episodes so high or whatever, I'd love to talk about them! (I can also explain the omissions of some episodes.)
So yeah. Those are my thoughts on Breaking Bad. Or some of my thoughts on a lot of Breaking Bad, at any rate. ...Hooray! I love this show, I'd love to discuss anything about it with anyone, feel free to comment on anything I posted or ask me about things I didn't or ask me about the episode rankings or whatever. This is by no means all I thought about every second of the show, it's just sort of what came to mind.
Only a few hours to Better Call Saul fuck yeaaaaaah!!
