![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Episode 4 wasn't quite as strong as the first three for me, but I did love getting a glimpse into Jesse's past. Later on Jesse's parents were more vilified and it seems like most of fandom can't stand them now, but I always liked how in episode 4 you could see both Jesse and his parents PoV. It was such a shock at the time to see how comfortably middle-class and repressed his family was, and I could absolutely understand why Jesse would feel stifled in that environment, while still not condemning his parents as it seemed like they had tried to reach out to him many times in the past and just didn't want to end up in the same old patterns with Jesse. And they obviously did care about Jesse if he was 'practically all they ever talk about', so I've never agreed with the suggestion I've sometimes seen that they couldn't care less about Jesse and focused all their energies on the son who wouldn't turn out to be a disappointment, the little brother said himself to Jesse that it definitely wasn't a case of out of mind, out of sight with their eldest. I couldn't blame them for kicking Jesse out really either as obviously they would suspect him being the one to bring drugs into the house, over his 12 year old (I think?) studious little brother!
And really how disgraceful that Walt and Skyler were talking having to spend 90 thousand for medical care, I really don't know how people cope in America with having to pay thousands of pounds when they're already ill and fighting cancer :/
With Grey Matter in episode 5 Elliot came off as a really nice and genuine guy, and interestingly Walt himself seemed happy smiling and joking with Elliot and Gretchen, so if he really did see them as screwing him over the past he obviously never made Elliot aware of that. And this is the first episode where Walt's protests that he's doing all this for his family hint at it being more about his own ego instead, as he could have very easily accepted Elliot's tactful offer of a place in his company, and paid for the treatment and provided for his family that way instead. It's not like Elliot was just blatantly offering him a cheque out of charity, he was tactful enough to flatter Walt's ego when trying to offer him a job, plus Walt himself claims that he was a part of the company by rights and got cheated out of his share, so surely he should be happy to take the job offer if he secretly thinks of the company as partly down to him anyway? Instead he'd rather go his own way and cook meth with Jesse...
And it's great to see how Jesse is trying to put what Mr White taught him into action and getting frustrated at Badger clowning around lol. Jesse seems like someone who didn't get much out of school because having teachers simply tell him things wasn't his thing, but he picked up a lot from Walt showing him how it's done and trying to put it into practise. Not that it went brilliantly this time, but aww at Jesse getting angry at it just being 'good enough' and wanting to keep trying. The deleted scene even has him repeating Walt word for word when he tells Badger these chemicals are toxic, after making fun of Walt in the pilot for being concerned about health and safety. Heh it feels weird that I'm awwing someone learning to cook better quality meth though :P
And everything about the intervention is priceless at first. Hank just sitting there stuffing his face, Skyler insisting on the talking pillow, Marie's: 'Hank, what the hell are you saying', Skyler's outrage at Marie saying that it's Walt's decision. But then it becomes really heartbreaking with Walt trying to explain about just wanting a say in his life for once and not want to spend his final months dealing with side-effects of the chemo and just marking time
Episode 6 has yet another standout opening with Walt warning Jesse that he wishes to be a silent partner and no one must know his name, combined with seeing the aftermath of the first Heisenberg scene :loves: I don't really know what else to say about that infamous scene now lol, except yeah it was badass. And in the commentary they mention that the actor playing Tuco actually came up with putting out the cigarette on his tongue and did it for real :boggles: This episode is also the first time that Walt and Jesse start to bond, what with Walt seeng a new side to Jesse after he expresses concern for Walt after finding out about the cancer and talks about caring care of his aunt, and Jesse also starting to see Walt in a new light after realising exactly why Walt is doing all this. Walt seemed genuinely upset later too at Jesse getting beaten up so badly.
Episode 7 did feel like a slightly anti-climatic way of ending the season, but that was down to the writers strike I suppose. It was an effective ending with Walt and Jesse starting to realise what they were getting into with Tuco, but things did feel a bit half-finished and that's it, it's over already?I felt the same way after the first half of season 5 Still some funny moments again with Walt and Jesse being the most inept criminals ever with the break-in hee. And urgh Walt takes another step towards irredeemable when he longer seems to care at all about getting that kind janitor fired, but gets off on the whole thing and molests Skyler under the table. And one of the earliest examples of him knowing just how to manipulate Jesse with the whole 'this is the first day of the rest of your life' speech
And OMG I am freaking dying at the extended deleted scene from 'this is the first day of the rest of your life'. All of the people checking out the house come in as Walt is cradling Jesse's face and saying, 'Jesse I need you, we're partners, right?' And the realtor comes in all 'don't mind us' and 'the owner and his "friend"'. :crying with laughter: How could they have cut that!!? And aww, no gag reel?
And really how disgraceful that Walt and Skyler were talking having to spend 90 thousand for medical care, I really don't know how people cope in America with having to pay thousands of pounds when they're already ill and fighting cancer :/
With Grey Matter in episode 5 Elliot came off as a really nice and genuine guy, and interestingly Walt himself seemed happy smiling and joking with Elliot and Gretchen, so if he really did see them as screwing him over the past he obviously never made Elliot aware of that. And this is the first episode where Walt's protests that he's doing all this for his family hint at it being more about his own ego instead, as he could have very easily accepted Elliot's tactful offer of a place in his company, and paid for the treatment and provided for his family that way instead. It's not like Elliot was just blatantly offering him a cheque out of charity, he was tactful enough to flatter Walt's ego when trying to offer him a job, plus Walt himself claims that he was a part of the company by rights and got cheated out of his share, so surely he should be happy to take the job offer if he secretly thinks of the company as partly down to him anyway? Instead he'd rather go his own way and cook meth with Jesse...
And it's great to see how Jesse is trying to put what Mr White taught him into action and getting frustrated at Badger clowning around lol. Jesse seems like someone who didn't get much out of school because having teachers simply tell him things wasn't his thing, but he picked up a lot from Walt showing him how it's done and trying to put it into practise. Not that it went brilliantly this time, but aww at Jesse getting angry at it just being 'good enough' and wanting to keep trying. The deleted scene even has him repeating Walt word for word when he tells Badger these chemicals are toxic, after making fun of Walt in the pilot for being concerned about health and safety. Heh it feels weird that I'm awwing someone learning to cook better quality meth though :P
And everything about the intervention is priceless at first. Hank just sitting there stuffing his face, Skyler insisting on the talking pillow, Marie's: 'Hank, what the hell are you saying', Skyler's outrage at Marie saying that it's Walt's decision. But then it becomes really heartbreaking with Walt trying to explain about just wanting a say in his life for once and not want to spend his final months dealing with side-effects of the chemo and just marking time
Episode 6 has yet another standout opening with Walt warning Jesse that he wishes to be a silent partner and no one must know his name, combined with seeing the aftermath of the first Heisenberg scene :loves: I don't really know what else to say about that infamous scene now lol, except yeah it was badass. And in the commentary they mention that the actor playing Tuco actually came up with putting out the cigarette on his tongue and did it for real :boggles: This episode is also the first time that Walt and Jesse start to bond, what with Walt seeng a new side to Jesse after he expresses concern for Walt after finding out about the cancer and talks about caring care of his aunt, and Jesse also starting to see Walt in a new light after realising exactly why Walt is doing all this. Walt seemed genuinely upset later too at Jesse getting beaten up so badly.
Episode 7 did feel like a slightly anti-climatic way of ending the season, but that was down to the writers strike I suppose. It was an effective ending with Walt and Jesse starting to realise what they were getting into with Tuco, but things did feel a bit half-finished and that's it, it's over already?
And OMG I am freaking dying at the extended deleted scene from 'this is the first day of the rest of your life'. All of the people checking out the house come in as Walt is cradling Jesse's face and saying, 'Jesse I need you, we're partners, right?' And the realtor comes in all 'don't mind us' and 'the owner and his "friend"'. :crying with laughter: How could they have cut that!!? And aww, no gag reel?
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 12:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 12:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 12:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 01:12 pm (UTC)And yes I really don't get the anger that I've seen about ObamaCare and the anger aimed at the "evil"British NHS and our supposed death squads??? I remember there was someone from America ranting about how Stephan Hawking wouldn't have been given a chance if he'd had to rely on British healthcare and his life would have been dismissed as worthless, and then Stephen Hawking himself spoke up to remind everyone that he was British and very happy with the care that he received on the NHS...
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 02:38 pm (UTC)There was a lot of disinformation being spread about health care reform in this country and unfortunately there are people who bought into it. My only problem with "Obamacare" is that it doesn't go nearly far enough and won't really break the stranglehold of the insurance companies.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 10:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 10:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 03:43 pm (UTC)Jesse is far from being the innocent victim. Jesse was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and had opportunities to live much a better life. Jesse blew it. But Jesse's not a bad kid so it's sad that his parents didn't give him more of a second chance. That said, who knows how many second chances they DID give Jesse pre-canon. I think in the end the Pinkmans looked to Jake to be their second chance at raising a good son.
:crying with laughter: How could they have cut that!!?
I know! It was very funny. Though I could understand them cutting it. Walt is just a bit too transparently manipulative towards the end of that extended speech.
Enjoying reading your rewatch reviews! Keep it up. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 10:19 pm (UTC)And thanks! :)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 04:16 pm (UTC)My impression of Jesse is that he was a kid born with a lot of advantages and as a result never took anything seriously. You can see the way his face changes when he sees what Walt wrote on his test paper. Maybe being the first kid, his parents were too easy on him. From what it looked like, they might be going a little in the opposite direction with his brother.
I really, really hope they get more into the Walt/Gretchen stuff in S5b.
I don't think he doesn't care about getting Hugo fired. It's part of the reason he's pissed off at Hank in the card scene and at himself. Then he sort of blames himself for pushing Jesse to talk to Tuco--I don't think he would have gotten the extra money otherwise.
How could they have cut that!!?
Probably for time. I learned from the podcasts that this stuff has to come in down to the exact frame, no more. I knew things were tight, but I didn't know they were *that* tight.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 10:27 pm (UTC)And Walt seemed to feel really bad at first definitely, that's why I was all 'really' when he was feeling Skyler up in the meeting discussing it. It deemed worse somehow that he had previously recognised what a shitty outcome that was, for someone else to get blamed and fired for it, yet here he is getting off on how powerful he feels
And I always assumed that cable could be more lax about episode length, but I guess not?
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 10:35 pm (UTC)I'll be disappointed, too, though I don't think they'd bring it up again just to drop it. I hope. I think a lot of Walt's issues regarding the charity boil down to whatever happened with Gretchen. He seemed genuinely friendly with Eliot, but with Gretchen he always seemed to be faking it.
They can be a little longer because AMC has less commercials, but they still have to turn it in at an exact time. It's not on premium cable like HBO or Showtime.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 10:40 pm (UTC)And from what I remember Gretchen saying in the 'fuck you' conversation, Walt was meeting Gretchen's family and he just took off without a word to her one day and broke off their engagement, so if anything it seemed like she was the one that had a right to be pissed.. I've seen people speculate that maybe Gretchen's family put Walt down and that's why he decided he couldn't go through with their engagement,but it would definitely be nice to get more of an explanation as to what exactly happened there
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 10:52 pm (UTC)Yup, they were on vacation and he just up and left. My guess is something happened with her family and he resents her for it. He definitely holds her families wealth against her. Another time she asks, regarding his turning down of the offer, if it was about them and he hangs up.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 08:55 pm (UTC)Heh, someone once called this show the best argument for health care reform in the U.S.
It's not like Elliot was just blatantly offering him a cheque out of charity, he was tactful enough to flatter Walt's ego when trying to offer him a job, plus Walt himself claims that he was a part of the company by rights and got cheated out of his share, so surely he should be happy to take the job offer if he secretly thinks of the company as partly down to him anyway?
I think no matter how Elliot phrased it, it was always going to seem like charity to Walt, and his pride would never allow him to accept it from anyone, but especially from Elliot. He sees the job offer as an insult - like he'd be fooled by the pretense that this was anything other than charity? - and he doesn't want what he's "owed" from the company if Elliot's only doing it out of pity.
But more importantly, I think Walt needs to cling to his victimhood, he needs to feel like he's the wronged party with Gretchen and Elliot, and accepting help would mean he'd have to forgive and make up with them. If he'd wanted back in the company, he could've done it years ago, since Elliot obviously still thinks of him as a friend. But he'd rather just be bitter and hold a grudge.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 10:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 09:56 pm (UTC)Brilliant.
All of the people checking out the house come in as Walt is cradling Jesse's face and saying, 'Jesse I need you, we're partners, right?' And the realtor comes in all 'don't mind us' and 'the owner and his "friend"'.
Whaaaaaaaaat. I need to find the deleted scenes. I just watched on Netflix.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-08 10:34 pm (UTC)