One thing I find disappointing
The final boss of Breaking Bad is just a generic neonazi who wasn't even introduced until halfway into the final season.
sharefinal boss of what exactly?
shareof the tv show?
share
MovieChat Forums > Breaking Bad (2008) Discussion > One thing I find disappointing
That never bothered me. Once Gus (who was the biggest and best of the antagonists) was out of the picture in the show, the focus switched more towards Walt getting found out, as it should given it was nearing the end. That was the primary plot line of the last season. It was never really about building Uncle Jack into a bigger nemesis, even though they ended with him getting his comeuppance.
shareI agree here. Jack shouldn't be considered the "final boss" in this context.
shareSame here. Gus was a fantastic villain, and his story was mesmerising; I think it would have really undercut the drama of Walt's downfall to have Gus' story going on at the same time as the end of Walt's.
share100%.
Having a "big bad guy" who was more stripped-down let the plot focus on Walt, Jesse, and the other characters we really care about. We want to know what happens with the main cast, not this season's villain.
Also: Lydia and Todd were just as "big bad guy" as Uncle Jack.
Unfortunately we never got to explore the conflicts between the main characters because the show decided to create generic NeoNazi villains who put a bullet in Hank’s head, and the creators ignored Marie’s reaction to this, and forgot about Walt Jr’s reaction to finding out his dying dad is a criminal kingpin.
Basically, the best scenes of the series never happened because the creators completely dropped the ball.
I must say I disagree.
While I will agree that more scenes of the family-rending conflict between Hank, Marie, Skyler, Walt, Walt Jr., and Jesse would have been amazing, I think that Breaking Bad was a great show end-to-end, it focused plenty on the mains, and (as per my post) they used a less-complex villain specifically for that purpose. Another Gus Fring would have (first of all, failed because you can't match that, but also...) taken too much away from Walt's story and Jesse's story.
We got plenty of scenes of Marie and Walt Jr. responding to Walt's betrayals. I also liked the way Hank went out. Hank started as a lunkhead. He was a locker room jockey bro type "manly" man, flashing his pistol and thinking he's clever and funny for his "Windy/Wendy wordplay". But as the show moved forward, Hank got deeper. We saw how much he cared about his family, how vulnerable he could be, how he had ethics and a moral code despite his brazen exterior. He was willing to lay it on the line for his ideals. He fought hard for justice. He was a prick, often. He didn't do right 100% of the time, and I don't necessarily agree with his code, but he kinda grew on me. And when chips were down, you could count on Hank.
Plus, that line, "You're the smartest guy I ever met, and you're too stupid to see. He made up his mind 10 minutes ago. Do what you're gonna do."
Holy crap, that's badass.
We got plenty of scenes of Marie and Walt Jr. responding to Walt's betrayals.
Yes but the most important scenes - Marie learning of Hank’s execution, and Walt Jr learning the truth about his dad (an explosive revelation which had been building for the entire series) occurred off-screen.
These revelations should have driven the action for another ten episodes at least, and they would have been the best episodes in the series, but instead they rushed a conclusion and dropped the ball in one of TV’s most epic fails. share
I think there is a scene where Marie breaks down when they hear about Hank dying. I couldn't find the clip, but they talk about it here and there's a still image:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL-uv_8jXhc
As for the Walt Jr. scene, it'd go like this: Skyler would slow-burn break the news to him, "We need to talk about dad..." and after a half a minute, she'd Big Reveal it and he'd go, "No. No, that's not true, that can't be true. You're lying!" and she'd say, "No, I know this is hard, but," and he'd go, "You're lying! You're always lying about dad, just- just stop it!" and then somebody else - some DEA guy or Marie or somebody - would corroborate it and he'd cry. There were similar scenes.
We see the action after those revelations, though. What's missing? We see all the fallout. We're missing one scene of Walt Jr. , which ok, I grant you it could have been fun to see, but we see the phone call with Junior and Walt, so we get the drama, the meat of that response, and we get it played out on-screen. I'm not sure what you think is missing.
And, again, I don't think they dropped the ball; Breaking Bad has one of the best climaxes I've seen on a TV show.
After the scene in which Walt and Skylar start fighting and Walt Jr. then intervenes and calls the police on his dad, I would say that he'd be more prepared to believe what his mum had to say than start denying it and telling her she's lying. He was already refusing to believe what she was saying up to that point wasn't he? Then they start fighting and it seems like he's taking his mum's side and probably realises his dad isn't the guy he thought.
shareYeah, it's been awhile since I've watched the series, but there was plenty of fallout (like the phone call scene you mentioned) of Walt Jr. reacting to Walt's bad guy-ness.
shareYeah I agree with all this. We don't need everything spelled out for us, as much as they'd be interesting moments to see. We can pretty much imagine that their reactions would be ones of shock, sadness and anger. I think they did the right thing focusing on what was going on with Walt and leaving these other characters to one side. It kind of reinforces the idea that Walt is truly alone and has lost his family for good. After all, they may be main characters but are featured due to their association with Walt.
shareNo way, the climax of the series should have focused on the main characters realising what Walt had become, and these revelations should have driven the action.
For example, have a scene where Hank confronts Walt, a scuffle ensues and Hank’s gun is knocked aside, Walt Jr enters and picks it up. He doesn’t know who to shoot - his uncle who is about to take down his hero/dad, or his dad for deceiving him and becoming a crime lord. Enter Jessie who has become Walt’s surrogate son and explore the tension between Walt Jr and Jessie - bring all the major chess pieces together in a life and death face-off, much like at the end of Hamlet or most Shakespearean epics.
They don't need to literally be in the same room for this drama to play out, though. The chess pieces are together. Walt is forced to confront Gretchen and Elliot in the finale because of the abysmal relationship he has with his son (the phone call from the bar).
shareI agree wholeheartedly.
I think that the show did pay off its plot threads and character arcs, and in a very satisfying way.
generic neonazi? LOL!
They were a White Brotherhood gang. They do business with every and any ethnic criminal gang that can offer them financial opportunity inside and outside of the penal system. Their racist attire and presentation is just as hokey and empty as any Mexican or Black gang with over the top symbolism and don't fool yourself into thinking that they have an honor code or creed that they follow. They'll kill and rape each other's mothers and sisters just like any other group.
> They'll kill and rape each other's mothers and sisters just like any other group.
Thinking GOP
The correct solution is not to watch the final season.
The end of season 4 was perfect.
that auto machine gun on a moving machine was pretty badass tho! i liked the ending. thought it was pretty good. some parts were cheesy in a fun way tho that didnt ruin the show. the ending was solid tho
shareBadass , but ...
It really bugged me, as plans go it was pretty dumb!
Just hope you get to park in the exact spot you need to aim the thing!
how do you even know where that spot is?
hope *all* the bad guys will be in the kill zone when you trigger it.
Hope none of them duck!
He'd have been better off just yanking it out of the trunk and swinging it around rambo style as soon as he got out of the car.
yeah u do have a point, i was baked out of my mind stoned watching this so that never crossed my mentally retarded brain at the time i was just awestruck by the badassness of it all
shareYeah there is a fair bit of good fortune involved in the plan but it's worth remembering that he's been to their facility before and may have made a few assumptions about where they're likely to hold a meeting, whether they're likely to all be in there or not etc.. Plus that gun had a decent range from one side to the other and was very rapid. It's not like it went strictly to plan anyway, as Walt got hit, and one of them was still alive (Todd). Walt didn't exactly have much to lose. It was a do or die rescue mission of Jesse/assassination attempt by someone who is already dying.
I thought it was a good ending and a clever way to wipe out the bad guys. It was also tested on that show where they try and recreate moments from films and TV shows to disprove/prove the science behind it, and they showed that it would work the way it was depicted, unlike so many other moments.