Breaking Bad, did it ever almost "jump the shark"?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by kevintomb, Jun 4, 2014.

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  1. Hightops

    Hightops Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bay Area, Ca

    One of the funniest sequences for me was the Walt & Gale montage as they exhibited perfect harmony working in the lab together.
     
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  2. Thomas D

    Thomas D Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bradenton, FL
    And then watching Walt have to explain to Gale why he was replacing him with Jesse. What was it ... you're like classical music, I'm like jazz ... whatever ... it made no sense in light of how well they'd worked together. Hilarious.
     
  3. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    You know I actually found that firing scene really painful. In a very short time they gave us a really good picture of Gale and how his life and feelings about chemistry worked, and if you ever felt like a bit of an oddball, I think a lot of people could relate to it. And he had found a great little home for himself, doing what he loved - and to then watch it just be taken away from him that way, for no possible reason he could comprehend... I really felt for him. Hilarity?
     
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  4. Hightops

    Hightops Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bay Area, Ca
    Humor and pain. It's a delicate line to walk, and when done correctly it works. It's absurd & funny, the Jazz vs Classical justification (especially when Jesse shows up...behaving like anything other than what Gale would consider jazz). I think we all liked Gale. He was an eccentric with interesting tastes. We identify with him to some degree.
     
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  5. Standoffish

    Standoffish Smarter than a turkey

    Location:
    North Carolina
    Gus emerging from the blast and adjusting his tie was idiotic. The FX was awful - the blown-off half of his face looked like something out of The Terminator. Definitely a low point in the show.
     
  6. SizzleVonSizzleton

    SizzleVonSizzleton The Last Yeti

    How about the very first episode. Three emergency vehicles drive past a man with no pants in the middle of nowhere standing near an RV that has clearly been run off the road. None of those vehicles radios for help for Walt? Or comes back after they've taken care of the emergency they were originally called to? The guy who came with the vehicle to pull the RV out clearly couldn't have shown up on the scene in a short period of time. Could have been the end right there!
     
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  7. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Very well said. I felt exactly the same way. That whole character arc for Gale was fantastic... an almost-likeable, very competent guy, who not only gets fired, he gets brutally murdered for fairly trivial (but understandable) reasons.
     
  8. bumbletort

    bumbletort Senior Member

    Location:
    Baltimore, Md, USA
  9. Jimmy B.

    Jimmy B. .

    Location:
    .
    This was the one part I could not suspend my disbelief for. Horrible idea to do it that way - him walking out; ridiculous.
     
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  10. Brian_Svoboda

    Brian_Svoboda Senior Member

    Location:
    Virginia
    Oh, with respect, I disagree. By that point on the show Gus's power and survival skills were almost supernatural. The scene where he waited in the parking garage, somehow sensing that he was in danger, was frightening. He was like Hitler in 1944, when he survived the explosion of a bomb that detonated under the table where he was sitting. The scene with Hector was the culmination of all that. You didn't really believe that Gus could possibly die, and the scene played off that extraordinarily well.
     
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  11. Not ridiculous or idiotic. I kid you not, I once saw a squad member of mine take a hit from an IED, and the guy RAN, literally RAN for about 10 yards on one real leg and one phantom leg, as if one leg were not missing at all. For about 5 seconds he didn't even know what happened to him. Maybe even another 5 seconds after that, too, even after he hit the ground.

    The human body. Shock. Adrenaline. Disbelief that something bad can happen to you. It's always the "other guy," never you who gets slotted.

    That's what happened to Gus Fring.
     
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  12. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    How do you run 10 yards on one leg, or even take one step??
     
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  13. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    People are still arguing about this? Come on. It's a great bit. The whole point is that it's so insane and over-the-top.

    Brilliant VFX, too. That was a very, very, very expensive shot. The day that episode aired -- 10/29/2011, almost five years ago, BTW -- when they reached that point, I had to pause around the room and run around yelling at the top of my lungs. I was in shock, because it was so audacious and nutty, but I absolutely loved it and thought it was one of those things that's just possible enough that I could believe it could sorta/kinda happen. I believe it was actor Giancarlo Esposito's suggestion that he straighten his tie before keeling over dead, which to me totally sells the bit. Just fantastic.

    And for those who wanna see it one more time:



    I think both this scene and the one where the evil Todd shoots the little kid in the desert are the two scenes that I found most memorable and just stunning, both in their execution and in their timing in terms of being so unexpected. Anybody who thinks these scenes don't work just doesn't understand the entire point of Breaking Bad.
     
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  14. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Almost ?
    No.
     
  15. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    I have a buddy who I finally convinced to watch the series. Of course, he is hooked (and a good excuse for me to watch it for the second go around!). Before he started watching it I told him it was hillarious. He didnt get that for a while. Finally in the third season when Skyler is making up a story about Walt and Walt is just sitting there on the edge of his seat in amazement did my friend get the "humor". I got it in the first episode of the first season lol. Some folks simply dont, either by experience, past environmental exposure or simply personality, get humor set in a dark surrounding.

    I think thats why some can get the Gus getting his face blown off scene and say its point isnt to be believable. Its point is to show that Gus is a bad ass even and a man of detailed calmly planned execution (no pun intended) even in death. The tie thing and the way he falls? Hillarious. Perfectly done. We need a series thats so dark to have the unbelievable in it. It relieves the stress of having a show that would be too believable. I cant think of many series that even with the release of dark humor and over the top situations has the nerve racking meth like balled up stress of Breaking Bad. Without the humor, it would be one downer of a show. And the over the top scenes help keep that "its just a movie" feel just enough to take the edge off and let us exhale. Without those crazy sick funny scenes we'd all sufficate. They are the respirators of the show.

    So, no, I dont think it ever jumped the shark.
     
    Last edited: Feb 29, 2016
  16. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Start to finish just perfect.
     
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  17. Gems-A-Bems

    Gems-A-Bems Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Duke City
    It almost jumped the shark with the ending of the crawl space episode

     
  18. Grootna

    Grootna Senior Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    The laptop having enough ferrous material to fly through the air to the electromagnet was a bit far fetched. The train stopping at the precise spot was also a bit hard to fathom. The writing and acting was so well done that these are minor complaints as far as I'm concerned. Been enjoying "Better call Saul" very much. Both great television.
     
  19. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    I sometimes think of the series as snapshots of the lives of these people. I find if I think of these over the top situations as simply one or two days out of their lives then I kind of am able to balance things. That is, though these folks obviously live in a fantastical sense, if we could look at every minute of everyday of their lives then the times that we do know their lives on screen dont seem quite as outrageous.
     
  20. I don't know, man, you just do. One leg keeps bending at the knee and churning dirt until the body catches up to the mind (or vice versa). F'ck, I don't know. Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner? Extra Strength Polident? What a question.
     
  21. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Watched BB twice, still 10/10
    Ditto Game Of Thrones.
    Though watched Lost for a second time and, I'd give it a 9.5 rating now.
     
  22. spanky1

    spanky1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    I'd mention 3 moments that I thought were pretty weak, but probably not to classify as a JUMP THE SHARK moment for a great show.

    1-Fring's face being half-blown off
    2-The magnet
    3-The Fly episode is one that I would completely skip if I watch the series again.
     
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  23. rburly

    rburly Sitting comfortably with Item 9

    Location:
    Orlando
    I agree completely. The humor was a big part of the show. And I agree it was needed with the serious situations that made up the show. When I thought of humor in the show, this came to mind:
     
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  24. mpayan

    mpayan A Tad Rolled Off

    I dont think the scene where Walt loses it after finding out Skyler gave the money to Ted is a jump the shark moment. Didnt make me roll my eyes. Its more of a "your mouth is left open and eyes the size of saucers" moment. I didnt find it gimmicky or desperate. It certainly wasnt a moment in which creativity left the show or the show stopped evolving.

    The scene may not have been to someones tastes (same with Gus and the face blown off scene) but it wasnt totally off in left field.
     
  25. Gems-A-Bems

    Gems-A-Bems Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Duke City
    That's why it's an almost "jump-the-shark" moment.
     
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