Post: #451

Prison Break was amazing for one season, acceptable in the second season and went way downhill after that. It actually became silly due to their efforts to drag out the plot.

Post: #452

Ha, hilarious! I'm marathoning Breaking Bad right now.

Fuck Skyler and her meddling. She's the biggest cunt i've ever seen on any TV show.

Post: #453

My review:

So I have heard about this show being good and while waiting for next Game of Thrones (best show I have ever seen) season I decided to watch Breaking Bad.

I found Breaking Bad to be much much worse then the hype surrounding it would suggest. Much worse than Game of Thrones. I actually started to dislike the show somewhere in it's middle, but I still finished watching it due to having nothing better to do while eating suppers.

The reason why I disliked the show was that I found no character with whom I could identify and whom I could support. I disliked each and every major character in that show. This is very contrasting with Game of thrones where I like many heroes and villains alike.

The reasons why I found Breaking Bad characters pitiful:

Walter White - Total lack of game. A militant beta provider, obsessed with providing money for his family, stepping over corpses to leave some money for his cheating ugly and dominant wife and not seeing how spending time with his children and leaving them some masculine wisdom might be worth much more than leaving them some dirty money. I am not judging him for cooking meth, imho drug criminalization is pointless, but I am judging him for being a cuck and having beta ideology and being ready to kill for that beta ideology.

Skyler - hated her the most. Any woman who smokes during pregnancy is lower than an animal in my eyes. She is also a total controlling bitch. I didn't buy that she cheated on Walt because of his meth cooking. She didn't love him already long before that and his crimes were just an excuse. She is a totally degraded modern woman who thinks that a woman should be at command in family and cannot accept that her husband is doing something without her knowing and making his own decisions. I saw her as an empty shell of a person - a governments tool for enslaving men trough marriage into observing the rules. I really hated how her and society narrative on what is wrong and what is right were the same. I hated her for bringing Walter to these open confessions disguised as cancer psychological therapy. I hated her for using her acting to force other men (jewelry store owner, door repairman, IRS auditer)into white knighting for her. When she sang birthday song to Todd I cringed. If a woman chooses government's ideology over her husband than that is no family. If a woman calls cops on her husband, cheats or divorces then it's all over. I would never never be capable of loving or even feigning a lack of contempt for a woman like this. She is a person of no personal values just going along with feminist society who uses her as a leash to control men.

Walter White Jr. - I was neutral to him always wondering how he would act once he learns the truth about his father. In the end he turned out to be a pussy who also is deeply brainwashed by a feminized society. When Skyler attacked Walt with knife and Walt disarmed her, this pussy son of his called the cops on his father despite the fact that it was the mother who picked up the knife and started the violence. This loser is much like the rest of modern society that can only understand a man as an aggressor despite seeing with his very own eyes how the woman was at fault. Fuck this momma's boy.

Hank Schrader - This guy was just a stupid government's dog fighting the political and pointless war on drugs with a fanatical zeal. In personal life he was an alpha buffoon consuming the legal drugs (alcohol) with no guilt, bossing around the man whom he perceived to be weak (Walt) and undermining his authority as a father by patronizing his son.

Marie Schrader - this lying kleptomaniac hypocrite ,stealing dear personal items of other people with no benefit to herself just for chills can get no sympathies from me.

Jessie Pinkman - a total loser with no aims in life who just gets guilt trapped all the time, leaves his money untended, making other people to drag him out of the messes he constantly creates is someone with whom I can find no personal relation. I have always sought out paths for self improvement and carefully planned the use of my resources - I can find no sympathy in my heart for a guy who just drugs it all away and literally throws it all away and attracts cops doing so sabotaging not only himself but also his partners. Also despite being young and rich he falls for stupid single mother who's idea of spending quality time with her son is playing video games. The show shows Pinkman's growth as a meth cook but not growth as a man who could take responsibility for his actions Fuck this emo loser.

Mike Ehrmantraut - OK I actually liked this guy. He was a cool oldschool type of guy with his wits and his heart in the right place. Despite being a professional assassin he was the most empathetic, humane and nice character in this show. But I knew already from the start that there is no happy ending in store for him. I knew that he will die pointlessly and with no Spartian victory in his death simply because he was not the main character of the show. I was right - his death was rushed, sad and made me hate Walt even more. Compared to Mikes's pointless death the Walt's spartian death was undeserved. It was Mike who deserved to die amidst corpses of his enemies, not Walt.

To summarize - I find this show mediocre despite good writing smart plot and some cool action because I liked no major character and I knew that Mike would die and Skyler would live and I was right. I would have prefered if it was the other way around. 3/5

Post: #454

^One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Post: #455

Mage, I loved breaking bad and gave it a 4/5 but entirely agree with your review.

Check out Better Call Saul. It's all about Saul and Mike who are the more popular and likeable individuals on the show. It gets slow around the middle of it but picks up once the last season ends. I'm waiting for the new one to come out. You may enjoy it more.

Post: #456

I don't think shows like Breaking Bad are about relating to characters. To me, it's more about the internal struggle of deciding for yourself who you agree with the most, but also realizing that there is no right or wrong answer.

For example, I had a hard time deciding after Season 3 whether or not I was rooting for Walt. I remember I was watching with a couple people around this time, and we all were arguing whether what Walt was doing was justified or cruel. In the end, nobody was correct or incorrect. It's the internal struggles that make the show good.

And nobody said you're supposed to like all the main characters. For example, Skyler is a straight up cunt, as you said, in more ways that I can count. Most people who love the show hate her too. Every other character had aspects I disliked too and could not relate to. Jesse was a junkie. Walt was a cuckold. Marie had rich girl problems.

It's all good though. If you liked every aspect of every character in a show, it would be boring.

One thing that gets me on RVF is it seems some people think a movie or show can only be good if there's an alpha in it that they can relate to. You don't have to relate to something to enjoy and appreciate it.

Post: #457

I thought Better call Saul was boring. I would rather watch a show about Jesse Pinkman, bitch!

Post: #458

(09-17-2016 11:45 AM)GoldHawkStar Wrote:  And nobody said you're supposed to like all the main characters.

yeah I did enjoy it to some degree despite a lack of relatable characters, I gave it a 3/5 not 1/5. But I do feel like I need to relate more to like a show more than that.

I would have liked the show more if it had all the family time cut out. Then it would just be a drug dealer dog fights, completely amoral, but full of action, sort of like watching two sport teams fight - you don't judge them by morals merely by performance and coolness.

The family relationship solving screen time that made somewhere 60% of all the show was boring or infuriating for me. I would have handled my wife and son completely differently, would not have married such a cunt in the first place and would rise my son from age of 4 with different values. I saw this family too shallow, modern, materialistic and dumb to even care.

Yeah Saul was probably second most likable character after Mike - but somehow I don't fell like watching a whole show about him - he is good as a secondary character, but I don't want to see a show with him as the main guy. He is too quirky, loud and goofy to tolerate for extended periods of time.

Post: #459

(09-17-2016 01:08 PM)Mage Wrote:  

(09-17-2016 11:45 AM)GoldHawkStar Wrote:  And nobody said you're supposed to like all the main characters.

I would have liked the show more if it had all the family time cut out. Then it would just be a drug dealer dog fights, completely amoral, but full of action, sort of like watching two sport teams fight - you don't judge them by morals merely by performance and coolness.

It would have completely changed the character arc of the show and destroyed the entire life lesson of the show regarding human weakness and folly.

It would be like presenting Batman, Spiderman, or Superman without the backstory of their alter-egos.

There is already far too much garbage on TV catering to people's ever-shrinking tiny attention spans.

Quote:A character arc is the transformation or inner journey of a character over the course of a story. If a story has a character arc, the character begins as one sort of person and gradually transforms into a different sort of person in response to changing developments in the story.

Post: #460

@Mage

Recently, it seems like the idea of identifying with a character is no longer necessary for a series to be successful. It fits in with the, to use an overused term, degeneracy of today. There is a kind of gleeful fascination in nonstop action and psychological degradation of current televised drama. I remember a time when even anti-heroes had a kind of nobility. No more.

It is probably no coincidence that the changes in television coincides with the aimless sensation seeking of the internet, clicking around from one discrete unit of sensation to another.

That's cute. That's messed up. Dude got knocked the fuck out. I can't believe she can do that without choking. That dog is whack.

I have heard the mental state that results from this kind of activity as "loveless fascination."

I took a writing class in college, and the teacher said that saying, the king died, then the queen died is just a list of events. Saying, however, that the king died, and then the queen died of grief, is a short story.

Some sort of change in the main character, some sort of growth, based on experience, was considered fundamental to story telling.

No more.

Pauline Kael, the famous New Yorker movie critic of the seventies actually predicted this change for the movies, saying that there would no longer be stories, and that a movie would be more like a circus, with all sorts of feats and spectacles happening in a bunch of rings all at the same time. A spectacle, and not a story.

She was right. We now have many stories where no one ever grows or learns anything, and at the same time planes fall out of the sky, and pizza boxes end up on roofs, and severed heads ride tortoises across barren deserts.

Entrancing. Good camera work. Good composition. Compelling. Not stories.

If you think Breaking Bad was hollow and bleak, check out Mr. Robot. Not only is everyone reprehensible and grasping except for the semi cute girl drug dealer. In Mr. Robot, the main character actually moves further and further away from being a human being, and towards mental illness in what seems like a nod to modern day narcissism, mental illness being the ultimate expression of the special snowflake.

So special you have your own bespoke world.

Post: #461

(09-17-2016 02:23 PM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  

(09-17-2016 01:08 PM)Mage Wrote:  [quote='GoldHawkStar' pid='1395883' dateline='1474130747']
And nobody said you're supposed to like all the main characters.

It would be like presenting Batman, Spiderman, or Superman without the backstory of their alter-egos.

Actually, with rare exceptions - I am also bored during superhero backstory time.

I have always seen backstrokes as ways how movie makers reduce the action and plot time that cost in special effects and stunts to put in some cheap two actor talk time.

Nowadays it seems every superhero must have a psychological problem that forces the hero to put aside his powers, try to live as normal human, then take up his powers up again - and this pusying out and trying to be normal takes all of the movie except opening and final battle.

If I go to a superhero movie I want to see good sci-fi action. If I watch a series about drug dealers I want to see a smart 3D chess game between drug gangs and police. If i wanted to see emotional stories I would watch romantic melodramas.

Movie makers just want to put in cheap screen time and also female characters. Therefore the out dragged back stories. Good backstories are short.

Post: #462

(05-30-2016 07:58 AM)Suits Wrote:  Prison Break was amazing for one season, acceptable in the second season and went way downhill after that. It actually became silly due to their efforts to drag out the plot.

The main point was how he engineer his way around the prison, not much the escape itself, once they escape that ended.

Post: #463

@ debeguiled

I see it this way:

During old times of monarchy - the monarch represented the ideal. All stories had characters aspiring for such an ideal. Fictional characters had ideals like knights of round table that had a moral code. Even criminals like pirates of old stories like Treasue Island had some pirate code.

In greek mythos heroes and monsters represent different ideals like an ideal of agricultural society fighting an ideal of a hunter gatherer society and so on.

Even during communism or good old western democracy characters in their movies embodies certain ideals, depending on the system.

Modern movies under current consumerism ( I would say we have consumerism now rather then democracy) have no ideals - they try to show characters "as is" - as people are in real life - cursing, depressed, frustrated, shallow, petty, boring.

We are told that this is the way to go - we are free from propaganda to see any ideology in our stories and see a man as he is. But this is wrong because a man is not being but a becoming.

Old stories made ideal heroes and thus uplifted people to follow those heroes inspired people to some ideal. You could identify with eitherthe hero and the "right" ideology or with the villain and the "wrong" ideology.

Modern stories are dragged down to the level of the common consumer where heroes are not heroic and have no ideology - just plebeian proles. Even the superheroes are not real heroes but just dumb teenagers with a typical teenage worldview, their power is external not a strength of their own character that would put them above plebeian problems. Maybe you can identify with those characters if you yourself are "just a guy" but if you are a person who aspires to some belief or ideal then you cannot see yourself among these characters who are consumed only by mundane problems like stealing money, saving their ass or getting the girl they want and consumed their shallow emotions and in a very politically correct way pretend that there is no such things as philosophical questions about purpose of life and the right way to live it.

This is why Batman fights crime not evil. Because crime is defined by government - there is no philosophy in it. But what is evil? You must have ideals to define what is evil and what is not. The heroes of consumerism are not allowed to have ideals, they must be spoonfed by government and old wise black men (Gordon Freeman) and women from their hour long backstories to know what battles to fight.

Post: #464

I liked Mike, Saul, and Hank.

We aren't supposed to like Skyler. (I don't think)

I couldn't get on board with Walter after he turned down the job at grey matter. He got a thrill out of being Heisenberg and being a really good meth cook. It was basically a show about a high school chemistry teacher who was really in over his head. Still interesting to watch.

Post: #465

I always felt Walter was way too rough on Jesse.

Post: #466

I got bored with this about halfway through the third season.

But I might end up seeing the movie. Some dude spent two years editing the whole series into a movie:

https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments..._bad_into/