- Joined
- Dec 28, 2014
I think the show should have ended with a wrap-up episode where both Saul and Kim ended up paying for their crimes.
Most of what followed was pure surplusage and flailing around because they basically wrecked the show with the death of Howard, who utterly didn't deserve the evil shit that was done to him, largely just for fun, by these two scumbags.
I think that actually worked really well, because here you have an "actual, literal Nazi" and with the way Walt was, the literal NAZI was a more honorable person than Walt. He even let Walt keep a barrel of his cash because Todd had a soft spot for him. Walt did so many utterly vile things in S5 and while my top is murdering Mike, for telling him the truth about what a piece of shit he was, basically selling Jesse into slavery was the worst.
That said, S5 had some of the best moments in the show in it, like when Hank finally realized Walt was Heisenberg, on the crapper, and had taunted him about it to his face "you got me," while leaving a book that basically identified him right out in the open. The sheer arrogance of Walt was amazing, and I loved all the Chekhov's gun moments.
I was on [certain forum] and we'd figured out between us exactly what was going to happen in the finale episode, because of what the characters would do, and also because the title was "Felina," obviously a reference to the Marty Robbins song (and an anagram for "finale"), and since there was nobody else he could save, it was obviously Jesse, even though he actually came there to kill him, too.
I think the first half of S5 was questionable, but the last half was phenomenal, with many scenes that actually just scrambled my brain. The scene where he kidnapped his own infant daughter actually bluescreened me. I had to go back and watch it again because that just fucked my shit up. It was such a vile act. At least he left her at a fire station, realizing that was too vile even for him.
Even to give such an evil character a partial redemption arc was a tremendous act of storytelling.
My favorite part of that, and one that made me verklempt, was when he finally admitted to Skyler that "I did it for me."
She needed to hear that so much. Telling her that was showing he loved her, even at his very worst and most murderous version of himself.
I actually don't think Vince did subvert expectations much. That was a Rian Johnson thing. You could usually go into a BB episode knowing what was going to happen in general but still be shocked by HOW it happened. You just had to have paid attention, and I like a show that rewards paying attention.
I actually do think Vince is exactly the auteur his reputation is. Chekhov's guns all get fired, sometimes literally years later, characters act consistently, color symbolism applies to characters, even minor characters get respect. Even minor characters were played phenomenally well, like Bogdan the car wash guy. . ."FUCK YOU! AND YOUR EYEBROWS!"
Vince has an enormous skill for getting actors to give their best performances, even in minor roles. That's what I admire about Tarantino, too, who got phenomenal lifetime best performances out of actors like Pam Greer, John Travolta, and Robert Forster, often when they'd been considered over the hill.
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