Breaking Bad linkspam
Oct. 1st, 2013 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normal* Interview with Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul about the finale.
* Laura Fraser (aka Lydia) also talks about the end of Breaking Bad and that creeper, Todd.
* While I was quite satisfied with the finale as is, I have to admit that the idea of everything in the last episode being Walt's fantasy while he's actually freezing to death in that snowed-in car is fascinating.
* Vince Gilligan talks about alternate endings that were considered and rejected. I have seen some criticism in reviews (including the one linked above) that the finale went too easy on Walt, that because he accomplished everything he set out to do, that it's a victory for him and a departure from the show's previously established perspective - asking us to root for Walt one last time, after putting so much effort into telling us why he was too despicable to root for.
I mean, yes, Walt manages to ensure a future for his family, financially and legally, by leaving his money with Gretchen and Elliott and giving Skyler a bargaining chip with the DEA. He takes out all the bad guys, even Lydia, and saves Jesse in the process. And he gets to do it all, even die, completely on his own terms. But here's where I'm confused - why should that make Walt someone worth rooting for? As I said in response topocochina's post before the finale, nothing Walt could do in the final episode would ever be enough to make things right. He's not ~redeemed or forgiven. Making the world a little less horrible, trying to fix what little he can of the problems he caused... that's the least he can do before he dies.
This show has never been simplistic - it's not just about rooting for Walt, or even rooting against Walt. While Breaking Bad has a strongly ingrained morality to it, the people who live in this world are all shades of gray. And the finale is no different, because if you care about the "good guys" - Skyler, Walt Jr., Jesse (none of whom is pure themselves, it's less about rooting for the good guys and more just sympathy for the victims) - then you have to want Walt to succeed, because he's trying to fix things. You have to want Walt to tap into that Heisenberg well one last time, even though it was being Heisenberg that made them victims in the first place.
And this "victory" of Walt's is pyrrhic at best, isn't it? He still dies alone, having driven away or destroyed everyone he ever loved. He was able to leave his family plenty of money, which is what he set out in the pilot episode to do, but at what cost? Was it worth it, or would he rather have died surrounded by his loving, albeit poorer, family? So much of what drove Walt was his pride, and yet he's had to sacrifice that in the end, since they'll never know the money came from him. He has turned Gretchen and Elliott - the very people he despised for "stealing" what was supposedly his - into the heroes. That can't be how Walt wanted to end things, but it's the best he can manage after he's ruined everything and lost the empire he'd built.
* In other news, Stephen Colbert's Breaking Bad/government shutdown mashup is, as usual, hilarious and astute.
* LOL the end of Breaking Bad has an impact on Albuquerque's economy.
* Epic Breaking Bad fanvid (spoilers for the entire series).
* Laura Fraser (aka Lydia) also talks about the end of Breaking Bad and that creeper, Todd.
* While I was quite satisfied with the finale as is, I have to admit that the idea of everything in the last episode being Walt's fantasy while he's actually freezing to death in that snowed-in car is fascinating.
* Vince Gilligan talks about alternate endings that were considered and rejected. I have seen some criticism in reviews (including the one linked above) that the finale went too easy on Walt, that because he accomplished everything he set out to do, that it's a victory for him and a departure from the show's previously established perspective - asking us to root for Walt one last time, after putting so much effort into telling us why he was too despicable to root for.
I mean, yes, Walt manages to ensure a future for his family, financially and legally, by leaving his money with Gretchen and Elliott and giving Skyler a bargaining chip with the DEA. He takes out all the bad guys, even Lydia, and saves Jesse in the process. And he gets to do it all, even die, completely on his own terms. But here's where I'm confused - why should that make Walt someone worth rooting for? As I said in response to
pocochina's post before the finale, nothing Walt could do in the final episode would ever be enough to make things right. He's not ~redeemed or forgiven. Making the world a little less horrible, trying to fix what little he can of the problems he caused... that's the least he can do before he dies.This show has never been simplistic - it's not just about rooting for Walt, or even rooting against Walt. While Breaking Bad has a strongly ingrained morality to it, the people who live in this world are all shades of gray. And the finale is no different, because if you care about the "good guys" - Skyler, Walt Jr., Jesse (none of whom is pure themselves, it's less about rooting for the good guys and more just sympathy for the victims) - then you have to want Walt to succeed, because he's trying to fix things. You have to want Walt to tap into that Heisenberg well one last time, even though it was being Heisenberg that made them victims in the first place.
And this "victory" of Walt's is pyrrhic at best, isn't it? He still dies alone, having driven away or destroyed everyone he ever loved. He was able to leave his family plenty of money, which is what he set out in the pilot episode to do, but at what cost? Was it worth it, or would he rather have died surrounded by his loving, albeit poorer, family? So much of what drove Walt was his pride, and yet he's had to sacrifice that in the end, since they'll never know the money came from him. He has turned Gretchen and Elliott - the very people he despised for "stealing" what was supposedly his - into the heroes. That can't be how Walt wanted to end things, but it's the best he can manage after he's ruined everything and lost the empire he'd built.
* In other news, Stephen Colbert's Breaking Bad/government shutdown mashup is, as usual, hilarious and astute.
* LOL the end of Breaking Bad has an impact on Albuquerque's economy.
* Epic Breaking Bad fanvid (spoilers for the entire series).
no subject
Date: Oct. 2nd, 2013 03:48 am (UTC)Yeah, I don't think the 'rooting for' argument holds up for me. You want Walt to fix as much as he can, but he's already destroyed everything. He does what he sets out to do, but that's because he broke things to begin with. And things are by no means fixed. Things will never be fixed again.
IDK, I think too much time is spent by reviewers debating what Walt 'deserves'. Like if Walt fails, that would be fitting because that's what he deserves, and if he succeeds, then that's bad because he's done bad things and shouldn't get any sort of favorable outcome. I don't think the show has a duty to be so moralizing. Nothing has ever been black and white, and if Walt wins or loses or gets something in between, that's because it was most fitting to the story. And I think he did get something in between. He neither got off scott free nor was punished for his sins. He destroyed things, but made it as right as he could with what he'd been handed, and did go out on his own terms. But he still died, and his family still hates him, and his brother in law is still dead.
Oh, and it's so ironic that he gives Elliot and Gretchen the money to give his family, because he's the one who wouldn't take their money in S1 because of his pride.
no subject
Date: Oct. 3rd, 2013 01:50 pm (UTC)Yeah. I actually saw someone on Twitter mention that quote from Gandalf in LOTR? About how Gollum deserved to die, but some people who die deserve life, and you cannot give it to them, so don't be so quick to dole out death. It's not really about what Walt "deserves" and I don't think that the show needed to give him what he deserved in order to be a good ending.
Also, Gilligan said Walt and his meth were like Gollum: "My preciousssss." :)