Breaking Bad

[irishjayhawk]

Anyone watching this magnificent show?

[Micjones]

My theory of how this ends is chugging right along.
I thought after the first half of S5 that Walt bringing Todd into the cooking part of the business would be significant later.

I think if anyone takes Walt down, it's him.
And we just saw Todd and his family (with Lydia's help) take down the major supplier.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins

And as far as the claim that there are no hot women on this show: technically she's not on the show anymore, but Carmen was smoking ****in' hot.

Yes.


"She has an ass like an onion...makes me want to cry."

[Skyy God]

Donations to fake sham cancer charity went to real sham charity instead.

http://www.uproxx.com/tv/2013/08/bre...s/#more-321688

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Pablo

Marie has always had that twitchy odd sized eye thing going on with sort of paralysis face.

Skylar is whatever.

I'd go after Marie first, but it's not a cakewalk by any means.

Klepto-Grimace reminds me of Ally Sheedy.

[CaliforniaChief]

Originally Posted by Micjones

My theory of how this ends is chugging right along.
I thought after the first half of S5 that Walt bringing Todd into the cooking part of the business would be significant later.

I think if anyone takes Walt down, it's him.
And we just saw Todd and his family (with Lydia's help) take down the major supplier.

The whole Lydia/Todd thing is definitely coming. But I wonder if ultimately it will be Jesse that does in Todd when Todd's about to get Walt, almost as a lesser of two evils dilemma (as a way for Jesse to avenge that kid's shooting).

I think Skylar finds a way to get Walt. Odd, I know.

[Mama Hip Rockets]

Why does no one on the face of the earth know how to spell "Skyler"?

[rocknrolla]

Originally Posted by NewChief

Something about Lydia's uptight nature tells me she's a freak between the sheets. I bet she wears thigh highs and a garter belt.

My thoughts exactly! Shes gotta be a freak. Sexy.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

You know who needs to Break Bad?

The Chiefs.

Quit being such goddamned pussies.

[NewChief]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaChief

The whole Lydia/Todd thing is definitely coming. But I wonder if ultimately it will be Jesse that does in Todd when Todd's about to get Walt, almost as a lesser of two evils dilemma (as a way for Jesse to avenge that kid's shooting).

I think Skylar finds a way to get Walt. Odd, I know.

All the heavy artillery from S5Ep1 could definitely be for a showdown with Tidd and the AB.

[Reaper16]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/op...sue.html?_r=1&

Anna Gunn in The Times writing about the fanbase perception of her character.

Originally Posted by Anna Gunn

LOS ANGELES — PLAYING Skyler White on the television show “Breaking Bad” for the past five seasons has been one of the most rewarding creative journeys I’ve embarked on as an actor. But the role has also taken me on another kind of journey — one I never would have imagined.

My character, to judge from the popularity of Web sites and Facebook pages devoted to hating her, has become a flash point for many people’s feelings about strong, nonsubmissive, ill-treated women. As the hatred of Skyler blurred into loathing for me as a person, I saw glimpses of an anger that, at first, simply bewildered me.

For those unfamiliar with the show: Skyler is the wife of Walter White, a high-school chemistry teacher who, after learning he has lung cancer, begins cooking and selling methamphetamine to leave a nest egg for Skyler, their teenage son and their unborn daughter. After his prognosis improves, however, Walter continues in the drug trade — with considerable success — descending deeper and deeper into a life of crime.

When Skyler discovers what Walter has been up to, she tries to stop him, to no avail. She is outraged by the violence and destruction of the drug world, fearful for her children’s safety, disgusted by the money Walter brings in and undone by the lies and manipulation to which he subjects her.

Because Walter is the show’s protagonist, there is a natural tendency to empathize with and root for him, despite his moral failings. (That viewers can identify with this antihero is also a testament to how deftly his character is written and acted.) As the one character who consistently opposes Walter and calls him on his lies, Skyler is, in a sense, his antagonist. So from the beginning, I was aware that she might not be the show’s most popular character.

But I was unprepared for the vitriolic response she inspired. Thousands of people have “liked” the Facebook page “I Hate Skyler White.” Tens of thousands have “liked” a similar Facebook page with a name that cannot be printed here. When people started telling me about the “hate boards” for Skyler on the Web site for AMC, the network that broadcasts the show, I knew it was probably best not to look, but I wanted to understand what was happening.

A typical online post complained that Skyler was a “shrieking, hypocritical harpy” and didn’t “deserve the great life she has.”

“I have never hated a TV-show character as much as I hate her,” one poster wrote. The consensus among the haters was clear: Skyler was a ball-and-chain, a drag, a shrew, an “annoying bitch wife.”

I enjoy taking on complex, difficult characters and have always striven to capture the truth of those people, whether or not it’s popular. Vince Gilligan, the creator of “Breaking Bad,” wanted Skyler to be a woman with a backbone of steel who would stand up to whatever came her way, who wouldn’t just collapse in the corner or wring her hands in despair. He and the show’s writers made Skyler multilayered and, in her own way, morally compromised. But at the end of the day, she hasn’t been judged by the same set of standards as Walter.

As an actress, I realize that viewers are entitled to have whatever feelings they want about the characters they watch. But as a human being, I’m concerned that so many people react to Skyler with such venom. Could it be that they can’t stand a woman who won’t suffer silently or “stand by her man”? That they despise her because she won’t back down or give up? Or because she is, in fact, Walter’s equal?

It’s notable that viewers have expressed similar feelings about other complex TV wives — Carmela Soprano of “The Sopranos,” Betty Draper of “Mad Men.” Male characters don’t seem to inspire this kind of public venting and vitriol.

At some point on the message boards, the character of Skyler seemed to drop out of the conversation, and people transferred their negative feelings directly to me. The already harsh online comments became outright personal attacks. One such post read: “Could somebody tell me where I can find Anna Gunn so I can kill her?” Besides being frightened (and taking steps to ensure my safety), I was also astonished: how had disliking a character spiraled into homicidal rage at the actress playing her?

But I finally realized that most people’s hatred of Skyler had little to do with me and a lot to do with their own perception of women and wives. Because Skyler didn’t conform to a comfortable ideal of the archetypical female, she had become a kind of Rorschach test for society, a measure of our attitudes toward gender.

I can’t say that I have enjoyed being the center of the storm of Skyler hate. But in the end, I’m glad that this discussion has happened, that it has taken place in public and that it has illuminated some of the dark and murky corners that we often ignore or pretend aren’t still there in our everyday lives.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/op...sue.html?_r=1&

Anna Gunn in The Times writing about the fanbase perception of her character.

No, it's because Skyler is unlikeable...not because of feelings toward women (at least in my case). She just does everything in an annoying manner and I really couldn't stand they way she handled the situations with the kids when she tried to drown herself and sent them to Hank's. I don't know how I would handle a situation like that though. Also, the whole Ted thing sucked. The first time I liked her is in the last few episodes when she told Lydia to get lost and when she stood up to Hank's interrogation (even though I think she did that for self preservation reasons, not for Walt).

Additionally, I think she just has an annoying face and that doesn't help.

[Baby Lee]

Yeah, right now I kind of dislike Anna Gunn more than Skylar.

If Gunn has a beef, it's with Vince Gilligan. Walter White is the American Male Midlife crisis. And while he's out there, tossing around Magnesium Fulminate and arranging for the assassination of 10 inmates in 2 minutes and digging holes in the desert big enough to bury Lone Wolf McQuaid's Bronco, she's bitching him out for using the wrong credit card.

Breaking Bad is the story of Walter avenging his systematic emasculation, and Skylar is positioned in the eye of the storm.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Although I'm sure there are plenty of misogynists who hate Skyler because she's cast in the typical "wet blanket" role, that doesn't mean that everyone who despises her character is misogynistic.

Her character is despicable because she lacks any type of redeeming virtue. She's ready to divorce Walt because he lies about where he's been and what he's done, but she has no problem committing systemic accounting fraud for a poorly run business. Skyler has no problem saying that she wants to protect her children, but is unwilling to actually protect them by informing the police about Walt's activities.

Some awful people are interesting, brilliant psychopaths, and others are just boring hypocrites. Anna Gunn's problem is that she can't see the forest for the trees. She assumes that the hatred of her character is rooted solely in misogyny rather than a combination of factors; she's also made the mistake, apparently, of living her gimmick.

[Baby Lee]

[Baby Lee]

http://www.uproxx.com/tv/2013/08/bre...s-room-photos/