I get that people want to watch a bunch of shit and don't have time to do it. I don't think the solution to it is in doing something that lessens the experiences.
It's not something I've ever tried, but I do think 1.5x may be a decent enough watch if you're trying to decide whether you want to go for a deeper immersion. I tend to watch favourites many times, so my first viewing tends to be fairly superficial. For example, HBO's Westworld Series 1 features a number of trompe l'oeuil scenes where it can take several viewings to decipher where, when and to whom a certain action takes place. I don't expect to understand it all at once. It doesn't really matter what speed I watch it at, there'll always be time to go through scene-by-scene, rewinding and rerunning, to solve any puzzles.
The shows is one giant litmus test to see if you are a stupid garbage person. If you think Walter is a badass you'd like to emulate you are said stupid garbage person.
Vince Gilligan commented on this, and said he thought that it wasn't that he was corrupted, but that he was really good at lying to himself. "I'm not really bad, I'm doing this because I need the money."
That's how I took it while watching up to the very moment where he declined to take the money from his "old friends", that was the moment where it was clear to me that he was (or has become) an egocentric maniac, if you can't put your ego back for your own good, that's one thing but if you wont even do it for the people you love... now you've fucked up and it was very clear imo that his little chemo therapy talk was more of a cover up than what he was truly thinking.
I liked Walt, I liked Gus I liked all the characters. It's not real, nobody was hurt in real life, it's just escapism. You can root for the bad guy with no repurcussions. Do I have to be on my moral high horse so much I can't enjoy a fictional character without being a supporter of toxic masculinity?
I love the Toxic Avenger, and he ripped out a guys intestines and skipped with them.
But Walter wasn't selfish. He genuinely desired (at first) to provide for his family, at least initially. His first act was selfless. Then he got deeper and deeper until he finally embraced it, and ultimately enjoyed it.
Walter is, from the very beginning, driven by his ego above all else. I'd argue he wasn't really a good man at the start of the show. He was decent, but he was clearly extremely bitter about where his life ended up. He was a time bomb waiting for an excuse to blow.
Gretchen and Elliot offered to help him, but he chose, at the expense of his family, to make his own way for the sake of his own pride. That is unbelievably selfish and it was one of the first things he did.
But Walter wasn't selfish. He genuinely desired (at first) to provide for his family, at least initially. His first act was selfless. Then he got deeper and deeper until he finally embraced it, and ultimately enjoyed it.
The switch from "It's about my family" to "it's about me" happened extremely early in the series. As soon as he decided to not take any money from Gray Matter, it became about him.
No one's mentioning how lying and rationalizing things to ourselves is an issue. Walt tried to justify everything he did on helping the family, when in actuality, he wanted to feel like a badass.
It doesn't have a moral. It's just a character study on a lofty narcissist who viewed his life as a failure and tried to turn himself into something when learning he's about to die, but it doesn't have the virtues of something like Ikiru which tries to invoke civic work as a passion to living life to its fullest and being remembered when you're gone.
The switch from "It's about my family" to "it's about me" happened extremely early in the series. As soon as he decided to not take any money from Gray Matter, it became about him.
That was one of the reasons. He also mentions that doing it made him feel alive, and that he did for himself. Both of which shits on the lie he told himself in regards to doing it because of family reasons.
I've seen so many people in their lives in different circumstances come up with so much bullshit over the years.
To me BB isn't about the drugs, money, the violence, or even the concept of taking Joe Average and making him a gangster. It's about a man in that position stop using shit around him as a crux to justify his life away
I loved the show. Could have done without the finale with the machine gun stuff, but it was a good run
But Walter wasn't selfish. He genuinely desired (at first) to provide for his family, at least initially. His first act was selfless. Then he got deeper and deeper until he finally embraced it, and ultimately enjoyed it.
But he wouldn't accept the help from his previous business partners (that we later find screwed him over). He did desire to provide for his family as long as HE was the one providing.
As others pointed out, pride is likely the better word to describe it.
The moral I saw is that if you make life hard for people (lack of free healthcare and wealthfare for thise that need it being the shows example), people will do bad things to make life easier and turn into bad people as a result.
Ofcourse I never finished the show because I didn't like the direction it went but eh... I still agree with the message.
No, it was about his pride. If it was about his health, he'd have taken the money.
As Walt himself says in the penultimate episode to Skylar, he wanted to be a drug lord. Maybe not that specifically, but he wanted to be an asshole boss that everyone was impressed by, afraid of, and envious of.
Breaking Bad and Death Note have arguably the same moral that people just miss because neither series beats you over the head with it, and that moral is that some people are just twisted. People behave on a distribution of behaviours, and some of those people will be on the fringe. If given the opportunity to act on their desires, they will.
In Breaking Bad, that's when Walt is offered money in like the fourth episode and he refused it. That's when he has a way out and decides not to take it.
Starting a business is incredibly difficult, from raising capital to gathering supplies for your production. Even if you're successful while starting out and produce a quality product, marketing and distribution will eventually prove to be critical bottlenecks for your small business. Can you bring in more raw material from vendors to meet demand? Do you hire more people to distribute your product? What impact will that have on your bottom line?
Also, as you gain more market share, your competition will take notice and come at you hard. You'll need to bargain hard and make some tough decisions to keep what you've built. At a certain point, you'll become so successful that in order to move up to the next level, you'll have to bring on well-funded and well-established partners who have the resources and logistics networks to scale-up your business from a local to a regional power.
But these business partnerships are fraught with peril, as differing personalities and priorities between the partners will inevitably result in in-fighting, threats, passive-aggressive behavior, and a bitter parting-of-ways as one of the partners eventually moves to takeover the entire business from the other.
Ultimately, as you become the market leader and eliminate the competition, the very qualities that brought you success will eventually lead to your downfall. This may not happen eventually, but over time, the inability to move with the market and adapt to changing conditions will lead to hubris and inflexibility. This will allow more motivated and aggressive upstarts to move against you and possibly initiate a hostile takeover of your business.
Also, the lack of legitimacy means you can't use the legal system to enforce contracts, so the application of violence serves as the means of ensuring survival and growth, and those who use it best tend to be the most successful.
But he wouldn't accept the help from his previous business partners (that we later find screwed him over). He did desire to provide for his family as long as HE was the one providing.
As others pointed out, pride is likely the better word to describe it.
Totally. After nearly half a season of refusing to cook the one thing that finally gets through to him is Gus' "a man provides" speech. It not only hits on the practical need to leave his family with something, but it was also Walt's opportunity to overcome that gnawing legacy of failure and be the provider he never was . Ego, compassion, greed, rage, loyalty, shame, survival, the thrill of it all...there's rarely just a single thing driving Walt's actions.
It's been a while since I watched it, but I thought it was set up that Walt got bored pretty swiftly working in the laundromat and used any excuse to go back the life of a kingpin with all the excitement and danger he was basically addicted to.
Be a good person. Nothing else matters, not money, not power. In the end we all die and how the world remembers us, what lives on after us, are the deeds we do. Also life is unfair so suck it up and don't be a jerk.
Starting a business is incredibly difficult, from raising capital to gathering supplies for your production. Even if you're successful while starting out and produce a quality product, marketing and distribution will eventually prove to be critical bottlenecks for your small business. Can you bring in more raw material from vendors to meet demand? Do you hire more people to distribute your product? What impact will that have on your bottom line?
Also, as you gain more market share, your competition will take notice and come at you hard. You'll need to bargain hard and make some tough decisions to keep what you've built. At a certain point, you'll become so successful that in order to move up to the next level, you'll have to bring on well-funded and well-established partners who have the resources and logistics networks to scale-up your business from a local to a regional power.
But these business partnerships are fraught with peril, as differing personalities and priorities between the partners will inevitably result in in-fighting, threats, passive-aggressive behavior, and a bitter parting-of-ways as one of the partners eventually moves to takeover the entire business from the other.
Ultimately, as you become the market leader and eliminate the competition, the very qualities that brought you success will eventually lead to your downfall. This may not happen eventually, but over time, the inability to move with the market and adapt to changing conditions will lead to hubris and inflexibility. This will allow more motivated and aggressive upstarts to move against you and possibly initiate a hostile takeover of your business.
Also, the lack of legitimacy means you can't use the legal system to enforce contracts, so the application of violence serves as the means of ensuring survival and growth, and those who use it best tend to be the most successful.
Also, hubris/pride/mental health are key thematic components of the show as many have mentioned. I also like the point that one person made coming from Vince Gilligan himself, in that Walt is just super good at lying to himself/repressing his true desires/beliefs/feelings/power.
Really, Breaking Bad is brilliant in a large part due to how many themes and topics, and how well it handles them, that many people can find relatable.
It's been a while since I watched it, but I thought it was set up that Walt got bored pretty swiftly working in the laundromat and used any excuse to go back the life of a kingpin with all the excitement and danger he was basically addicted to.
Walt warned Jesse to let it go. He was parked nearby watching and almost didn't run them over. He figured Jesse didn't have a chance against them.
Walt knew Gus was making way more than what he was paying them. I think even Jesse knew and brought it up too. At that point it was more than enough for Walt since him and Jesse fucked it up so bad dealing themselves and the other time through Tuco. Gus had the resources and all he had to do was make the meth and collect his money.
Walt was a smart man and knew if the back-up dies than Gus would let him and Jesse live so he ordered Jesse to kill the other cook. Now Gus and Mike work Jesse over to their side so they can eventually kill Walt but of course Walt saw through that too.
