TOP 10 TV SHOWS of 2013!!!

I am going to limit this list to shows that premiered in 2013, not shows that ran into 2013.

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GeekFurious the Podcast - Episode 201: Coming Clear

Vlad and Magnus talk about many topics (this is a very chatty podcast, more like how we talk privately) including Star Wars, fake outrage, writing your own stories, fan fiction, Agents of Shield, Metallica, writing "strong female characters", Chuck, Breaking Bad, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, and much more.

This is an extremely long podcast with no edits. Even the things that cause us problems are left in. Only listen if you love listening to us talk or if you have nothing better to do. Or if you are really into hearing two guys talk for hours about how self absorbed people are or how hyper romantics can't let go.

About an hour and forty seven minutes in, we think the podcast isn't being recorded. Fun times. Also, at some point I say that I'm glad I broke the heart of a girl who loved me. I definitely should have cut that part out of the episode. Even though I tried to explain what I meant, it sounded much better in my brain. Wow. I'm an awful human being. -- Magnus

Click play below.


Or RIGHT CLICK HERE to download the MP3 file.

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BREAKING BAD - It's really quiet over here, guys!

It was nice to see the BREAKING BAD crew back in action last night, giving it their all and acting the shit out of the scenery. The episode was a good launching point for the remainder of the series, if a tad bit much on the setup side (since this is supposed to be episode 5.09 and not 6.01, shouldn't there be a bit more going on?).

However, the thing that I walked away from in this episode was the quiet.

I know this show is fond of its quiet moments to build up tension and allow the actors to play around with their reactions. And I'm a fan of that. Not enough shows utilize quiet. There's often way too much talking in scenes. In the real world, people who know each other well have a lot less to say a lot of the time.

No one pulled off the quiet better than Hank (Dean Norris, in the role of his career), who only now realizes that his buddy Walt is the Darth Vader of this universe. If there is an Emmy for projecting the conflict, suffering, anger, and feelings of betrayal without ever saying a word, then Norris should get it. Hell, give it to him anyway.

Unfortunately, the scene between Jesse and Walt had a bit too much quiet and it's not the first time, or even close to it. I've noticed over the length of the series, and specifically since Jesse started becoming the strict moral compass, the quiet between them is used to convey manipulation, distrust, and sometimes acceptance. It's just that in a show that tries to live within the believable real world, that much quiet is rarely seen as a sign of trust. And for a character like Walt, who we are to believe is a wolf of perception, for him to miss that Jesse's quiet is about distrust and disbelief, as opposed to acceptance, is difficult to swallow.

Therefor the only reason for the quiet is to manipulate us into thinking the scene has more weight, when it doesn't. That's when I get pulled out of the moment. That's why that scene didn't work as well for me.

Still, shows need more quiet. Let the actors do that thing they do with their eyes. Unless of course it's an eyeless actor, then give them lots of dialogue.

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Guest Review - BREAKING BAD 5.07: 'Say My Name'

I thought Shawn Mahone had died when he didn't send in his review yesterday but apparently he was on some fake Euro "holiday." So here is another review about the guys who knock. As always, I don't proofread his work so if he says something stupid, I am sure I can get his address so you can firebomb his house. --HGF

RIP Mike, RI Fucking P Mike! I knew deep down that Mike's fate was doomed from the season premier...Breaking Bad had to kill someone and they would never kill Jesse or Hank and I knew with every passing episode and the hints that pointed to Mike's eventual demise that he would go sooner or later. It could have been the legacy costs or the pointing of his gun to Walter so many times or just Walt saying in 5.03 that Mike was flying to close to the sun but I just knew it was coming but knowing and seeing are two different things altogether and watching Mike die hurt. It was beautifully shot and executed and his death was quiet and serene and perfect but it still fucking hurt!

Watching the making of the episode on the AMC website you can tell that this hit the cast and crew hard and Jonathan Banks who plays Mike is a big softy and he got emotional too, we are nearing end times story wise and I can only see more and more deaths occurring over the remaining 9 episodes of this show, so there is a lot more pain and heartbreak left and tension and drama and just shit hits the fan awesomeness!

So was Mike's death contrived? yes! I have to believe (although I have not read any comments online) that some fans will accept that Mike would not want to get Jesse caught and could not risk Saul but Walter White! He would accept the help from Walter fucking White? I suppose maybe Mike did get too close to the sun but still Mike was a pro and one who made very few mistakes and I just do not know if this was a fitting end for him. I am not saying that the way the show allowed for him to have a quiet and respectful death (I was waiting for Walt to shoot him again so kudos for Walt for letting him go without plugging him with another bullet) was not beautiful and incredibly poignant I just felt the machinations of it all and the plot logic and character logic seemed faulty. I mean simply put why not just have Jesse not in Saul's office when he calls? Urgh....

Walt, Walter, Heisenberg....what is there left to say for a man who has sunk so low and knows that he is going to hell and gleefully accepts it? The opening of the episode was pure macho bullshit ("Say my name!") but I loved it because that is some serious ass payoff to watching this character devolve. Basically the Phoenix crew is now his bitch and now he is going to up production to 100 lbs every cook and he is going to attempt to take over the drug world in the south. Good luck with that! But will he do it with Jesse or not? Jesse is now fully onto the bullshit that is Walter White, that there is no end, that Walt does not give a shit about the kids that die or the people they hurt or the wife who hates him or the fact that he has lost his kids or that he is just a ticking time bomb who is pure evil at this point. Jesse finally sees it, he finally sees the truth and confronts Walt and actually gives up his money...if it means his way out of Walt's life then so be it but we shall see because I think these two have a few makeup's and breakups before the series end. I have a feeling that they will band together over these 9 guys issue or something I am not sure about. I mean will Jesse stop Walt from having them killed? he has to right? I mean after all his epiphanies lately about Walt would he let him just kill another 9 guys for his own selfish needs? is Jesse finally going to say no we do not do this we take the rap for the bullshit we have pulled...is this the moment where Jesse finally teams up with Skyler and tries to take Walt out? hmmmmm.

Hank got in shit for having a hard on for Mike...I wonder if all that confiscated 5 million dollars will shut his boss up...they talk about funding and cash and budgets and man hours and all that shit well now they have a ton of fat stacks to put away from a big score and Hank was proven right so we shall see how that pans out.

A great episode that had wonderful moments and was wonderfully shot, I do not think Walt turned up to meet Mike to kill him, I think he took his gun to threaten him but not kill him. I think his pride and ego killed Mike and you could tell the look on his face when he shit mike and the looks on his face when Mike died. They were regretful and sad and he knows that he has fucked up and that this is another secret that Jesse and him will have between them. Mike had to go sadly and so does Skyler and I just do not know where this all goes but I am looking forward to the finale where Walt goes to Lydia and tries to off Mike's guys via Todd's uncles prison connections? I think.

Todd learning the process.....yeah that is going to fuck up sooner or later. Saul!!!!! I so needed your comic relief buddy! He was right though about the other lawyer...as Jesse said in season 2, in this business you do not want a criminal lawyer you want a criminal lawyer yo! I hope Saul makes it to the end, I think he will.

Episode rating 98 out of 100

See you guys for the finale I look forward to it and hope they can pull it together even through all these seasonal bumpy plot points that have been rushed or not well executed. I think they have done ok but more time would have helped smoothed stuff out but that is all cool....we are getting 16 more episodes more that the ratings deserve so I hold hope.

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Guest Review - BREAKING BAD 5.06: 'Buyout'

Shawn Mahone writes about some dudes who make drugs and kill kids. His views are his own and do not represent the opinion of anyone associated with this blog, nor anyone with taste for that matter. That's not to say he has bad taste. It's just to say I don't proofread his work so I have no idea what he may be writing. --HGF


At Comic Con Aaron Paul said that the best way to describe this season would be that it is eerie and by eerie he means the fans would feel the same feelings they endured at the end of Crawl Space. There have been some minor eerie moments throughout the season mostly whenever Walt is holding baby Holy like a bond villain such as Bloefeld holds his white cat and cackles, lol. But tonight during that intense, comic, devastating dinner scene I finally understood what he meant. This is the first time that Jesse has been in met Skyler since the second episode of the series and it is fucked up, back in that previous episode she was the wife who was worried about her husband, she was the wife that Walt took all these risks to provide for after his death and now Jesse knows that she is the wife who wants Walt dead and hates him with a passion. Jesse always thought that Walt was in this for the family and now realizes that he is in this for himself and that just ratchets the tension up ten fold! That dinner scene was funny as fuck and Aaron Paul was amazing (truth in advertising yo! lol) but he must know that the shit has hit the fucking fan!

We open this episode with the quiet and wordless music that played over the team ripping the bike apart and then shoving it along with the poor 14 year old into barrels ready to pour acid over and dispose of, just heartbreaking. We finally get to see Walt opening up and exposing how low he has sunk in this Endeavour to be Heisenberg the drug kingpin, telling Mike and Jesse that this killing was justified and that Todd's life should be spared....Wanker. The seeds have been sewn a long time ago that Mike and Jesse know that Walt is a nut job who has lost his morals but man was this painful to watch.

This whole episode was about Mike and Jesse trying to get out and Walt through his own prideful bullshit refusing to accept that the best thing is for him to get out too, he just will not let it go and we see just how resentful he has become. Grey Matter, he checks every week the stock price, he tortures himself and in turn he tortures everyone around him because he hates that a long time ago he fucked up and cashed out, he should blame himself but he blames Elliott and Gretchen for his failures and now Jesse and Mike are paying the price because this man will not let go.

Mike is being tracked by the DEA constantly and knows it is only a matter of time, Jesse cannot stand the death of another child and wants out and the potential buyers of the precursor will only buy the whole batch if the blue is off the street and so we come to the point where Walt gets what he wants and the episode ends. Walt was great as MaGyver thought, no?

My prediction is that Walt will try and get into business with the potential buyers but that is pure speculation on my part, I have no fucking idea though. We shall see what happens but right now we may have wondered how Walt ended up on his 52 birthday on the run with a huge gun....not anymore...the picture has become so much more clearer...sadly. Everyone is going to die! Well maybe not everyone but enough people if no one kills this man right now.

Episode Rating 92 out of 100

I waxed and waned on the rating...I said earlier that I am a little concerned with the season pacing and this episode had a bunch of pacing issues...Jesse's transition from one emotional level to another was a gut punch to me. Mike being all pissed after a weak of DEA tailing? really? Whatever. But I learned to get over it especially when my favorite comic character Saul turned up...man was he funny. These last 2 episodes are going to be fucking insane and I look forward to every minute of them, let's hope the body count is not too high (Sklyer please die!) but I do not expect too much problems, remember we have 8 full episodes after this and I have a feeling that the remainder of the series will be Walt making Jesse and his family's life a living hell....oh Walt you magnificent bastard! Never have I wanted a character to die so bad! Bitch!

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Guest Review - BREAKING BAD 5.05: 'Dead Freight'

Shawn Mahone refuses to stop watching this show and even worse, he won't stop writing about it! I didn't write anything this week but his rating for the episode is one I almost agree with (though, I'd give it 2 points lower). So, enjoy this review. -- HGF

After HGF posted my last review I added some thoughts on how Jesse is no longer the one in this business for the fat stacks and the honey's and that Walt is the one who has become reckless and that it makes me laugh to think how far these two yahoos have come over the course of the series and in the shows time over the course of the year, that is until now.....that last 30 seconds are going to haunt me for a long, long, long time.

We can say that all the people that have died on screen in front of us by either Walt or Jesse pulling the trigger have not been innocent, in some way they have been complicit in their own downfall and we could accept their demise and move on. The plane crash victims we never saw and the show made a point of never detailing exactly who was on board at the time (men ? women? children?) so we could kinda put that aside and move on. We could move on from the drug dealers who killed Thomas because we never saw it or saw Brock ill from being poisoned or being poisoned or any other death like Gale or the drug dealers or the cartel or the cousins, etc....but fuck me if we cannot put aside a kid getting gunned down in the manner it went down. Fuck logic that says if I were a drug kingpin I would do the same because the kid has to go, fuck that it is only a show and reality does not matter, fuck that it allows Walt, Mike and Jesse and more specifically Walt to live and fight another day...fuck all that because that moment or more importantly how the characters respond to that moment will determine just how low Walt and Jesse will go and how much darkness these 2 infuse around the New Mexico area and I am worried that they will forge forward...heartbreaking, just heartbreaking. Walt and Jesse can no longer deny that they are different from Gus if they just put down the loss of a child due to cost of business and I can no longer think back and laugh or smile at any of this series anymore because I can no longer accept the price that people on this show have to pay so that Walt and Jesse can become more and more powerful. Shit! Mother Fucker! shit!!!!!!!

Serial killers who are nuts would be proud to claim the amount of deaths these two proactively or inactively contributed over the year, the amount of death on their shoulders must be running near the 1000 mark when you consider all the gang violence, plane crash, death of the cartel, death by Walt and Jesse, death by product....these two are no longer yahoos but Americas most wanted...they sit at the top of the fictional pile of Breaking Bad world of scumbags!

But putting aside my personal feelings (and my overall love for children and hate to see any pain or misery come to them) maybe that is the point, maybe that has been the whole point throughout the series. Walt has been building to this moment from season 1. He killed bad guys, then got Jesse to do it, then he did it without even flinching, then he poisoned kids, then he watched and said nothing when Todd did it. Breaking Bad has been telling us for 5 seasons now that this moment was going to come and they prepared us and warned us and it is only our own fault if we cannot accept where this series is heading. Walt will survive to the last episode and most likely last scene because Bryan Cranston is the lead and thus it is his show and it is his story. Whatever happens now it is only going to get darker and that has me worried for everyone. I do not think Skyler is going to make it to season 6 or 5.1....she is smoking way too much and Walt oddly ceded to her demands very quickly and that makes me think that he knows he cannot reason with her and that it is time for her to go....Rican cigarette anyone? so I think she is gone. Mike is gonna be gone and I do not think he will make it to the end of the season based on the conversation Walt had with Lydia. Jesse will survive because Aaron Paul is too good an actor to be left out of the series and Hank will survive because he will be the man who ends Walt's crimes and looks after his kids. Even Walt Jr is defying his parents way too much...one wonders if he moves back home and hides and hears the truth? hmmmm.

The train caper was excellently shot, directed, acted and edited. It was tense, intense, suspenseful and brilliantly executed and I enjoyed all involved having fun while doing this great heist. Walt again pushed it to the limit and they eked out every last drop of drama they could get and I loved every moment of that sequence.

Walt and Hanks conversation was a little weird and odd and I kinda do not buy Walt being that risky but since Jesse has come up with the best ideas this season because Walt has lost his mind I can to a degree buy his recklessness of leaving his finger prints all over Hanks office.

Walt and Skylers conversation.....BORING.....SNOOZEFEST.....Whatever, just kill her already Walt...Hank and Marie can look after your kids and considering how Bitchy and cunty your wife is that maybe the better option! Speaking of which....

The mention of the movie Heat was very après pro for this particular episode...a Heist that went wrong because of the new guy....lol...good stuff and very subtle.

I know I came down hard initially, I really loved this episode once I calmed down and thought more rationally....the shot to the gut at the end of the episode really got to me and it threw me off because of my feelings for children overall...never hurt a child...but this show has earned that moment and it has earned everything that comes its way and so as I watch this unfold I know it is going to be insane. I do not recognize Walt or Jesse anymore, I cannot even believe a single word that is coming out of Walt's mouth, all season he has been mixing truths with lies to everyone....I do not know what to believe...fuck...I do not even know what he fucking believes anymore. Ever since he has taken over from Gus he has not been himself at all, he does not think things out, he is reacting irrationally, he is talking down to people like Mike and Skyler, he is enjoying the thrill of being the man in charge...he has lost his mind....he is now Scarface...

But the sad thing is that Scarface refused to hurt children...Scarface has a way to go to catch Walter White or is it Heisenberg? I just do not know anymore....Brilliant.

Episode Rating 99 out of 100

Rian Johnson saved last episode ass in a big way and so did Cranston....this shitted all over the last one by a country fucking mile! Vince Gilligan brother...fuck the family concentrate on the drug business...come on!

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Guest Review - BREAKING BAD 5.04: 'Fifty-One'

Shawn Mahone continues to e-mail me reviews and so I continue to post them. Why? Because anyone who writes this much about a show they claim to love clearly needs exposure! Granted, my write-up was clearly superior. Poignant. --HGF

This episode featured a lot of Skyler and my first instinct was to knock it down to a 90 straight away...just because I hate her that much, but that would not really be giving the episode its proper justice nor the proper respect or proper thought and consideration that it deserves because personal feelings aside this was a very good episode. So I am going to make some allowances for Breaking Bad because they are running out of time and are up against it to finish off their story.

So I am going to ignore that Skyler is happy to be a criminal when their house gets renovated (look at how beautiful it looks especially the back garden and pool), when they can buy a business that she controls in and out, when she decides how the money is spent and when, when she can use the money to bail her fucking cunty ass out because she decided to cook the books badly for Ted Beneke and that overall the majority of online fans hate her fucking guts...I will forgo all of that because I feel generous.

Now this episode was laced with symbolism, to name a few:

1) Skyler giving Walt a short bacon 1 in his bacon 51...I guess she is praying that he does not make it that far into his 51st year...lol.

2) The thread sticking out of his hat, his Heisenberg hat. If he yanks it will he unravel the tapestry of his life? will everything come crashing down? how strong are the lies that he has threaded around his life and his family's life? is the end near?

3) The lighting of the pool when Skyler went under water...is she really the angel in this situation? she looked so angelic like until Walt came in and yanked her out. Is she drowning above water as well as under?

4) Back to the Hat..Walt used to wear it when he switched from Walt to Heisenberg but now he wears it all the time...is Walt White finally dead?

5) The Aztec..so Walter White..his new Chrysler...so Heisenberg.

I am sure there are many other symbols that was stuffed in and please feel free to add them because this week we had the same director that directed the "Fly" episode and the same man who directed the new feature film Looper...Rian Johnson. Rian is a wonderful director who has a great eye for detail and he produced one gorgeous shot after another that was layered in beauty and complexity and everything that a top show like this deserves. so kudos to him for an excellent job, to get a guy of the caliber like Rian Johnson to come and do TV when he normally only does film is a huge boon in the cap of Vince Gilligan and co.

The majority of this episode centered on Walt and Skyler's factitious marriage and the effect that his decisions have had on her mentally and physically. She has physically frozen and she has mentally checked out this season so far due to the fear of Walt blowing up a nursing home and killing people and threatening her and just being a total sociopath who has totally and utterly bought into his own bullshit. When in the last episode he was talking to her going on and on about how what she did and what he did was all good because it was for the family it reminded me of Neil McDonough's performance on Justified at the end of "Guy walks into a bar", he is talking to himself basically and his mind is insane and his mind is going from one extreme to the next it is eerie and unsettling as hell and at the same time it is just fantastic. It is said that a great character good or bad believes totally that they are the hero in their story and Walter White has gone beyond this..he is not just the hero he is everything, everything evolves around him and his reasoning.... he has lost grips with reality.

I want to hate Skyler and I want Walter White to be the man who tells others to "stay out of my territory" and be the" one who knocks" and when up against any foe will always be the man who says "I won" in the end (and come Emmy time he will be saying all those things and more because the rest of the Emmy lead actors are his bitches at this moment in time) but I have a scintilla of sympathy for Skyler because she is not worried about her fate...she has accepted her fate.. but about the fate of her children and one thing Walt cannot guarantee is the safety of their children as much as he may believe so. It is one thing to delude oneself when your life is on the line but quite another when a teenager and a little 7 or 8 months old life is on the line and that is where I start to disagree with Walt seriously even though I know this is all fiction...even in fiction I cannot agree with Walt on his family. I asked earlier in the piece if Walt White is dead? and looking at the fight between the two there was a lot of Heisenberg in there as Walt just kept on hammering her and hammering her and pushing her in a corner and being submissive and doing what he has done to Jesse time and time again in order to get his own way. Where Jesse has no one to pull him out of this toxic relationship Skyler has her kids.

I joked on HGF's review that the Rican cigarette should be used on Skyler but I do not know if Vince Gilligan has the balls to do that. If it is between Walt and Skyler...Walt has to win it is his show...Cranston is an Emmy winning god and the lead...Anna Gunn...Skyler White has to go. The story is there for that to happen. Skyler takes the Rican and has a heart attack, Walt tells the police and Hank that she has been stressed about Ted and about his injuries because she fucked him and she was worried about his tax audit because she loves Ted and she was smoking too much and she died because her heart could not take the pressure....it all fits but Vince Gilligan cannot be a pussy about it. Maybe he is not because this episode showed that Hank and Marie can take over care for the kids, Walt Jr will be at college in a year and baby Holly will be the child Hank and Marie do not have so it could work if Vince Gilligan has the balls...do you hear me Vince! Grow a pair!!!!!!!

Lydia annoyed me and I agree with Mike that she needs to be killed and hopefully Walt will do that when need be to satiate his murdering side. But nothing memorable happened to be honest.

I understand that an episode like this happened because the good stuff (i.e. Walt and Jesse doing their thing)is saved for the final 4 episodes of the season and so like season 1, 2, 3 and 4..the shit is served up first and the best is served up later. Anna Gunn and Skyler is the shit we have to deal with so whatever. Rian Johnson saved a lot of this episode for me...gorgeous just gorgeous.

I am a little concerned that we have waited 4 seasons to see Scarface and we are skipping through a lot of the victory lap due to lack of time and so I feel that maybe we are getting a little short changed. The downfall will come and so be it but I hope they spend the remaining 12 episodes on Walt and Jesse and Mike and Saul and Hank and let the shit fly...no more stalling lets fucking do this already!

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Rating BREAKING BAD 5.04: 'Fifty-One'

AMC says: Walt celebrates a birthday; Skyler contemplates her options; Walt and Jesse's plan is complicated by an associate.

HGF says: This new Frappe from McDonalds is fuckin' awesome.

95 out of 100

What did you think?

(*burp* that was yummy... why haven't I tried this before?)

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Guest Review of BREAKING BAD Season 5 Premiere

Another guest review by Shawn Mahone, who wrote the ARCHER season finale review a few months ago. Check it out. You can check out my less glowing review HERE. --HGF

For a show that is so predictable and at times magnificently so, the cold opening raises the biggest question with the most unpredictable answer...who will bring down Walter White? Who is chasing Walter White? Who is Walter so clearly scared of? Who has Walter so petrified that he buys a huge ass gun off of Jim Beaver?

What makes this all unpredictable is that it could be Hank, Mike, Saul (or a hired gun of Saul's), Skyler, Madrigal Industries, a user who received a bad batch, one of their new dealers or and this is wish fulfillment it could be Jesse.

So at the beginning of season 5 we are entering the period of Scarface in this particular story (Vince Gilligan has said that this show is about taking Mr Chips from Scarface) and now that Walt is Scarface he has no boss because he is the boss ("Because I said So") and he is full of confidence and ego and empowerment and courage and sheer skin crawling menace ("I Forgive you", "It is over when I say it is over").

What I like about this season premier is that it did not try and outdo the last 2 episodes of last season...because that would have been insane on many levels and both resets the arc and continues in the well known and detailed formula that has made the show so loved.

The formula is the detailed process...the show gives details along the way and like the Wire everything matters down the line and in the case of this episode Gus Laptop cause all sort of shit for Walt and co, and so when there is a problem Breaking Bad goes into the whole process of how it should be fixed and so Walt and Mike argue through every reason why anything but magnets will not work...they decide magnets and we spend 5 minutes going through the purchase of said magnet, the test of said magnet the need to get more magnets. All details are worked out so that when Mike asks the necessary questions after the deed is done we as Walt know that they will not be caught because everything was thought through.

Skyler White is the weakest link this show has ever had and she continues to be so. All her scenes really drag down any episode she is in to be honest and every time I saw her I was praying for the show to switch to Saul or Mike or Jesse or Walt or anyone else but her. Having Anna Gunn on this show proves that Vince Gilligan is not as smart as people think, I know that Gunn is second in the credits and was supposed to be more important than she actually turned out to be, but the man who is third is along with Cranston the best actor on the show and wisely has been the focal point of the series. Paul's Jesse was supposed to die in season 1 but did not and maybe Gilligan is smarter than I only a few sentences chastised him for not being. But she is just a terrible actress and a terrible character that the show has never been able to figure out and probably costs the show it's drama Emmy.

Ok enough with that rant...sorry. I enjoyed this premier a lot, although the show has a limited budget it did not over use characters that did not need to be overused we saw only one scene of Hank, two of Saul, one of Hank Jr and so on and so forth. The pacing was Breaking Bad at it's best and it sets up the season very well. Walt maybe Scarface but their is still some Walt left in him like the way he ignored Jesse when Jesse was coming up with the magnet idea or how he could not stop himself for going to far with the power switch or how even though Saul made the right call and the only way out of the predicament was to pay Beneke's tax bill...Walt is still being petty because Beneke banged his wife.

My mind is a little frazzled trying to do this so quickly after work and only a limited time to think and review the episode so I apologize for what I missed. This was a solid if not spectacular start to the season and the end of the series...things are only going to go even more bat shit crazy along the way and I cannot wait to see it.

Update

I saw on HGF's article that the author said that he did not think this show was as good as Lost and some other series. While I disagree about Lost I do agree that the show is slightly over hyped but it is all about opinion in the end and what people like.

If people like answers then Breaking Bad whips Losts ass [LOST answered virtually everything mind you --HGF], if people want unpredictability then Lost whips Breaking Bads ass [it does in every way possible --HGF], if people want....to each their own I suppose.

Episode Rating: 90 out of 100.
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Review - BREAKING BAD 5.01: 'Live Free or Die'

And so it has returned. The show all the Emmy voters automatically vote for as if it was ENTOURAGE, DEXTER, or DOWNTON ABBEY. Shows that once they become part of popular culture don't even need to be watched, or be of any measurable (or unmeasurable) quality to earn the highest praise.

In the case of BREAKING BAD the praise is at least still reasonable if not unbalanced by the hyperbole surrounding its perceived quality.

It is THE show of cool. Like the new STAR TREK or THE AVENGERS or what AVATAR was before it was suddenly no longer cool to have loved it (had AVENGERS made $800 million domestically, you could count on it suddenly becoming uncool to like it).

What I'm saying is that BREAKING BAD is good. It is sometimes really good. Even great a bunch of times a year. But it's not MAD MEN great. It's not THE WIRE awesome. It can't touch LOST or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA or DEADWOOD or ROME or GAME OF THRONES. I know hardcore fans of this show freak out anytime someone points this out because it is still "cool" to like it, and so suggesting otherwise may slowly contribute to wearing off that shine. But don't worry about it. The show is safe from criticism. In fact, I bet this will be the only "negative" review of the show.

However, this isn't a negative review. More of a general and personal observation about the hyperbole surrounding the show.

I think it needs to be said:

It has excellent performances.
Great dialogue.
Fleshed out characters.
Sometimes totally forced story lines.

That final point is what bothered me about this episode. The effort to use a super-magnet to wipe out the data from a computer that can ruin all their lives felt like it only worked because the script said it should. There wasn't much organic about those sequences. It's all just too... "cool." And then of course Walt's overinflated ego-trip causes an unintended result where the police suddenly find new evidence that will obviously lead them to him down the line.

Too cute. And I bet most of you loved the shit out of it.

Where the show continues to exceed is in demonstrating the deconstruction of a once decent human being in Walt, and how he drags anyone along with him.

Walt is the top dog now and in his mind he can do no wrong. Also, everyone exists to serve him now that he has bumped off the mighty Gus. All plans work because he has thought of them. No one tells him it is "over" until he says it is. And he "forgives" his wife for acting to protect their family without talking to him about it.

Walt is the hunter and everyone else is his food chain.

Walt is king.

Walt is god.

And everyone is either condemned or forgiven by him. Perhaps this episode should have been called "You Are All My Playthings." It is the kind of thing that makes the hairs stand on the back of your neck and why Bryan Cranston earns every Emmy award he will ever receive for his performance. Walt is terrifying because he doesn't have the logical level or self control that Gus had. Walt is a loaded and cocked shotgun with a hair-trigger. He is going to go off eventually. We just have to wait to see in whose direction he is pointed when it happens.

As for the rest of it, the episode opens up with one of those scene teases that this show can do due to shooting the season before airing (most shows shoot a few episodes before the season airs), so we get a glimpse into future Walt and to wonder about whatever his need for weaponry means down the line. We also learn it is his 52nd birthday, meaning two-years will have passed since the series started whenever we get to this point in the season (finale?).

I should also mention that I enjoyed the way the show handled the recap of last year's final episodes and delivered the exposition of what happened in-between, by having Walt Jr. break it down for his dad in child-like excitement. Writers wrestle with how to effectively handle exposition all the time and this was a smart way to do it.

Sadly, Jesse isn't the focus of this episode which may be part of why I wasn't overly impressed by it. He is my favorite character and any time he is used as surface I tend to feel a bit disconnected. After all, it is Jesse who is the heart and moral compass of the show. And one could argue that Aaron Paul is the best actor as well.

At least he came up with the magnet idea. Though King Walt probably forgot that already, thinking that it was his idea all along. Power!

If I had to rate this episode, and a secret message behind a photo the police would otherwise have missed says I do, then I'd give it:

85 out of 100

I don't get washed up in the hype. This wasn't close to one of the show's best. It was good with a lot of potential for what is to come.

But still insanely superior to that shitfest that is BURN NOTICE. Holy shit... I watched all of the new season episodes of that show this weekend. What a piece of melodramatic bullshit. OVERACTING MUCH?!

Just thinking about it is making me want to score this episode higher.

So... what did you think?

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Chris Hardwick's All-Star Celebrity Bowling Season Finale: Team Nerdist Vs. BREAKING BAD

The greatest show on YouTube saved arguably the best for last as Team Nerdist faced Team Breaking Bad. What happened? Who won? Who got kissed? And did someone spoil the series just to punish their opponent?! Find out below!



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