I think Breaking Bad is the greatest TV in decades. I stand by my previous statement though. If you can’t dissociate your squeamishness enough, then you just miss out.
It’s definitely awesome.
I hope it’s not a hijack to talk about something other than the grossness.
I’m watching the DVDs now, and I have to agree with Dopers who’ve argued that Hank should have been suspicious about Walt. Of course he sees Walt as a milquetoast but Hank’s no dummy. There’s the unusual purity of the meth, the use of methyl-whatever instead of pseudo, the equipment missing from Walt’s lab, Walt’s connection with Jesse, Walt asking for a ride-along to a meth bust, Walt’s shady behavior (the second cell phone and his disappearances), and that was just in the first season and a half.
Anyway, today I noticed that the sign on the lawyer’s office (where Jesse is evicted) is Pierce Wendell Gardiner Gardiner and Acevedo. I noticed because Wendell Pierce is Bunk from The Wire and Kirk Acevedo has been on several HBO projects. I don’t know who the Gardiner might be, but I was wondering if it was some kind of shout-out.
As if he read your post before clicking on the above one. I really do not understand the point of spoilers.
The OP asked a basic question, he obviously doesn’t want it ruined though, why tell him with spoilers?
I watched the first 33 episodes in just over 48 hours. Not kidding. Have now watched those same 33 episodes at least twice more each, not including watching while listening to the DVD whatchamacallits where they talk over the show, which normally I don’t listen to because they are usually pretty lame. But BB’s are not lame and often they are funny and fascinating.
Allow me to reiterate:
**The last one 4.13 is spoilerish enough that the OP should NOT read it. Its one of the best suprises on TV in the last few years.
Don’t read it OP! PLEASE!**
Yeah, I shoulda done it like that. But there is always the hope that the OP skims the thread before reading all the spoiler details.
The OP will be unspoiled if he takes note of the season/episode numbers preceding each spoiler in Tarwater’s thread and doesn’t open the boxes for episodes he hasn’t seen. And thanks for doing that! 
Darn it. I can’t seem to get my private message thingy to work. Could somebody send the OP a private message to not read the LAST spoiler?
Thats one hella a surprise and I’d hate to see it ruined for someone.
The OP will be unspoiled if he hasn’t actually seen the episode in question. There’s nothing, nothing specific about my ‘spoiler’ that doesn’t apply to a half a dozen people. It’s easy to say, that having seen the episode, “Oh, that’s a spoiler!” because the details in my ‘spoiler’ are familiar enough to evoke a memory of the scene. If he hasn’t seen the episode or the one preceding it, there’s literally no possible way that he could infer anything significant from my post.
And if you thought the incident was surprising, well, that’s a little strange. It was telegraphed heavily for the entire episode and for most of the episode preceding it.
EDIT: But if you really, really want to err on the side of caution, then by all means avoid the last spoiler, as well as the other ones before it.
Good news and bad news about the spoiler thing. I did read the last spoiler. 
However, I read it quickly and it didn’t mean much to me (all I’m recalling is bomb and no face) and I’m not tempted to go back and read it. Since the person isn’t named, I think I’ll be ok. The good news is that my memory is bad enough that by the time we get to that episode, I’ll have forgotten all about the spoiler.
We watched another episode last night and man, it really is good. In addition to the main story, the humor is excellent, and I don’t know if it’s rightly called cinematography when it’s on TV, but they have some wonderful shots.
Thanks again for all the advice.
I agree about the photography. The show has amazing shots of Albuquerque and the desert terrain. (Not sure how it looks in standard def, but in HD it looks great.)
Yeah, the cinematography is top drawer. That’s why I consider BB the Greatest Television Show in the History of the Universe: every single thing about rocks, not simply the writing or acting. All of it, across the board.
I disagree with that and I’d bet I ain’t the only one, but I am not going to discuss why here because I don’t want to risk giving anymore away to the OP. But I do think most of your other spoilers were plenty vague enough.
Agreed…what other show does shots from the POV of the shovel the character is carrying? And you know what? It was awesome! Only a few seconds, but it was just so cool and perfect for the scene at the time.
Too late. I didn’t notice that the numbers were seasons and episodes. I’ve only seen through season 3.
This is the OP checking back in. We just finished season two and we’re loving it! Thanks for helping talk my wife into it!
Glad you stuck with it. Although I love gore when it makes sense and isn’t just gratuitous. Anytime it happens in BB, it’s not so much to shock the audience, but to bring the gruesome reality of exactly what Walter and Jesse got themselves into.
Both seasons 3 and 4 were stellar as well. Can’t wait for the final season. The Greatest Show in the History of Television indeed!
I’m reserving judgment on the “greatest” title but it’s a great one.
I agree totally about the violence underscoring the magnitude of how much they’re in over their heads.
I too have been catching up on Breaking Bad…my wife and I have now watched the first 3 seasons on DVD and are waiting for the 4th season to come out (next month). My wife isn’t into the gorier parts of the show, but she realizes that the plot and the acting are undeniably superior than the regular network dramas, that she too will sit through those scenes with her mouth agape, because she so hooked on it and doesn’t want to miss anything regarding plot.
Even though I do have an idea of what happens in the 4th season, I will still enjoy every minute of it…so much so…I’ve been looking on youtube for other memorable scenes and I came across a video that really could pass as a trailer for the final season (SPOILER: it has scenes from seasons 1 through 4), plus the entire song from the scene where Walt is at the parking lot of the home improvement store:
That was awesome, Yeticus Rex.
There’s also someone choking to death on their own puke. In close-up. somewhere down the road.