Right – I’m explaining why so many fans hated her. If these were real people we actually knew, 99% would think she was the hero and hate Walt.
I remember seeing the hate for Skyler at the time the show was running and wondering about it. The situation she’s faced with is just so far beyond the pale that it seems to me you’d have to cut her a considerable amount of slack. I’m not going to point to her as a role model for young girls to aspire to, but still.
As I press on some of these comments, I understand the risk of introducing the spoilers that I didn’t want. That said, in just the context of Season One, I can’t figure out why someone would say this. Sure, she’s not Marie Curie, but I don’t see any major flaws, and a whole lot of care, calm, and “family and husband first”. Makes me worried that I missed something.
Well, there is her relationship with Ted. It’s never spelled out, but surely you picked up that there’s a lot more than a professional acquaintance there. Right?
That first thing I said was simply based on remembering my own reactions to the show and to stuff I saw posted online. I recall the major story beats throughout the series, but before commenting on Skyler’s character in greater depth, I’d want to go back and do a rewatch to refresh my memory.
I’m willing to say, though, that if you’re keeping score by comparing her shit with Walt’s shit, overall, she comes out at the end looking better than he does.
I think you’re going to end up with spoilers if you press much on this. For most of us who finished the show, we probably don’t really remember specifically what happened in S2 versus S1 and what our view of Skylar was only the after the first season. Someone is going to inadvertently mention something from S2 or later.
Personally, I remember not liking her much in the early part of the show (S1, S2, maybe S3), but she grew on me as it went on. And my dislike was probably based on what Akaj says - I wanted Walt to be a bad-ass, and she was too calm and caring. In other words, strictly a story-line dislike because I wanted bad characters.
Wouldn’t a reasonably well educated and intelligent chemist be able to look it up in the open literature, and then figure out via legitimate reference materials (Merck index, etc…) how to make it, or what the
difference is between it and something in the reference materials?
That’s what I always assumed Walt did- looked up crystal meth (or maybe just methamphetamine), and figured out what reactions, processes and precursors made it, and made that work.
For a while before and just after the Controlled Substances Act, many of those ephedrine and caffeine pills were also bought by unscrupulous citizens who sold them to the ignorant or unwary as genuine pharmaceutical uppers. They came in various forms that closely resembled real amphetamine tablets and capsules (unless the buyer owned a copy of the Physician’s Desk Reference to check them against) , and High Times actually ran full color ads for the nasty things until readers appealed to the editors’ conscience, saying they were mainly good for ripping people off with. There were also candy Quaaludes that looked just like the real McCoy, sold as fun party favors but likewise used mostly to scam would-be pill poppers out of their money.
Some of those though packed a wallop. Before there were controls on caffeine content there was a pill that had over 700mg of caffeine in it. Below that there were .357 magnums with that many milligrams in them and they were shaped like a bullet.
For a very brief time in the 70’s some company was selling purple footballs that had both a high dose of caffeine and a sleep aid in it. I tried some in high school. That was one helluva fucked up ride, let me tell you.
Getting real prescription amphetamines wasn’t all that difficult in the early to mid 70’s. Doctors were handing them out as diet pills and people that got them were selling them.
Where the problem came in is when someone who was popping high dose caffeine thinking it was real speed then took a lot of real speed not knowing it wasn’t the same as they were used to.
Not in Season 1, and not prior to then, either. The backstory revealed in later seasons is that years ago, when she worked for him, they were both married but there was some mutual attraction. However, he hit on her while drunk at an office party, and she not only turned him down, it’s implied that was the reason she left her job. She chose to remain faithful, when Ted was willing to cheat.
Now, in later years, after her husband repeatedly lies to her, puts her and their children in danger, and bullies her into staying with him and keeping his secrets under the threat of blowing up their son’s life, yeah, she sleeps with Ted, and tells Walt about it. If you think that was about her attraction to Ted, you missed a lot.
Nope. Power of the protagonist plus an unhealthy dose of sexism. The actress who played Skyler probably said it better than anyone (no spoilers if you’ve already seen season 1 or even just know what the show is about): https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/opinion/i-have-a-character-issue.html
I noticed Breaking Bad borrowed heavily from the old moonshine stories.
Walt was a trained chemist and had a reputation for making extremely high grade meth. The method and equipment produced a highly regarded product in comparison to shake & bake methods used by addicts.
There were moonshiners with similar reputations. They used old recipes passed down within the family. Or maybe great grandpa had worked at a commercial distillery and learned to make spirits. Their stills were made with copper lined kettles and other equipment. There was a significant investment in the still.
There was also comparable violence. The moonshiners would boobytrap the woods near a still. People got shot. It was extreme at the time.
Watch some YouTube videos about home distillation. A nice setup is beautiful and quite expensive (think 10k).
ETA: as much as I disliked Skyler, I also hated Wendy in Ozark.
Making Smooth Sipping whiskey is art. 
It’s odd to think of drugs that way. But Walt supposedly made exceptionally high grade.
Yes, you’re right – thanks for the correction.
What would that be, “sniffing meth”?
In S1, Skyler was kind of demanding and somewhat demeaning to Walt; making him eat TurBacon on his birthday (The Big 5-0!) for “health reasons” (if one serving of real bacon on one day poses a significant health risk, then Dear God in Heaven, take me NOW!). Walt was portrayed as a mild-mannered schlub, and I know I felt sympathy for him, and antipathy for Skyler.
Note: I never hate on an actor or actress for the role(s) they play, so I was disgusted with the hate being thrown at Anna Gunn for her portrayal as Skyler White.
As Walt progressively changed with each passing season, Skyler became a LOT more sympathetic.
I think this “switcheroo” was deliberate on the part of Vince Gilligan and the writers.
Even aside from any pharmaceutical considerations, that must have been one big-ass pill, to have 700 mg of anything, plus whatever binders and other inactive ingredients it had.
Trucker slang for amphetamine or maybe the high caffeine pills from the 1970’s? Truckers back then were notorious for driving extremely long hours. They can’t get away with it anymore. Trucks are tracked by GPS. Dispatch knows how long its been since a rest stop.
Jim Croce, Speedball Tucker
I remember it being big but not horse pill big. I don’t remember the exact name of that one but I believe a company named Vivalife (or something like that) made it. This was well over 40+ years ago.
“West coast turn-arounds” definitely referred to pharmaceutical uppers back in the day. Part of the fun of hitching rides with semi drivers way back when was that they usually had real speed, and if they liked you, they might offer you a pill or three. So you’d get all gabby and keep them even more wide-awake and less bored during a long-ass ride.