Well, after finishing Season 2 last night, here are my thoughts:
I standby on my statement that Skylar must be a saint. Walter is probably the most despicable human on the show. I get it, sometimes people that are faced with looming death feel empowered, become nihilists, etc., but there are no excuses for Walter’s actions and he is a psychopath of the highest order. I also felt the ongoing foreshadowing of the teddy bear in the pool the entire season was a waste. The story of the aircraft controller father was pointless, and the biggest disappointment of the show so far. But still a great show. I can see it landing on my all-time Top 5 list.
Regarding the second season, did you pick up on the clues in the episode titles? Episode 1 was “Seven Thirty-Seven”, episode 4 was “Down”, Episode 10 was “Over” and episode 20 was “ABQ”. Or, Seven Thirty-Seven Down Over ABQ.
I’d say a lot of people thought that when it first aired because a whole season of build up turned out to be a bit of a fakeout, plus it focused more on the father. But without getting too spoilery, I think you’ll appreciate that storyline more as the series goes on.
“Fly” was produced as a result of the series’ considerable budgetary restrictions and being unable to afford the $25,000–$35,000 needed to move the production trucks to a new location. Series creator Vince Gilligan remarked: "We were hopelessly over budget … And we needed to come up with what is called a bottle episode, set in one location.
Oddly enough, “The Fly” was the only Breaking Bad episode I’ve ever seen – my brother is a huge fan of the series. I loved the episode, but never got around to watching the rest of the series.
It’s been about a decade since I’ve seen it, but I remember it being tense, claustrophobic, psychological, a bit abstract, and well-shot. It was very much a mood piece for me, and it worked as a stand-alone episode with no knowledge (or very little beyond the basics) of Breaking Bad beyond that episode. Then again, I love stuff like 2001:A Space Odyssey and Waiting for Godot, so the slow, moody pacing worked for me.
I remember feeling a little faked-out by the big reveal at the end of S2 of what all those black-and-white previews were; it felt like they were foreshadowing something much more dire and immediate to the White family. But I eventually came to see it as showing the distant and enormous ripple effects of Walt’s choices. It’s not just the people he directly interacts with who suffer. It’s the entire city, and many beyond its limits too.
My grandfather called them “bennies”. He’s the last person you would see as a “druggie”, but he’d absolutely pop some bennies and head out to California to swap a load of pecans for a load of tomatoes. I rode along once or twice, but no bennies for me (with little experience driving a rig, and not old enough to drive legally anyhow).
Right… it’s difficult for them to portray the large-scale impact of drugs on society, so I think they chose that event to serve as sort of a lurid, dramatized stand-in.
Going back to the original post, I actually participated in a couple of cooks back in the 90’s, but I was not the chef (Yes, I was the Jesse). I don’t recall everything, but watching the show brought back memories. The hardest ingredient to get was the pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) as it was becoming a controlled substance. Smurfs would purchase two boxes at a time to avoid excessive scrutiny. Next hardest ingredient was anhydrous ammonia, but it was easy for a farmer to purchase it. The red phosphorus was obtained by cutting the heads off of safety matches and the Prestone starter fluid and lithium batteries were easily purchased. We used a three chamber technique and the process put out some god-awful fumes. Farmhouses were good cook sites, especially abandoned ones.
I’m glad to say that I gave up all criminal activity decades ago and hardly made any money from it. The experience was exciting and more dangerous than I realized at the time. I’ve seen the devastation that meth inflicts on a community and regret having ever been part of the crisis.
Yeah, these days, they have much simpler methods for a quick fix – the “shake and bake” method – that only requires a soda bottle and easier to source products. I only know about it as a friend of mine is a chem grad student and a recovering meth user, and I just got curious and asked him questions about the process of making meth. (While he has made it – using the old school methods – he just preferred buying and smoking it–less hassle.)
Agreed. The last cook I was going to be a part of went south. We were going to try a new at the time “no cook” method using sandbags. Unfortunately, while purchasing the equipment for the set-up, a hardware store employee informed the police when they saw our purchases. We were stopped soon after leaving the store. Luckily, none of us were carrying more than two parts or ingredients, so they were unable to charge any of us for paraphernalia. They did, however, check all of our identifications before releasing us. When we got home, everyone threw away the items and I don’t think any of us took part in a cook for at least six months. Two of the people I was with were imprisoned in the next 5 years.
I thought a minor plot point in the show was that the red phosphorus came from the striker strips, not the match heads. Did they get that wrong, or were you maybe using strike-anywhere matches?