For all the awe thrown Bryan Cranston/Walt’s way, I think Jesse’s by far the more interesting and believable character.
I don’t think it’s a matter of limited options as much as that the amount of money that keeps luring him back in is irresistible. He could have left and done something legit many times, but the pile of cash just keeps getting bigger.
Jesse is your garden variety tweaker. He was the guy in high school who put some of his pot seeds in soil in the back of his closet, but tossed them because he couldn’t get them to do more then sprout, but wasn’t all that broken up about it. He would have been perfectly happy to go thorugh life, dime by dime bag bouncing from one part time job to the next.
It wasn’t until he saw a few thousand, then ten thousand, then 440,000 in duffel bag along with Jane that his pot seeds in the back of the closet dream really came true.
Unlike Walt, Jesse can always walk away. He doesn’t have his pride wrapped up in all this. Jesse is fully aware of how much money he’s sitting on.
Walter is like a father to Jesse.
An abusive, manipulative, self-righteous and evil father. 
One of the main points in the series is - will Walter succeed in transforming Jesse into his own image? Will Jesse turn on Walter - and in so doing, complete his transformation into Walter’s spiritual “son”? Or will Jesse manage to save himself from complete moral corruption?
While gritty realistic portrayals of people’s lives going down the toilet aren’t my usual entertainment, I can certainly see it being compelling, especially when well-acted. Bryan Cranston IS a lot of fun to watch. And I found Jesse’s family very engaging. The way they revealed that his poor brother is probably over-achieving because of the underlying idea that you can get kicked out of the family, and can’t deal with the stress. Very affecting.
I can also see Skylar having married Walt because he’s so passive and she’s a control freak, and how that will play out will certainly be intriguing!
The problem, of course, is that Jesse isn’t smart enough to become Walter. Part of Walter’s obsessive evilness is his thought that he can’t be outsmarted. Jesse is neither smart enough or ruthless enough to take up the helm. Jesse is trapped by the money and the fact that he can’t really do it on his own now. he’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.
I’m confused by the people in the thread talking about Walt’s decision in Grey Matter as being one of the inexplicable/bad story moments you just have to put up with. It may not be completely apparent to the viewer at the time, but it’s entirely consistent with the character and theme of the show. There’s nothing hard to believe or far fetched about Walt’s actions in that episode, and in fact they are necesary for the very core of that character.
Otherwise, pretty much has been answered. Walter White is certainly not presented as a hero, although there’s still enough moments of badassery (mixed with moments of non-badassery) that causes a small portion of the viewer base to treat him as a hero, which is interesting to me. I have to admit I get a bit of a vicarious thrill at things like “say my name”.
So, yes, watch it. Don’t think that the show is attempting to feed you any particular message, like that Walter White is supposed to be a sympathetic hero. Just watch it as it unfolds and judge for yourself. There’s just no one that shouldn’t watch this show - whether you find it too distasteful or unsympathetic - because it’s so far ahead of everything else on television or movies that it’s worth it despite any distaste you might have for those sorts of aspects.
I would also suggest you stop reading the thread. There’ve been no blatant spoilers but the way people are talking about the way the characters develop may color or taint your viewing experience.
Probably not. If the series doesn’t interest you at this point, then you probably won’t enjoy the following seasons. Though if you stop now, you will miss out on some great characters, most notably: Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and Gale Boetticher (David Costabile). Those four are worth the price of admission alone.
Regarding Elliott’s offer, it should be noted that Walter’s motivation was never to merely pay for his treatment nor even to fight the cancer at all. It was providing for his family once he’s gone. Noble, at least in his mind and at that time. (Motivations change, as revealed in a spoiler below.) He felt that spending money on cancer treatment was a waste of money if it only buys him a couple of years. What good is a couple of years to a man with a pregnant wife? So he reluctantly goes into treatment but he’s still focused on the nest egg, something that Elliott’s offer wasn’t likely to provide. The very first episode of Season 2 illustrates this explicitly:
[spoiler]After a deal with Tuco in the junkyard turns violent, Walt and Jesse are left shaken, pondering the danger of their situation:
“Adjusting for inflation… Good state college, adjusting for inflation… …say, $45,000 a year. Two kids, four years of college, $360,000. Remaining mortgage on the home, 107,000. Home equity line, 30,000. That’s 137,000. Cost of living, food, clothing, utilities… …say, 2 grand a month. I mean, that should put a dent in it, anyway. Twenty-four K a year, provide for, say, ten years. That’s $240,000. Plus 360, plus 137. Seven thirty-seven. Seven hundred and thirty-seven thousand. That’s what I need. That is what I need. You and I both clear about 70 grand a week. That’s only 10 and half more weeks. Call it 11. Eleven more drug deals, and always in a public place from now on. It’s doable. Definitely doable.”[/spoiler]
We also learn more in later seasons some of the back story between Walt, Gretchen, Elliot and Gray Matter and why Walt didn’t want their charity. From the sixth episode of season 5:
Jesse, have you heard of a company called “Gray Matter”? I co-founded it in grad school with a couple of friends of mine. Actually, I was the one who named it. And back then, it was just-- Oh, it was just small-time. We had a couple patents pending. But nothing earth-shattering. ‘Course, we all knew the potential. Yeah. We were gonna take the world by storm. And then… This, uh-- Well, something happened between the three of us. And I’m not gonna go into detail. But for personal reasons, I decided to leave the company. And I sold my share to my two partners. I took a buyout for $5,000. Now, at the time, that was a lot of money for me. Care to guess what that company is worth now? Billions, with a “B.” $2.16 Billion as of last Friday. I look it up every week. And I sold my share, my potential, for $5,000. I sold my kids’ birthright for a few months’ rent. This isn’t the same thing. Jesse, you asked me if I was in the meth business or the money business. Neither. I’m in the empire business.
And of course, the major spoiler from the very end of the last episode aired:
BB has in it a lot of DNA from Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Remember, Bogart’s character will be completely satisfied with X amount of gold, then a multiple of that, then many times that, then is clearly past being satisfied with any amount of gold until he sails off the edge of sanity.
I gave up on it after 3 seasons for different reasons. I just thought it was getting waaaay to stupid, like a live-action episode of SuperJail!
My wife is still watching it, and after season 4 she says to me, “You would have hated it”.
I’d say at least stick it out to at least a few episodes into season 2, If you still aren’t hooked maybe its not for you, but this series builds as it goes through the seasons so I’d say you will start to enjoy each season more the deeper you get.
Keep watching for the sake of the other characters. You won’t be sorry.
For me I have to say I saw only the first two seasons. Can anyone tell me if they liked the other seasons better ? I really want to know before I start to catch up.
Did you like the first two seasons? Do you want to find out what happens to Skylar, the kids, Jesse, and/or Hank? Do you need to know if Walt gets one or all of the them killed? If not, then no, don’t bother. I’ll let you know what happened next Fall.
We can’t really tell you if it’s worth sticking with because we haven’t seen the end. They could ruin the whole series with some stupid ending. But considering the ride we’ve been given, even the stupidest ending isn’t likely to do that. So keep going, stop before you watch the second half of the last season upcoming (or maybe it’s just the last season), and wait for us to tell you if it’s worth watching that, and then watch it anyway because like the rest of us you’ll want to see it no matter how it turns out.
Update! I had horrible insomnia last night. So I watched through 2.3, “Bit by a Dead Bee.” It’s definitely entertaining to watch with my adjusted perspective. If I kept trying to sympathize with Walt too much it would have been frustrating as hell, but the info from you guys helped a lot. I’m actually really starting to like Hank, who at first came off as a boor. I see what people are saying about Jesse - watching him become much more educated and mature, especially compared with that idiot friend. But also how tragic it is that he absorbs Walt’s teaching only about criminal activities.
I think my favorite thing is that most of the time, the characters do reasonably sensible things given their situation. Walt uses his brain. There’s rarely a time when the writers rely on Idiot Plotting to sustain drama. When someone does something dumb/naive, it’s not contrived, and is used to good effect, like It’s a barrel, dummy - it rolls!
I don’t know, I’ll probably continue to watch it on Netflix, so there’s a built in delay. Then if it goes totally off the rails, I can dump it. Lord knows I wish I’d done that with Lost!
Thanks for the help, y’all!
One of the pleasant surprises for me on this show was how Hank, who starts out as an over-the-top cardboard cutout of a character, actually develops more and more real depth. He is another strong reason to watch the show - Dean Norris doesn’t get the same sort of accolades as Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston, but he really has done a fine job with this role.
I’ll put it this way, without any spoilers - the creators of this series were very good at keeping it up. It never becomes stupid or goes off the rails (at least, not so far) and it never looks like they “wrote themselves into a corner” if you know what I mean - indeed, the whole series appears at least to have been carefully plotted, so that things in one episode are actually significant in others down the line.
I love, love, love how funny the show is. Dark humor, often, but so funny.
The dynamic between Jesse and Walt is the hook in this series. I see that it is firmly set now.
I’m at the same point as the op is, just starting season two. I get Walt. Faced with death and dealing with a lifetime of resentment. Fed up with jerks and those he knows he is as smart or smarter than winning all the time. Tired of playing fair and being the nice guy with nothing to show for it. Not wanting to show weakness to anybody ever. Not wanting to get help from anyone ever. Pissed.
Hank seems like my MIL’s partner. Well intended albeit in many ways not so smart … but turns out not to be so dumb, just goofy.
I am looking forward to the rest of the series. Hate Jesse’s little brother for throwing Jesse under the bus.
My biggest problem is the fact that my eldest son told me that first season Walt reminded him of me … not sure what to make of that!
