Breaking Bad “Gliding Over All” Review

 

Wait you said this was how much money?

Full spoilers below!!

Well that was amazing.

“Gliding Over All” was a great ending to the sometimes uneven eight episode arc of television’s best current show; it proved to be not only a fantastic ending to this summer’s set of episodes, but as well managed to be the perfect bridge to the final eight episodes. We have spent the entirety of the first half of this season watching Walt build up the empire he has wanted since the first episode of the show and with this episode we take the first large step to it all come crashing down upon him.

Let’s start with the ending of this one and gradually move backwards. Since the beginning of the show viewers of Breaking Bad have always wondered when and how Walt’s DEA brother in law Hank was going to find out that Walt has been the meth lord that he has been hunting all this time. Well that was all broken open this week as Hank looked through Walt’s Walter Whitman poetry book while on the toilet only to find a note from Gale Beneke that said how much he loved working with Walt. Cue Flashback to the awkward “you got me” joke from last season and all of a sudden Walt’s empire he has built and then safely gotten out of (more on that in a sec) is about to get him in the worst possible way. Great scene that was a fantastic cliff hanger to keep fans on their toes.

This scene comes after a fantastic episode that, if it weren’t for that final scene, could have almost been a series finale. Walt has rid of Mike and is now in control of his own destiny, that means it’s empire building time. We begin the episode with clean up time; first we get Walt getting the names of Mike’s men from Lidia (who for the first time this season seems to hold her own) who also manages to give Walt contacts in the Check Republic to sell his meth too. Empire building folks! Cue an amazing Godfather esque montage of Walt’s shady prison guys shanking (with lots and lots of stabs) all of the prior contacts to the music of Nat King Cole (“Pick Yourself Up” was the song) and Walt’s pretty much in the clear. Then finally we get the three months worth of meth making montage (which by the way is the single greatest montage the show has ever done by far. Oh and the song was “Crystal Blue Persuasion”) featuring things actually going right for Walt and Todd. Big piles of money are amassed and Walt’s finally able to say “I’m out”.

The other reason it felt so much like a series finale is because it had so many great call backs to the series past. The fly distracting Walt early on in the episode reminiscent of the entire bottle episode of season three “Fly”, Lidia saying that “We’re going to make a lot of money together” almost in the way Tuco said at the end of season one, the painting in the motel that was identical to the one Walt saw in the hospital, and the infamous paper towel dispenser that Walt punched the crap out of near the end of season two (which after all this time they still haven’t fixed).  It even brought back the great pool conversations of old between Walt, Skyler, Hank, Marie, and the kids that could have been an ironic series ender if the show would let Walt have his way.

Then Hank had to go to the bathroom and ruin everything.

Some extended other thoughts:

• This episode saw the return of director Michelle Maclaren who directed, up until this episode, the most strikingly beautiful episode of the show ever “4 Days Out”. She also directed the greatest single episode of the show ever season three’s “One Minute” which had the amazingly shot final “Hank vs the Cousins” scene. Visually “Gliding Over All” has both of them topped as this episode was an absolute stunner; from the pool shot at the end to the montages (more on those in a second) this episode was an absolute joy to look at from beginning to finish.

• Aaron Paul hasn’t had much to do throughout the last eight episodes, but what he had here was fantastic. The great opening when he feals betrayed and lost when Walt tells him he has no say in the business anymore to the great scene near the end when he thinks Walt’s there to kill him when he’s really there to pay him off.

• My goodness the montages! I was ready to triumphantly declare the brutal “Pick Yourself Up” montage the greatest the show has ever done (can’t go wrong with brutal violence to a happy song) but then there was the absolute triumph that was the “Crystal Blue Persuasion” montage. Shots bleeding into each other, great wide shots, bright wide open vibe, and the final shot of the different houses covered and used for meth making was fantastic.

• That last scene at the pool was so tense. Too much happy to be Breaking Bad that’s for sure! I think everyone watching the show knew something was going to go horribly wrong. Although it would have been funny had Gilligan had paid homage to the Sopranos by just fading to black at the end.

• Dean Norris and Brian Cranston shared that amazing scene mid episode in which Hank reminisces of simpler days. It’s always tense to watch two characters who both somewhere in the back of their heads know who they’re dealing with just talk about each other.

• Why hasn’t AMC had a guess the money in the storage department contest yet? Seriously people would be all over that! Also that would be a great auction item….

Some extra thoughts on the eight episodes as a whole:

• Let’s start at the first episode’s opening scene; I didn’t really comment on the scene in my review of the first episode because I wanted to save it until the end of this season. We still have a long way to go time wise (even with the three month jump) until Walt will have a fake ID and a machine gun and the big question for me is where does Vince Gilligan and the writing staff going to start the second half. Save for the montage at the end of the midseason finale we never get anywhere quickly time wise on this show so it shall be interesting to see how the jump is made.

• Speaking of the opening scene, people have complained that the scene gave way too much away way too early. We all know that scene is almost guaranteed to not be what we think it is right?

• I love this show and still think it’s the best show currently on television (but only a scratch ahead of Mad Men) but I do have some minor quibbles with this eight episode arc. At times (most notably the jumpy Buyout) the show seemed like it needed some more time to develop the arcs across more time/episodes. Also there were some plot logic issues here and there but overall as an eight episode arc of my favorite current show it worked really well.

• The season also managed to have some brilliant episodes as usual including this episode, “Dead Freight”, and “Fifty one” which were three of my favorite episodes of the series all for many different reasons.

Time to ask the biggest question of all: WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT??!!!

Well we have one more year to debate before the final eight

 Can Vince Gilligan and staff stick the landing?

That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?

The Newsroom: “The Greater Fool” Review

Will walks out for the season on The Newsroom

A season finale of a show usually serves to not only wrap up the season and its themes, but also to represent what the season has been, the ways it has waxed and waned and where the series will be going. For example the season finale of this year’s season of Mad Men was frustrating because it represented the biggest problems that the season had throughout its run (being too obvious with the themes it tried to convey mostly) while not representing all the amazing things that the season, and the series in general does. In other words it didn’t do an adequate job of showing us what the show does well at the end of the season leaving many people with a more negative view of the season.

In many ways the finale of the Aaron Sorkin drama “The Newsroom” is a perfect representation of the first season. Why? Because it’s an absolute mess from beginning to end, and the same thing is true for the rest of this season. It fumbles into the same traps that the rest of the season managed to stumble into, whether it be poor romantic comedy, terrible female characters, and ultimate Will McAvoy worship. It worked in some ways, namely the dialogue and reporting of the news, but ultimately it fell into frustrating mess territory, the same territory that unfortunately the series has been wallowing in all season.

Anyways on with “The Greater Fool” which, as previously mentioned, was a mess of an episode that wrapped up a mess of a season. On the positive side though the episode kept up the Sorkin tradition of great dialogue (something that I need to pay respect to despite all of the horrible problems the series has) and while it’s frustrating it manages to be good fun throughout. It also, again despite the many problems manages to have some satisfying moments (the great reaction from Charlie when he finds out about Hancok’s suicide and the execution of many scenes, despite their issues) that keep me semi invested in the series and its characters.

Now onto the problems, first off why would the girl that got verbally beet down by Will in the “Mad as Hell” rant at the beginning of the season all of a sudden want to be the new intern of News Night? Because Will is the greatest man on earth and his cause is the most noble and amazing thing ever, that’s why! Wow was that ever stupid, seriously! Well the series has had a knack of making Will the greatest man in the world according to his peers this just takes the cake. While Sorkin tries to redeem the scene with a cool speech by Will it just ends up falling flat on its face because of the sheer stupidity of it all. The scene is also frustrating in the way that again a male character is amazing and all females should follow his lead and hope that they can learn valuable lessons from him. So frustrating!

Then there is Maggie, poor, stupid, infuriating Maggie who this week got the wonderful job of parodying a Sex in the City character for no reason at all. I mean common! While we know Sex and the City isn’t by any means an accurate representation of the average working woman, we also don’t need the Newsroom, an equally inaccurate and naïve show, to tell us this. On top of this we have to sit through the excruciating romantic comedy that continues to be very painful. Speaking of that, all of a sudden Sloan has a crush on Don. What?!!!! Why?!!! Sloan is a character that I have liked and now they are going to put her into the terrible romantic comedy plot… Goodness…

We then move on to the TMI subplot that, worked at times, but at others it was a complete mess. Will, Mac and Charlie did do a great bluff to get our wonderful executive to admit to phone hacking to his mother and owner of the station (again Joan Rivers is great here). The sequence was well executed save for the fact that the characters are continuously naïve in regards to gossip columnists in general. So, mixed bag indeed.

“The Greater Fool” was a mess, plain and simple. It was frustrating, at times awful, and constantly naïve to a point of complete annoyance. Despite that the Newsroom still has great dialogue and some fine moments that, despite my many frustrations, will keep me watching when it comes back next summer. Because even if it still has very frustrating moments they’re like a train wreck, it’s hard not to watch it.

That’s just me. What did everyone else think?

Breaking Bad: “Say My Name” Review

Walt prepares for a stand off in Breaking Bad

Beware of big spoilers below for the entire episode!!

“Shut the F**k up and let me die in peace”

Breaking Bad season 5 has explored many different aspects of Walter White’s ever growing power serge and constant goes at being top dog. “Say My Name” one of the best episodes this season focused on loneliness. Walt is practically the lone wolf in his story now with his wife Skyler scared for her life, Jessie seeing through his lies and abandoning ship, and the fact that Walt killed Mike. Walt is pretty much alone now and on his slow and steady decline, as the series continues to go into more and more interesting places.

Let’s start with Mike. First off I’m sad to see Jonathan Banks, yet another fantastic supporting figure on this show, being eliminated from the show. His work will be missed, a lot. Second of all what a way to go; Mike’s death was an absolutely beautiful sequence that highlighted the best aspects of the show. The exchange between Banks and Cranston was fantastically acted, gorgeously shot and gut wrenchingly tense. It was an interesting sequence indeed, and one of the shows best emotional death sequences. Mike is constantly calm to the grave and it’s Walt who truly cracks in the end, as he apologizes for his mistake and goes more into shaky old Walt mode rather than cocky Heisenberg mode. It’s truly a fantastic sequence that is one of those sequences that outlines in great detail why Breaking Bad is currently the best show on television.

Gushing aside, let’s head to the third part of the sequence that I would like to talk about and that is the big potential leap in logic that lead up to the scene. Out of all the possibilities in the world (including Jessie who could have gone in and out the same way Walter did) why the heck would Mike let Walt go and get the bag? Saul wasn’t budging which seems fine to me (this is where the A team needed to make another magic appearance), but Mike was so protective of Jessie in that sequence it seemed silly. Why get the guy who doesn’t like you and has reason to kill you to get the bad that will lead you to potential safety. It all depends if one interoperates the scene as a viable character move or a plot skip step that was used to get from point A to point B. The situation is much like the Joan sequence from this season’s Mad Men episode “The Other Woman”  where Joan gives herself to the Jaguar boss for a night in order to potentially get the account; you either by it or you don’t, plain and simple. I bought the Mad Men jump because it felt like it fit the situation, I’m not so sure on this one as I think it was a quick writer’s loophole to try to make the step of killing Mike, but it was well disguised enough and was executed well enough that I didn’t care. Things may be different later on but for now it was executed well enough that I bought it just enough to be satisfied.

Back to the greatness of the rest of this fine episode… The show again nailed the opening sequence with a great stand off for the ages. No guns, no force, just two guys and a lot of great dialogue. Greatness as usual from the almighty Brian Cranston who’s Walt oozed total confidence and control. This ladies and gentlemen is how a standoff should go down. Two guys, a lot of money on the line, and a lot of threats made for one fantastic standoff that’s for sure. Best of all it climaxed with the fine line of,

“Say my name”

“Heisenberg”

“You’re Goddamn right.”

So great, so very, very, great.

Let’s finish with Walt and Jessie’s great fight midway through the episodes. Jessie, after all this time, has finally caught up to Walt’s ways of lying and manipulating and won’t get sucked back in by it. Jessie is out, done and done, and there probably may potentially never be a way that he may come back to it (but probably, before the season is done, he might). It was another great scene of just two characters having a verbal battle to the max, and it was fantastic.

So where does this lead us? Walt is now alone with next to no one on his side anymore (save maybe Todd); his kids are out of the house, his wife wants completely out of his life emotionally and his meth partner (and surrogate son of sorts) is fed up with the lies he’s been spewing. Oh and Mike’s dead because of his confusion, recklessness and overall incompetence. All that’s left is the new operation and knowing the show it’s all downhill from here.

Other things:

• Hank’s interesting hunch to follow the wired lawyer was a great hunch (completely coincidental or not) and finally worked something out for the now in a little bit of deep water Hank (to attached to the case of course)

• Fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on you, Hank should feel ashamed for letting Walt use the same trick on him again, this time to get the bugs away this time. Fake crying always works I guess.

• A world without Coca Cola would be a lot more Pepsi dominated I guess

That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?

The Newsroom: “The Blackout” Part 1 and 2 review

Maggie and Lisa looking defeated in The Newsroom

Brief note, I was going to do a recap of the three episodes before these episodes as well, but the season finale is next week and I will be doing a season review afterwards so I thought that would be redundant. I thought two of the first episode of the three was bad and the other two were quite good. This review from this point in will solely contain very brief reviews of the two part storyline called “The Blackout”. So here goes…

So after a bit of a role “The Newsroom” presented us with the “The Blackout” an interesting set of episodes because they were close to polar opposites quality wise. The first part continued the streak of goodness and was the best episode since the pilot while part 2 was a mess featuring all of what Aaron Sorkin and this series does worse, providing one frustrating hour of television. Overall there is a mixed feeling going into the finale that can either go so right or very, very wrong.

Let’s start with the good; “The Blackout part 1” was one of the best Newsroom episodes this season, perhaps the best since the pilot. It was well paced, presenting non preachy political commentary, eliminated the clumsy romantic comedy, and didn’t make the female characters do dumb and inferior. Mac was in control the entire episode as she attempted to keep with the path as Will and Charlie wanted to cover dumb stories, those being Casey Anthony and Anthony Weiner, for the sake of ratings. Meanwhile Will was being a jerk, and finally acknowledged for being a jerk, because he got the person Mac cheated on him with to write the story about their new style of news. Soon, right as the crew was pre tapping a stupid Weiner interview, the power goes out, setting up part 2…

Part 2 was an atrocious mess of an episode of which most of the episode fell completely flat. Mac went from seeming really right to downright crazy as she, at least a couple of times, broke down into insane shouting sessions. Will was back to being the greatest guy on earth according to the show as he again was a jerk with no real consequence. Then there were the romantic comedy portions that were just downright cringe worthy and absolutely awful. Case and point I like Jim, but at this point why must Sorkin drag on the whole stupid love square (Jim, Don, Maggie, Lisa) any longer. I even liked the Jim and Lisa exchange from a few weeks ago (good short and actually kind of sweet) but man do we need to get pelted in the face by Lisa that Maggie and Jim should be together. The other problem is that at this point (despite being a little better throughout these two episodes) Maggie is the most annoying character on the show making it near impossible for me to root for Jim to end up with her (it’s all so heavy handed and poorly done I don’t care about it anyways). The bad relationship syndrome also carried over to Will and Mac again as Will after all this time (apparently due to his father’s betrayal at an early age) still can’t forgive Mac and so the monotony continues…

Then there was the debate which was one of the preachiest moments on the Newsroom (even if I agree with what Sorkin is trying to convey). Will doesn’t get the debate because the dirt bag young assistant to Will’s longtime friend in the republican party won’t settle for the type of questioning being thrown out in Will’s mock debate. It goes back to the whole Newsroom problem of ramming stuff down our throats in a very preachy manner. This is the kind of political commentary that the show fails at and should stop trying to do; but it’s Sorkin so you never know…

Some other thoughts:

• The well done version of commentary on the show was in Part 1 when Don breaks down how Nancy Grace keeps modern day ADD audiences glued to larger than life sensationalized stories. Good stuff there.

• Why is a group of internet trolls such an interesting story again? It’s about as bad as Bigfoot and is being pegged as a legit story. While my question was answered this week and it’s a BAM PLOT DEVICE! Sigh…

Slightly shorter review this week but don’t panic next week is the finale so we’ll have plenty to talk about then (for better or for worse).

That’s just me though… What did everyone else think?

Breaking Bad: “Buyout” Review

Dinner from hell in Buyout.

As the curtain closes on the first act of the half season, the second act is kicked into high gear; all in the same episode. For the first time in a while Breaking Bad had some pacing issues that threw this episode for a bit of a loop. It’s understandable though as Vince Gilligan has only eight episodes this year and he usually takes two to wrap up a season (see “Half Measures” and “Full Measures”, and “End Times” and “Face Off”). This was the first time this season that the eight episode factor really made a difference as content that in a 13 episode season would have been two episodes was jammed into one so we could have that we could a two episode final act. While it definitely left “Buyout” feeling like the individual parts were better than the whole it also could be a necessary sacrifice in order for the endgame of this year’s chunk of the season to work. Only the next two weeks will tell.

That being said there were some great individual moments in this episode. “Buyout” had a great precredit scene which featured the group of Walt, Jessie, Mike, and Todd disposing of the body of the kid they shot last week in the way they have since day one on Breaking Bad, disintegrating the body in strong acid. The scene was heart breaking with only the music and great reactions from all four actors to carry it. Great stuff!

Then the next scene featured the decision whether to keep Todd or not. This was one of those things that in a 13 episode season might have taken a whole episode of arguing and mopping about (in that great way that Breaking Bad allows these characters to do so) but with the shortened episode frame we got it in about five minutes. This was one of those points of the episode that felt a little rushed as the transition between the aftermath of the child killing and the rest of the episode was so quick and a little choppy. We never got those truly great aftermath moments that we usually get on this series because it had to make way for the back half of the episode.

Speaking of in the back half of the episode we got the revelation that everyone except Walt is out! After getting tailed by the DEA for a long period of time Mike says that it’s time to exit and Jessie follows him because of the child shooting. Their plan is to rid of the methylamine by selling it to another manufacturer in Phoenix for a total of five million dollars each. Of course, due to his crime addiction and large involvement in the lifestyle, Walt hates the idea. Unfortunately for him the manufacturer will only do the deal if he gets all of the methylamine including Walt’s share.  So the problems begin.

Another great individual sequence in the episode was Walt, Jessie, and Skyler’s awkward dinner. First off I forgot that this was the first time since episode two of season one that Jessie and Skyler had an interaction, period. This one was no less strange and awkward that the first; perhaps it was worse. The scene started with Walt telling Jessie that he didn’t want to give up the opportunity to have a great investment like he did with Grey Matter. Then Skyler arrived and the dinner from hell commenced. Poor Jessie had to try and make small talk in between the cold stalemate of Walt and Skyler. Then yet again, after Skyler storms out, Walt tries to manipulate Jessie by telling him that the meth business is clearly all he has left (which in a way is true). Again this scene was fantastic but suffered from the fact that it didn’t connect well to the beginning of the episode and further more felt a little choppy.

The last scene was the Mike trying to force Walt to go along with their plan only to have Walt MacGyver his way out of Mike’s makeshift restraint by using wire to burn it, and himself to free himself. So Mike freaks and Walt has a plan that he says will get them out of this whole (but as we know probably won’t) so everyone is happy. This probably won’t end well, just saying.

“Buyout” was good individual parts of an episode plagued by the fact that this really should have been two separate episodes, but due to the final season’s format was only one episode. Despite this I’m confident that Gilligan and crew will provide a spectacular one, two punch final act that the series has been so great at in the past.

Some other thoughts:

• Great acting from Cranston as usual as he had two semi failed attempts to manipulate Jessie and great acting as usual for Paul at the dinner from hell.

• Saul’s Back!

• Ana Gunn does a great job in the scene in which Marie (curse her big mouth) tells her what Walt said about the affair. Great mix of emotions throughout the scene as it went from “I’m a horrible parent” to “Wow that was a pathetic way to get out of telling Marie things Walt”.

• No Flynn this time. I’m sure there is still plenty of angst left from losing his bacon (oh and his parents too)

That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?

The Expendables 2 Review

 

Gearing up for battle in the Expendables 2 

The Expendables 2

B-

 

 A review by Frederick Cholowski

Stallone, Statham, Willis, Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, and Norris amongst many others have all been piled in to one of the biggest 80’s action hero fest ever, the Expendables 2. The Expendables 2 is big, bloated, and stupid featuring many gun fights, explosions and bad dialogue. However, The Expendables 2 has going for it what other recent films like it don’t; it’s a whole boatload of fun. It’s self referential, oddly satirical, and one of the single most fun movie experiences I’ve seen all year; despite it being big, bloated and stupid.

Barney (Stallone) and his rag tag group (including Statham, Couture, Lundgren, Li, Crews, and Hemsworth) have set out on another mission. This time it’s to help Church (Willis) and Trench (Schwarzenegger) stop the villainous, get this, Vilain (Van Damme) from using lots and lots of weapons grade plutonium. Also Stallone and company pick up a female for the ride this time, a CIA agent named Maggie (Nan Yu), who, like the rest of the crew, gets to beat people up and explode things as well.

If you’re looking for plot, character development, or great dialogue you’re walking into the wrong film. The Expendables 2 is all about action, action, action, and lots of self referential one liners. For the most part it doesn’t get tedious because of a few spots. At the beginning it starts to get tedious after a while…. Then Chuck Norris comes and makes the best extended cameo I’ve seen in a long time (I mean he gets to come in only to make a Chuck Norris Joke, be amazing and then leave. Plus The Good, The Bad and The Ugly music doesn’t hurt either). The middle gets a little tedious and then Schwarzenegger comes and steals the show. It just somehow works despite there being no character (throughout the movie I constantly forgot each character’s name and just went by the actors name), no real plot (just excuses to shoot more people and blow more things up), and dialogue that make the Star Wars prequels look like Shakespeare (seriously when *minor spoiler* one of the group dies near the beginning of the film he literally says “I’m dying”).

Also if you’re looking for good acting, you won’t find it here either. Most are terrible at delivering terrible dialogue and overall just add to the laugh factor (this time not on purpose). The standouts (if you can call them that) are Norris, Lundgren, Van Damme, and Schwarzenegger who manage to provide light to the screen when they appear. The worst of the crew is Bruce Willis who is so very, very wooden whenever he tries to speak his lines (which may be no fault of his own considering how bad the dialogue is). Even so this is just old action stars having fun and the bad acting is just all part of the fun of spoofing the old movies. Plus this film never takes itself seriously so the acting never really gets in the way.

The meat and potatoes of this film are the action scenes and this film definitely delivers on the promise of being big and loud. Lots of fist and gun fights and explosions are to be had here with most of the scenes feeling very much like the 80s. It’s all over the top and ridiculous, like the rest of the film, and provides some great moments of pure entertainment (*minor spoiler* when Vilain kills the Expendable who gets killed he spin kicks the knife from his henchman’s hand into said expendables heart, totally unnecessary yet so awesome). All the sequences are nicely shot (good direction from director Simon West) and work well as individual scenes that are big and loud.

Not much more needs to be said about The Expendables 2. It’s big, bloated, stupid, and a whole heck of a lot of fun. It seems like all the actors are in on their own joke, and they constantly make witty jokes about their older movies, and about bad 80s action movies in general that make the film more than barely watchable. If one goes in with the right mind set The Expendables 2 (and likes to laugh at amazingly bad dialogue) is defiantly one of the most entertaining movies of the summer; despite being big, bloated, and stupid.

Breaking Bad: “Dead Freight” Review

Jessie Plotting the great train robbery in Breaking Bad

 

What a fun episode of Breaking Bad! It was an amazing train robbery episode that had its feet directly in Spaghetti Western waters. Beautifully shot with lots of tension and dramatic greatness. A fun victory at the end as a great way to end a greatly entertaining episode…

….then an innocent kid gets shot and killed.

In one of the single most jarring and frightening moments in Breaking Bad history henchman Todd, after being told to not allow for any witnesses during the great methylamine train robbery, shoots a kid who saw the end of it. Good god that punch to the gut still hurts. After about 47 minutes of the greatest Breaking Bad caper ever told we get a rude awakening that we are now in season 5 and this isn’t about fun anymore, the end is near and things will go down. So the innocent spider hunting kid from the pre credits sequence gets shot and killed all for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. My goodness…

The episode starts with our business partners, Walt, Jessie, and Mike, trapping Lydia in a dark underground place to discover why she put the tracers on the methylamine. Turns out that she didn’t and that the DEA of another state clumsily put it on in an attempt to do a quick job to try and catch I don’t know somebody (which Walt finds out by playing Hank more on that in a second). Lydia then pleas again for her life by claiming that they can rob a train in a dead zone and end up with as much methylamine as their heart’s desire. So begins the caper of how to find a way of robbing the train without being seen (Ps another great plan by Jessie in this episode).

In between all of this is the fantastic scene in which Walt fake breaks down to Hank about how his wife doesn’t love him anymore so he can plant a microphone/taker into Hank’s computer while Hank get’s him Coffee. Also Walt and Skyler continue to banter about their future as Walt Jr. (or Flynn as he is now called again after several seasons) get’s sulky and angry about his parent’s behavior. This all was a great stuff that helped again raise the stakes higher for Walter as time slowly yet surely ticks down.

Then back to the great train robbery. Walt, Jessie, Mike, and Todd all get together (along with one of Saul’s ever trusty members of the “A-team”) to perform one of the greatest heists in television history. A truck will stop the train and then Walt Jessie and Todd will pump methylamine out of the train into a giant tank and then they will pump water into the train so the weight of the train remains the same. The whole sequence is fantastic and is the most beautiful Breaking Bad has ever looked. The whole train sequence was stunning from beginning to finish providing some of the best direction ever for the show. Not only that but the sequence was so much fun as Walt seemed was shot as if he were an old fashion Western villain. Also the sequence was very intense providing moments of great doubt in their plan (i.e. a guy who had a pickup truck managing to get the truck off the tracks a little too early).  It all seemed like an amazing feat of victory for Walt and company…

… Then Todd shoots and kills the innocent spider kid and we are back to square one all over again.

What an amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing episode. One of the single best in series history.

Some other thoughts:

• Not to go back to that final scene again but man Breaking Bad has managed, despite somewhat of a high body count, has managed to make every last kill impactful and jarring. That final scene brought me back to the big ending to “Half Measures” in season three. Congratulations to Breaking Bad for keeping it this way as this is a sign of true maturity on a television show.

• Poor Walt Jr. getting his bacon taken away last week and now his parents are neglecting him. When is the guy ever going to get a break.

• The murder of the kid probably means Jessie will have a more prominent role in the final parts of the first half season. Any use of Aaron Paul is great on this show and it will be nice to hopefully see him back in a more prominent role.

Ok time to go recover from that punch to the gut. My goodness…

So that’s my opinion… What did everyone else think?