Quote:
Originally Posted by timun
Close to the end of season 4 now; Ted you stupid mother####er pay the god-damned tax bill!
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I've finished
Breaking Bad, and all-in-all I still much prefer
Better Call Saul. I think some of that preference is simply because I saw BCS first, but as I put it earlier, soon after I began watching BB:
Quote:
Originally Posted by timun
I'm up to about five episodes into BB season 2, and I find I prefer BCS quite a bit more. I find the characters in BCS much more sympathetic and interesting. Walter and Jesse are... okay, but I don't see much of a redemption arc for either of them. I thought Jimmy in particular was a much more compelling character in that he often does the wrong thing for "right" reasons, and his descent into becoming Saul Goodman is tragic. Granted there's still plenty of BB for me to watch, but I just don't find Walt and Jesse as interesting. Some of the side characters are pretty well acted though, especially given how much I dislike the characters. Skyler and Marie in particular are really loathsome to me. Did most BB watchers at the time dislike them as much as I do?
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I think that all rang true throughout the rest of BB: I don't sympathize with Walt or Jesse. Mike and Gus were the best characters on the show, and Vince Gilligan & co. were wise to bring them back for BCS as "secondary main" characters. Walt was an unrepentant self-centered, egomaniacal prick who was always in it for the money and the power. Jesse I never saw as anything more than a junkie doofus; the writers were trying but I felt no pathos. Skyler and Marie were infuriating characters; a couple of spoiled brats. Other than the fact Marie had a job as a radiology tech she came across like real-life housewives I've known; people I absolutely cannot stand. Hank was a loudmouthed jackass; again, like people I've known in real life who I can't stand to be around.
On the other hand Jimmy was compelling because, as I said before, he often does the wrong thing for the "right" reasons. There's a feeling of "if he
just does this one next thing the 'right' way he'll set himself up on a path to doing the 'right' things going forward," and he
just keeps failing to make it there, often not because of his own doing. Chuck was a horrible brother, but the stories of Chuck and Jimmy are compellingly sad because deep down I think they both cared for each other but didn't know how to express their love for each other in a healthy way. Chuck deliberately holding Jimmy's career back was cruel, but in a roundabout way it was for justifiable reasons and he doesn't know how to express those reasons to Jimmy.
BB was still good, I'm glad I watched it all, but it pales in comparison to BCS.