Han Fastolfe

Fellow BB fans, this picture is damn near perfect.

hanfastolfe — Sat, 28 Sep 2013 21:17:46 GMT

Burn Notice

hanfastolfe — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 03:02:07 GMT

I decided to start watching Burn Notice recently.

First, the goods :)

I like the format of a mixture of an overarching plot arc of Michael trying to dig deeper about who "burned" him and for what purpose, and the more mundane day-to-day business of picking up a few bucks here and there helping people out of a jam. It's kind of like Leverage in a way.

Sam and Fiona really round out the "crew" Michael has, and in a good way. I like Sam's world-weary wise-assery and Fiona's occasional mercurialness. :)

The bad guys sometimes prove interesting when they just manage to slip through Michael's gambits only to be caught at the end anyway.

Now for the bads.

The family relations in this series are absolutely toxic. I particularly don't like that Michael seems to be a willing doormat for his brother, who's a known slacker and somewhat unintelligent to boot, and for his mother, who purposely manipulates him to get whatever emotional satisfaction she derives from getting him to drop everything at once and rush over to see her.

Fiona meddling with the interactions between Michael and his mother.

Finally, Michael's behavior. Specifically I just cannot stand how he gets this total douchebaggily fake smile on his face whenever he gets stuck with something he doesn't want to do. And I know it's fake because he uses the exact same smile with people he's using a cover identity to interact with. C'mon, producers, you couldn't have had Donovan adopt a broader repertoire of facial expressions between darkly-frowny, neutral, and fake-smiley?

Verdict: While it's not as memorable as Breaking Bad, it's at least a series I can sit down with and spend a few hours watching here and there to kill time. :)

Hank Schrader Tribute

hanfastolfe — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 05:57:07 GMT

Spoilers under the cut!

Hank Schrader, you started out being a superficial racist wiseass, but you showed you had hidden depths, and a strength of character Walter White will never ever be able to meet in a million years.

RIP, you ornery magnificent bastard.

Hey everyone! Vote for your fave BB Episode!

hanfastolfe — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 06:17:24 GMT

THERE ARE SO MANY OMFG HOW DO I DECIDE

Well, we'll see! There's a kind of elimination-style system being used, set up over on the breaking bad comm by falafel_musings. Go on over here to March Badness! :D

So I was watching "The Recuit"...

hanfastolfe — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 17:34:21 GMT

... and Al Pacino plays this guy named Walter Burke:

And I just couldn't help but keep thinking it was Mike Ehrmantraut in the CIA X-D

Parallels between Breaking Bad and Homeland (Part 2)

hanfastolfe — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 22:14:42 GMT

The story of Walter and Hank is in some ways a parallel to the story of Nicholas Brody and Carrie Mathison.

Just as Hank, the nail who doesn't quite stay nailed down, gets in trouble for single-mindedly pursuing "Heisenberg", experiences problems in his personal life, and ultimately finds vindication and realization with one single, crashing revelation, so too does Carrie. She single-mindedly pursues Brody and Nazir, steps on toes, has problems finding love and affection and nearly hits rock bottom even harder than Hank does, and then in one simple, blinding piece of insight, discovers she was right all along.

And on the other side, we have Walter, the mild-mannered (so Hank originally assumes!) chemistry teacher who 'breaks bad' and becomes the semi-mythical Heisenberg, the cook who has dreams of grandeur and wealth - all the while carefully trying to escape notice even as he almost can't help but drop hints about his true self, while Hank chases a will-o-the-wisp that the DEA isn't entirely sure exists.

Similarly, Brody, on the surface, is a recovering war hero, welcomed into circles of power, but almost purposely seeking to be found out; it's only a miracle nobody figured out he had converted to Islam before Dana did, which would sink his career harder than almost anything else, and almost certainly grab the attention of every intelligence agency in D.C. And he works undercover plots for Nazir while worming his way into an almost-certain shoo-in for the Vice-Presidential job, and trying to keep some semblance of control as he gets pulled in a hundred directions at once.

It would appear that the TV shows' respective Captain Ahabs have both found their whales, but their whales have no intention of coming quietly. :P

Parallels between Breaking Bad and Homeland (Part 1)

hanfastolfe — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 23:25:29 GMT

I'm first going to just list out the characters quickly and see who lines up with who. :)

Carrie Mathison - Hank Schrader (and shades of Heisenberg)
Dana Brody - Jesse Pinkman
VP Walden - Gus Fring
Nicholas Brody - Walter White (But she could become Carrie's "Jesse")
Jessica Brody - Skyler White

I'm going to think more on the parallels and come up with a part 2. Meantime, I'll take suggestions on who best lines up with who. There's still a lot out there! :)

Breaking Bad

Hector Salamanca
Tuco Salamanca
Lydia Rodarte-Quayle
Mike Ehrmantraut
Marie Schrader
Walter White Junior ("Flynn")
Todd

Homeland

Saul Goodman
David Estes
Chris Brody
Quinn

And if I'm missing anyone let me know. :D I look forward to comments. :)

Gankable Icon Is Gankable

hanfastolfe — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:52:35 GMT

If anyone likes this Lydia icon, go ahead and snag away! :) You don't need to credit me either.

Salon Recap of "A Gettysburg Address"

hanfastolfe — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 07:02:48 GMT

Full article here.

I want to extract a segment from it, so spoilers abound:

=-=-=-=

Claire Danes is patently an incredible actress, and there’s one thing that she does better than any one else in the game, excepting “Breaking Bad’s” Bryan Cranston, who is a magician at this particular skill as well: convincingly, seamlessly conveying not just when Carrie Mathison is lying, but when Carrie Mathison is lying to herself.

Carrie, like Walter White, has many occasions to lie. Lying, and lying well, are part of the basic competency requirements of their job. We, in the audience, can hear when they’re doing it just from the tone in their voice. Both Carrie and Walt add a soothing register to their timbres when they are trying to get someone — Brody, Skyler — to do what they want. Carrie’s voice gets a little more innocent, a little happy-go-lucky, while Walt’s becomes flat out syrupy (he’s trying to cover up something much more disgusting than she is, after all).

=-=-=-=

That's actually pretty fascinating! Especially since they also explicitly compare Carrie Mathison to Walter White and how similar their methods of manipulation are. :)

Homeland S2E6 - A Gettysburg Address

hanfastolfe — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:25:01 GMT

Whoa! Talk about your wham moments.

Brody is increasingly at sea. He's got the Sword of Damocles held over him by the CIA, and now he has to play the dicey double agent game with Abu Nazir and Roya on the one hand and Carrie and Quinn on the other.

It's obvious in this episode that unlike in the past two seasons, where he basically had everything under control (excepting his home life as he readjusted), he's now isolated and alone, kept out of the loop and unable to find out anything useful.

I was thinking about Walter and Jesse, and in some ways I think Brody has become Carrie's "Jesse". Someone to lord it over and be a useful sidekick at the same time - someone she can berate as needed as well as seek comfort from, because only the two of them really grok each other, even if verbally they do a pretty lousy job of it sometimes. We've seen that Walt and Jesse need each other, even if they don't "get" each other (especially after Season 4).

I wonder if this means Brody will become Carrie's Gale-killer, as Brody mindlessly goes to kill Abu Nazir (if the show's writers take it that way :) ).

What bothers me, though, and Quinn raises this good point, why hasn't the CIA pushed Brody a lot harder than they have? Carrie could have Estes's ass for breakfast the instant she learns Brody was tasked by Roya to grab confidential stuff out of Estes's safe. Hell, she could have the Vice-President's ass in a sling the instant she finds out Brody texted Abu Nazir from inside the Mission Control for the assassination team.

Carrie is on the one hand intensely driven to atone for her imagined and real mistakes in the past, but on the other she has an odd softness for Brody, and this makes me wonder if Brody will try and capitalize on this to escape being wrung dry in Carrie's quest to nail Abu Nazir for good.

I liked that Saul looked obviously embarrassed and uncomfortable, having to take Brody's friend Mike behind the woodshed, metaphorically speaking. Estes is clearly in damage-control mode, because his career hangs in the balance should it be discovered that he let a major intelligence failure happen on his watch. Could Estes even go so far as to sabotage the use of Brody as an intelligence asset to save his career? :O

And the mole! I have to wonder if it was Galvez, because he was the one who called Estes out of the office when Brody was about to raid his safe. Convenient, that. In that case, he was collateral damage for the new unnamed assassin/terrorist operating the equivalent of SWAT teams on American soil.

Lastly, Finn.

Jesus, what a self-centered douchebag that kid is. His dad taught him a little too well, I think. Instead of wondering how to help a woman he hurt, he's busy thinking about covering his own ass. Poor Dana. :( She wants to do the right thing and Finn is busy showing her how to do the wrong thing. :(

I think it can safely be said that Finn is now on everybody's "hiss, boo" list. :P

I can't wait to see the fallout from this ep next week!

Also, new icon! :D That angry face Carrie made at Estes was awesome.

Homeland S2E5 - Q&A

hanfastolfe — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:06:52 GMT

Has anyone noticed, by the way, that the proposed title for Episode 11 is, quite literally, "The Motherfucker with a Turban"? I'm shocked that a TV show would put a swear word in an actual title. O_O

Now, to Episode 5! (images are clickable thumbnails)

First reaction: HOLY CRAP THIS EPISODE WAS SO AWESOME!

THAT LOOK.

David Estes, your ass is grass and Carrie's the fucking lawnmower. Jerk.

My thinking is that in the discussion they're having about whether Brody "made" Carrie - I don't think he did. But she wanted revenge, and she needed an excuse to do it. So she forced everybody's hand. XD

"You can go home now."

Douchebag.

But YAY SAUL! He vouches for her and she watches along with Saul as Quinn interrogates Brody. Unbelivably, Brody seems to believe he can still brazen it out, get out of jail free, until...

"My name is Nicholas Brody..."

HA BURNED.

But they haven't really got him yet. All they know is that they could put him on trial, use the video as proof enough to convict him in the court of public opinion, but throwing him in Leavenworth (or even executing him) won't uncover Nazir's plot.

So Quinn starts getting a little rough! :O

He gets dragged out kicking and screaming as a shocked Saul and Carrie look on. But that gives Carrie the chance to seize the opening, and holy good gravy, this part of the episode? Woooow. Talk about the most emotionally intense thing I've ever seen! She confesses to Brody things she's never told anyone else - and the beauty of it is that even we the audience don't quite know if she's doing it for show, to make a connection with Brody, or if she's being for real and skirting the edge of imbalance.

The scene where she gives him water and carefully unlocks his handcuffs really struck me as beng akin to the way Abu Nazir (in flashbacks) carefully gave water to Brody. In a sense both Nazir and Carrie were manipulating Brody through kindness, but I think on her part it's a bit more genuine because she formed an unintended emotional bond with him. She reinforced that very cleverly by turning off the cameras (but leaving the sound) to give her and Brody a sense of isolation.

I keep saying she's a chessmaster in the making, and things like this really show how she's getting there.

And then she slowly and carefully breaks through his lies, using the same level of obsession with the details of his life and her knowledge of his doings to do it.

Above and beyond the call, Carrie. Reaching out to the man you hated for destroying your life. :O All in the service of an organization that threw her out because she was crazy. :O

And finally, she's done. She's managed to connect to Brody, get through his lies.

She's won.

For Carrie's it's almost like revenge is a dish best served hot, but she manages to do more than just immediately gloat over her opponent. Chessmaster, indeed.

What's interesting is after the interrogation, Brody seems to have reverted, sleeping on the floor like he did in the days just after he returned to the United States.

Abu Nazir, your days are numbered. :P Brody is now a double agent!

I won't say too much about the B plot - I just think it's probably necessary for the plot for Finn to be a risk-taking teenager who does something stupid and it costs him plenty. I guess this will be why the Finn/Dana ship gets sunk before it's even sailed. :(

I could see Abu Nazir somehow finding out and using it to blackmail the Vice-President in some fashion. :\

So, daaaaaamn this show. Just wow. I can't wait to see what happens next. :D

PS. Jessica Brody is smoking hot. :P (then again, Morena Baccarin manages to pull that off with almost anything :D )

Lydia Rodarte-Quayle Rocking Some Outfits!

hanfastolfe — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 20:34:35 GMT

Jesse doesn't stand a chance. :P (see under the cut for the outfits Lydia's been rocking in the most recent episode, so this could spoilerize people...)

I'll probably do a Jesse picspam as well. He really rocks suits quite well. :P

Thoughts on Breaking Bad 'Gliding Over All' Episode

hanfastolfe — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 20:18:53 GMT

I've just finished watching this episode, and my thoughts (below the cut) follow:

Talk about your wham episodes!

When I was watching it last night, I kept waiting for a ball to drop. I knew the prison guys would get killed (this was hinted heavily in the trailer, as well as Walt demanding the nine names off Lydia), but I was totally expecting someone else to die - Skyler, Hank, maybe even Jesse.

But anyway, before I get to that, I wanna review some stuff I noticed or really liked.

There's Todd calling out "Mr. White" again. The writers must have deliberately used this, to show Todd trying to ingratiate himself, replace Jesse in Walt's eyes in every way. Slash writers, fire up your engines. :P

The writers call back to previous eps, having Walt tell Todd to refer to an "RV job". Walt's developed himself quite the little criminal network, hasn't he? In a fic I wrote I talked of a "new empire" rising on the ruins of Gus's, and it's definitely true. Walt is cutting himself loose of all his old ties, and in doing so clearing the path to the riches he deems as his by right.

Todd seems to be fascinated by death and destruction, since he expresses fascination with "turning a car into a cube".

R.I.P. Mike Ehrmantraut, you ornery old bastard.

Man can't even get a proper funeral. Jane at least got one. :(

There is no more "we", Jesse. :( Mr. White has cut you loose.

Oh, sure. Close the door on him. Dickbag.

The way Walt closes the garage door with that air of finality really kind of "seals the deal", I think, for Jesse. He's realizing that Mr. White doesn't care about him anymore. And just as fic writers have picked at and prodded over, we'll see that Jesse doesn't lash out; he retreats inward and probably wonders what he could have done differently, maybe even blaming himself.

Meanwhile, the "nine" are falling all over themselves to 'fess up now that the DEA's grabbed the money (again) and this time there's no Mike Ehrmantraut to bail them out. Hank's in charge, and he knows it.

Fussy Lydia! But she seems more confident this time as she talks to Walter. NGL, she's kinda hot. :P

(Aside: Here's Walter in full Heisenberg mode.

Incidentally, as far as I know, he has never told her his name, and she hasn't gone to the trouble of finding out.)

Also, cynical Lydia is cynical. She points out she could just be another "loose end" for Walter, but manages to turn it around so she becomes an asset! Talk about one smart, brazen lady. Mercenary as all hell, too. Poor Jesse in my little headcanon doesn't stand a chance against her. :P

She's also pretty damn sharp. She catches on to the undercurrents and suspects maybe Mike hasn't just disappeared - that maybe he's dead. Also, she refers to Gus Fring, and it's clear she suspects she's in front of the man's killer. Given that, her strategy has to be to maximize her value, rather than make a quiet exit for the shadows.

BAM! Czech Republic sales market! Wheeeew.

And she reveals a little more about Gus Fring's empire, and how part of it was based on using Madrigal's shipment network, not just the Pollos Hermanos trucks, to ship to destinations outside the Pollos Hermanos region of the American Southwest. The strange thing is, Mike never knew about that part. This makes me wonder now if Gus practiced a better form of compartmentalization than Walt is engaging in, since Lydia knows who Jesse is, if not Todd, while Declan also knows about Jesse (and more importantly, that he can cook just as well as Walter).

This also raises the tantalizing question of whether Madrigal is increasingly becoming a front for a drug empire, akin to how the car wash has become Walt's front for laundering money. This would explain Schuler and Fring; perhaps the aspiring young chicken restaurant owner was approached by Madrigal originally for an infusion of funds to expand into a rapidly growing American market, and Fring saw the possibilities and carefully sounded out Schuler to conduct a kind of 'reverse expansion', growing his meth market internationally.

Fascinating stuff. Just fascinating. The possibilities abound!

Also, oddly, Walter hasn't shown much of an interest in women besides Skyler, but in this episode I could swear he was checking her out, especially when she leans over so you can see down her shirt a bit. An affair between Walter and Lydia would only be a huge disaster, I think!

The way they shake hands is a little unusual, but I suspect it may be due to Lydia's exposure to European customs (She's finicky enough to want some kind of weird tea when she first meets Mike, for example - so I assume she's used to eating and drinking in Europe as well as in the USA).

"We're gonna make a lot of money together." - Tuco Salamanca (Season 1) and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (Season 5)

At least Lydia isn't an ax crazy person who beats their underlings to death at the slightest provocation, I'll say that for her. Incidentally, it's interesting how Lydia gets more excited over the way she routes and plans than upset over contract killings that will likely take place.

HOLY CRAP HE HAD THE RICIN WITH HIM! There's been considerable debate about whether he tried poisoning Lydia, but given that the vial still seems quite full, he didn't go ahead with it. But I highly suspect that Walter is counting the days until he has no use for Lydia, and then bammo, she's gone.

Someone on Reddit once made a joke and called Todd "Ricky Hitler". I even sarcastically used it to refer to Todd when I first saw him in this episode, but little did I know how true that was! Todd's uncle is buddies with a couple of hard-core Nazis, apparently.

Anyway, they plan the executions, and it's montage time, showing how, as Walter times them with his watch, they all get done within a couple of minutes in a rather macabrely beautiful song and dance.

The other thing is that Hank is now stalemated, if not checkmated, and the toll it takes on him is clear as he exhaustedly comes home, pours out some drinks for him and Walt, and reminisces.

"Tagging trees is a lot better than chasing monsters." - Hank Schrader

You have no idea, Hank. No. Idea.

It's kind of glossed over, I think, but Walter White is now a mass murderer, even if he didn't do the acts himself. By law, however, he originated, counselled, and paid for these killings. That makes him just as guilty, and if we hadn't already been rocked by the way Walt got enraged and killed Mike in a fit of anger, or the way Walt so callously tried to cajole and manipulate Jesse, I think this would really qualify as an "unforgivable" act - the 'prophylactic measure' Mike counselled Lydia against.

The second extended montage sequence is a masterpiece of intercuts between scenes. Starting with Walter's smash cut into his yellow suit, followed by scene after scene of him and Todd making meth and stacking oodles of money, we also get some interesting homages along the way.

Remind anybody of the Pollos Hermanos montages, where the meth was placed in those specially marked buckets?

Then Marie points out, three months later, that maybe it's time to really put the family back together. Skyler goes out to the pool, I admit I thought Skyler was going to for sure kill herself this time. Until I saw Walt was already there.

My first reaction to this?

DAMN.

This is the ultimate goal. If anything, this proves that all Walt's labors have finally come to fruition. He's really "won", if one can call a battle in his own mind a win. Skyler can't even launder this much money. She's stopped counting!

I've seen people try to estimate that much money. If your average stack of fifties is like, half an inch high, and the pile comes up to Walt's thighs, then that's maybe a three-foot high stack by say five feet by five feet. A real rough ballpark estimate is that Walt's racked up a hundred million dollars.

All she wants is her family back: "How big does this pile have to be?"

Another homage is to the pilot, when we see Walter under the MRI again. Only this time, the camera revolves around from him being "upside down" to "right side up". I've seen it suggested that in a sense, Walt has done, or will do, a "one-eighty", a total turnaround.

That's true. He went from Walter White to Heisenberg, turning from a basically decent man to a callous monster. But even underneath the desensitization, the "shit happens", there's still something of Walter White left behind. His spasm of regret at killing Mike, his holding back of the ricin when meeting Lydia - just maybe there's a chance left yet. Maybe Scarface hasn't totally replaced Mr. Chips.

And in a shocking turn of events, he finally does right by Jesse! He gives his one-time partner the $5 million. What's interesting is how rattled Jesse is by Walt's presence, and given the phrase "I am the one who knocks", as well as the heavy knocking, Jesse's not totally wrong to be worried.

Interestingly enough, Jesse has basically retreated into himself, into his turtle-shell, as it were. He's thrown out his cell phones, disconnected his land-line. He's just marking time, existing from day to day. It's as I mentioned above: Jesse doesn't lash out. He just doesn't seem to want to do that, at least not to Mr. White. Anyone else, though? Gladly. He bashes Todd one in the face, he even shoots Gale on Walt's orders. But attack Mr. White?

No, he won't.

Oh, god, this scene. The first time, I seriously thought that was a body bag Jesse was going to open up.

And the penultimate scene: "I'm out."

If the season ended right now, right here, it'd feel like a bit of a cheat. Where's the Scarface? The man who has gone past the point of no return? The man who's so totally alienated everyone he's got no choice but to go out guns blazing?

Indeed, this scene seems positively idyllic, doesn't it?

Yet, when I watched this, I was so nervous. Was the ball finally gonna drop? Was there going to be a horrible accident, which Walt aids and abets somehow, just like with Jane Margolis? Was he going to take an active part, like with killing Mike?

Nope.

There's the truly final scene. It starts out so simply: Hank needs to use the bathroom. Like many people, he likes to read while he's in there. Only Walter White did something really stupid. Remember this book?

Guess where it is after Hank grabs the magazines:

By now the ohshitohshitOHSHIT is practically humming all over the world as everybody wonders if Hank will get curious...

BUSTED!

Cue Hank's flashback to his joking banter with Walter White about Gale Boetticher, and the final, penultimate wham moment of the series to date!

Walter White is Heisenberg!

This series. Damn! Tight tight tight, I tell ya. And now we've gotta wait a year for the final eight episodes! Just dayum. *shakes head*

The fanficcers are gonna go wild over this for sure, and I plan to join in my small way. :) See y'all around!

Season 1 in Review: Jesse

hanfastolfe — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 23:08:15 GMT

Oh, Jesse. You sorry-ass loser and slacker, you. :(

At 24, he looks and even still acts like a big kid, like a teenager who never quite grew up all the way. But he's basically a decent guy, even here, trying to make something better of himself without quite knowing how to get there. He applies for jobs wearing very nice suits (rawr!), but he gets directed to "advertising". He cooks, but he doesn't know enough to do it himself and people say it to his face.

Even so, the seeds of the perfectionism and drive to improve himself were planted here. He cooks with Badger, and is dissatisfied with the results. So he tries it again. He isn't quite there - doesn't quite know how - but he's not satisfied now with just "being good enough".

Ironically, this drive Jesse has seems to have in part been woken to life by the very same Mr. White he paid little attention to in high school. And it's rather pivotal, I think, that Jesse realizes his and Mr. White's true potential at the first cook, while Walter still looks down on Jesse and refuses to take a few seconds to patiently explain to his suddenly now more-alert student why plastic is necessary; he doesn't really see Jesse's potential until he finally admits: "Your meth is good. As good as mine." And Jesse gets validation of that when the Mexican lab tech confirms: 96%.

When Jesse sees, and realizes, how Mr. White's care and fussiness over his "product" creates something exceptional, that's what sparks the blossoming of Jesse Pinkman over the next five seasons, I think.

But even so, Jesse continues to always be subtly (or not so subtly) guided by someone else's hand. It's only when Walter White goes too far in Jesse's eyes that he truly sees that he is capable of being an independent young man.

But it all started because he happened to be banging the neighbor's wife that day. :P

Season 1 in Review: Walter

hanfastolfe — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 22:59:45 GMT

Just starting on S01E06 and already one of the lies Walter White tries to tell himself and Jesse has repeatedly come home to roost:

"No more bloodshed. No violence."

Never works, does it, Mr. White?

And his instence on control - of everything. Of the information about his treatment, of the chemistry (his tone is definitely hectoring when he comes back to cook and deduces that Jesse tried to do it), of how he will interact with people in the meth trade, even of his family relationships - that really underlines this entire series, but you can see it even in the first season.

It's interesting how much of the seeds of Walter's evolution into "Heisenberg" were planted here, in Season 1.

Being the shadowy master of a new realm started right here, in this episode.

Having a compliant Jesse Pinkman to cajole, bully and order around (even as he comes to need Jesse in his own way) started in this season.

Even the look on his face when he realizes Elliott's offer was actually pushed by Skyler (just as Marie's "let's take the kids" was pushed by her), there's an interesting symmetry in the way Walt's dawning understanding ignites his insecurities and anger, which he upbraids Skyler for later on.

Walter's major sin is his pride. And Hank even points that out when he has the talking pillow: "You can hang onto your pride, and lose the game".

Rather prophetic!

Season 1 in Review: Skyler

hanfastolfe — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 22:31:21 GMT

Re-watching S1 in prep for tonight.

People used to call Skyler a "bitch" a lot, and I think it mainly stems from her behavior in two key episodes:

1. In the first two episodes, her suspicio-meter rockets off into high gear and she threatens Jesse in a way that shows she's trying to basically work behind Walter's back to control him and his behavior - as evidenced by the way Walter later bluntly tells her to "crawl back down out of his ass".

2. She convenes the "family gathering" and it becomes obvious quite soon that she didn't intend it as a legitimate airing of feelings; she wanted to use it as a way to emotionally bludgeon Walter into doing what she wanted him to do, rather than trying to understand the hidden depths that lurked under his insistent refusal to accept Elliott's monetary aid.

In retrospect, it's clear that one aspect of Walter's interactions vis-a-vis Skyler has been about asserting his dominance in his household, and it's rather telling that the sexual dimension of their relationship takes on the same shades as Walter's evolution to "Heisenberg".

It's also clear that Skyler does love her family; it's just that in the early stages of the series, she tends to express it in ways that could be interpreted as stifling to others. As she loses control to Walter, it becomes increasingly clear, though, that given Walter or Skyler as a parent, Skyler is the better of a pair of less than ideal choices.

Jesse Pinkman S1

hanfastolfe — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 18:58:27 GMT

So I've been re-watching Season 1 to get my BB fix, and OMFG this picture of Jesse! (I made it into a LJ-userpic myself)

Jesse Pinkman in a suit is really cute and kind of adorable, too. :)

Full screencap for those interested (under the cut):

Mike Ehrmantraut Tribute

hanfastolfe — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 09:36:51 GMT

Large picture, so under the cut.

Thoughts on Breaking Bad 'Say My Name' Episode

hanfastolfe — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 08:41:39 GMT

I've just finished watching this episode, and my thoughts (below the cut) follow:

Wow. Just wow.

If ever there was a "wham" episode in the recent history of drama/action TV, this would qualify in spades.

First, this is where the cracks finally mushroom into a growing chasm between Walter and Jesse, summarized well by this dialog snippet:

Walter: Look, I know how upset you are about what happened to this boy. I am just as upset as you are.

Jesse: Are you? Really?

The scales are finally falling from Jesse's eyes. He's had enough. He just wants out, and to live his life in peace.

But Walt can't handle it. He needs Jesse in a kind of weird, twisted version of a marriage-bond, a permanent partnership. We see it when Mike is made whole easily, but Walt balks at giving Jesse his $5 million cut right away.

And then - oh my God, that scene as Walt is prepping the equipment for the drug lab. He casually and banally talks about the future - Jesse running his own lab, cleaning the equipment - it's as though he hopes to keep away unpleasant truths that Jesse realizes he needs to face by just never acknowledging them unless he has to use them for his benefit.

And oh boy, does he ever. He calls it "blood money", brings up the fact that Jesse has no longer any friends or family, even brings up his old drug addiction and uses everything - Jesse's ambitions and fears - all against him in the most slimily manipulative way possible.

And even then, Jesse manages to hold out, even being strong enough to walk away, knowing he may never get the money Walter said would be his.

Contrast all that with the solemn, subdued goodbye between Jesse Pinkman and Mike Ehrmantraut. He's an old man who's finally had enough too. And he's finally on his way out, sailing quietly into the sunset.

If there was a theme in this episode, most of it would be "leaving", and there's kind of a weary, maudlin air over much of this episode. People leave Walter alone now. Declan doesn't execute him because it dawns on him that he's dealing with the famed "Heisenberg", so he leaves quietly.

Mike leaves, old and tired, pragmatic to the end.

Then Jesse. Oh, Jesse. :(

For all that it was good for Jesse to leave Walt, it really felt like the end of an era to watch Jesse leave that one last time, never to cook again.

And then Walt babbles on over microwaved dinner (truth in advertising, yo) and Skyler silently leaves the table with her wine.

But amid all these people quietly slipping away from Walter, along comes a new man: Todd.

The odd thing is that for all Walt's manipulation and veiled attacks on Jesse, he seemed so old and tired when he began the next cook. No longer the blustery, arrogant chemistry teacher of old, he quietly teaches Todd the ropes, encouraging him and saying "You applied yourself. That's as much as I can ask."

Then wham! everything falls apart.

The DEA finally figures out how the money's being moved, and they get someone to crack, naming Mike Ehrmantraut.

At that point, all the bad blood between Mike and Walter spills out, and Walt, in his fury, fatally shoots Mike, not even stopping to think in time that Lydia has the names he needs, which would have meant he could leave Mike to quietly disappear for the remainder of time.

And so Mike dies, having gotten the last word in for once.

Ironically, he died in the way Lydia feared she would die: having made his granddaughter think he abandoned her, gone forever with no dead body to find. I wonder if Lydia will be shocked or relieved when she finds out this little detail.

Jesse no longer has a reluctant grandfatherly figure to rely on.

Walt no longer has any common-sense adviser, however grudgingly given the advice may be.

R.I.P. Mike Ehrmantraut, you crusty old bastard.

I have no idea if the cold open of "Live Free or Die" will be resolved next week, or if we'll have to wait till next year, but really, the way the series is running, it almost feels like it could be wrapped up next week completely. Walt's acting more and more recklessly now, and it's only a matter of time before Hank catches up to him.

This show. Just wow.

Thoughts on Breaking Bad 'Madrigal' Episode

hanfastolfe — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:38:42 GMT

As regulars of the Breaking Bad LJ groups may know, I've been watching this show avidly. :)

People may remember that Skyler helped Walt invent the story of the "gambling addiction" as a way to explain the sudden source of funds that Walter had come into, as well as why he had been behaving differently since his cancer diagnosis.

Now, come this episode, Saul recites, a bit weakly (he is obviously still a bit rattled by Walter's quiet menace from 'Live Free or Die'), the following quasi-parable:

Say a guy wins the lottery. Ten million bucks. The very next day, what's the one thing he does not do?

He does not go buy another lottery ticket, right? He counts his lucky stars, and he sails off into the sunset, which, seems to me, and all due respect, some advice you two might take.

And it hit me, thinking about this episode, that that's what Walter's developed: a gambling addiction!

Only it's not for any reasonable stakes.

He's gambling with, basically, his life: if he's targeted by someone, or the Feds finally get him, his life, as he knows it, is over. He'll either go to jail to live out the rest of his years, or he'll be dead from some act of violence.

So he stands to play the ultimate stakes: lose, or gain, all he set out to preserve - his family, his self-respect, the admiration of the people in his life (Walter Jr and Jesse most prominently), and the stockpile of money that he insisted was necessary to see his family through the times ahead after the cancer finally gets him.

But Walt, as I have also been saying, is developing quite the swelled head. He's defeated Gus, first by executing Gale (yes, I know he did not pull the trigger, but legally and ethically, he's just as culpable because he gave the order and actively encouraged Jesse to do it), and then by playing Hector Salamanca off against Gus Fring himself.

He's even partly defeated the police, by ensuring there is no possible way to ever recover the laptop Gus had. His plans work, but more due to sheer chutzpah and luck than any long-term planning.

It is ironic that now that Gus is gone, Walt is taking on some of his aura by insisting on logic and calculation. Mike had the right of it: Walter isn't someone you want to be around when he finally makes his unrecoverable mistake. And in the context of gambling, the desperate gamblers are usually the worst ones: they'll throw everything they have into the game to keep playing, even when any reasonable analysis tells them they should cut their losses and leave.

May Jesse and Walt's family be reaasonably unscathed when Walt finally goes down!

This final arc of Breaking Bad shows a lot of promise, and I can't wait to see what's next! :)

So I'm rolling through old ffr entries...

hanfastolfe — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 18:07:33 GMT

And I saw this.

Another thing I can't make sense of: homaphobe? Does his reviewer have a phobia of Sanskrit rituals?

People? It's not really that funny when you purposely pretend to misunderstand something that can be easily deduced from the context. Maybe it's a teenage thing and I'm just getting old, though.

My First Foray into HP fanfic

hanfastolfe — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 07:06:50 GMT

I've been reading the Harry Potter books lately and have branched into reading the fan-fiction. There's some GREAT stuff out there. One's an excellent fic about the Marauders (James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin). It's kind of painful reading about them tormenting Severus Snape knowing what happens about 20 years later (if you assume that HP takes place in our world, the Marauders first went to Hogwarts in the early 1970s... 1971, I believe).

But the pranks the Marauders played! *laugh* Harry, Hermione and Ron don't get NEAR that level of high jinks and outright constant baiting, even though the Golden Trio (as some fic authors are calling them) may well be remembered for their own contributions to the zaniness of Hogwarts.

I'm also reading another absolute blockbuster where the Dursleys bugger off to Australia, leaving Harry in the lurch. He finds a new place to stay and hides out from everybody while going incognito as a manual laborer and odd-jobs-doer. Good stuff :)