Sun August 14, 2022 2:15 am
Sun August 14, 2022 2:20 am
Sun August 14, 2022 2:51 am
Sun August 14, 2022 2:55 am
Sun August 14, 2022 10:35 am
Sun August 14, 2022 1:22 pm
Ms Harmless wrote:Mecca wrote:Ms Harmless wrote:Jorge wrote:There are many good and enjoyable things about it. It's just very silly and occasionally stupid
if it's "comedy" at all, I think that's where the funny lies, and it seems very deliberately that way
it feels like Walt is living this bizarre, over the top narcissistic comedy of errors, while everyone around him is slowly having their lives ruined; the very silly and irresponsible is contrasted with the very serious and traumatized
that's my take, anyway! it's just a solid piece of genuine satire (not just something some dude has slapped the term "satire" onto just to defend it)
I’ve never seen BB called a satire and I’m not sure I would agree.
Your description of Walt does make me kind of view his story as someone who thinks they can control a wildfire cuz he does it successfully until he teams up with nazis
yeah, which is a Shakespearean tragedy and comedy of errors through and through; satirical in the truest sense
a satire doesn't have to be laugh-out-loud funny all the time, but it usually takes a knowingly over the top, hammy approach to dramatising its message, which in this case is essentially "pride comes before a fall" turned up to 11
tonally BB is all over the place but so is Gilligan; in X-Files he juxtaposed very dark and very funny all the time
I've seen BB talked about this way, but even if I hadn't, it's loud and clear to me
Sun August 14, 2022 1:30 pm
Sun August 14, 2022 1:33 pm
Mecca wrote:Ms Harmless wrote:Mecca wrote:Ms Harmless wrote:Jorge wrote:There are many good and enjoyable things about it. It's just very silly and occasionally stupid
if it's "comedy" at all, I think that's where the funny lies, and it seems very deliberately that way
it feels like Walt is living this bizarre, over the top narcissistic comedy of errors, while everyone around him is slowly having their lives ruined; the very silly and irresponsible is contrasted with the very serious and traumatized
that's my take, anyway! it's just a solid piece of genuine satire (not just something some dude has slapped the term "satire" onto just to defend it)
I’ve never seen BB called a satire and I’m not sure I would agree.
Your description of Walt does make me kind of view his story as someone who thinks they can control a wildfire cuz he does it successfully until he teams up with nazis
yeah, which is a Shakespearean tragedy and comedy of errors through and through; satirical in the truest sense
a satire doesn't have to be laugh-out-loud funny all the time, but it usually takes a knowingly over the top, hammy approach to dramatising its message, which in this case is essentially "pride comes before a fall" turned up to 11
tonally BB is all over the place but so is Gilligan; in X-Files he juxtaposed very dark and very funny all the time
I've seen BB talked about this way, but even if I hadn't, it's loud and clear to me
I think it’s a little more straightforward with the pride coming before a fall message just as it is with the fragile masculinity message. If it’s a satire of anything, it’s the American medical system.
Sun August 14, 2022 1:43 pm
Ms Harmless wrote:I think it's a brilliant inciting incident, tbh
I have an American partner with multiple health issues and very little money, it's fucking shocking how your system treats them
I don't think *that* part is funny, but I do think the drug empire side-hustle solution is a comedic trope here in the context of a white suburban family in New Mexico, surrounded by people stuck in generations of poverty; that's shown by how out of control it gets; when Walt is in the clear medically he still wants to do it, he used to want health, he wants POWER now, which is already a character archetype but less often applied to white people, imo
as a character Walt is the Fool
Sun August 14, 2022 2:44 pm
Sun August 14, 2022 2:45 pm
Sun August 14, 2022 3:38 pm
Jorge wrote:I don't recall the generational abuse angle for Nacho's character? What am I forgetting?
Sun August 14, 2022 3:48 pm
Jorge wrote:Also poverty? His father is a business owner, they're clearly working class but we don't really see them struggle in that way?
Sun August 14, 2022 5:18 pm
Ms Harmless wrote:BurtReynolds wrote:I also liked all the main characters, even Skyler.
#TeamSkyler
Sun August 14, 2022 5:34 pm
Sun August 14, 2022 5:39 pm
Ms Harmless wrote:Jorge wrote:Also poverty? His father is a business owner, they're clearly working class but we don't really see them struggle in that way?
maybe "victim of poverty" wasn't quite right, but yes, he's working class and Walt is not
also, I'm asking this because I genuinely can't remember: does Nacho know poor people in his circle he's invested in helping out of poverty? I can't remember if any of his family have that back story; if they do, though, it's another contrast with Walt, who essentially uses what *might* happen to his family as part of his sob story, so that he can sleep at night while running a mission that's entirely selfish; none of the Whites needed dirty money, they could have worked that out, but now they can't; iirc that was the reason for Skyler's whole despair
Sun August 14, 2022 5:46 pm
Jorge wrote:I have no real problem with Skyler except for that horrific "happy birthday Mr. President" scene
Sun August 14, 2022 5:50 pm
Jorge wrote:Ms Harmless wrote:Jorge wrote:Also poverty? His father is a business owner, they're clearly working class but we don't really see them struggle in that way?
maybe "victim of poverty" wasn't quite right, but yes, he's working class and Walt is not
also, I'm asking this because I genuinely can't remember: does Nacho know poor people in his circle he's invested in helping out of poverty? I can't remember if any of his family have that back story; if they do, though, it's another contrast with Walt, who essentially uses what *might* happen to his family as part of his sob story, so that he can sleep at night while running a mission that's entirely selfish; none of the Whites needed dirty money, they could have worked that out, but now they can't; iirc that was the reason for Skyler's whole despair
What you're describing doesn't sound like the character I remember. He's not generations deep within a cartel, he's not trying to help other people out of poverty. From what we see he comes from a loving and supportive household and fell in with the Salamancas. His motivation for the first two seasons appears to be profit (he even hires Mike to kill Tuco because Tuco's temper is bad for business). It's only when Gus and the Salamancas start to threaten his father that his motivation becomes escape
Sun August 14, 2022 5:55 pm
Sun August 14, 2022 5:58 pm