Mentioned a month ago that, for some invisible memetic reason (the hint of cinnamon?) I’d re-binge-watched “Breaking Bad“ in its entirety.
Given the cinnamon connection, I predicted I’d probably find myself re-watching the BB prequel “Better Caul Saul” next. Sure enough I just finished re-watching the whole of that late last night.
So many sub-plots and twists within twists that it is really complex to follow the whole – not helped by the out-of-sequence tasters in the intro section of each episode. Not helped either that the so-called prequel contains much that is actually sequel to BB too. B&W / Sepia flash-backs and flash-forwards all over the place, not just in the introductory openers, but the whole narrative arc is there.
The whole is one long morality play of course. So many of the “evil” characters start-out or end-up as victims one way or another, so casting judgement on some seriously criminal violence and venal fraud, opportunistic as well as deeply conspired, is fraught with many layers. As I said before, Hank Shrader remains the only hero. Even some of the most evil had good – or maybe just arguably justifiable – intentions at various points. Michael always went for the least violent enforcement options when he could, and took only what he was due for his services, for example. Kim possibly the most complex, and she by her own choice doesn’t make it to BB, the main event.
The key scenes for me are in that final episode – the end of both stories. The “Time Machine” questions of what were some of the key character’s regrets, that they would go back and fix if they could. Michael and Walter could both identify such “mistakes” they had made. In the scene where both Walter/Heisenberg and Saul / Jimmy / Gene are secretly awaiting their changes of identities and homes to escape their pasts of crime, Walter points out to Saul that his example merely shows that he’s “always been like that” – looking for a dubious fast buck. In the equivalent flashback to the scene where Michael and Saul are returning on foot across the desert with $7m of cartel money in cash, and stop by the water pump, Michael remarks of Saul’s regrets and wishful thinking, looking back at his entire life: “What, just the money?” The erstwhile lovable rogue always had a seriously warped arithmetic sense of values.
Right, now we have closure. There is nothing I want to watch on TV.
Onwards and upward. Back to the writing.
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