Streaming Recommendations (Netflix, HBO, Amazon, etc.)

Quote: Evenbob

Silver Linings Playbook, I lasted 20min. 92%
on Rotten Tomatoes, 8 Oscar nom's. I hated
the main character after just 12 min of his
self centered BS. Actually, I was done when
he threw the Hemingway book out the
glass window and went on and on about
it. Douche bag deluxe.

The film has flaws, but you should have given it more time. His self absorbed douchebaggery is the whole point.

Finally finished Breaking Bad, after a year's pause between seasons 4 and 5. While I'm glad I finished it, I'm not sure I enjoyed it much. The best part of the series, by far, is the camera work, which sets a new standard for television. I found the writing overly-talky, and at many points through the story thought to myself that in real life no one would have listened to Walter, they would have simply shot him and buried the body, chemistry genius notwithstanding.

Best actors through the series? I have to give it to Anna Gunn, Betsy Brandt, Giancarlo Esposito, and especially Dean Norris. While Bryan Cranston gets all the attention, his character is almost a cartoon (not Cranston's fault, it it written that way). The real story is how Walter's actions affect and change those around him who love him, and that is where the real drama is. In the end, the only characters worth pulling for are Hank and Marie and Walt Jr., and Walt Jr. is too thinly drawn to really care about, existing only to reflect his parents' actions.

I think there should be a new denomination of currency, called the Heisenburg. It is $10000, as wrapped 100s. Toward the end of the fifth season that seems to be what Walter paid everyone with. The packets of wrapped 50s would be half-Heisenbergs.

Quote: Mosca

In the end, the only characters worth pulling for are Hank and Marie and Walt Jr...

I hated every one of them. I hated most of the people on the show. It might be the only show I would give a recommendation for where I only liked maybe 1 or 2 people, people who weren't even main characters but supporting cast.

Quote: Face

I hated every one of them. I hated most of the people on the show. It might be the only show I would give a recommendation for where I only liked maybe 1 or 2 people, people who weren't even main characters but supporting cast.

I didn't like Hank and Marie at first, but they grew on me, especially Hank; he believed in something and stood up for it, and he accepted the truth regardless of how he felt about it. Walter Jr. couldn't be hated, but only because he was so flat. All he did was whine, but he was a teenager, that's what they do. The rest of them were despicable. That was the reason I stopped watching it, I just wanted to reach into the screen and shake some of them.

But the camerawork, blocking, editing: wow. Just fantastic use of imagery to help tell the story. The use of interiors and exteriors, walls, doors, close and far, focus, even the awareness of how digital film looks on television, just beautiful.

Quote: Mosca

The real story is how Walter's actions affect and change those around him who love him, and that is where the real drama is. In the end, the only characters worth pulling for are Hank and Marie and Walt Jr., and Walt Jr. is too thinly drawn to really care about, existing only to reflect his parents' actions.

I think you are selling it short. Walter is a classic dynamic character who completely changes through the story. He begins afraid of his own shadow, then evolves to a guy to whom killing is the same as a bodily function. He realizes that if there is a heaven and hell, he is on his way to hell no questions asked so he keeps upping his ruthlessness. He started what he did for his family, in the end his family would not even talk to him.

The "problem" wit binging BB after the fact is that the show was so well written that it was meant to be discussed at the water cooler as well as online. Everything you saw on air from Saul's number to the Mineral Emporium website to Mardigal will take you back to something on the show if you call or search it. The Dog House is a real hot dog stand. All of this made the show great.

Oh, yeah, go to amazon and research the Hoover filter that was the code word. It is a real filter! Read the reviews!

Mike is far and away my favorite in the show. It takes a certain kind of guy to be playing with his granddaughter while taking a call to do a hit. He was so all-business and "I don't care if you like me" that you had to like him. Marie was totally annoying as was Walt Jr. I do wish they had played the end more of Hank threatening to arrest Walt and Walt playing the angle of "you really want to commit career suicide? took you two years to get me under your nose? Oh, and all the money I gave you? Hank, I don't work for you, YOU WORK FOR ME!"

I am just waiting for "Better Call Saul" to be on Netflix in late spring.

I'm watching season 2 of "Smash."

I didn't much care for the first season, as it all seemed to be about how screwed up everyone's life was. The second season carries on with this, but there's also the introduction of the two young outsiders with songs but not a full story for a musical. that was interesting, especially the songs. they're really dark.

I think the TV show's producers knew they were being canceled that season, because the story line of the new musical is moving forwards at faster-than-warp speed, you know, ludicrous speed ;) I mean, after four eps they're taking a bow in front of a national cable TV audience. And all because Karen forgot her phone at the bar.

Quote: AZDuffman

I think you are selling it short. Walter is a classic dynamic character who completely changes through the story. .

The whole show is a character study
on how somebody can drastically change.
The rest of the cast is superfluous.
There is not a likable person in the
series, on purpose. I have the first
5 seasons on DVD and the 2nd time
thru, I FF'd past all the scenes that
didn't involve Walter. Especially his
wife and the horrible actor who played
his kid and the sister in law. I really
loathed the Anna Gunn character, I
wanted to see her die half way in.

I thought the bad guys were really well
done, especially Mike. But it's all about
Walter. You see him go from a halfway
caring and decent teacher, parent and
husband, to a self loathing self centered
shell of what he was. It surprised me that
it was such a hit, it was a complicated
storyline and I didn't think enough people
would 'get it' to make it a hit. One of
the Top 5 shows ever on TV, behind
Deadwood and Sopranos.

Quote: AZDuffman

I think you are selling it short. Walter is a classic dynamic character who completely changes through the story. He begins afraid of his own shadow, then evolves to a guy to whom killing is the same as a bodily function. He realizes that if there is a heaven and hell, he is on his way to hell no questions asked so he keeps upping his ruthlessness. He started what he did for his family, in the end his family would not even talk to him.

The "problem" wit binging BB after the fact is that the show was so well written that it was meant to be discussed at the water cooler as well as online. Everything you saw on air from Saul's number to the Mineral Emporium website to Mardigal will take you back to something on the show if you call or search it. The Dog House is a real hot dog stand. All of this made the show great.

Oh, yeah, go to amazon and research the Hoover filter that was the code word. It is a real filter! Read the reviews!

Mike is far and away my favorite in the show. It takes a certain kind of guy to be playing with his granddaughter while taking a call to do a hit. He was so all-business and "I don't care if you like me" that you had to like him. Marie was totally annoying as was Walt Jr. I do wish they had played the end more of Hank threatening to arrest Walt and Walt playing the angle of "you really want to commit career suicide? took you two years to get me under your nose? Oh, and all the money I gave you? Hank, I don't work for you, YOU WORK FOR ME!"

I am just waiting for "Better Call Saul" to be on Netflix in late spring.

Yeah, Mike was a really well written and played character, too.

My problem with the way Walter is written is that he's always trying to out-talk and out-think people who are action oriented. While Marie can be annoying, I still thought her character was well written, and her scenes where she was trying to stay upbeat while Hank was recuperating were so very real. I went through that a few times, when recuperating from some things I was frustrated and cruel and my wife had to bear it. I got fixated on hobbies just to get through the day, just like Hank did. Those scenes were based on how people act in real life.

I'm glad I watched it. But it wasn't easy, and I walked away several times. My favorite part was where Walt said that he didn't do it for family, he did it because he liked it. And my favorite shot was when he and Skyler were talking and her face was reflected in the microwave. Gilligan said that shot was a lucky accident, they didn't set it up that way, but it was so powerful.

Quote: Mosca

My favorite part was where Walt said that he didn't do it for family, he did it because he liked it. .

Well, yes. That line was the crux of the
whole series. In just about every other
episode for the seasons past, Walt always
maintained he was doing everything for
'the family', when it was apparent to
everybody but him it was for purely
selfish reasons. The whole show was
about getting Walt to that point.

That's what makes the series so outstanding.
The creator knew where it was going
before he filmed the pilot. All that was left
was to fill in the rest of the space around
the central story of Walt. With crap like
Marie shoplifting, a new baby, a special
needs kid, and all the rest. Walt's first
really self centered action was when he let
the girl die in her sleep instead of helping
her, in season 2. If you didn't hate him for
that, something is wrong with you.

Quote: Evenbob

It surprised me that it was such a hit, it was a complicated storyline and I didn't think enough people would 'get it' to make it a hit.

But they only had one episode with more than 2 million viewers until the final season. Then 10 million people saw the finale. It's a new operating procedure, to see if you can cultivate a small number of sincere viewers and critics for years to pay for production costs, and then pump up a bigger audience with Netflix so that large numbers finally start watching the new shows.

But it is still light years from the 84 million that watched the finale of Cheers or the over 100 million viewers of the final of MASH.