Breaking Bad: Seven Thirty-Seven Rewatch
August 28, 2014 6:23 PM - Season 2, Episode 1 - Subscribe
Walt and Jesse are vividly reminded of Tuco's volatile nature, and try to figure a way out of their business partnership. Hank attempts to mend fences between the estranged Marie and Skyler.
One of my favorite scenes in the whole series: Hank imploring Skylar to return Marie's calls after Skylar is nearly arrested trying to return the shoplifted tiara. Skylar gives him What For, and Hank's terror in the face of all that emotion is exquisite. And then there's that tender, awkward, back-patting, no-body-contact hug. The writing and acting here are magnificent.
posted by Corvid at 1:20 PM on August 29, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Corvid at 1:20 PM on August 29, 2014 [3 favorites]
Corvid, It's definitely a great scene. Also, I feel like S2 is when we start to see Jesse/Aaron come into his own. We see the character sort of settling and there is some comfort to the way Aaron approaches his scenes.
posted by Fizz at 2:56 PM on August 29, 2014
posted by Fizz at 2:56 PM on August 29, 2014
that tender, awkward, back-patting, no-body-contact hug.
Ha! I swear Dean Norris should have been nominated for an Emmy just based on that scene alone. It's neat to see Hank emerging as a more complex character right off the bat this season -- I kind of missed how interesting he was this early in the series the first time around.
With the second season of the rewatch underway, it was cool to read this pair of interviews that Alan Sepinwall did with Bryan Cranston and Vince Gilligan right before the original premiere of Season 2. This comment from Gilligan is especially interesting, in light of knowing just where the series eventually went:
Ha! I swear Dean Norris should have been nominated for an Emmy just based on that scene alone. It's neat to see Hank emerging as a more complex character right off the bat this season -- I kind of missed how interesting he was this early in the series the first time around.
With the second season of the rewatch underway, it was cool to read this pair of interviews that Alan Sepinwall did with Bryan Cranston and Vince Gilligan right before the original premiere of Season 2. This comment from Gilligan is especially interesting, in light of knowing just where the series eventually went:
To me, this is the story about the in-between moments. I think we've all seen the big moments in any crime story. You can't top a movie like 'The Godfather.' So what can I do as a filmmaker? At least I can show the stuff that nobody else bothers to show. The in-between moments really are the story in 'Breaking Bad' -- the moments of metamorphosis, of a guy transforming from a good, law-abiding citizen to a drug kingpin. It is the story of metamorphosis, and metamorphosis in real life is slow. [...] we have episodes of very slow growth, and episodes where we have more of an explosive evolution kind of moment. In other words, we've got some big stuff coming up in season two, and it ends with a big bang. [*cough*] Not to say anything more about it than that. As far as how long things go, I'd love to see three or four seasons out of this show. I can't imagine much past that. But I'd love to think at the end of season two, we're halfway through, I hope.posted by scody at 3:44 PM on August 29, 2014
The pace of this is all very fast, and feels more rapid than the previous season: there is a lot of plot here.
ISTR that's because Raymond Cruz had another gig and so they had to wrap up the Tuco plot very quickly.
Watching this again, the blocking in the scenes in Tuco's shack is really clever: Tuco's prowling around like a caged tiger, Walt and Jesse are crammed into a corner under Hector's immobile gaze. And notice also in most of the confrontations Jesse remains seated, making him appear more small and vulnerable; Walt stands more often such that he and Tuco are at the same eye level.
(I think also they styled Aaron Paul's hair and maybe make-up in this one to make him look slightly younger and scared; but that may well be more about his acting.)
The first appearance of ricin here, which the show gets a ludicrous amount of mileage out of.
I would have been happier for them to drop it after the Gus plot ended, myself; it felt like an unnecessary McGuffin in the final series, that they'd written it into the flash-forward and then felt like they HAD to deploy it.
Also the first appearance of Hector, who also becomes very significant. It makes me wonder how far out they had plotted from here: did they know they were going to use Hector again, or was it more that they had an brief opportunity to use Mark Margolis here and went for it?
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:35 PM on August 31, 2014
ISTR that's because Raymond Cruz had another gig and so they had to wrap up the Tuco plot very quickly.
Watching this again, the blocking in the scenes in Tuco's shack is really clever: Tuco's prowling around like a caged tiger, Walt and Jesse are crammed into a corner under Hector's immobile gaze. And notice also in most of the confrontations Jesse remains seated, making him appear more small and vulnerable; Walt stands more often such that he and Tuco are at the same eye level.
(I think also they styled Aaron Paul's hair and maybe make-up in this one to make him look slightly younger and scared; but that may well be more about his acting.)
The first appearance of ricin here, which the show gets a ludicrous amount of mileage out of.
I would have been happier for them to drop it after the Gus plot ended, myself; it felt like an unnecessary McGuffin in the final series, that they'd written it into the flash-forward and then felt like they HAD to deploy it.
Also the first appearance of Hector, who also becomes very significant. It makes me wonder how far out they had plotted from here: did they know they were going to use Hector again, or was it more that they had an brief opportunity to use Mark Margolis here and went for it?
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:35 PM on August 31, 2014
It's neat to see Hank emerging as a more complex character right off the bat this season -- I kind of missed how interesting he was this early in the series the first time around.
Yes! We're also shown him actually being good at his job; and his job at the DEA becoming more significant to the show than simply as a backdrop for Hank making phone calls to Walt and Marie.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:37 PM on August 31, 2014
Yes! We're also shown him actually being good at his job; and his job at the DEA becoming more significant to the show than simply as a backdrop for Hank making phone calls to Walt and Marie.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:37 PM on August 31, 2014
Also: the whole "bear in the pool" opening thing still doesn't really work except as a series of artistically-framed shots. It feels in retrospect like it's trolling the audience with "hey look something bad is going to happen at the Whites'."
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:46 PM on August 31, 2014
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:46 PM on August 31, 2014
Watching this again
Ah; um. So I rewatched 737 and Grilled back-to-back and I've somewhat smushed them together here, haven't I? Sorry.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 6:49 PM on August 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
Ah; um. So I rewatched 737 and Grilled back-to-back and I've somewhat smushed them together here, haven't I? Sorry.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 6:49 PM on August 31, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm finally catching up on this (was on hold for this season for, oh, about 7 weeks).
I think it's interesting to note that even in that first scene after Tuco leaves, when Walt is figuring out how much money he wants to leave his family, a) he still thinks he is in control of the situation (saying they should cook for another 11 weeks and then walk away) and b) the Whites' lives would have been so much better if Walt had saved up $737k and then found a way out. But no; Walt's ego wouldn't have it.
posted by johnofjack at 4:39 AM on October 15, 2014
I think it's interesting to note that even in that first scene after Tuco leaves, when Walt is figuring out how much money he wants to leave his family, a) he still thinks he is in control of the situation (saying they should cook for another 11 weeks and then walk away) and b) the Whites' lives would have been so much better if Walt had saved up $737k and then found a way out. But no; Walt's ego wouldn't have it.
posted by johnofjack at 4:39 AM on October 15, 2014
I forgot to mention: after Skyler asks Walt about being in the living room all night, and is dissatisfied with his answer, Walt takes a knife out of its hiding place in the couch and returns it to the kitchen. There's a low-angle shot of him sticking it back into the knife block that comes into play in Ozymandias. I'm kind of curious if it's the same knife slot, even; that would be a great detail.
posted by johnofjack at 5:47 AM on October 15, 2014
posted by johnofjack at 5:47 AM on October 15, 2014
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Jesse gets to be correct here, in that they probably should have taken out Tuco when they could. The pace of this is all very fast, and feels more rapid than the previous season: there is a lot of plot here.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 11:46 PM on August 28, 2014