context; personal nonsense

The first time I tried watching Breaking Bad was when the series had ended but was relatively fresh. At that time I guess my comprehension was not good. Because I stopped at the episode when there is a single fly in the lab. My interpretation at that time was that the episode was a comedy filler but upon rewatching that arc I couldn’t be further off the mark. So it’s fair to say I did not understand what was going on.

series spoilers

I don’t really know what to say. The whole point of this season seems to be watching W.W. be a monumental piece of shit. In the previous seasons you had at least a modicum of a reason to root for him because apart from his origin story he was in a tussle against powers greater than himself. Now he is just being a garbage human being for no reason.

I think it is just a logical culmination of how badly W.W. is characterised in the series. He goes from someone who is “cut off” from a multi-billion dollar endeavour for $5000 bucks of rent money to someone who wants to be the king of meth slingers at any cost. The transition is not subtle because it turns out he was a sleeper hardcore badass all along and he just needed the consciousness of mortality that a cancer diagnosis brings about to be doing his thing.

So far I have been viewing the series as somewhat of a fantasy setting which has made the whole thing acceptable premise-wise and very enjoyable. But towards the end as they are wrapping it up I don’t feel compelled to see it through for a reason other than the sunk cost.

I feel like Jesse has been much more sympathise-able throughout. It is not a surprise he did not “apply himself” with a teacher like W.W.

  • ghost_of_faso3@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    0·
    4 days ago

    I wouldn’t say The Wire is conservative

    I would argue it is, its based on the memoirs of a guy who shadowed the police for a year and it tends to view the police as ‘good guys and bad guys’ rather than structurally bad.

    The way it potrays gangsters as well, while the reality of the gang soldier is accurately potrayed the gang leaders enter mythical figure territory pretty quickly lol.

    Thats not to mention the subtle anti-union messaging of season 2; the show is certainly critical of the police, but its solutions dont consider legislation (look at the hamsterdam episode, its making fun of liberals).

    • OrnluWolfjarl@lemmygrad.ml
      0·
      4 days ago

      I can understand the reasoning why it seems conservative, but there’s a clear intent that each season is critical of one facet of society that eventually ends up leading to oppression, poverty and misery. The 1st season is about the failure of the justice system and the police as an institution. The 2nd season is about the failure of the education system under capitalism. The 3rd season is about the failure of politics even at a local level. The 4th season is about the failure of journalism to inform people on why the other failures exist.

      Overall it shows how indifference and corruption leads to a total failure of society. Also, it shows how individuals trying to lash out and forge their own solutions is ultimately going to fail, because nobody addresses the core issues.

      On the Hamsterdam episode, I’d say it makes fun of conservatives actually. The captain wasn’t trying to solve crime in Hamsterdam. He was trying to “exile” all crime in a particular area, so the rest of the city can be alleviated of crime. This is the conservative dream. Get all criminals in the wilderness and let them kill each other. And his motive was partly to say fuck you to his bosses who cared about crime numbers. And eventually it all failed because it didn’t address the actual issue that causes crime to be the only option left to the, largely coloured, poor population.

      I don’t think any of the cops are viewed as heroes by the show. Even the main character’s starting motivation is self-interest and career advancement.

      I think the creator is a “progressive” liberal, so his views are flawed ofcourse. But I still find it hard to consider the show as conservative.

      • ghost_of_faso3@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        0·
        3 days ago

        I don’t think any of the cops are viewed as heroes by the show. Even the main character’s starting motivation is self-interest and career advancement.

        I would say McNulty and his motely crew of gestapo officers are potrayed sympathetically, the show keeps banging on about ‘real police work’ and suggests some work (mainly that of terrorizing the underclass) is considered ‘good police work’

        The 2nd season is about the failure of the education system under capitalism

        Partially, its also about how unions are full of fuckin failures and undermine their own workplaces through greed yadayada fuck the dock workers for asking for more money; the anti-union messaging in 2 is strong.

        https://youtu.be/1BgwYXGdHE0

        My ideas are also considering the authors later works, he made ‘we own this city’, which again focuses on Baltimore police and attempts hyper-realism - the issue is that again while hes able to potray these things realistically, the solutions they come to and try to push are for reforming the bad guys out of the police rather than addressing the root issues.