Breaking Bad Season 2 Disk 4:

Episode 11:
No one ever expects the 12 year-old on the bike to be the shooter. Well, now I will. I knew it was a set-up but I was waiting for the ball to drop and the dude to get popped. That was pretty harsh.
This is one of those episodes that reminds me of the saying, "always darkest before the dawn". Except that this whole series is kind darkest before the dawn. It just keeps building and building and we've had this foreshadowing of an explosion at the White residence. Now with the drug deal on the line and the baby trying to come early, Walt can not make a right decision.
Meanwhile, Jesse has just tried heroine for the first time and Jane has relapsed. When Walt comes by for the product, he can't rouse either of them, though to be fair, he only tried to wake Jesse. Jesse who is conscious just long enough to tell Walt the meth is under the sink.
I know that this show is not glorifying drug use, even though one of the main characters is an addict. I recently heard an article which mentioned the leads in this show as anti-heroes. Until that interview, I had only thought of them as flawed, or perhaps even very flawed, heroes. You like Walt. You like Jesse. They have good reasons for what they do, at least in their minds, and they do try to do the right thing by their family and friends. But when Jesse tells Jane to leave so he can smoke some meth, you just know that she is going to lapse and that he only has it in him to try and send her away once. That's when I got the whole anti-hero bit. He's not just a guy with an addiction problem who wants to make some money, he's an addict that wants to make more money so he can do more drugs so he can make more money so he can more drugs. And if he gets to the fuck the hot girl from next door and gets he in on his little game, then all the better. You probably can't see the frown on my face, but it's there. What was once empathy with an occasional bit of sympathy is now antipathy towards Jesse. And I don't even know how I feel about Walt, who has been more than a bit mercenary as of late. Don't think that I'm complaining. This is riveting television. The acting and writing are good enough that I want to see the outcome. If they give me even a glimpse of the possibility of redemption for these characters, I will be hooked for the run of the show.

Episode 12:
Oh Walter, what have you become? I wonder about moral relativism and psychopaths. If they don't know that they are doing anything bad and no one else is involved, are they really doing something bad? What if there is someone else involved, but it's not something they're doing that hurts the other person, but a lack of doing something? What if we're not talk about a psychopath but a regular person who has lost sight of right and wrong? What if that person realizes that their inaction is tantamount to homicide if the situation were different? Unless the very start of the next episode shows a drastic change of situation, Walt has slipped over to the dark side and has embraced it completely.

Episode 13:
Lies. Lies and propaganda. To think that it all unraveled over one little question while under general anesthesia. For all of Walt's book smarts, he certainly lacks some common sense and is greatly short on his supply of wisdom. Sure, he didn't think that he was going to live long enough to have to worry about any of his lies coming back to haunt him, but when he found out that his cancer was in remission, he should have worried a little more on covering his ass. One call to his mom and a nicely worded email to Gretchen and he might have made it out of this season with a family living at the same house as him.
Now I'm sure about the causal relationship between Walt's inaction the previous episode and the mid-air collision this episode, but I'm thinking that he has a fair amount of the moral blame on his shoulders. Of course, you have got to be wondering what the guys at air traffic control were thinking, just letting Q come back to work as if everything were okay, simply because he said he couldn't be by himself any longer. Not to mention that some of the blame will surely fall on Q himself. I'm not absolving Jesse in this either, since he is the enabler in Jane's relapse When Jesse finds out about Walt's inaction, he will likely try to kill Walt.
This season did not end in a happy place for anyone, certainly not us viewers.

Breaking Bad Season 2 Disk 3:

Episode 8:
Is anyone surprised that Badger first proves that the guy trying to buy is a cop, and then talks himself into selling to the guy anyways? He was not the brightest of the dim bulbs Jesse picked to be his dealers, but still, you would think that unless he was high he would have had more common sense. But he doesn't. I think this is a great angle the writers have here. When the young cop is interrogating him, Badger says, "I thought we were going to hang out". Badger is this lonely loser, who likes to do meth, likes to make money selling meth, and is desperate for a friend.
Then we have Jesse back at the casa with Jane, who is way too good looking for this particular wanna be gangster. She does reveal that she's in recovery so maybe she's not too far removed from the lifestyle that Jesse is leading, and maybe she will prove to be motivation to do better in the future. Just who's version of better is at question.
The drug bust and slimeball lawyer are hilarious. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. At least Walter was not frozen by fear and put into action what he had counseled Hank to do - to take your fear head on and kick it in the teeth. It will be interesting to see how the lawyer shakes out. His character is as crooked as the day is long, but he has some code he works by, and I think he's as smart as he is ambitious. I guess that's the perfect combination if your an up and coming drug king pin.

Episode 9:
Is this Walt and Jesse's last cook out? This is one of those times where watching a show that is a couple of years old kind of spoils the effect, because I know that there are three more seasons of the show. But, that aside, while you're watching this episode you can't tell how it's going to go until Walt and family are sitting int he doctor's office and hearing the diagnosis. I saw the scan and thought what Walt thought when I saw it, but I also know from friends and family members that what you see on the scan is not necessarily what you think you are seeing, which is why we pay the doctors the big bucks.
Walt came down pretty hard on Jesse for a fair amount of the episode. Jesse is kind of an idiot, I supopse, and I also understand how frustrated Walt was spending what he thought was going to be his last weekend cooking with one easily avoidable mishap after another. You know that he cares for the kid during the scene where they are making the battery and Walt is explaining how things work and Jesse is grasping it and almost answers copper instead of just wire. I think if he would have said copper, Walt would have given him a congratulatory hug.
Somthing I like about both these characters is that they will do what other people consider bad things, maybe even what they would have considered bad at an earlier point in their life, but there are certain things that are sacred, like thier families and friends and no matter how much they complain each kicking in part of his profits to balance the other one out as the need arises. If it wasn't for the murder and providing this horrible drug, you could almost respect their choices.

Episode 10:
Talk about your mean drunks. Walt is either a horrible father and pretty much an idiot, or he is one sick bastard with a plan. I don't mean physically sick, because, well we already know that he is. Obviously, I'm referring to his treatment of Walter Jr. and the tequila. You have to wonder what Walt was thinking and what is going to come up between Walt and Hank.
Jesse's dad is supposed to be a bad-ass, but seems like a normal enough guy, I guess I can see why Jesse feels hurt when Jane won't introduce him, but then she does have a point since Jesse is the 'stoner' neighbor and meeting her dad for three seconds does not give you an accurate view of a person's character.
Meanwhile, back at the office... I will just come out and say it, I don't like Skylar. I haven't ever liked her. But, I don't dislike her. I just don't think that she is a good match for Walt. So, I don't really care what she does with her co-worker, except how it might impact Walt. This is not a bad thing. Really. I think it adds to the tension of the story. Please note that I said Skylar and not the actresses name - I think Gilligan made a conscious decision to portray her in a certain, oft-seeming unsympathetic way.
So, the leit motif at the beginning of about half the episodes this season has been a forensics team in haz-mat gear collecting evidence at Walt's house after an explosion and/or fire. This episode show more than we had seen before which included two, presumably, body bags laid out in the drive-way. When the next scene is the party mentioned above and Hank is talking about C4 on the turtle and one's mind naturally goes to the drug cartel's involvement in the explosion - as I think the producers want us to. But, as the episode progresses and Walt becomes Mr. Fixit, I wonder if it won't be him blowing up the house accidentally, or if the whole home repair schtick is just to set-up the last scene.

Breadking Bad Season 2 Disk 2

Episode 5: Breakage
I love that Jesse really is smart, no matter how stupid he sounds or looks trying to be street. Of course, someone who is moving more than a pound crystal meth a week is street, most likely. For all of Walter's concerns about the new business arrangement, Jesse has his stuff together and knows what he's doing. He's even right about acceptable losses, though of course Walter will never admit it, because, well quite frankly, he has no street cred, nor does he desire any. Walter's world is cut and dry - all about the numbers, whether they be the formulas for cooking the meth, the money collected, or figuring out the bills and planning for his family.
Hank's bravado is finally shown for that, even if to no one but the audience. We now know that for all of his big talk, that he's just as disturbed by killing Tuco as anyone would be at taking a life, and that he is just as afraid of the repercussions as you or I would be. I suspect we will see this played front-and-center this season. Maybe even more than once.

Episode 6: Peakaboo
Jesse has himself a fine crew of dealers. These guys are not good guys who made mistakes, these are the dregs of society, but they're nothing compared to the whore and her pimp, or whatever 'Spooge' is to her. These people are the lowest of the low, me thinks. It is so rare to see dirty people on television. I don't mean the fake-looking dirty used for comic effect on sitcoms, I mean the scabby, rashy, ain't-washed-in-a-month-or-more kind of dirty. You also rarely get to see junkies except as corpses or the crazies that the CSI has to deal with. Spooge and his, um, baby-mama, they're rare on television, they're genuine looking.
I was just commenting today how I would like to see more of the principal and Walter at school. Then, boom, Walter is teaching again and Carmen is having a little chat with him, saying that she is inspired by him and is there for him, in a discreet way if needed. I'm not expert, but that seemed to me like she was throwing out hints.
I am even more curious as to how Walter and Skylar met after seeing Walter and Gretchen interact. Last season, it was implied that she had dumped Walter to be with Elliot, and not able to deal with it, Walter left Grey Matters, and his shot at being uber-rich. But, now we have Gretchen saying that for no reason she has ever been able to discern, Walter walked out on her in the middle of a visit to her family. I am very intrigued.

Episode 7: Negro y Azul
We got a show-themed music video to start the episode. I think it's pretty cool that the producers don't feel tied down to a formula and I think that provides the freshness that makes this show so appealing, well that and the good acting.
I love that Walter gets off on being a bad-ass. And after a fashion, so does Jesse. Together they have the shared delusion that there bad-assness will get them the city and a corner on the meth market.
We also get to see Hank off in El Paso making himself look like a total idiot, even though when his machismo finally caves at the sight of an informant's severed head on the back of a turtle and he has to go to the car to keep from throwing up, he proves heroic when the bomb goes off and he gets right in putting a tourniquet on the guys leg to keep him from bleeding out. You would think that someone in the DEA in the Southwest would at least know basic Spanish.

Breaking Bad Season 2 Disk 1

Episode 1: Seven-thirty-seven
Damn. That Bryan Cranston is impressive. Not only does he act the crap out of his character, Walter, but he directs the episode too. We get closer to a big reveal, but you know, it's only the first episode of the new season, so they're going to make us suffer. Suffer is perhaps not the best term, though some of the characters, actually everyone except Marie and Hank are suffering.
Quite an interesting twist, the way Gonzo turns out to have died. Tuco may be the bad guy in all of this, but he's not as bas as Walter and Jesse think that he is, regardless of how the episode ends.

Episode 2: Grilled
Oh they do like to drag things out for us. Things really heated up, except for the chili powder kind of heat. It's nice to see that they're keeping leit motifs running into the second season. This show is actually quite good about reminding us of things from earlier episodes, which I really like and wish more shows would do. So many American television series have throw away episodes so that they can hook new viewers mid-season, or more likely keep viewers who may have missed an episode here or there. It is kind of ridiculous to expect someone to be able to catch each and every episode of a 22 to 26 episode season that airs weekly over a seven or eight month season. But, that's just part of the problem, the audience is treated for most shows like we are incapable of following a story arc that last most of the year. Sure, some series, I am thinking mostly of procedurals here, introduce a story in the second episode which is touched on two or three times throughout the season only to be wrapped up in a season finale which has some parts that won't be wrapped up until the start of the next season. The exceptions seem to be the shows following the model of British television which airs multiple seasons thorughout the year, each series being six to ten episodes if an hour or shorter and perhaps three or four if the show is in the 90 or 120 minute format. You can cut out all of the crap and follow a show over a month or two and get a good series arc as well as an arc per episode.
They say so much in this episode without uttering a word. The Theo character who can only communicate by ringing the bell is pure brilliant. When Tuco figures out that something is going on, and by asking not necessarily the right questions but still going on the right track, you wonder how Walter is going to get himself out of this one. Hank being just smart enough and just competent enough to track down the lowjacked car, only to end up in a shoot out is a brilliant outcome in this comedy of errors that is Breaking Bad.

Episode 3: Bit by a Dead Bee
Naked in the super market? I didn't see that one coming. And neither did anyone else. Walter is like scary smart and I don't think anyone realizes it. It really gets brought home when he asks the psychiatrist about doctor-patient confidentiality. Layers upon layers of stories and lies, all of which Walter remembers perfectly. He makes a comment about being surpassed by all of his peers, and it was clear he didn't mean the other teachers at the high school, to wit he had said that he was greatly overqualified. We know that his former grad school buddy is super rich based on work that they both did. I am wondering if there is more to that story, and I hope that they show it.
They finally brought us back up from the depths of despair, just so they can drive us back down as Walter and Jesse are each more estranged from their perspective families than they ever have been before. They bring us up, so they can take us down, so they can bring us up. You get the idea.
I was a little creeped out by the DEA agents in Hank's office giving him the grill of Tuco as a souvenir of his kill.

Episode 4: Down
Somehow, it seems that Walter and Jesse's lives were better when they were cooking meth and running from drug dealers who wanted to kill them than it is with their own families. Walter and Skylar's relationship has reached a new low, but I predict with Skylar's secret, well at least one of them, revealed at the end, there is some more down to go. I wonder how Walter and Skylar hooked up to begin with? There was the flashback sequence during an episode in season one where we see Walter working on equations in what looked to be a university setting, and a young woman looks on. Was that Skylar? Just the young her represented by a different actor? I had assumed this until right now, but there was the partner who had made all the money and the woman he was with had very close ties to Walter, too. I bet she was the young woman. Oh snap! Now I don't know anything about how Walter and Skylar got together. She has go to know that he's a major league brainiac, right? I know that she and her sister seem pretty self-absorbed, but she would have noticed something like that, wouldn't she.
Walter's life is great compared to Jesse's life, discounting the whole terminal cancer thing. Mr. and Mrs. Pinkman evict Jesse from his own house which they actually own and not without due cause. Jesse then ends up realizing he doesn't have any friends, and then his motorcycle and the last of his possessions gets stolen. He then descends even further when he falls into a chemical toilet and gets stained blue.

Total Recall (2012)

I hate it when I can't remember if I'm with Kate Beckinsale or if I'm with Jessica Biel. Kate'll be all like, "we're such a happy little married couple" and then there'll be a knock on the door and it's Jessica and she's all like, "you ain't married to that bitch!" And then you have to go and fight some androids. I hate those days.
I was just reading a little about this film in preparation for viewing iit. I read, what I thought was a credible source, an article stating that they didn't try and base this as much on the Schwarzenegger movie as they did off of the CBC series, "Total Recall 2099". I think perhaps someone was pulling my leg. There are homages to the original film throughout. Yet, it does have much the same aesthetic as the television show and does take place on Earth after a war like the series. And yes, I am the only United States citizen who watched the Canadian sci-fi mystery procedural. Because it was there, okay? Because there is not enough good sci-fi programming available and you end up watching what you can get. And to be honest, the show wasn't that bad.
This actually followed the major story points of the first movie pretty closely for the first 75% of the film. The last quarter is still roughly inline, minus that whole 'we're on Mars' bit and the aliens, and making the inhospitable livable again. I kind of thought they might go that route in this, like at the end it turns out that devices have been built to clean the air of the "No Zone".
Most everything about this movie I was able to buy, except the whole bit about the Fall. I sincerely doubt that the most feasible way to get from Sydney to London will ever be through the Earth's core in a giant elevator. And they totally fucked up the whole gravity bit at the core. There would be no one to two minute zero g experience. It made for some cool cinematics, and offered a reason for our star to seem to be all but captured, when really the very Earth itself if pulling for him. Sorry. I can't help myself with the puns here.
The people I know who have seen this film and the original all lament, groan even, that they were remaking this movie. I did to at first, but for a different reason. The person I talked with today said that the Schwarzenegger flick was so great, that you couldn't compete with Farrell. Whereas, I didn't want a remake because I thought the original was so bad. It's an Arnold Schwarzenegger film for christ's sake! Throw in a few future doodads, a hooker with 3 boobs and set it on Mars and everyone is talking like it's the best envisioning of a Dick story since Blade Runner and maybe even better than that. Really? That older movie was action packed, but poorly acted. The Guvanator has never been known for his great great acting ability. Never. Now I do buy the nostalgia angle. I myself have fond memories of this movie because of who I saw it with and that evening. But I saw it as part of a double feature with the other film being Jean-Claude Van Damme's "Universal Soldier" and I thought that film was the stronger of the two. I am fond of lot's of things that are not great, but are special none-the-less. That is the only reason I can think of why people are so fond of the original.
This movie has some great actors. I've already mentioned Beckinsale and Biel and of course it stars Colin Farrell, who may from all reports be a prick, but he can still act and quite decently. We also get to see Bryan Cranston, as a genuine, mother fucking, action star. He kicks some ass and looks good doing it. He had a pretty big year last year, with both this film and Argo coming out. Yay Brian. In my opinion, not enough good things can happen for this man. Oh, and there's some guy, an older British bloke, who does a fairly decent, as always, job - Mr. Bill Nighy. Rounding out the major players is Bokeem Woodbine, whom the last time I saw him was playing a police officer partnered with a vampire played by Adrian Paul (of Highlander the television series fame) and the lover of another vampire played by Bai Ling. He could only have come up from that and still been on my radar, so nice to see that he hasn't just disappeared.
The special effects and visual effects were the reason I wanted to watch this film, as I fully expected it to be total crap. The FX did not let me down, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I liked the film, because even though the story was just as ludicrous as the first film's, it was executed very well by a more than pasable cast.
The one thing that bothered me about this story, okay maybe main would be a better word than one, is present in both films. At the beginning when Quaid/Hauser is first going into Recall, the whole shit-storm happens just after he's been injected. Okay, confessional time, I haven't read the Philip K. Dick story in so long, that it is feasible to me that I never read it at all. But, if I were writing the story, I would run them as the movies did, and that right at the very end, after the credits have already started rolling go back in and show it all to be a recall session, and you could go with either successful or perhaps more appropriately a failure in which he can't wake up from the session. I've always felt that's the way Dick did it, or would have done it. Ugh, I am so lame for not knowing what he did, but I will fix that. You will have to take my word for it that I have.
For the record, nothing happens during the credits, other than the statement, and I quote, "Based on the motion picture "Total Recall"" which comes right before they list the Second Unit and Visual Effects credits. At the top of the credits we get, "Inspired by the short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick". I think that pretty much puts to rest what this film was actually based on.

Total Recall on IMDb

Argo (2012)

This is one of those rare films, not counting sequels, where I go into it knowing almost everything about it. I'd heard reviews, plot descriptions and at least two interviews with Ben Affleck. I knew how the movie ended. Usually when this happens, I am watching the film because either I am a fan of the franchise (see the comment above about sequels) or I'm in it for the eye candy, i.e. the special effects, and more than a few times, both. I tend to stay away from films in this situation, because I feel that you can only be disappointed. Well, I am happy to stand corrected. As mentioned, I knew what was going to happen the whole way through and yet there I was worried that someone might crack under pressure or that someone else wouldn't get to the phone in time. I can understand why this film won the best picture Oscar. I hoped I would like this film, because every time I heard Affleck talk about it, he was so...I don't know, humble. He seemed like a nice guy who worked hard to make what he thought was a great movie, but not great because he did it, but because of the story and the people involved.
Affleck pulled double duty as star and director. To pull either one of those off well is commendable, but to pull them both off well, that's just impressive. And while I'm at least a little bit biased, I want to say on the record that Ben was rocking that beard. I'm guessing the nice thing about being director is deciding to have a full beard instead of one of those big ridiculous looking mustaches.
Affleck didn't pull this off alone. He had Bryan Cranston playing his boss, John Goodman playing his Hollywood connection and Alan Arkin playing the producer who puts the fake movie together. I think I might have mentioned before that I am a big fan of Cranston and everything I've ever seen him in. He puts it all out there in every performance, and I for one appreciate it. John Goodman is another one of my all-time favorites. I fucking watched Roseanne because he was in it. That is fan loyalty. While I don't go out looking for Alan Arkin flicks, I certainly take notice when I hear that he's in a film, as I always enjoy his work.
Watching this film, I was convinced that I was in 1980. Affleck did a great job of mixing actual news footage from the time alongside some well made re-enactments of memorable scenes along with the main body of the film which looked like 1980. There were lots of great scenes in this film, but one that sticks out in my mind is right after Mendez (Ben Affleck) picks up the VW bus in Tehran and drives passed a Kentucky Fried Chicken that's as busy as ever and there are old women sitting out front in their black hijabs eating fried chicken.
And kudos for getting President Carter to do the voice over at the end of the movie. I don't know if I think he was a good President or not, but I think he is the greatest ex-President this country has ever seen. That was a really nice touch.
Seeing Argo, and not only enjoying it but respecting the job that Affleck did goes a little ways towards forgiving Jennifer Garner for marrying him instead of waiting for me. A little ways.

Argo on IMDb

Breaking Bad Season 1 Disc 3

Episode 7: A No-Rough-Stuff-Type Deal
This episode was all about changes. From the obvious like Walt and Jesse change the way they make meth or the way Skyler views her sister after the whole tiara incident, to the subtle changes like Walt bringing up to Hank that he doesn't [any longer] see the bright line between what is legal and what is illegal or Jesse stepping up when he needed to because his sense of self worth is improving.
I like that when Walt and Skyler go to visit his doctor, that even though they're into his round of treatment still refuses to say anything other than to stick with the treatment. You want to try Eastern medicine? No problem as long as you keep doing the treatments here. You want to sacrifice heads of cabbage to a saint to banis the demons inhabiting your lungs? No problem as long as you keep doing the treatments here. Maybe he's a great guy, but I can't help but see it in terms of money and how the doctor wants more.
There were a few more outright humorous moments in this episode, like Walter Jr. using his position as camera man at the baby shower to look down women's dresses or when Walt and Jesse steal the chemicals, but can only find this giant and heavy drum that they sneak out past the guard locked in the porta-potty.
While not funny, per se, I love when Jesse first sees Walt with his new do and says he looks like Lex Luthor. What? I can be a little proud of myself for coming up with that comparison before I heard them use it. And I think we do get to see a little bit of the evil genius playing out in the open when Walt explains cordite to Jesse.
This is the season one finale. There were no cliff-hangers, but also no real wrap-up of anything either. I think what we got were some set-ups for the season two story arc. I'll just have to wait and see. It might be a long wait, as this season is the only one in the library system and I need to request that a library buy it to add to their collection, which entails me hoping that some other people have already requested it, or shortly will request it, so that there are enough for the library to think it will circulate, which it totally will.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention my little crush on the vice principal at the high school where Walt teaches. We don't get to see many other adults at the school, not in a meaningful manner at least and she is very sweet to Walt and also has taken up Hugo's defense. I'm sure that she'll somehow get fired over the break in at the school that led to Hugo's arrest.

Breaking Bad at IMDb

Breaking Bad Season 1 Disc 2

Episode 4: Cancer Man
They know. They all know. Well, not Jesse, but everyone else in Walt's life, not counting his mother whom we've yet to meet, knows that he had lung cancer and that it's bad. I guess Skyler didn't trump Walt's confession at the end of the last episode. But that is because this is turning out to be more of a drama than the light led me to expect. I'm pretty okay with that so far, though wouldn't mind seeing some of the humor added back.
We got to see another side of Jesse this time out and experience one of his hallucinations. I thought it was hilarious that Jesse hallucinated to mild mannered missionaries who ride up to his on bicycle's as big, tough, dirty bikers sporting a machete and hand grenade, respectively. The scene at Jesse's folks was a nice way to add more depth, even if the joint turning out to be his brother's was a little predictable.

Episode 5: Gray Matter
What an interesting episode. We learn more of Walt's past and find out that had things been a little different he would have been rich and famous. We also find out that Jesse suddenly cares about doing something the right way instead of just doing it.
What was really key about this episode is the long discussion that was had about whether or not Walter would have radiation and chemo-therapy. This is a topic that is never dealt with in non-news or non-news magazine television shows. Then instead of just talking about why he should have the treatment, Walt explains in depth with great clarity why he doesn't want to have it. You don't even get that in a news show. At best you can hope for the person with cancer fighting bravely on as they undergo treatment. The option of not being treated is never discussed, unless it is an economic issue and then the treatment is still seen as the only good way to deal with the problem.
I had already been told that Bryan Cranston was going to prove that he could do more than comedy, that he was in fact a very talented actor. It's one ting to hear this and believe it, but then when you see a defining moment like this episode, it's really the next level of your understanding to what she actually meant.

Episode 6: Crazy Handful of Nothin'
In this episode, we get to see Walter White fully transform into Lex Luthor, if Lex were a bad-ass. We learned two things, mercury fulminate is goddamned volatile, and don't fuck with chemists. And if they're from Texas, you should probably turn and run the other way. Not that Walt or anything about this episode had anything to do with TX, it's just the saying. Oh never mind. It's ruined in the explaining.
It's interesting to compare the two types of collateral damage that come with the crystal meth trade. On one hand you've got the unintended human collateral damage shown by Hugo getting pinched for Walt's crime and by Jesse getting horribly beaten trying to do right by Walt. On the other hand you have the intended consequences of Walt using the mercury fulminate to impress upon Tuco the importance of doing tings Walt's way.

Breaking Bad at IMDb

Breaking Bad Season 1 Disc 1

Episode 1: Pilot
Bryan Cranston is my hero. He just puts it all out there, literally, and goes for it. I love the mustaches, because with the staches and the hair do, he kind of looks like Ned Flanders, but more because I have a friend who is a teacher and has this exact same look going on. For all I know, he watched this show and decided on the look.
At first glance, the show seems like it has a crazy premise. A good guy who is an upstanding member of the community, a teacher, discovers he is mortally ill with inoperable lung cancer, decides that the only way he can pay for the super expensive chemo-therapy and maybe hope to leave his wife some money is to 'break bad'. Which he then does in a big way by deciding to cook methanphetimenes. It turns out he's brilliant at it, from the standpoint of the drug dealers because his product is so pure, but Walt is all like, "it's just basic chemistry". I would like to think that at that point that many of the teachers watching with the know-how to do this entertained for at least a brief moment the possibility that they might make some money cooking up some drugs.
The best part of the episode is the awakening that Walt has throughout. He realizes likely for the first time in his life that he doesn't have to take the crap that the jackholes are dealing up for him. Not only that, but when Walt does take charge of his own life in these situations, he's kind of a bad-ass.

Episode 2: The Cat's in the Bag
The mustaches are gone and somehow Walt doesn't look right. We don't see him shave it off, and this episode starts 12 hours after the first one ends. I guess before he passed out on the floor in the bathroom, he must have shaved.
Not as much happens in this episode. It is much more the story about Walt and Jesse and Walt and Skyler than about Walt versus the world like the pilot was. It's really neither good or bad, just different. It did yield more conversation and less action, particularly hijink action.
I've got to say, that if I found out my husband was buying and smoking pot and I didn't want him to do it, I would not figure out where the drug dealer lived and go over there and tell him to stop selling to my husband. I would either have it out with the husband, or you know, just talk to my brother-in-law in the DEA.

Episode 3: ...And the Bag's in the River
Even less action this episode than the previous one, but way higher emotional content. It was good. Things seemed way less goofy for Walter and Jesse and Skyler, though the brother-in-law DEA agent has no clue about what is going on. When he tries the scared straight tactic on Walter Jr. you understand why Walter Jr. keeps cracking up. I've got to side with the meth-whore (not quite the ring to it that 'crack-whore' has), that it just seems like the cop wants to buy some pot.
I really thought for a while that Walter was going to let Domingo go free. They were having their moment and I felt like Walter was generating that memory of buying the crib on the spot, just to have a reason not to kill the guy. When he sees the pieces of the broken plate and puts them back together to discover that a dagger sized shard is missing, two things happened for me. First, I felt the heart break as Walter realized that he was going to have to kill Domingo to protect himself and his family. Second, if I had been in Walter's shoes, I would have been stabbed to death because I never would have thought to piece the plate back together like that to find that a piece was missing. My hat is off to Vince Gilligan for coming up with that simple, yet very powerful and believable plot device.
I write each of these entries immediately after watching the episode. So, when I see a cliff hanger like I did here with Walter, all serious, walking in on Skyler, crying, and he says, "I've got something to tell you." I am willing to bet money it's not that he has lung cancer, or maybe that's what he's intended but she is crying for a reason (maybe baby related) that will trump him telling her about the cancer. Also, the DEA now has enough evidence in their possession to lay some strong suspicions on Walter, if they can only figure out what they have.

Breaking Bad at IMDb