The Worst of Breaking Bad Writing
 

I loved the show from start to finish... only a few missteps along the way during 60-70 shows is an amazing accomplishment. That being said there were some holes here and there.... of all of them, which did you think was the worst writing and why.

From this season I'd say it was the way they had Huel flip so quickly.... it just didn't make sense that a long time henchmen would flip over a single cell phone pic and the word of a DEA agent.

Having Gus Fring associating with street level dealers was a big mistake as that would never happen.

In the final episode after the Nazi guys searched Walt from head to toe and looked inside his car I'm pretty sure they would have made him open the trunk also.

When they were robbing the train - how did they know where would the certain cistern be located? Remember that Lidia was supposed to give location of cistern only at night (6 hours before the train), yet they somehow knew that earlier.

Ps: and smaller thing on top of that - how were they sure that train would stop so close to the truck, what if train stopped 50 meters earlier?

To me the Huel flip wasn't that big of a shocker. Maybe I am remembering things wrong, but there was never any real evidence that Huel was loyal to Saul beyond being his bodyguard/henchman for hire and I feel Saul would probably flip on Huel in a heartbeat to save his own ass.

So Huel sees that the shit has hit the fan and he decides to save himself first.

When the ship starts to sink the rats scurry for the life rafts.

the gustav season was the best. checkout the amc the killing amc is killing it :2 cents: lots of fucking hits hell on wheels ends oct 5th :(

I think they would check in the boot also

I really liked The Killing. It was a well done show.

If a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass a hoppin.

thats a good point

Great ending !

Yeah, Saul was actually mad at Huell just before that since he didn't do his job and Jesse beat Saul down.

For me, I always felt like there should have been a little more backstory on Gustavo Fring's past than what they gave us.

This bothered me too.

I would have loved even a few full episodes showing how Fring came to power and created the empire that he did.

Fring is going to be a character in "Better Call Saul" :thumbsup

I've seen this mentioned quite a few places, but when was it established that Walt and the Nazis were mortal enemies? He pitched it to Todd like he just needed to make some money because he was broke and dying. They were taking precautions but they probably felt they did Walt a solid and he wouldn't try to kill them considering the situation with Hank and them giving him a barrel of cash. Plus, they weren't exactly the smartest guys out there. Muscles, not brains. They were no Gustav.

Even the Jesse thing is understandable because both Walt and the Uncle take their word as their bond, so the Uncle wanted to show Walt that he didn't go back on his word and that he made Jesse his slave and not a business partner. That was a dumb move on the Uncle's part in hindsight, but I can see why he did it.

Oh yeah, because Better Call Saul is about his career leading up to Walt, right?

That's good. I thought Gustav's character was brilliant and would like to see more of him.

That is great news!

I'm guessing that after they killed Hank against Walt's will, took 68 million or so of his money, and threatened his wife and family that the Nazi's would have been thinking there's a chance this guy might not like us.

Yeah, that's another big hole I'd like filled. Don Eladio kills the cook and tells Gus that he is only alive because 'we know who you are in your country' or something like that... And they never explain who Gus was or where he came from.

Not exactly a hole but silly was the part when Walt went to his ex-partner's home and scared them into believing he would have them killed if they didn't deliver the money to his son when he turned 18. Once those red lasers were pointed at them, you knew it was BS. Two dumb fucks with pens, wow, shocker.

As good as the show is it is filled with holes and plenty of parts which make no sense. Hugely overrated IMO.

I actually thought that was excellent writing, and very plausible. Keep the amounts in mind. They have billions of dollars at their fingertips... and Walt is demanding they send 8 Million to his wife and kids... an amount much lower than the contributions they know he made to the success of the company years ago. The dollar amount is insignificant to them, and not having Walt (or any possible minions) around is worth a lot.

My guess is if the show flashed forward you'd see them throwing all of Walt's cash into their fireplace and burning it to avoid any implication of their handling illegal money... then cutting a check for 8 Million to Jr out of their petty cash accounts and considering the matter 'done' - especially when they read in the paper that Walt is now dead. :2 cents:

The money part didn't bother me, it's the two idiots standing outside with laser pens pretending to be hitmen that seemed beyond ridiculous. I guess all you need to scare someone is a red light. It's amazing how dumb many parts of this show people consider brilliant writing.

The final shootout where Hank would have been hit by the very first bullet - they were at a range of about 50 feet...what was that scene with hundreds of bullets hitting nothing...it went on and on.

They would have killed him in the desert same time as Hank.

You need more than a red light. You need a red light and the threat of a man who is the target of a nationwide manhunt for being the kingpin of all meth distribution world wide... standing in your living room unexpectedly. If some guy from your local supermarket pointed a red light at you, it's unlikely to make you nervous. If Pablo Escobar, in the middle of his reign, found his way into your living room and waives his hands so two red lights start dancing around your chest... that would be much more intense.

Not all red lights are the same :winkwink:

I agree, that was weak writing. Having Jack just let Walt go after handing him 11 million in a barrel was far from the best they could have done. If they wanted Walt to get away with some cash they could have had it happen a better way. :thumbsup

The ringtone on Todd's phone for Lydia was hilarious.

That scene would have been better if they just had Jack and Todd get there first.... so the initial shootout was less lopsided. Then they could have had a second car full of Nazi henchmen show up after Gomez was dead, while they had Hank pinned down, if they wanted to give Hank the tough guy ending he got.

If you want to talk about bad writing, you have to look no further than the Jesse Pinkman character. Absolutely pointless. It's like the creators of the show wanted him in the story just because it is who the younger audience can relate to. In one of the earlier seasons he had the chance to make 1.5 million dollars in three months but he decides that it would be start a divergent, dangerous and completely unnecessary business of selling drugs on his own to make a fraction of the money he could make in a far safer way.

Not to mention how many times he risks his own life and his families for Jesse. He should have just fucked him in the ass and gotten it over with.

The women in the show are all weak stereotypes and incredibly annoying at that.

It's full of boring scenes that make no sense and seem to drag on forever. The dialogues are not great, not by any stretch. The scenes of Walk and Skyler arguing or Walt trying to convince her of something and lying through his teeth are far too many.

I guess many of you will hate me for this (probably already do since I'm not praising this as the greatest show ever made) but I found the Gus character and the whole Pollos Hermanos story downright stupid.

Every season seems to follow the same recipe:

- Walter and Jesse have to find a place to cook or are cooking meth.
- Some mishap occurs/Jesse does something stupid.
- Walter cusses Jesse out and breaks up with him.

Episode break.

- Next episode they develop some ridiculous plan.
- The plan works as hi-jinks ensue with odd coincidences, happenstance, and dumb luck saving their butts so they can live to cook meth another day!
- The odd couple kisses and makes up as Walter decides to go steady with Jesse again.

For the record I loved this show when it first came out. Seasons 1 and 2 were my favorites. But it got old fast. Writing is lame, story is unbelievable to say the least, it revolves around one very unlikeable character. Seriously, all Walt does is lie and deceit and endanger his family and everyone he cares about. At least in the final episode he admits that he did it for himself. He should have just died like a man and not caused anybody any trouble, because seriously that's all he did, but then there wouldn't be a show.

Anyone who thinks this show is some kind of high art is delusional. The story reaches, a lot. I'm not saying it's bad by any means. It's good for what it is. But I can think of four or five other shows that are so much better and don't get half the praise.

This last season was sloppy :2 cents:

I basically gave up on it when the Nazis gave Walt a barrel of cash and let him go. Yeah right.

I would like to see a spin off show about Saul's life on the run.

As far as "bad writing" all you need to do is watch Dexter to see tons of bad writing and after seeing that you will not longer complain about the minor issues with the writing on Breaking Bad.

There will be a spin off about Saul... but the rumor is it will be a prequel, before Saul and Walt ever met... and more a comedy than a drama.

1. Walt Goes Rambo
“Our original version was that Walt would use it somewhat in Rambo fashion,” Gilligan said. “Hand held. But the closer we got to the end we realized how Walt’s cancer would resurface and how sick Walt would be. That felt wrong for Walt to go out brawn over brain, go out like Rambo. Walt on his best day was never Rambo. Very late in the game we came up with mounting it in the trunk and using the garage door motor as a way of sweeping it back and forth and automating the process. Everyone, me included, loved the moments where Walt was MacGyveresque.”

Also read: ‘Breaking Bad’ Finale: 5 (Sort of) Loose Ends (Video)

2. Walt Kills Cops
“We thought, gee, is it too obvious he’d use it on a bunch of bad guys? … He wanted to be known as Jesse James. He wants the credit. So we had versions that we talked about for instance where the police come to get him. He uses it on the police. But we didn’t like that. It just didn’t seem right.”

3. Walt Takes Out a Jail
“We had a version where he goes and breaks Jesse out of jail just as the Nazis were gonna knock Jesse off in jail, and he comes in and uses an M60 to lay waste to an entire prison or a prison bus.”

Gilligan says of the alternate M60 scenarios: “I’m not saying we got far with those, but we would talk them through for hours on end. … We were like, you know what? as bad as Walt is we don’t want to see him killing good guys. If he’s going to use this M60, even if it’s slightly less surprising, let’s see him use it on guys even worse than he is.”

Also read: Can Bryan Cranston Escape ‘Breaking Bad’s’ Success?

4. Skyler Kills Herself
“I was leaning toward that and the other writers were like, that’s a bridge too far. Let’s not do that. And they were right. I think that would have been very unnecessary. … I was thinking at some point she went with the Disappearer. We talked about every option under the sun… and one of them was that Skyler leaves with Walt and the Disappearer. … We could almost kinda sorta see where Skyler would go if she was sort of like zombified. But we could never figure out how to get Jr. to go along. … There’s no bringing Jr. if Jr. doesn’t want to go. We talked about a possible version where Skyler and Walt are tied up at a Motel 6 kind of place and he’s talking to her in a bathroom saying, ‘It’s going to be alright… I’ve got a plan. Skyler? Skyler?’ And he finally forces the door open and she’s in a bloody tub or something like that.”

Also read: ‘Breaking Bad’s’ Aaron Paul Mashup: The Ultimate Jesse Pinkman ‘Bitch’ Reel (Video)

5. Jesse Dies, Then Walt Jr. Dies
This wasn’t necessarily a finale ending, but it was an idea Gilligan kicked around before Season 1 even began. He says he considered a sequence in which a very ruthless drug dealer – he would include elements of Gus Fring, Krazy 8 and Tuco Salamanca – would kill Jesse. Walt, “filled with rage,” shackles him in a basement. He rigs a tripwire with a shotgun, so that the dealer can kill himself by pulling it. Walt wants the dealer to do it, so he begins torturing him from the ground up. He starts at the toes and begins “lopping off bits of this guy and cauterizing it with a blowtorch or something.” This goes on for weeks, but the dealer won’t kill himself. Eventually Walt Jr. discovers him and tries to give him some water. When the dealer realizes Walt Jr. is Walt’s son, he trips the wire and kills them both.

Also read: ‘Breaking Bad’ Finale: Just Perfect (Video)

Gilligan said no one at AMC was wild about the idea, and eventually his team of writers – “people with more sense,” he joked — reined him in.

“And you’ll notice we never actually did that scene,” he said.

Damn some of you are bad at watching TV shows. Just because something wasn't spelled out doesn't make it a "hole".

Actually that auto shotgun(fired first) throws out a wall of lead in a couple of seconds. Hank and Gomez would have been dropped instantly. So that's not exactly bad writing, but it is something gun expert could have given advice on.

Ditto on the trunk. Also when he parked sideways next to the building, May have hinted at a shaped charge are something like that in the car.

But, The diner scene did a good job of showing Walt as a desperate guy that just needed money with no intention of killing. This could have reasonably caught the Nazis off guard.

Would it be fair to call such shows 'soap operas for straight men'?

One part that stands out is that Walt is sometimes soooo smart and smooth... But when he tells lies to his family he's REALLY REALLY bad at it. Like the gasoline on the carpet excuse, they could have added a laugh track and trombone to that scene.

"Uhh I had like gas on my pants and I came over here and then I like spun around and fell here and there was gas everywhere I swear!"

The gas lie was to show his 'act' wasn't working anymore.

agreed but he chose to play it that way to set up the future scene of Skylar calling him out on the lie.


also Gus wouldn't have givin up his identity that easy to Walt, that bugged me...kingpins know to stay hidden better

The cool thing is though, Bad guys do make mistakes.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1...ng-curl-in-php

Changed to Frosty from Ross William Ulbricht after posted.