To think Skyler White was horrendous and Walter should have left her?

[SmellyToilet]

Ok so Walter made a stupid decision and decided to engage in illegal activity to find his cancer treatment and support his family. He knew he was doing wrong and didn’t feel great about it so he kept it quiet. Yes he became a little distant … he was dishonest about what he was doing … he was also suffering from chemo side affects and panicking about finances.

So Skyler decides the best course of action is to have an affair. She tries to turn his son against him and even tries ti stop him interacting with his baby - this is BEFORE she even knew what he was doing!!

When she realises what he’s doing and how much money he has made she suddenly decides she wants “in” … yet still continues to treat him like shit and then proceeds to give HIS money away to her fuck buddy.

I mean, yeah … Walter did go from small time meth cook to psychotic drug dealer kingpin but AIBU to think he should have fucked Skyler off at the start?

I found BB a bit over-rated TBH. It started off well, but it got to a point where I just didn't like anybody, so it lost its appeal. I watched to the end to see how it all turned about but I think the last few seasons were a struggle.

How did you feel about Jesse?

But WW was the villian?

He got into making drugs because of his ego and he chose not to escape it several times…. People died because of him, including his brother in law…..

Wendy Byrd is also the villian. Laura Linney was soooo good at portraying her character’s spiral. Marty Byrd was too weak to stop her. I thought it was a great show.

As soon as he decided to get involved in making drugs he put her and his son’s life at risk. How can an affair compare to that? One of the things I like about breaking bad is that all the characters are flawed and complex in some way. I think Walt and Skylar were both trapped in unhappy lives/ marriage and would have been better apart but really don’t like the way she is demonised.

First time I watched it I hated her.. and remember reading online about how much abuse she was getting.

Then I woke up and realised I only hated her because I loved Walt and his cool storylines. You side with him as he's the main character. In real life however it would be awful to be married to him, the way he acts and the danger he puts the family in. It would send me insane!

I agree with those saying Walt made some terrible decisions. The fact is he got off on those decisions and felt alive and powerful for the first time after a life long losing spree (his first love, his first business, a job he felt proud of, bullied and pitied by Hank and others, etc. . He said to Jessie at some point something like how lucky Jessie was to have achieved so much (money/business) at such a young age, and he clearly is overly invested and proud of his activities, he demands "say my name" and claims his turf when there's a risk of losing it and he makes awful things happen to others, usually Jessie, when he fears the loss of his business - this means that Walt didn't consider his family his achievement and he says this in different ways throughout the show - his family were never central in his life.

Skyler was trappped. She was cut off from the truth, not protected from the very real danger to her and her children's lives, lied to, raped, frightened to leave, frightened for her kids. The affair was the least of her worries. I watched a few talk shows with the cast as guests after it ended - I hated how the character of walt was revered and therefore Cranston held up above them all. It's amazingly well acted, by all of them, it's such an amazigly well done story, but only Jonathan Banks (Mike) and Dean Norris (Hank) seemed to not just revere him.

This is exactly how I see it. I loved Jesse and his friends, despite the drugs they were all totally likeable characters. I also loved Mike, and the two sides to him, hitman and loving grandfather. In fact, Mike and Saul are probably my two favourite characters. Skylar was smart but she could also be annoying. I think BB did the right thing in ending after 5 seasons rather than plodding on with the same storyline for way too long (looking at you, Walking Dead.) Better Call Saul is excellent, and I love how the same characters are all slowly weaved in over time.

She was fucking annoying. I don’t agree that Walter did it “for the family”, he did it out of vanity and arrogance and it was his fault not Skyler’s.

But she was a total PITA.

Walter didn't do it 'for his family', he did it because of his ego and boredom with his boring life as a teacher when he could have been rich like his friend who sold him out.

Walter is a mass murderer who every time he has a chance to redeem himself or save someone's life, doesn't do it.

Skylar is annoying, but also is trying to protect her family from Walt, correctly so if she had any idea what he was doing, which she doesn't for most of the time.

I watched this twice, first time I did root more for Walt, second time saw his corrupt ego and murderous intent much much faster.

I stopped liking him about half way through too I think. I certainly didn’t feel any live for him at the end.

Walter says himself that he didn't do it for his family. I don't know how anyone could watch the whole of BB and think Skyler was somehow more morally culpable than Walter.

rats! link didn't work. Anyway, it's that famous exchange in the final episode, where Walt says to Skyler: "I did it for me. I liked it, I was good at it, and I was really... I was alive".

rats! link didn't work. Anyway, it's that famous exchange in the final episode, where Walt says to Skyler: "I did it for me. I liked it, I was good at it, and I was really... I was alive".

I could hear Walt saying that as I read it! It's not long ago that we watched it and the way it ends with Walt on the floor staring up to the ceiling and and grinning, knowing he's wasted the baddies, and put everything in place to secure his kids future. A much better way to go than in a hospital bed attached to a drip.

I had a similar discussion yesterday about Shiv from Succession, she seems to hated/seen as worse than the other characters by a lot of people. Again it is misogyny/gender stereotyping at play. Women are supposed to be 'nicer' so when they are not they are seen as 'worse' than men.

The thing that left me thinking at the end is that the loud, obnoxious and generally vulgar Hank is the only adult in the entire lot that was a fundamentally decent person.

Walter enjoyed the buzz of being a hotshot in the drugs world. What started off as a means to an end turned into an ego trip and a massive risk for him and his family. Yes I think Skylar got greedy but it was Hobson’s choice for a situation she hadn’t chosen.

I disliked Hank the Plank had a wank in the bank throughout the whole thing, I found him so irritating!! but strangely at the end, he was the only one I really felt sorry for.

That sounds so interesting @kanaloa! Lucky you. And in a very unacademic way I totally agree with all that.

I would also love to do a degree on Breaking Bad, or maybe a joint honours in Breaking Bad and Buffy 😂

I loved Hank and agree he was ironically one of the few moral characters. It has been a while since I watched it but I recall being fascinated by how all the actions are carefully followed by consequences which doesn't always happen in TV.

It's so easy to blame Skyler, such a cop out. Women are always villanised, it's tiresome.

The hate for Skylar drives me up the wall.

If you re-watch the series you will see that WW didn't 'turn' bad, he was always arrogant, self-involved and had a vindictive streak. Remember him deliberately getting his disabled teenage son so drunk on tequila that he vomits, just because he couldn't stand the fact that he looked up to his Uncle Hank? And what about him trying to force himself on Skylar in the kitchen after she repeatedly says "no"? He was already a nasty piece of work in season one but he was also weak and repressed. His cancer and being forced to confront his own mortality emboldened him, and he saw it as justification for using and abusing others under the guise of providing for his family when what he was actually doing was feeding his own ego and enjoying feeling powerful for the first time in his life.

As others have pointed out, WW's treatment of Jesse shows what kind of man he is. I work with children and teens who are victims of Child Criminal Exploitation and the way Walt's relationship with Jesse, the real tragic figure of BB, has all the hallmarks of CCE grooming. Jesse may be a fuck-up but he is kind, intensely vulnerable, and has a child-like naivety and unmet need for connection that WW exploits repeatedly. He makes Jesse dependent on him, demands loyalty and sacrifice from him but gives next to nothing of himself in return and uses Jesse to further his own ambition, destroying his life in the process.

Skylar may be "annoying" at times, but misogyny is the only possible explanation for the widespread belief that she is the real villain of the piece. WW is directly or indirectly responsible for countless deaths, including children, and shows no genuine remorse. Yes, she has an affair. But at this point her Husband has already been unfaithful in many ways, not sexually, but by leading a secret life of criminality, knowingly putting Skylar and their children in danger and lying to everyone around him. It says a lot about attitudes to female sexuality that a woman engaging in extra-marital sex is seen by so many BB fans as harder to forgive than a man committing mass murder!

This has really put me in the mood to watch BB again. Watched first 2 series of BCS, my interest in it just died off. Loved Ozark! Can anyone recommend any similar shows, love a good crime/ drugs/ thriller type show.

I think they do a good job of portraying Skyler as the "nagging" wife who is a little controlling in the first few episodes.

"Walt, that's the card we don't use"

"You're so very late"

The awful hand job scene in the first episode, her checking his calls and going to find Jesse Pinkman, and her reaction to Walt not wanting treatment for the cancer all portray her as a controlling woman, and make us understand Walt a lot better. She infantalises and patronises Walt, who is working two jobs at that time to keep them afloat.

She's meant to be disliakable at that point.

But once he starts making meth, I have no problem with her actions, her affair, her leaving Walt or anything else.

Women usually 'nag' when men don't listen.