Posted by
Unknown
- Monday, September 23, 2013
Posted by
Ronnie Brown
- Sunday, September 22, 2013
Welcome to New Hampshire, the "Granite State"! That's right, we've taken a huge step towards catching up to those flash forwards sprinkled throughout season 5 in what was admittedly a weaker episode than last week's, but that was bound to happen. If you go into this episode expecting "Ozymandias" part 2, you're going to be disappointed. But if you take it for what it is- showing the fallout of last week while putting everything in place for the series finale- it was an extremely effective hour of television. Where "Ozymandias" left us completely emotionally drained, "Granite State" just had a heavy sadness weighing over the whole thing, and it also contained one of the darkest moments in the history of the series- but more on that later.
We immediately got to see the fallout of everything from last week, and the best part about it was we finally got to meet Ed the disappearer! He wasn't really what I expected, but then again I don't know what I really expected. Looking back on him now though he was perfect. In a fantastic mirroring of Walt's menacing "We're done when I say we're done" moment from last year, he tried to bully Saul into going with him to New Hampshire, but the lung cancer stopped him in his tracks and sent him into a horrible coughing fit. The great Heisenberg truly has fallen.
For me, one of the most heartbreaking aspects of this episode is even though Walt's menacing phone call last week was meant to free Skyler by making her seem completely innocent, the cops are still after her and will stop at nothing to take her down unless she can give them Walt, whose name and face are now nationally known. Since she couldn't, the house was repossessed and, as Ed informed Walt, it became kind of a tourist attraction for kids, so the city put up a fence around it. That explains the appearance of the house in the flash forward scenes. It was also amazing mirroring when the scene with Skyler in the deposition greatly resembled Walt receiving his initial cancer diagnosis back in the first episode of the series (the high pitched noise drowning everyone out, someone asking if he/she understood what they just said, etc).
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| This episode finally showed that everyone will indeed remember his name. |
The sadness REALLY kicked in starting with Jesse. After rather brilliantly managing to escape his cage and getting caught, Jack decided to punish him. And what an awful, awful punishment it was. Todd luring Andrea out of her house and shooting her in the back of her head while forcing Jesse to watch from the nearby truck was so heart-wrenching for us as an audience to watch, especially since Jesse originally broke up with Andrea to keep her away from this business. Then thinking about how Brock would discover his mother dead on the doorstep the next morning makes it even worse.
After that brutal scene, the episode jumped forward a few months, meaning now we're extremely close to the flash forward scenes showing Walt's 52nd birthday. Here is where I felt more sympathy for Walter White than I had in a long time; he had lost a drastic amount of weight, to the point where his wedding ring would no longer fit on his finger (excellent symbolism of that sliding off too), and he was so desperate for human contact in that cabin that he begged Ed to stay longer and bribed him with $10,000 to do so. He also didn't even have the spirit left to try to find a vein to inject the chemotherapy into. This truly is a broken man. Then even his endeavor to "Ensure" his family had a better future (I'm so sorry for the terrible joke, please don't stop reading) blew up in his face, with his son telling him off and to just die already; again, great callback to season 1 when Junior said basically the same thing, albeit in a drastically different way.
Finally in the end we got to see Heisenberg return. It seemed that Heisenberg was dead and Walter White was about to die with him, ready to turn himself in and get caught in that bar. Leave it to Breaking Bad to surprise me because the absolute LAST people I would've ever expected to see were Gretchen and Elliot. We know that Grey Matter has been a sore spot for Walt since the beginning, but hearing the two of them reduce his contribution to the company down to the name and nothing else was too much for Walt to bear. When Gretchen said that the man everyone knew long ago was gone, that reinvigorated Walt. He realized she was right; Walter White is gone and Heisenberg remains. And Heisenberg would not go out with a whimper. He'd go out with a bang.
Random Thoughts
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| "Remember, there's still the kid." |
- I decided to save that image for this section because I just feel so bad for the poor guy. He's been through so damn much and I really hope he can make it out of this okay, but I'm not holding my breath.
- Todd is really the world's nicest sociopath, from giving Jesse ice cream to telling Andrea "it's nothing personal" even to his intense scene with Skyler (orchestrated by Lydia) in the White House.
- I really hope that wasn't Saul's last appearance in the series. It very well could be and I don't feasibly see how he could come back from Nebraska, but I still have some hope. Saul deserves a much grander exit.
- The show got two "fucks" this season. Vince Gilligan and others have said numerous times in the past that AMC gives them one "fuck" a year, so they try to make it count when someone says it. I guess AMC was more generous in the final eight episodes, since Hank got to say it last week and Jesse got one in this week. Both were so effective.
- Of all the things I want to see answered next week, close to the top of the list would have to be will Huell ever get out of the DEA safe house?! Hank was supposed to come back for him and never did...
- Finally, congratulations to Anna Gunn (Skyler) for her well-deserved Best Supporting Actress Emmy for last year's episodes! And congratulations to everyone involved for the outstanding drama series Emmy! It's about time! I'm so disappointed that Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul didn't win, but I'm so happy for Anna and the show itself. You all deserve it.
So there you have it. The end is almost here. The use of the extended Breaking Bad theme at the end of "Granite State" and the excellent despite showing no new footage trailer for the series finale have gotten me so incredibly pumped for the finale. I'm personally glad that this episode wasn't nearly as emotionally devastating as "Ozymandias" so we could get a chance to recover, but I'm sure the finale won't be so kind. So come back next week for the last time and join me for "Felina!"
Posted by
Travis Goss
- Thursday, September 19, 2013
Hiroshi Yamauchi, former president of Nintendo, passed away Thursday, Sept. 19, of pneumonia at the age of 85.
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| Photo courtesy of AP |
From turning a company who manufactured playing cards and various toys into one of the most popular and well known video gaming companies in the world, Yamauchi helped save the gaming industry from total collapse.
According to Reuters:
Yamauchi was the third-generation head of the family-run business, founded in the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto in 1889 as a maker of playing cards, and served as president from 1949 until 2002. He was an executive adviser to the company at the time of his death.
With the launch of the Family Computer (better known as the Famicom, the Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System) and the Game Boy, Yamauchi solidified Nintendo's place in the world of video gaming entertainment.
We here at Fanboys Anonymous are indeed saddened by the loss of this major gaming icon.
Thank you, Yamauchi-san.
Posted by
Unknown
- Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Anyone who has been a fan of the Persona series or the Megami Tensei series knew about the issues that Atlus, the company who created these series, was going into this Fall. With parent company Index Corp. filing for bankruptcy, these series along with all of the other ones that Atlus creates were in deep trouble and that their futures were in questioned. However, earlier this week, sunshine and good news was given to all of us Atlus fanboys out there! the news was that Sega bought out Index Corp. for a whopping 14 billion Yen, or 141 million dollars, and with this news the future of Atlus was saved! Now that this is out there, we can all feel good knowing that the ever so precious Persona 5 will continue its development (even though very little news has been given on this since 2011/2012). Peace has been restored to the world, and I can now return to playing Persona 4 Golden and drinking my hot cocoa. So with that, I'll end this with a very cute picture.
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| Look at how cute Teddie is!!!!!! |
Posted by
Mike Paden
- Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Geek Speak returns with a revengeance with an all new cast and an all new format. Join hosts Craig Kellerman, Travis Goss, "Classic" Dave, and Mike Paden as we run down the big headlines in the nerd world including fresh reactions to Grand Theft Auto V, the successful crowd-funding of Mighty Number 9, and our favourite Robert De Niro movies.
Catch Geek Speak live every Tuesday at 8pm EST on Mega Powers Radio.
- YouTube -
- Follow the Hosts -
Craig Kellerman
Travis Goss -
@TravisGoss79
"Classic" Dave Butcher
Mike Paden -
@MRPaden
Posted by
Unknown
- Monday, September 16, 2013
