Synopsis:

An unusual strategy starts to pay off, while plans are set in motion that could bring major change.


Episode 12 of 16

Looking forward to seeing what goes down after the end of last week's episode. Only four to go after tonight.

I know. TV, for the most part, goes back to being crap.

You forgot about Boardwalk Empire!

no he didin't.

i am going to a bbque tonight so cannot see this live. hope i don't hear something before i see it...

Shouldn't be hard if you avoid sites talking about it.

i know, but such a part of lexicon that you never know where you might hear something. i will try to watch later tonight however...

Turn off your smart phone (don't be tempted to go on Facebook or Twitter), keep the computer off, after the BBQ is over, fire it up on the DVR. Problem solved.

Today's episode is written and directed by Sam Catlin. It's his sendoff of the show. He wrote several episodes in the series. He cowrote both "Fly" and "Crawling Space". This is his first time directing a BB episode.

Fly was one of the few episodes that I would consider filler during this series run. I hope that doesn't bode badly for tonight's episode.

Any thoughts as to when Breaking Bad went from little seen show with a cult following to pop culture sensation? I mean, I can't think of another program that doubled its highest ratings at the beginning of it's 6th (or 5th) season.

It's something called DVDs.

Thank Netflix and the advent of binge-watching.

Considering he also wrote Half Measures and Crawl Space, we're in good hands.

Netflix is credited with it, looking more for a time.

It seems like it happened after or some time during the fourth season to me but I could be wrong. I hardly knew anyone (offline) who talked about it before then but all the sudden season 5A started and everyone was saying it's their favorite show. I first got into it with the season two DVD set. I had the season one set for a while but for some reason put off watching it until season two came out. I watched season one really fast and bought season two right after and have been watching live since season three.

Yep, and Fly was a pretty fun episode. It's right in the middle of the series and the point in which Walt realized what he had become via his remarks about Jane's death, "I wish I had just stayed home". Crawl Space is one of my top three episodes.

Just FYI from comments made from Anna Gunn: The last 3 episodes of this show are supposed to be bloody amazing. Every episode of Breaking Bad is special to me though!

Yeah The Fly episode isn't nearly as bad as what everyone says it is if you ask me. It's actually a favorite of mine as I thought it built kind of interestingly on the relationship between Walt and Jesse. Also like you mentioned it seemed to be one of the only times we've seen Walt feel like he's guilty.

Strong word of mouth, and Netflix definitely helped. I remember watching this show since episode 1, and I would tell my friends about it, who just laughed it off. "Wait, you mean the dad from Malcolm In The Middle is in this, and his brother in law just so happens to be a DEA agent?"

People would also brush it off when you gave them the premise and they say "Oh so it's just Weeds with meth?"

Wasn't a fan of Fly but those 2 you mentioned are a couple of my favorites in the whole series.

Agreed on strong word of mouth, but that sadly didn't really do jack for shows like The Wire. I have to think a lot of the success over the last year or so has been a result of the pop culture appeal of The Walking Dead and the various age groups pulled in via BB promos.

Yeah, around season 4 it exploded. I bought the season 1 DVD, a few months before the Season 2 started and fell in love with the show. Wait... not sure if I also bought the series in PSN, digital version, because it was in HD, the second season, and then started watched the third season live(?), something like that. You can search the threads here, almost no one watched the first season, a few more in the second season, then the third season with more, and then it exploded in the fourth. The second part of the fifth season has reached "Lost" length threads.

And about the reasons, social media helps, FB, Twitter, etc. Sites like Buzzfeed, the show is pretty quotable, and great for gifs creatives, memes, etc. And yeah, in this world The Wire would have exploded the same or even more. You can already see all the Omar gifs everywhere...