Obviously you knew many huge things. Take Lalo vs Gus, for example. Were you really wondering how that was going to turn out?
It may be lazy, but it’s true.
That’s not to say a prequel can’t be good or even better than whatever it is a prequel to. It’s just hard. And that is a major reason.
So you know Gus survives and the whole show is ruined. It’s wild they even bothered
Who said anything about “ruined”? Here are some things that I actually did say:
To be clear, having the knowledge of the future did not “ruin” it, but it put a ceiling on how great it could be.
knowing that a character survives is not:
any prequel’s “ceiling” is only limited by your inability to appreciate the difference
Ah it’s all in the journey, not the destination.
There’s tons of new characters whose endpoints are unknown.
The sequel black and white portions give us enough unknown even for Saul.
Existing characters are enriched by exploring their back stories. I always wanted more Gus.
And the journey is so well executed for all of them. Plenty of suspense and intrigue for the whole run.
I hear you on the weakness of a prequel in general. That’s part of why the show being so good was impressive. No one was more surprised than me.
I don’t know, man.
If I know a character is going to survive a brush with death, I’d say that is pretty clearly knowing what is going to happen. It doesn’t mean I know everything that is going to happen. But I will know that specific things are going to happen or not. I can’t even believe this is debatable.
For me it’s both journey and destination. Prequels start in the hole when it comes to destination points.
That’s fair. Normally I’d agree. For me the show was exceptional.
Me too. Just not as exceptional as BB.
That makes sense.
I think in BCS’s case, knowing the endpoints actually strengthens the storyline. For example, I was desperate to see Kim’s story and find out why she had disappeared by the time BB happened.
Would you skip three full seasons of Breaking Bad if watching it back?
Maybe… I’m still scarred by that shot of Walter in his underwear.
But honestly I am here for the Gus Fring stuff all day.
The reason why Kim’s story is so compelling is that it’s one of the few we can’t really deduce based on having seen BB.
what’s wild is pretending that you don’t see the drama is often in discovering how something happened.
When you don’t know how something ends, you both discover how something happens and also remain in suspense over the result.
?
Saul, Chuck, Lalo, Nacho, Howard all had storylines that you didn’t know (iirc)
To be fair, he did say “half the cast”
I get what you’re saying in general obviously. But: it’s a not-infrequent filmmaking choice for a movie to start by giving away some key piece of the ending we’re navigating toward before jumping back chronologically. Do you take the stance that this always weakens a movie, or do you think that can be a good choice?
I’m putting Saul in the known column
Lalo pretty much has to die. There is no way he’s not in BB if alive. He’s too important. So also known.
I guess Nacho could have made it to Canada or got his own Cinnabon somewhere, so I’ll give you that one. Chuck and Howard, too. I give them full credit on Howard. Didn’t see that one coming until his ultimate scene.
Some of the best tv shows and movies either start with the ending or are depictions of historical events where we know the endings. Saying BCS is flawed because we know some of the ends of the character arcs is a super weird take.
Damn I got sniped by LFS on my take 