Better Call Saul being the bigger story makes Walt seem like an insane side character who just came along and destroyed everything the other characters had built up

The biggest tragedy here is that nobody told you to NOT watch the last 4 episodes of BCS until you watch Breaking Bad.

There’s an interesting parallel I haven’t seen anyone talk about between Walt’s “I am the danger!" speech and Jimmy’s "Lightning bolts shoot from my fingertips!" rant. In both scenes, they’re told by someone who doesn’t occupy the same criminal world as them that it’s normal for them to experience an emotion. For Walt, it’s fear. For Jimmy, it’s sadness. Both react by very aggressively insisting that they are above those emotions, that their life is more dangerous and therefore more important than the lives of "normal" people and they deserve more respect. But whereas Walt’s performance is very menacing and his claims mostly truthful, Jimmy’s performance seems almost childish and his words ring hollow. It’s a perfect encapsulation of the differing way the two shows present "The Game". In Breaking Bad, it’s larger than life. It feels so much more important than Walt’s boring suburban day-to-day existence. But in Better Call Saul, it’s just messy and terrible. It doesn’t bring any purpose or meaning to Jimmy, it’s just something he backslides into when he’s shut out of an opportunity at a real life. He only flaunts his place in it to scare people away from him so he can avoid ever having any difficult or genuine conversation. It’s so interesting going from a story about someone who’s never been a criminal and thinks it’s something worth bragging about to a story about someone who’s always been a criminal and wishes they could be something better.

Smoking for Kim and Jimmy is a symbol. It is a symbol for the bond they share. They connect over self destructive behaviour. Smoking represents the scamming that is the foundation to their relationship

My body physically cannot take enough multi hour-long Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul analysis videos

I appreciate calling Bill Burr's character "Bill Burr"

After watching Better Call Saul, then watching Breaking Bad again, you can REALLY feel the ghosts of Nacho and Lalo in literally every Breaking Bad episode.

When Hank tells Walt to "be a man" and admit what he did, he's not saying "man" as opposed to "woman" but "man" as opposed to "boy"

Imagine going on KZfaq and finding out your therapist makes Breaking bad & better call Saul analysis videos

I can imagine that seeing it backwards makes Mike's death way more tragic. His death was already senseless and a sad moment but it would definitely hit harder. Yes, in BB he was an ally but always ready to pull the trigger on Walt if ordered to and knew he was a ticking timebomb - but in BCS he has gone out of his way to save Saul's life so many times, we know his whole tragic backstory and his humanity is fleshed out much more.

My theory on how Walt can be as disconnected from Gale's death as he is, is in part that... well, he didn't see it. He wasn't there. He told Jesse to do it and that's when it was over for him. He didn't have to look Gale in the eyes while he begged for his life. He can compartmentalize, maybe, in a way of not feeling like Gale actually died, but more thinking of him like a dog he liked that was taken away to some farm.

It’s cool that someone who never saw the over the top action and suspense of BB still recognized the show BCS for how great it was with no nostalgia goggles or loyalty to the series. Says a lot.

About walt's backstory and pilot actions: "He got that dawg in him"

I'd like to make a correction. Kim doesn't become Giselle. She becomes Slippin' Kimmy.

My mom did this. I tried to get her to watch BB with me 10 years ago but she wasn't feeling it. Then i started binging BCS and she got really in to it. But she kept asking me all these questions that I couldn't answer because it was a spoiler lol. We JUST finished BB a few days ago and she looooves both of the shows.

It was continuously my impression that Walter did indeed feel guilt and a lot of it, but that his way of coping with the guilt is that he tries to make himself right in order to not have to feel it anymore. This causes him to double down again and again encouraging his destructive behaviour even more. The more he causes damage, the more he is forced to live his power fantasy.

The quick cut, after Hank gets fired, of him crying in Marie’s arms blew me away the first time. The way Hank’s growth and change parallels Walt’s degeneration as a man was always one of my favorite aspects of the show. Hanks journey is just as compelling to me.

I also caught that Jimmy wasn't Kim's introduction into "slippen" behavior. Jimmy was merely an extension of Kim's Mother. He felt familiar.

All my favorite breaking bad video essays contain the sentence, "I don't care how much you like feet"

20:10 Just wanna pop in really quick and say, I dont think Kim actually wanted to steal at all, that scene ends with the realization that her mom ordered her to steal the jewelry for her own benefit.

Honestly I did too, I watched Better Call Saul in 2021 and then I watched Breaking Bad. My dad was showing us the show and he instructed me and my brother to watch it in this order, and it honestly made so much sense. The weirder part is that because season 6 of BCS hadn't been released yet, I ended up watching the first 5 seasons of BCS, finishing BB, watching El Camino, and then ending on season 6 of BCS. And somehow I feel this was just the perfect way to watch everything.

they are two completely different shows that happen to co exist. it's really amazing how detailed the writers are for both

Flipping a coin is a great way to choose between 2 options because the outcome will show you which choice you actually want to make.

i needed to hear you talk about jesse and walt’s horrible relationship so bad im gonna cry

When Walter punches the hand-dryer after finding out the cancer has gone into remission, I interpreted his reasoning as: Walter lived an unfulfilling, boring, suburban life, after giving up his destiny as a rich and powerful business founder. Then with the cancer diagnosis, he finally had the ability to take a risk and live on the edge, because there was nothing to lose. And after taking a risk, he has become so much more alive and fulfilled, he feels strong and powerful and dangerous. So when the cancer goes into remission, he feels like that should be the end of his risktaking life. There's no longer any reason to cook and sell meth. But that gives up his newly awakened life for the drab, boring, unfulfilling purgatory he used to live, and that frustrates him so much he punches the dryer. Of course, he later decides that he doens't need the excuse, and he lives out his desires anyway. It's the first real moment that makes it clear that any explanation he offers that he's doing this for his family is a lie he's telling himself.

kim didnt enjoy stealing as a kid. it was the way she got love, approval, and time with her mom so she did it. there was no hint of enjoyment in her face when her mother was talking about it or when she gave Kim what she stole for her.

Regarding toxic masculinity in the show... Like the whole speach Gustavo uses to convince Walter that loosing his family is part of the job is the same speech my dad used to pulled on me and my brothers, that a man doesn't need to be loved that a man does what i takes despite consecuences because a man PROVIDES. Like it takes more than just becoming a bank for your family's, a man and a father need to be present, support them. And what i see with a lot of toxic masculinity is that some men think the only thing that matter is to get money, when in reality sometimes your loved ones just need you to be a father, not a bank where they can withdraw money from

I love how later when skyler goes “I thought you were the danger Walt?” And he just shrinks and goes “well I might’ve overstated that…” lmao the only one that can deflate his massive ego is his wife.

I love how Better Call Saul acts as both a prequel and sequel to Breaking Bad.

There's one other component of Walter's past I think is important. In season four, Walter tells Walter Junior (or Flynn) about his own father's death from Huntington's disease, describing it as a "nasty disease" which "terrified his mother." Walter confides in Walter Junior, revisiting the only memory he has of his dad: a man bedridden, unable to recognize him, contorted and struggling to breath. I think this dialogue is pivotal in explaining the ego and control obsession we see as his own health deteriorates. It's a blink and you'll miss it moment but so monumental at the same time.

It is interesting how the take away after people watched breaking bad was Walt being an anti-hero(and that’s how I viewed him as well) instead of a straight up villain. But after having more time with the characters from BCS and then watching BB, the character of Walter doesn’t seem as nuanced. Breaking Bad wasn’t a show about a wholesome, sweater wearing dad and high school teacher becoming a ruthless drug lord. Breaking Bad is a show about ruthless drug lord that disguised himself as a wholesome, sweater wearing, high school teacher and dad. We only think Walt is an Anti-hero, because the show is shot from his perspective but anytime you see that world from anyone else’s, it’s clear how terrifying he was.

I recommend making a follow-up if you plan to watch El Camino. That wraps up Jesse’s story in the same way the tail end of BCS wraps up Sauls.

It's amazing that *you* exist to tell us your experience. I always wondered what is like to see Better Call Saul first.

1:08:13 "Breaking Bad cuts from Skylar crying to Walter calmly and happily measuring his yield, not strongly affected by events." And it's literally a close-up of a bug crawling around his cook site. If the "contaminant" in the Fly episode represents Walter's guilt, those concerns are long gone. At this point he is specifically setting up shop in homes infested with roaches and doesn't give a fuck.

I feel like Walt's attempt to take his own life instead of getting caught has to do more with pride than anything. He didn't want to be seen as the guy who tried to cook meth only to fail and get arrested on his first day

After watching better Call Saul and then seeing Breaking Bad again you realize Poor Howard was buried under the lab floor the whole time . 😢

The true experience is watching better call Saul up until “fun and games” then watching breaking bad all the way, finally watching the final episodes of bcs. I’m sure Topher Grace is putting this project together as we speak

With the “Walter might have already been thinking about making meth” apparently meth is literally one of the easiest chemistry creations to make so someone as smart as Walter wouldn’t have had to look up/look into how it’s made, he probably just knew how to make it. Which is why he was able to answer Hank so quickly

I have noticed that those (including myself) that started watching Breaking Bad long after it came out, and binged it over a few weeks, tend to look at Walter White as a "Villain", and not the "Anti-Hero" a certain generation holds him as. Perhaps when it originally aired, the waiting from week to week, and sometimes years between seasons, created a more positive discourse about Walter? It always seemed clear to me that Hank was the true "Hero" of the show. And that Walter White was selfishly victimizing his family.

That was the longest short outro I ever stuck around for.

One parallel I found is Nacho visiting Jimmy in the nail salon is sort of similar to Saul visiting Walter in his classroom. It's the consequences of their alter ego's actions creeping into their legitimate front where they're unguarded.

It's interesting how when Kim and Saul are together, there's chemistry, some might even say "true love", but it creates chaos. It brings out the "Slipping" in Slipping Jimmy and in Kim as well, to the point that they elaborately prank their former boss who more or less didn't deserve how far the prank went. It isn't until Kim is distant with him that she can go back to being a law abiding citizen, a non-rule bender. When Walter and Skyler are together, it's boring, some might even say "platonic", but there's peace. Being a family man is what kept Walter out of what he calls "the empire business" for decades, it kept him content with normalcy. It isn't until he's distant with Skyler, keeping secrets, sometimes even hating her, that he is free to pursue his desire and create chaos.

6:50 aside from the ‘youre flooding the engine’ being a direct dialgoue callback to breaking bad, the fact that saul and the college student are wearing green and red is a reference to walt and jessie since those are the colors they typically wear

2:19:48. This line Skylar said was probably 1 of the most BADASS lines I’ve heard her say & in the show. It should definitely be up there as a “Quotable”. Also, I like how you can Talk about these Shows for DECADES. That is so cool.

There's a scene in BB where Saul is expecting a phone call and he says to himself "this is a bad idea" before answering. It felt like I was watching Jimmy in BCS about to do something stupid. Amazing writing!

I think Walter's rapid transformation early on was largely a case of the writers needing to sell a story about a person changing in this way the first time. The second time, people knew more about what to expect and the writers knew they accepted it already, so they had a lot more room to breathe.

my favorite part of the essay was the tangent about S.I. Thank you for expressing the need for more societal support for people to stay hopeful, despite passing thoughts and expectations

Thank you for your talk about suicide & emotional/mental hell. Man I feel like I go through it alone and it scares me so bad when I start realizing how people get to committing suicide, & how I end up exploring options in a serious & quiet manner. Not a peep from me, no indicator to anyone outside that I am indeed suicidal. I haven’t felt quite that bad in a couple weeks, so I’m in the path trying to beat it. Therapy starting again soon, medical treatment options have been explored. This HAS to be talked about in this way by more people. I appreciate your honesty and openness to compare a serious personal situation to a character like Walter White. Keep the grind up man, hope things keep going your way!!

This is the ideal What's Therapy? video length. Anyone who says otherwise is lying

10:30 Skylar's actions lead to Huell being happy, so she obviously commands the moral high ground here.

Walt didn't kill Mike because it was "them or him". Go back and watch, and that should be obvious.

not gonna lie man i just found your channel and it’s great, i can’t afford therapy, and i just went through some really messed up shit, so some of the feelings and objectives you discuss are really making me think and helping me work through it. thank you.

A therapist who watched BCS before BB is a godsend in analysis.

I always felt like the most fascinating and unremarked upon moment in the series was Walt trying to off himself in the pilot. He’s pretty cavalier about it too. Seeing you break down his suicidal ideation throughout the series was really insightful. Fantastic stuff.

My favorite analysis of the "I am the one who knocks" speech was made by Aleczandxr on KZfaq because it's spot-on. What Walt did here wasn't as much of a badass boast as he presumably thought it was. It was more like a child going "nuh-uh" after being insulted, and coming from a fifty-year-old man, it comes off as quaintly pathetic. It's probably one of the sadest reflections of who Walt really is deep down. Not in a "I'm going to cry" sort of way, but in a "you need to fix your shit" sort of way.

While I understand the conventional attitudes about death and especially the interaction of these attitudes in the context of therapy, I feel like its a significant limiting factor in how you frame Walter's internal struggle and the dynamics with his family. I think a very important part of why Walt's frustrations don't have a proper outlet to address themselves in a healthy manner isn't just the failure of his financial and medical support system, but his emotional and family support system as well. I'm not a big fan of Walt and Breaking Bad, but what always struck me in the early parts of the series is how the people he's close to fail to meet Walt where he's at mentally and emotionally. He doesn't feel understood, he feels like he's the only "sane" person in the room in regards to his cancer, and nobody takes his mindset seriously. The family sessions to me, do not conclude in any sufficient confrontation of Walt's despair and grief towards his diagnosis, because in the end he learns that his family will not entertain any discussion of it. Sure Walt is rather incapable of communicating it properly, but in the times where he succeeded to take a step forward in making himself vulnerable, like in expressing how he feels that the cancer diagnosis is out of his control and it's in everyone's best interests to accept his death, his family just shuts him down. They don't talk in detail about the financials, they don't talk about Walt's emotions and values, and they ultimately shut him down and disincentivize him to truly bare himself in their presence. Instead put on a mask and play Walt the "good" husband and father that he is so terrible at performing. On every watch I've been through, it's this part of his emotional arc that stands out a lot to me, and I like the first season most because of it. It's the season that most effectively sees through the initial theme the show had in mind, "I prefer to see [chemistry], as the study of change." And admittedly it might be because a lot of me agrees with Walt on that regard. That in my mind, pursuing a few more months of questionable quality of life living, with a slim chance of surviving beyond it, and at the cost of great financial and emotional burden to my family, is a choice that I would not want to take and would resent being coerced into. This is an arguable thing in essence and in context. Whether the life having is indeed questionable, whether the chance of surviving is sizable and worthwhile, whether the burden is or is not outweighed by what is possible and what is left, whether it is agency or it is fate, things like this. He's had a few warm and tender moments with his family, and those are the parts that hurt the most, because as much as it was possible I felt that rarely did any character ever step forward to sustain the vulnerability and trust necessary to cultivate a relationship like that, of course especially Walt himself. But Walt learned that honesty would do nothing for him, even if that was false. I admit I was a bit taken aback when I found that the parts of this video discussing death, made me relive Walt's family talking at Walt instead of talking to or with him. Still! Enjoyable video and I look forward to what you'll tackle next :)

I feel like the most amazing way to watch Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul for someone who hasn't seen either would be to watch the first 59 episodes of Better Call Saul (through 609 Fun and Games), then watch Breaking Bad in its entirely, and finally watch the last four episodes of Better Call Saul at the end since they kind of serve as a beautiful epilogue for both shows. In any case, thanks for giving your unique analysis as someone who watched Breaking Bad second!

I think my favourite example of Walt’s good luck is the entire scenario of the Twins arriving at Walt’s house. Firstly, Junior’s at school and Skyler and Holly are at work, and Walt just happened to choose that moment to move back in. It also happens to be the exact same moment Mike happened to be around just after planting the bug in Walt’s house, which Saul has him do completely in his own self-interest uncalled for. Just those two things happening at the same time is already incalculable odds. Then we have the Twins showing up just as Mike is about to leave. Walt happens to be in the shower at the time which gives him time to wait because the Twins aren’t animals and they won’t kill a man until he’s put on some clothes. It’s also at this moment we get a really bizarre intersection of the plot lines up to that point with Marco picking up the Teddy Bear’s eye from the plane crash which Walt packed with him. Mike noticed the Twins, calls Victor, who tells Gus, who texts the Twins to meet with him immediately. The Twins leave and the only evidence Walt ever has of them being there is that Marco put the Teddy Bear’s eye back in a slightly difference place. The Cousins are Fate playing out an entire greek tragedy completely without Walter’s knowledge. He never even meets Leonel, and he only sees Marco in the hospital whereupon he has this cascading realisation as to who these guys were. But not only was Walt lucky enough that there was someone else involved in Tuco’s shooting for Gus to divert the Twins to, but he was *un*lucky enough that that was his own brother-in-law. And this is not even beginning to explore the sheer coincidence of Hank looking for Jesse to find Walt and happening to find Tuco in the first place. All these dominos falling into place protecting Walt with him only barely conscious of them.

Finally someone acknowledges Louis and how important he is to the plot. Good job!

I remember seeing that Giancarlo interview and it made me wonder what it would be like to rewatch the shows in reverse order, but I realised not long after that... I can't have that experience, being "enlightened in a different way" because I've already seem them, nothing can compare to the experience you have watching something for the first time, so it would just be... pointless. This video was a great watch and I envy that you were able to experience the series this way!

I'm literally going through some heavy shit right now, and out of the blue, a Breaking Bad video with the phrase: "If they're just coping with it in their own way, not a terrible way, and the loved one encouraging a different approach is the main cause of their suffering, this is when the advice being given is more clearly seen as self interested". Thanks, sir. I needed that.

What I find interesting about the comparisons between Kim and Skyler is that Skyler clearly opposed Walt's behavior as much as she could, and there's an element of disdain she receives from the audience because of it. Even if she was in the right, the show is set up for you to root for the protagonist's goals, and audiences found it frustrating to see her get in the way of that. Meanwhile, with Kim, you see what happens when you have a partner who is enabling and encouraging. From a TV perspective, it's great. You see them on these hijinx together and it's exciting and you can't help but root for them. But in the end, is it worth it? There were many times Jimmy tried to rein it in and Kim just encouraged him to take it further instead. If she was more like Skyler, maybe they could have had a future where they grew old together. (Obviously that'd make for boring television - not that that matters when talking about ethical dilemmas lol)

This is my new fav video of all time! The sheer amount of blood sweat and tears put this video is insane, fantastic research and dedication to editing and auto capturing. Thank you for blessing me and popping up in my recommended.

This video is so good in so many ways but "The Whiteness of the Walter" made me laugh so hard I started choking

I think it's cool af to hear this perspective of seeing Better Call Saul first. It goes to show how good of a show Better Call Saul is without knowing the context of Breaking Bad.

That five or six minutes about Louis was peak commentary. No, seriously, your capacity for compelling analysis that eludes my ability to tell if you're joking is fascinating and it's why I subbed.

This is how I experienced the Red Dead Redemption series for the first time. Playing them in timeline order and going in blind was a really immersive experience and I'm glad I originally passed up on the first game. I've set out to try and do that more often, when I can, it's a whole different vibe.

2:13:41 thing is, and i want to know if anyone thinks so too, Walter doesn't really like his family. He doesn't really like his son, he only pities him and sees him as a responsibility, and he certainly doesn't like Skyler. He probably loved Gretchen a lot more and it turned into hatred, and Skyler was just a wife he had to get because of male expectations

Jesse has plenty of anti-forgetting moments when it comes to Jane. Keeping her cigarette in his car, continuously calling to hear her until her phone number was put out of service. "Making the feeling last." Hector also falls in the anti-forgetting category, as he's asked by the cartel time and time again to leave his beef with Gus in the past and him choosing not to.

I wish people would stop crediting Vince so much with Saul. It was truly Peter’s baby.

To hear someone from a channel called "what's therapy" saying Walter's dissociation at the doctor's office is being "eerily unbothered" made me give up on this channel

Comparing Walt killing the first 2 guys in actual immediate self defense - they had a gun to his head, to his killing of "innocent" or otherwise not immediately threatening people he simply perceives as a threat is a bit weird. And he probably said "I think" after making that correction because he realized he's in the presence of 2 DEA agents in the midst of busting a meth lab.

As someone with genitals, this video is really eye-opening and informative

it's really hard to give fresh and interesting insights on a show almost two decades old. you should be really proud, i'm sure the creators of these shows would be really proud to see someone making such mature and thought out analysis of the characters feelings and circumstances like this. bravo on a great video i'm sure was a really long process to release!!

The show does a good job at making you like the villain, Walter, and hate the “hero,” Skylar. Anna Gunn played the role perfectly. I understand the hate for the character, she gets in the way of Walt doing cool shit, but if the show was real, she would be the main victim of Walt, and deserves sympathy. Skylar is a parent, she loves and takes care of the kids, Walt should be a parent, but sees that as being a provider and nothing else. My mom was a stay at home parent, loved and took care of us, my dad worked and also loved and took care of us. I would rather that be the case then how Walter saw it.

the effort you put into this down to the clips used and the insights you provide is AMAZING.

Your commentary is so nuanced and (possibly due to your experience) transcends the typical disccusions of these shows. It's very admirable.

Interesting that you point out Walter's fixation with the mustard stain as unhealthy at around @39:30. That scene seemed like a realistic reaction to me because after my brother got paralyzed, I remember my dad, on the ride home from the hospital, could only say "I need a friggin' bowl of cereal." I've never thought about how that could be a reflection of unhealthy coping mechanisms. I just assumed trauma broke your brain a little bit. Fantastic video

I like how even though he enjoys BCS more, he general has more to say about BB.

27:30 Walt’s inner “bad guy” was inside him ever since Gretchen and Elliot became super rich off of his Grey Matter business….yes he willingly sold his share, but he felt wronged by them when they didn’t give him any of the multibillion dollar profits later on…that’s where his manipulative side was created and it stewed under the surface until his diagnosis. The prospect of his fast approaching demise gave him the power to unleash what he had been harboring inside for years. Which is why he seemed to have no problem making risky decisions.

Wow, what a ride! It was such a honor working on this with you, and I enjoyed watching the final product just as much as I enjoyed reading/editing along the way during production. Thanks so much for involving me in this project, I really think this is something special! I have so much to say, but I guess that's incentive for people to become a member and catch our 2hr podcast where we discuss the script and a bunch of things that didn't even make it in???? Thanks to everyone who watched and liked this video, and thanks to What's Therapy for making it! I absolutely cannot wait to see what comes next for this channel! Even if analytics dip due to a shift in subject matter, I know we've got a great community here who will stick around to see what's next! Let's all just take a deep breath and enjoy this wonderful story for a while. Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad are amazing, and it's so nice that we finally get to enjoy it as one big, complete package. Bravo, Vince. And bravo, What's Therapy! This is the moment my comment became over.

"People move on." - "Kim had the guts to start over. She left town, but I'm the one who ran away." As the show progresses, Saul is the only one left wearing the ribbon about the tragedy with the airplanes. At first, it seems like it shows his bottomless greed as someone trying to profit off of the victims. But given that he chooses to wear it in his final court appearance, after he'd already decided to make a full confession and not try to garner any more sympathy, I think it functions as a tangible symbol of his prior inability to move on from all traumatic events in his life. I guess choosing to appear as Saul Goodman, colorful suit and everything, also works towards that metaphor.

You got my sub. I love the way you formatted/organized this video essay. Can’t wait to see you page keep growing

When walt says "I think" about the gas in the pilot, i think hes trying to not come off as too much of an egghead to his Bro-type brother in law. Its lack of confidence around hank, about something he naturally knew through chemistry

What I have noticed is both shows display men who end up hurting or destroying everyone around them, despite Saul and Walter's destructive nature you still find yourself rooting for them as if they are anti-heroes when they are intrinsically not anti-heroes. Very well written shows.

According to Vince Gilligan, a lot of the car stuiff came from his brother, including how Ken Wins' car ends up. When they were in HS, his brother actually fried his car in their front yard, accidentally, the same way.

People often say that the moment Walter broke bad and fully became Heisenberg was when he let Jane die. But I disagree with that. He was ALWAYS Heisenberg. Just below the surface. Waiting to emerge. And the the moment when he embraced that is not when Jane died. It was the moment he turned down the offer of a legitimate, high paying position (with a great health plan) at Grey Matter. Because of some kind of egotistical misplaced pride. Deciding instead to go the way he did. Instead of putting his family first and taking that legitimate job offer which would have more than provided for his family, he selfishly and narcissistically chose to to do something illegal and highly dangerous. A choice that put the lives of each of his family members in danger, including from a legal perspective. All the while claiming he was doing it for them. When if that were truly the case, and he was truly acting with them in mind, he would have put aside stupid pridefulness and taken that lucrative position at Grey Matter when it was offered. He maintained throughout the show that he was doing it all for his family. It wasn’t until the very end, when he’d lost everything, that he finally admitted that he did it for himself. Not his family. From the beginning, it was all about him. Meaning, he was ALWAYS Heisenberg. It just took the catalyst of a cancer diagnoses to fully unleash it. In addition, throughout the show Walter consistently blames other people for his own choices (the Grey Matter buyout incident is the perfect example; he blamed the Schwartz’s and held them in great contempt for his own decision and choice to leave the company when he did), doing anything to avoid responsibility for his own poor decisions. Then acting out those decisions with zero self reflection or actualization. I mean, the Walter character’s self blinding narcissism was truly staggering. However, in the end, he had to lose everything to regain his humanity, his integrity, his soul if you will; at last achieving earned redemption, in what I consider to be the greatest tv show finale of all time. Who was the real hero of this story? Hank Schrader. Who had the greatest heart and the greatest empathy of any of the characters? Jesse Pinkman. Who were the real victims here? Skyler and the children. Walter White though, in this story, he was the piece of 💩😂

I am so thankful for your analysis in these videos, they've helped how I think about conversations in my real life

Watching BCS after BB makes the micro easter egg and cameos feel even more special. There are definitely merits of going by order but the Jesse scene in BCS with Kim will never feel the same if you go by order

I JUST realized this Walt tells Hank "Maybe your best course of action would be to tread lightly" Which mirrors what Skyler told Walt earlier: "Maybe our best move here is to stay quiet" Even the pause in both sentences is at the same moment.

Walt saying "I think" during the ride along is almost certainly showing how he is meek and doesn't even want to directly contradict Hank even though he is smart enough to know he is completely correct.

Legit, one of favorite content creators, love these type of video and the live streams. I know a lot of preparation goes into these videos, so I know whatever you have coming out next is going to be great!

I feel like Kim and Jimmy genuinely love each other in addition to them both getting off on the scams. In fact, Kim and Jimmy's mutual obsession with these scams is part of what makes their love for each other feel so genuine and believable despite it ultimately being their downfall. There is a very real mutual connection between them: something that we never really feel ever existed between Skylar and Walt. To be honest, I never felt any real love between Walt and Skylar but I do think that Skylar does actually "get off" on "breaking bad" because in the end, she's damn good at it. Skylar would probably be the last one to admit it but I think she absolutely IS turned on by her skills as a criminal and how it finally allows her to feel some power of her own outside of being the bossy, once head of a slightly dull and dysfunctional household who sells knick-knacks on Ebay. To imply that Skylar is doing it all just because she "has to" is just as dishonest as Walt saying that he's doing it all "for his family". She may regret it all in the end but there is no doubt in my mind that at one point she was loving every minute of it almost as much as Walt was. In the end, there's no real context given to make us feel that Walt and Skylar were ever truly "in love" whereas Kim and Jimmy's relationship feels so incredibly tangible and their personalities compliment each other so well that it's almost impossible to argue against it. Also, there's so much more careful backstory and insight given into Jimmy's character versus Walt. I think that's why in the end, "Better Call Saul" accomplishes so much more when it comes to character development as a whole. Despite this, I do think "Breaking Bad" does a really good job of exploring Jessie and his actions/behaviors are fleshed out incredibly well through his backstory as well as his reactions to what occurs during the timeline of "Breaking Bad". And although we get few details of Hank's backstory, even his character is better understood and developed versus Walt's. As for Skylar and Marie, their characters were pretty neglected as a whole. This doesn't mean that I think "Breaking Bad" is not as good as "Better Call Saul" or that I enjoyed it less but it would have been that much "better" if the creators had given Walt and the other characters as much attention as Jessie's or even Hank's. As for "Better Call Saul", it's clear that the writers were cognizant of these issues and they did their best to address them. I mean almost all of the central characters in "Better Call Saul" have such spectacular depth and careful writing that I was far more invested them in the end. That being said, there is a different sort of humor, ferocity, violence and pacing that "Saul" doesn't have when compared to "Breaking Bad" and in the end both compliment each other perfectly. I think I'll give it maybe 5-10 years and watch them both again starting with "Better Call Saul" because I'm sure it will all hit slightly differently.

I think Walt has assertiveness training from dealing with students. I started out as a timid college instructor. In fact, my boss told me that I needed to be more assertive. He was previously a Naval Drill Sargeant. I quickly learned. Walter dealt with students lying to him and trying to manipulate him. He learned how to counteract. Combine that with the frustration with teaching at a high school when he could have been making billions. With a terminal cancer diagnosis, Walter saw this as a way to live dangerously. It wasn't about the bills or the family, it was about the thrill. A line from a James Bond movie, "There's no point of living if you can't feel alive." Walter always had it in him. He explains chemical reactions with harmless elements combining to creating sudden bursts of energy.

Started watching your analysis and couldn’t stop. One thing that I would add was in the music choices used. The final scenes uses of “Baby Blue” by Bad Finger was spot on.

What a fantastic video and I am also a behavioral health professional, was a pleasure to find your channel. I have brought this up to my friends and I'm so glad you speak to it around 2:13:00 It would truly take strength for Walt to swallow his pride, work at Grey Matter, and ACTUALLY provide for his family in a completely legitimate way. But instead he's backed himself into a corner working in a high school grossly underutilizing his talent because his fragile ego couldn't handle being involved with a woman with a rich family where he wasn't "the man". But of course he doesn't do it. I think it's fascinating that in the era it came out BB was often almost idolized, Walt was this anti-hero, cool guy kind of image. I am the Danger was everywhere. But now as a 40-something year old, multiple children, adult I saw this man plainly as deeply flawed and harmful to those around him from the beginning, whereas at first viewing he felt so sympathetic to me and I was rooting for him far longer than I should have, justifying his horrible actions to myself in the same way that he did. After all, he's only doing these things to help his family right?! Great content, easiest "subscribe" decision I've made in years!

I had to pause to say something. The fact you call the "I am the one who knocks" part as the "I am the danger" part is FASCINATING. It makes me realize how much of my BB experience was built by the pop culture phenomenon it was. I was obsessed with AMC at the time and had seen the ads for months and watched the first episode live. For the first few months, no one knew what the hell Breaking Bad was. And then it caught on like wildfire and EVERYONE was talking about it. My coworkers and I would get together for watch parties, I spoke about it to my school friends in college... It was on everyone's mind. I will never forget going to London on vacation and the guy i was staying with had the "Br" & "Ba" squares on mirrors. I believe it was season 3 or 4 at the time and I was shook that it was such a big thing in England as well. Watching it now brings back a nostalgic time in my life, so to hear your perspective that is completely green is so fascinating!! Also just binge watching, you see entirely different threads... We have to wait an entire year after bombshell season finale cliffhangers... I will never forget some of those moments and the SCREAMS of "oh God, now we won't know for SO LONG." Anyways. Back to unpausing and enjoying your video. I just can't believe one of the most infamous moments can be referred to in such a different way and still be completely accurate and recognizable hahaha.

Honestly the biggest advantage would be not knowing which characters have plot armor in Better Call Saul. Sounds like you pretty much knew which characters were in BB and therefore not dying in BCS though.

The best way to watch these two shows is to watch one, then the other, then go back to the first, then watch the other, then go back to the first, then watch the other, then go back to the first…….

10 years later and its the first time i ever heard that Gale might have had a crush on Walt mindblowing and it makes the whole thing a lot more sad