Skylar White - Breaking Bad (2008) Discussion

[–] Dave (18) 5 years ago

I know what you mean. I binge watched Breaking Bad a couple of years ago, and then started rewatching it again recently.

Unfortunately, I had to stop after a few episodes because I just couldn't get past how much I disliked the Skylar part. Her menopausal bitchiness was just too real. Credit to her acting, I suppose. But, anybody who's had to deal with that in real life over an extended period of time doesn't want to be "entertained" by it in a TV show. It literally upset my stomach to watch her season after season with no letup.

Hopefully she won't be making an appearance in El Camino.

reply

[–] MovieChatUser497 (18943) 5 years ago

As bad as she is, in the last season Hank, Marie and Jesse are far worse.

reply

[–] EvilPinata (1186) 5 years ago

I don't feel Jesse's behavior is unwarranted though. Walt was the bad guy at that point and he did nothing but use and manipulate Jesse.

reply

[–] MovieChatUser497 (18943) 5 years ago

And save his life. Plus I remember multiple times Walt wanted out and Jesse begged him to go back. The manipulation worked both ways

reply

[–] EvilPinata (1186) 5 years ago

Saving his life was happenstance. Walt's true motive was to stop the Neo Nazis from taking the empire that he had built. Sure Jesse may have begged Walt to get back in a few times, but that's not the same as manipulating. Walt constantly told Jesse he wasn't good enough until he needed him for something. Not to mention he let Jane die and poisoned a child.

reply

[–] MovieChatUser497 (18943) 5 years ago

No there is no difference, well let me back up, the only real difference is that Walt is just a better manipulator than Jesse is but Jesse still tried to manipulate Walt several times into going back into the business even going as far as to throwing a cinder block at this windshield.

Walt saved Jesse multiple times and I will remind you that he lost his good standing with Gus and had to fear for his life the entirety of Season 4 all because he saved Jesse from those two drug dealers. Walt was Jesse's guardian angel.

Jane should have been nicer to Walt, if she had I'm sure he would have saved her. Also Walt didn't have any legal obligation to help her, all he did was accidentally knock her over, if Jane hadn't been stoned she would still be alive.

Walt gave Brock a mild tummy ache for a few days, that's not as bad as murdering a child which Gus did and Jesse palled up with him after the fact. If Jesse hadn't betrayed Walt and helped him kill Gus then poisoning Brock wouldn't have been necessary. Also let's just cut all the BS, Gus was so going to kill Jesse as soon as he was able to, Walt saved Jesse from Gus and Gus's men even had Jesse handcuffed in the lab before Walt showed up.

reply

[–] momur (107) 5 years ago

1. The only reason Jesse ever teamed up with Walt in the first place is because Walt approached him and blackmailed him into being his partner:
Jesse: You wanna cook crystal meth? You...and me?
Walt: That's right. It's either that...or I turn you in.
- S1E1

2. Walt saved Jesse multiple times, yes, but Walt was ultimately also the reason Jesse needed saving in the first place a lot of those times too. To use your example, the only reason Jesse went after those dealers was because they killed the boy. They killed the boy because Jesse found out they'd made the boy kill Combo. The boy had killed Combo because Combo was selling on their turf. And Combo was selling on their turf because Walt had wanted to expand his and Jesse's territory - something Jesse was vocally against and even warned Walt would end badly.

3. Walt wouldn't have saved Jane even if she'd been sunshine-and-kittens-nice to him. Jane was a threat to his and Jesse's partnership purely by virtue of her existence and Jesse's interest in her. She was making Jesse more independent from Walt and one of the key factors of their entire partnership is Walt constantly making sure that Jesse is dependant on him. He manipulated Jesse into breaking up with Andrea for that same reason - it's actually a fairly accurate depiction of an abusive relationship without the romantic aspect to it.

4. Walt deliberately poisoned a child to the point where he was taken to hospital and placed in intensive care and observation for over a day. That's not just giving a kid a mild tummy ache, that's legitimately putting an innocent child's life in danger for the sake of, again, manipulating Jesse. It's left deliberately ambiguous as to whether Gus knows anything about Tomas' death from the two dealers - it's explicitly stated Walt was willing to bring serious harm to an innocent boy. Gus was superficially treating Jesse better than Walt ever did which is precisely why Jesse latched onto him.

reply

[–] username2k13 (65) 5 years ago

what about jesse selling to recovering addicts in rehab?

that was simply monstrous

edit: and walt couldnt force jesse into making meth when jesse was already making meth prior to meeting him

walt's ultimatum was cook with ME or i turn you in

reply

[–] ODB82 (2055) 5 years ago

What about that half assed Birthday handjob while she’s on her laptop? She was a villain before Walt.

reply

[–] MovieChatUser497 (18943) 5 years ago

I consider her the primary villain of both seasons 2 and 3

reply

[–] Ace_Spade (9574) 5 years ago

In a series full of carnage and horrifying things, that hj is one of the hardest things to watch in the whole show; it's so pathetic and condescending.

reply

[–] ODB82 (2055) 5 years ago

It was a crushing thing to watch. Instant pity on Walt and white hot heat on her.
I can understand some of her actions later on this was before Walt had done anything. Such a cold gesture.

reply

[–] Ace_Spade (9574) 5 years ago

It was brutal.

reply

[–] Heisenberg (6730) 5 years ago

1-I don't believe any HJ can be pathetic and I think she was hot in that scene
2-She was happy to do it and proposed it, why was it condescending?
3-Walt seemed happy and he looked like he didn't want anything else
4-She could have ditched the laptop, but I think it's also hot that she's multitasking and not only focused on his dick
5-For all the other crap that she throws at him on the show, this is probably her nicest moment

reply

[–] Ace_Spade (9574) 5 years ago

1 - I think that handjo was pathetic. If we're talking about how hot Anna Gunn can get, though, I think *very*.
2 - It was condescending because it was Walt's birthday and she acted like the handjob was a big deal. Not that it's nothing, but the scene is played like he's about to get lucky, but it's basically just extended foreplay (not that that's nothing). She then started talking about general life while scooting around on her laptop. He isn't even a third of her attention during a sexual encounter on his birthday.
3 - I don't remember Walt's reaction being ecstatic. I remember him kinda enjoying it, but only because this was the sole bone being thrown his way by an otherwise callous wife.
4 - You might have very specific sexual interests, but I don't find "multitasking" hot. Also, that his climax was overridden in her attitude by the online auction was...pathetic.
5 - I think this is far from her nicest moment. If you mean in general, she's much nicer to the kids many times. If you're talking Walt, at the very least, I'd forward her acquiescing to car sex with Walt later is much nicer, almost categorically.

reply

[–] Heisenberg (6730) 5 years ago

Ok I see your points but you're forgetting the whole premise for the scene: Walt is tired and she's trying to do something nice that doesn't rattle him much before going to sleep.

I take it more as a "relax and enjoy" moment together with his wife on a lazy evening, rather than a hot and steamy memorable sex performance from his lover.

reply

[–] Ace_Spade (9574) 5 years ago

I'm pretty sure the premise of the scene was continuing to set up the emasculating, sad life of Walt before he decides to take control. Everything in the pilot is designed to make us pity or scorn Walt, or yearn for him to take action.

Remember, the episode concludes with Walt taking control, starting to put his life where he guides it, where he wants it, and then he climbs into bed and has wild, passionate sex with Skyler instead of the sad, uncommitted, rinky-dink scraps he gets here.

reply

[–] Heisenberg (6730) 5 years ago

You're dead right on that one, but the intentions of the writer don't mean much in a scene.
What we see is what matters. And the scene is set up with Walt looking tired and Skylar trying to take care of business.
So even if the intentions were to show a "loser in his loser sex life", it doesn't mean that Skylar's intentions with that HJ and Walt's enjoyment of it are to be considered as pitiful. No matter what the writer, director and actor had in mind.
I saw it as a sign of him not being very active, nor vigorous, and being preoccupied with heavy shit in his life. And she just does something easy to make him "happy". Not as a sign of the "terrible wife that only gives him a half assed HJ for his bday".

reply

[–] Ace_Spade (9574) 5 years ago

What's on screen is what matters - yes - absolutely.

But we're disagreeing here. What I saw was a painful, impersonal, sad gesture at sex. This table scrap of a sex life for loser Walt who just has to take the crumbs he can get while his wife is disinterested in him, favouring the online auction.

Surely her ignoring him for the auction strikes that note?

reply

[–] Heisenberg (6730) 5 years ago

Ok but she wasn't ignoring him, her hand was massaging his dick, wasn't it? She's a woman, she can multitask!

Anyway, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, I see this HJ not as the greatest thing on earth but not the worst, you see it as a sign of her disrespect.

reply

[–] Ace_Spade (9574) 5 years ago

She does some pretty repugnant things to Walt (particularly in the pilot), but I appreciated her love for her family (Anna Gunn's performance in the final episodes is killer) and, during the cancer thing, I understood why she behaved that way. She was digesting Walt's terminal diagnosis and just lashing out for control of her life because she thought everything was out of control. It was selfish, yes, but people react in odd and strange ways when confronted with death and mortality.

reply

[–] Volley (3433) 5 years ago

I think Vince definitely wrote her that way to further propel Walt into pursuing Meth cooking, at all costs.

reply

[–] captainbucky (15252) 5 years ago

I agree with you

reply

[–] username2k13 (65) 5 years ago

in the first ep she reprimanded him like a child for buying paper on a credit card for his students

reply

[–] Ace_Spade (9574) 5 years ago

100%. Her emasculation of Walt was a big part of his motivation; he had to reclaim control over his life.

reply

[–] RogueDemonHunter (2684) 5 years ago

I started re watching in preparation for El Camino and I remembered not liking her one bit but I forgot just how much I didn't like her lol

reply

[–] brux (14729) 5 years ago

So many misogynistic men seem to love to post how they hate the female leads or other female actresses. Get over it, it's a TV show. Walter White was a loser because of his own stubborn pride, and he lead to the destruction of the lives of his wife and kids ... of course Skylar is on the edge with him for God's sake.

reply

[–] MovieChatUser497 (18943) 5 years ago

Are you seriously implying that people don't like Skyler because of misogyny? Nice try but it's actually because we don't like her character.

reply

[–] MrMovie (902) 5 years ago

Yeah this why I don’t understand why people blame Walt. If I had to live with Skyler I would of lost it. She’s a complete bitch and treats Walt like a stupid buffoon even though he’s a genius. Walt should of been a millionaire with Gretchen instead he was left with the slut Skyler.

reply