With all those moving parts, what cracked open the ending [to Breaking Bad]? And when did it become apparent that Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz would play a key role in the final two episodes?
The biggest single fear we had was what to do with that damn machine gun. At the beginning of the final run of 16 episodes, we had Walt buy a machine gun in the trunk of a Cadillac. That was the thing I remember freaking us out the most because we did that, I committed to that. One of the dumbest things I’ve ever done in my career was committing to the idea of Walter White buying a machine gun when we did not know what he was going to do with it. We had no clue. There were literally months on end when I was completely freaked out. We’d be in the writers room’ for a full day, and I’d be slowly banging my head against the wall — not enough to hurt myself but just enough to jar the ideas loose. And everybody was kind of worried about me.
Once we figured out this machine gun, that was when the dam broke and things started slowly to click together. It was after that point that we figured he’s got to win. He’s lost everything because of his hubris and his pride and his ego. He’s lost his family, he’s lost his soul. But he’s got to win on some level. He’s at least got to deliver that money to his family. How the hell does he do that once the world knows who he really is? When we figured out that Gretchen and Elliott could be the mechanism by which Walt wins and gets that money to his family, that was a good day.
— Ethan Shanfeld in Vince Gilligan Slams AI as a ‘Plagiarism Machine,’ Reflects on ‘Breaking Bad’ Finale and Teases New Rhea Seehorn Show: ‘No Crime, No Meth’
I have not seen a single episode of Breaking Bad.
Never heard of it but if your choice (or budget) in MG is an M60 higher you need to aim higher.
Todays M60 is not like the originals, they have figured it out and it is an outstanding performer now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af9uKxuwLLc
Kinda like Eugene Stoner’s masterpiece, some old-timers are stuck in the past can’t open their eyes and see the present situation……..I guess to validate their perceived legitimacy.
Our real world experience forms our opinions. Putting a lot of polish on a turd leaves you with a turd.
Why cling to a flawed 70yo design when things have advanced way beyond them?
No need, the show is stupid slow with about 20-30 min of filler in their 50min episodes. Then it all ends abruptly and you realize the whole show was dumb and you’ve wasted a crazy amount of your own time.
Sounds like a normie’s delight! 10/10 braindead NPCs recommend. 🥴
The NPCs are their target audience!
Ditto. I read the article, knowing that it was using English words, but I got nothing out of it. Could be Hebrew, or Greek, or Seminole for all the sense I made of the fine article. Or, maybe it’s California Liberal Speak? That’s about all that comes out of Hollywood.
I have two dishes inherited from the previous owner, but after we evaluated both satellite networks we decided they carry nothing worthwhile and never got an account on either. In all fairness we do have fiber internet and can pick and choose what we watch, even fake news if we ever go totally overboard. We are also in the rare topographic positions where old fashioned tv from Pittsburgh is available in an emergency even though we are well over a hundred miles away. Thinking about taking a dish down for a radio antenna, but don’t know who owns them.
You own them.
And if you were to try and charge the company who put them there as storage they do not belong to the company that put them there. The previous owners left them, they now belong to you.
“I have not seen a single episode of Breaking Bad.”
You may not want to see it, overall, it’s a bleak story. Not exactly uplifting…
Ditto. Watching television is a waste of time and (these days) money. All of it is garbage.
Why YouTube is 98+% of my viewing.
Mythbusters did test the remote control M60 from Breaking Bad. It was ruled Confirmed from memory.
IF I had an M-60, I’d either bury it for later reference, OR more likely sell it to finance other purchases. Like an M16A4, with ammo and mags. 🙂 YMMV!
Breaking Bad is a terrific series. The writing and acting are great. It has humor, horror, and action, Check it out.
Rolling my eyes.
Couldn’t agree more. One of the five best TV series of all time. Writing, acting, photography and even the music are head and shoulders above 98% of anything else produced for the tube.
100% agree. When it ended I ranked it as the best TV show ever. I don’t consider it bleak at all. Watch The Wire if you want to be bummed. Better Call Saul was a worthy follow-up, too.
M60….hmmmmm, reminds me I gotta do the annual maintenance inspection routine on my M61 Vulcan’s the anti-gun seems to think my semi-auto firearms are.
Never watched the show. Can’t cater to the popularity of the drug trade for some hipster glorification. Give me television from the old glory days; Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, etc…morals and your own imagination.
Count me as a no “Breaking Bad” guy as well. Modern TV has so little to recommend it that I can barely believe people watch it much less pay for it. Those SAG/AFTRA peacocks are only slightly worse than the geriatric politicians running DC and the whole bunch of them would sell their souls for the price of a pair of shoes.
The same terrorists types that attacked Israel are already in the U.S., already armed, Biden invited them by his insecure border.
Laurence Fox Arrested in England For “Pre-Crime” Related to “Blade Runners” and Surveillance (watch the selection video of the guy being arrested FOR NOT committing a crime … reminds me of Bidens weaponized DOJ and ATF tactics).
Never watched the show. Along with any number of TV shows that for some reason are or were popular. A story about some person who gets into the drug trade for fun and profit just doesn’t appeal to me. Tried to watch the Vikings show on History, but lost interest in about 15 minutes because of the dumb premise and politics of the thing. About like saying the old musical Camelot was representative of early medieval England.
Ok, bad television aside, I was very familiar with the M-60 back in the day. The examples I used could have been improved upon but were solid weapons. Adding a quick change barrel akin to what the German MG42 had would be a good start. Should I ever come across a working example, it would be set up for storage and well hidden along with several cans of ammo for possible emergency use. I currently have no need or desire to have such a weapon. As with any belt fed full auto weapon, they have a purpose, but are also heavy and hungry beasts.
It was a MG42 feed on top of a FG42 mechanism. And the FG42 is a variation of the Lewis LMG. So the M60 goes back to about 110+ years in design.
Orwell was genius. An indisputable. The Left claimed “1984” was about a right-wing totalitarian government taking over England, and the American Left reinforced the concept, using the book as a guide for quiet revolution, projecting their criminal minds onto their opponents.
Evil never rests; it it is focused totally on itself, never finished.
Liberals made it their playbook, with a little Fascist Nazi tossed in. Hilary Clinton just proclaimed that all MAGA Republicans should be rounded up and deprogrammed.
“Hilary Clinton just proclaimed that all MAGA Republicans should be rounded up and deprogrammed.”
You see a problem, here? She’s talking only about the basket of deplorables, not you and me.
Sam, depends on whom you consider “deplorable”, doesn’t it?
And dacian “reprogramming” those deplorables into a ditch?
Best use for a M-60. Mostly ‘peaceful’ BLM/Antifa riots.
Having carried both an M60 machine gun and an M9 beretta while I was in the army. I can tell you I wouldn’t have either one of them.
240b and 2010 era M9 were both reliable enough that I couldn’t complain. The 249 had some issues but honestly some of those were probably our armorer (who managed to make a deadlined M2 more dangerous somehow)
I agree. Both the 249 and the 240B were great guns. On the early M9, the mag release button was in a different place. Than it is now. And we had inadvertent mag releases all the time. Plus the grip was was too thick.
Perhaps the newer M9 is better now.
Grip was probably still too thick (didn’t bother me but common complaint) but never saw inadvertent mag releases so must have fixed that issue. Only time I saw them jam was stovepipes off some questionable Turkish NATO supply we used for mobilization training.
@Walter E Beverly III
“Sam, depends on whom you consider “deplorable”, doesn’t it?”
That seems to be the question. Now, it seems, “deplorables” can be re-programmed.
Don’t take life too seriously. It will be over soon, and you can go about your business.
Sam, I don; suggest any ONE try to re-program me. It would be very costly to them,
“Sam, I don; suggest any ONE try to re-program me. It would be very costly to them,”
Non-compliance will have negative impact on your social credit score.
Walt if Sam is getting at what I think he is then he is pointing out that in a well armed nation the focus for reeducation will not be door kicking but isolation paired with economic blackmail until compliance is necessary to receive food medicine or or other necessities. The program is not up and running here yet but we saw precursors to it all through the pandemic and the ammo check is a defacto registry if we are being honest with ourselves. In short why shoot it out when we can starve them out.
Sam, Ask me if a give a rat’s behind?
SAFE, I am not sure if Sam knows what he means.
Walt having seen sam’s other posts over the years I would doubt he doesn’t know but he does tend to go heavier on the irony/sarcastic/devils advocate than most do. Don’t think he is insulting you just pointing out something you may not have considered and admittedly one I need to plan more for.
@SAFEupstateFML
“Walt having seen sam’s other posts over the years I would doubt he doesn’t know but he does tend to go heavier on the irony/sarcastic/devils advocate than most do.”
Some of it is for fun and entertainment(?). But, if I can get one person to check their assumptions, then it is a good day.
There is always more to learn
“There is always more to learn”
Isn’t it ever?
Hard part is getting others to try.
@SAFEupstateFML
“Walt if Sam is getting at what I think he is then he is pointing out that in a well armed nation the focus for reeducation will not be door kicking but isolation paired with economic blackmail until compliance is necessary to receive food medicine or or other necessities…..In short why shoot it out when we can starve them out.”
There ya’ go. Social Credit Score coupled with zero cash makes for an interesting environment. Cash can be declared not to be “legal tender” at the stroke of a pen, just as precious metals can be rendered worthless (ref: privately held gold declared illegal in the 1930s). Better move is to buy mounds of conically shaped copper.
Sam, so sorry, but it didn’t work. Social credit is nonsense.
“Social credit is nonsense.”
But it is real, developed and tested in China by American hi-tech companies; headed for a country near you.(us)
Sam, JBOL! Social credit is absolute nonsense. Tested and “developed” in China? You mean it is used to control people. Like I said, don’t eve think about trying to control me. You will get something you really don’t want. You see, Sam, I’m an American. Not a sheeple.
Walt I am hopeful you are essentially correct in it’s not being workable here but electronic money that can be turned off to control you is very much being considered and is one of the pending issues we will need to fight. If you have enough of a community to essentially offgrid Amish you can ignore it for a long while but small communities make for prime raiding targets (see Rhodesia and South Africa for reference). Not that far along yet but don’t doubt it is on the scenario planning.
SAFE , It is all about control over the population. Real Americans don’t kowtow to social “credit” nonsense. If someone is stupid enough to “raid” me and mine, they just might not survive the encounter.
I don’t think they will bother with raids or seeking to force you to kowtow. Not worth the effort when power/communications/purchasing privileges can be turned off. They would simply threaten others into not doing business with you and let you starve. Sort of like how some of the vax passport in NYC went just following to the inevitable. Besides if they can get you hungry/desperate enough to act out they can pick you off as a “radical terrorist” and not get much of a pushback from the community beyond your immediate circle. Again not wishing for this madness but we have seen it here and far worse in other countries.
Sam, Let ’em try. People like you are the SHEEPLE. Try being an American!
@Walter E Beverly III
“@Sam, Let ’em try. People like you are the SHEEPLE. Try being an American!”
Knee jerk boasting is not “being” an American. I don’t care, anyway. Fact is social credit and electronic money will devastate a nation, at the whim of majority voting.
My original response was a caution, not a stance, which most here seem to understand. While one is reinforcing the front door, they can lose their job (and all the benefits), be prevented from anything but a direct barter system, be jailed for driving without a govt permit, essentially isolated from everyone, and everything else. Following the Chinese example, a prohibited person’s family can be similarly treated.
While you are itching for a gun fight, govt will outflank you at every turn, without use of force…which I have been pointing out for the last three years. There ain’t gonna be no boogie, Lou. Politics will strangle you without a shot fired.
“Try being an American!”? I’ve already (like many others) taken fire flying combat missions in service to, and for, M’urica. The fight we face here is political, not kinetic.
Sam, WOW! Not you back down from your original to take a “softer” (sic) position? You really ought to take my advice and see what being an American really is all about. I don’t have to worry about losing my job. I’m retired.
IT seems you have little faith in the American people. Maybe you should stick to something else? I also took fire in a place called Vietnam.
The fight we face here is both political and kinetic. Apparently you have not been on the streets lately?
“IT seems you have little faith in the American people.”
You got that right. We are too comfortable, too self-centered, too risk-averse, too greedy, too susceptible to preserving our personal privileges, too far along the arc of history to return to the days of the founding, at the end stage of empire. The books tell us that what we call “America” dies with a whimper, not a bang.
As to backing off, I managed to string you along this far, just with a tongue-in-cheek note about social credit scores; mission accomplished.
Seriously…thanks for being in uniform during the Vietnam disgrace (cowardly US government and people).
Sam, JBOL! You couldn’t sting a kite. Yes, there are a lot of sheeple who are too self absorbed. You are certainly one. I seriously doubt you don’t believe in your “social credit scores” nonsense. Tell the truth for a change ?
Sam, Oh come on. You really do believe in that “social credit” nonsense, don’t you.
@SAFEupstateFML
“Hard part is getting others to try.”
Likely because learning runs the risk of discovering that one is mistaken (wrong), a most unpleasant fall-out from discovery. (don’t ask how I know)
LOL don’t need to ask I get my ass kicked by that last bit often enough. My general ideas may be pretty close but damn do some of the details get warped. Odd thought but I just realized that 60-70% of all actual combat/training I saw was raiding remote rural compounds and dealing with rifle wielding opponents of the government………….their houses are far better suited to resisting bullets/entry than anything we make here.
“their houses are far better suited to resisting bullets/entry than anything we make here.”
Yes, we are eternally guilty of assuming a primitive society is primitive.
Sam, you should know. Have you looked at your “social credit score card” lately? JBOL!
Walt I will tell you with absolute certainty that the social credit system is being used abroad and is being tested here and is ultimately far more dangerous than any Ruby Ridge style raid on a home for various reasons. I would suggest you research it closely as it is ultimately the logical conclusion of the PATRIOT act abomination.
SAFE, I am sure it is. Let them test their “social credit score” on me. I’ll bet I got a ZERO.
@Walter E Beverly III October 12, 2023 At 09:44
“Sam, Oh come on. You really do believe in that “social credit” nonsense, don’t you.”
Social credit score is a real thing. The Chinese commies are establishing it. The desire of governments to control, not serve, the populace is an eradicable element of humans and governments. The founders understood this and tried to build a wall against government predation. The progeny failed to keep faith.
Regardless, we are a nation in irreversible decline. The end stage of empire is described as: Decadence
Decadence is marked by:
Defensiveness
Pessimism
Materialism
Frivolity
An influx of foreigners
The Welfare State
A weakening of religion.
Too long a period of wealth and power
Selfishness
Love of money
The loss of a sense of duty.
Look around. What do you see?
A PDF download (https://docshare.tips/the-fate-of-empires-and-search-for-survival_574c093bb6d87f411f8b53b1.html)
Sam, Unlike some here, I am not a pessimist. I believe in the American people waking up to the travesty going on here in the US.
“Unlike some here, I am not a pessimist. I believe in the American people waking up to the travesty going on here in the US.”
Nice to think so, but the arc of history doesn’t support the notion (neither do the ancient writings). None of the failed empires ever reversed their condition.
Sam, with pessimists like you, is there any hope? How about getting off your lead posterior and do something beside groan and whine.
@Walter E Beverly III
“Yes, there are a lot of sheeple who are too self absorbed. You are certainly one.
-If I were too self-absorbed, I would have no time to care about the decline of America, nor to post warnings about the truth of our situation.
I seriously doubt you don’t believe in your “social credit scores” nonsense.
– If you are unaware of the convergence of social credit scoring and digital currency, I recommend you read up. There ain’t gonna be no boogie, Lou.
In the 1930s, the French drew the lesson that the next war would look like the prior global war. The French, bypassed by history and technology, and thusly built the useless Maginot Line. The Germans simply went around it, and through the Ardennes forestry. Life is simply going around traditional concepts of firepower as a means to subduing/saving a nation from tyranny.(Not that the reality of firepower shouldn’t present a serious obstacle to rogue government)
Related Note: With the stroke of a pen, govt can render even gold, silver, and precious metals worth zero as a legal means of commerce. In the underground market, those items are worth whatever sellers say they are. At that point, firepower becomes important again.
Sam, seems that all you do is “care”. What are you doing to try to reverse the trend?
Again, you and your buds can “social credit” score me to your little heart’s content.
Well you see Walt that is the point, hope your food/utilities/communications are all independent of typical providers. With that said if you have Amish communities nearby they would be amongst the best friends you can make in such a scenario (as well as the pandemic madness)
Safe, unlike some here, I don’t sweat the small shit. We do in fact have Amish and Mennonite communities right in this neck of the woods. and unlike many, I did not “panic” over the so called “pandemic”.
It’s the little things that kill Walt. With that said glad to hear you are near a food source that will largely be independent in what may come. As to panic over pandemic nor did we but our neighbors and NYC folk sure did and it created no end of headaches all throughout the system if you still had to go in to work. That was over a flu (admittedly a likely precursor to a bio weapon but still a flu) imagine if some real shit kicks off.
SAFE, Unlike some, I did not “panic” over the pandemic. I don’t worry much about what other people think or do. Kind of a useless endeavor.
@Walter E Beverly III
“Sam, with pessimists like you, is there any hope? ”
Valter-san, old buddy, old pal, old bean, it has been fun, but must admit you are just too easy to spin-up. So, unless you are recruiting and training a militia group, time to move on to more serious discussions.
Cheers,
Sam, let’s get something straight. I’m not your “san”, your old buddy, old pal or Old bean.
I can see you enjoy trying, while not succeeding in try to embarrass others. The only thing spinning is that thing on top of your shoulders.
When God passed out brains, you thought he said trains and took the Express out of town. Incidentally, the conductor is still looking for your sorry posterior as you failed to even pay for the ticket.
Now go pay for the ticket.