Fly

What can I say? "Breaking Bad" has consistently maintained a high level of quality throughout the past three seasons. And "Fly" is, in my humble opinion, the best episode thus far. I won't reveal much plot wise, but you should be warned ahead of time that this is a very introspective and bizarre episode.

Walt engages in his most erratic display of behavior yet, refusing to cook until he and Jesse find a single fly that could "contaminate" their batch. And that's basically what the episode is: forty five minutes of chasing a fly.

Of course, it's much more than that on a deeper level. Cranston and Paul's performances here are the best acting you'll see on television this year; I guarantee it. Old wounds are reopened, bitterness and regret resurface. Somehow in the course of an hour, "Breaking Bad" weaves intensity, hilarity, oddity, and tragedy into a tapestry of subtlety and deep emotion. I can hardly remember two characters I've cared about more than Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. This show teaches us to see past their flaws, to look into their souls and bear in mind the simplest of truths: they are both human beings. And for that, they deserve our love and respect.

"Fly" requires a great deal of attention to detail, both in terms of visual rhythms and emotional undercurrents of conversations, but the end result is one of the finest episodes of the best show currently on TV. Which brings me to my ending cliché: it feels like an insult to call this television.

As usual, I'll be tuning in next week.

I recently rewatched this one and wanted to review it. It's hilarious, has amazing camera shots, like every episode of Breaking Bad it's well edited and incredible director Rian Johnson had the honor of directing the lowest rated episode and the highest rated one of the series!

I feel bad for this episode. Not that so many people hate it; people are entitled to their opinions. I feel bad that what I think is a masterfully executed episode is, in the popular opinion, the lowest rated episode of the entire series.

While the beginning starts off a tad bit slow, the payoff is all worth it in the long scene towards the middle/end of the episode where Walt and Jesse are having a lengthy conversation. The whole scene is splendid. The camera angles that provide a bit of an uneasy feeling (like when the frame is shaky when it is looking directly at Walt). The lighting that is, as per usual, superb and is just beautiful. And the background music, even though it is minimal, adds to the tension. Just so many things go right to make this an excellent episode.

First off, this episode contains some of the most quality humor I've ever seen. The way they put such a ridiculous scenario into the same tone as the rest of the show makes the episode itself just comical. It's so out of place, yet it takes itself so seriously, making every little thing even more funny. Then as things slowly start to turn, it all of a sudden becomes suspenseful and deeply intriguing as deeper parts of the characters and smaller plot details come out.

This episode, while it is a "filler episode" still has great value and I think holds an important place in the series. I view this episode as a demonstration of the talent of the people who worked on it. It was obviously done with a low budget and yet the quality didn't drop an inch. That's because the actual concept of breaking bad isn't what makes it special, it's the detail, intention, and storytelling pulled off by the makers that creates such a riveting experience, regardless of the actual subject matter. I mean they somehow made trying to swat a fly fill a full-length episode! The outstanding performances from the actors, as well as the creative and immersive camera work makes it hard to look away, even if they're not doing anything important.

Fly is a very controversial episode, I've seen a lot of reviews (mostly positive) about this episode, and i feel that fly has its magic, someone may not understand the symbolism, references etc. But the details this episode has, the dialogues, the ambience everything is nailed perfectly, but thats only my opinion, there are a lot of people that don't think the episode is good, and that the episode's boring and bland and uninteresting, and its just a filler (which is true) but i dont think its JUST a filler, i think that ''Fly'' is the perfect example of a bottle episode, the best filler you could ever ask for. Breaking Bad ran out of money and decided that they could make an amazing episode with limited budget, and they managed to do that and even more.