Fifty-One

How far Walt has come since The Pilot! This episode reminds us that only a year has passed and a lot happened during that year!

This episode was qlso dark and depressing with some amazing character drama! Anna Gun does great as Skyler! Love or have her, but she plays her character to perfection! The scenes with her are tense and unsettling cause we can see she is not well! Pool scene was dark, realistic and uncomfortable! As dark as it may sound, this is how depression looks and feels like!

Great scene between Walt and Skyler! We really see just how much Walt has changed and how much his behaviour and work affects those around him! It was all about her and Walts relationship! Anna Gun was amazing and the drama was great as well!

Overall a great psyhological episode that explores the mental consequences of Walts profession and that not everyone shares his enthusiasm!

Hank has some great lines, and they waned because of his serious push on the show as the plot itself got more heavy, and serious, but when he says "Pool Party!" when Skylar walks into the pool is perhaps the greatest moment ever.

This is the fourth episode of the fifth episode of Breaking Bad. I thought this episode was a meaningful filler episode that features outstanding dialogue and great acting. The episode finally has Skylar getting out of her funk in a big way. The action may be limited, but the the main focus of this episode is the exposition and characterization.

In this episode, "Fifty-One," Walt turns 51 years old and he requests a birthday party, in which turns out to be a somber affair. Walt tells Hank and Marie about Skylar's affair with Ted. Skylar is horrified when she finds out Walt is back in the drug business and she wants to send the children away. Meanwhile, Jesse discovers a GPS tracker on one of the main ingredients, prompting the anger of Mike.

Overall, this is a solid episode. It's a little on the slow side, but it's far from uneventful. The ending is very promising and I gather we are in for a treat next episode. I rate this episode 9/10.

'Breaking Bad' is one of the most popular rated shows on IMDb, is one of those rarities where every season has either been very positively received or near-universally acclaimed critically and where all of my friends have said nothing but great things about.

Very few shows in recent memory had me so hooked from the very start that before the week was over the whole show had been watched, especially when for a lot of shows now airing watching one episode all the way through can be an endeavour. 'Breaking Bad' had that effect on me, and its reputation as one of the best, consistently brilliant and most addictive shows in many years (maybe even ever) is more than deserved in my eyes. Its weakest season is perhaps the first season, understandable as any show's first season is the one where things are still settling.

Actually everything is established remarkably from the very start, but once the writing and characterisation becomes even meatier the show reaches even higher levels.

"Fifty-One" may not have the tight pace, being more of a slow burner (nothing wrong with that, 'Breaking Bad' does slow burners well), and red-hot intensity of the best episodes or the Season 5 opener, but everything that makes 'Breaking Bad' as a show so great is present. It may be something of a "filler" episode, with other episodes doing better in story and character advancing, but it's a great one. Skylar is written a little too neurotically at times, making it not always easy to root for her situation, but there is really not much to complain about.

Visually, "Fifty-One" is both stylish and beautiful, with photography and editing that are cinematic quality and put a lot of films today to shame, where there are a lot of visually beautiful ones but also some painfully amateurish looking ones. The music always has the appropriate mood, never too intrusive, never too muted.

The writing in "Fifty-One" is a fine example of how to have a lot of style but also to have a lot of substance. The dialogue throughout is thought-provoking and tense, while also have a darkly wicked sense of humour, nail-biting tension and heart-tugging pathos. The story is texturally rich, intimate, tense and layered, with the pace of it consistently deliberate but taut.

Can't say anything bad about the acting. Bryan Cranston is phenomenal as one of the most fascinating anti-heroes, or even of any kind of character, in either film or television. Aaron Paul has never been better and Anna Gunn is affecting. The supporting cast are both intriguing and entertaining, especially Dean Norris. The characters are compelling in their realism, likewise with their chemistry, and the episode is superbly directed.

This was EXCELLENT. Hard to believe a year has passed since Walt's diagnosis.

Rian Johnson directed the hell out of this episode. I'm really quite impressed with what he did here, especially with all of the scenes between Walter and Skyler. What was that car sequence at the beginning though? It felt so strange and off the wall...

I guess this Lydia character is a little intimidating too. For a paranoid, unkept person, she seems to be kind of calculating and manipulative as well. Mike is probably right about her.

The highlight for me was definitely the final argument between Walter and Skyler though. It's such a challenging scene to watch. They've both been through so much over the past year, but it's all coming to an end soon it seems. Gunn and Cranston are stellar.

Very, very good.