Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Can You Really Dissolve A Guy In A Bathtub?

Perhaps you heard that last night, a plucky little drug dealer named Walter White returned to television for his last eight episodes of the award-hoarding Breaking Bad.
But before he began his life of crime, Walter White was a chemistry teacher, and chemistry is what originally made him such a great meth cook. Breaking Bad has always included a lot of science talk, especially in the early days, and the time has come for someone to see whether it holds up. 
And by "someone," I mean "Mythbusters."
Breaking Bad Special Intro | MythBusters

I started watching the Breaking Bad TV series, back to back, on Netflix, but I stopped about half way through season 2 and I didn't picked up watching again.

31 comments:

edutcher said...

Sounds like the last few seasons of CSI:Miami.

The bad ones.

chickelit said...

I saw that "Mythbusters" courtesy of my kids who watch it religiously.

I don't watch "Breaking Bad" but I suppose I should because it appears to be a societal touchstone regarding chemistry among many people.

They overplayed hydrogen fluoride (HF). It's danger is that it latches onto calcium (where it is found in nature). It burns through flesh, seeking bone. It is already partially quenched in water. The real nasty is fluorine gas. I had some fun writing about that here: link

Revenant said...

I haven't watched the show yet myself, although it is on my list of shows to watch. Numerous friends and acquaintances swear it is super-duper awesomesauce.

The concept of the show is certainly interesting.

Methadras said...

I wish a show like Miami Vice would come back. God, that was an awesome show.

Trooper York said...

I saw the pilot episode last week as this is one of the shows I have managed to miss. Mostly because most AMC shows are very, very overrated.

Trooper York said...

The confuse boredom with class.

Trooper York said...

The cable channel that is hitting it out of the park is FX.

With shows like Justified, Sons of Anarchy, The Bridge and Louie they are just doing the best work on TV today bar none.

The Dude said...

Breaking Bad is very good.

As was mentioned earlier, it is a good thing that the chemistry portrayed is vague at best, nonsensical at worst.

The main reason to watch it is to witness the transformation of Walt, from the roller disco dad in Malcolm in the Middle to a ruthless killer.

Who doesn't dream of that as a career path.

Oh yeah, the scene where the legacy costs are dealt with is a great two minutes of television.

virgil xenophon said...

I'm hooked on Justified and the Bridge but Breaking Bad hits it out of the park. However you've GOT to watch every episode from the start to finish to get the full flavor--it's NOT a series one can dip in and out of if one is to fully apprecdiate the story arcs.

yashu said...

Louie is great! So is Justified. Though I've only seen one season of the latter. Been saving the others, I guess, for a marathon watch some rainy week.

Same with Breaking Bad, which I've never started. I'll get to it, probably after it's ended. I like to gorge on TV shows, watching episodes back to back, like reading a novel. Like to have the whole thing, from beginning to end, at hand. If not the whole series, at least the whole season.

Might uncork the last season of Mad Men one of these days. Gotta be in the mood for it.

Trooper York said...

Mad Men is one of those overrated shows. The last season just sucked big time. I think they were over impressed with themselves. Just as what happened with the Soprano's.

You want to see Tony shoot somebody or Don Draper bang some client while he is making a great ad and drinking a gallon of whiskey. Not dream sequences and flashback bullshit.

Keep it simple.

Icepick said...

Personally I've found Breaking Bad to be about as addictive as series I've ever watched on TV. I've been watching it in big chunks as AMC has been showing marathons on Friday nights. I'm going to go crazy next week when I've only got one episode to get me through seven days at a time. I'm already starting to get the shakes just thinking about it....

Icepick said...

virgil, I still haven't seen the first six episodes! GRRR. And I've got about five and a half episodes to go to be completely caught up. That might happen tonight, just because it is too damned hot to sleep.

The Dude said...

Put down the pipe, dude - do not become their best customer.

Icepick said...

I watched the entire run of The Sopranos a couple of years ago. I watched every episode because people kept telling me it was brilliant. At the end of it, I just didn't get it. It was okay in parts, but mostly annoying as fuck because of all the damned Jersey accents.

Plus, having every third word be fuck doesn't really impress me. If I wanted to hear fuck said that much, I'd schedule a poker night with the guys.

Icepick said...

As for BB< the fun thing is that Walter keeps swinging back and forth from being Kaiser Soze to being a Keystone Kriminal. The episode where they steal a barrel and CARRY the barrel was funny as Hell. But there was also the brilliant stuff with the manipulation of Jesse prior to final battle with Gus. Wow, that was some sick, fucked up shit right there.

Icepick said...

Put down the pipe, dude - do not become their best customer.

Gotta keep digging that hole. It's down there somewhere....

Icepick said...

And the best part about dissolving the guys in the bathtub was a line Jesse delivered later. (It was the bathtub in his house where the people were dissolved.)

Walt comes over to visit Jesse. Jesse isn't sleeping in the $850,000 house, he's sleeping in a $1400 RV that doubles as their meth lab. Jesse's explanation for this?

"You turned two guys into raspberry slushies in my bathroom and flushed them down the toilet. I can't even take a proper dump in there anymore."

Freeman Hunt said...

Mythbusters is a great show.

rhhardin said...

Mastercard starting requiring a code from a phone call before giving you a virtual account number.

That's an overreaction to some scam or other, but I wonder what the scam was.

(A virtual account is a credit card number good only for the first merchant that uses it, making it pretty useless to steal; it actually charges your real card.)

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Score Update: Red Sox 2, Canada 1.

yashu said...

Mad Men is one of those overrated shows. The last season just sucked big time. I think they were over impressed with themselves. Just as what happened with the Soprano's.

Yeah, the worst thing about Mad Men is that it takes itself too seriously (and it shows). Even with all the vice & decadence and moral fucked-upness: too earnest. (Good thing there's Roger Sterling's character.)

Even the Sopranos, at its darkest and most pretentious, always had a sense of fun. Sick fun, but still.

But I still enjoy Mad Men. All that whiskey-soaked glamour, guilty sex, and existential ennui: I'm there.

Revenant said...

The Sopranos kind of lost its sense of direction in later seasons, probably because (a) the actress who played Tony's mom died and (b) the show was such a hit that HBO didn't want to end it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

the actress who played Tony's mom died

She was really good.

ndspinelli said...

Dream sequences are pretentious and lazy.

Trooper York said...

You need action and violence if that is what your show is about. When you start reading your notices and acting all artsy fartsy your show is on the way out.

That's what is great about Justified. Raylan Givens always seems to shoot three or four guys an episode. Highest body count since "The Rifleman."

Trooper York said...

Mad Men should be about drinking and smoking and Don Draper banging hot women and Joan Holloway's tits.

Anything else is just not necessary.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

I know you can make gin in a bathtub...

Mitch H. said...

But hopefully not in Jesse Pinkman's bathtub.

Icepick said...

But hopefully not in Jesse Pinkman's bathtub.

I hope not too, it's got a hole in it. Also, the gin always comes out kind of a raspberry color....

JAL said...

I think Victoria (Helen Mirren) did that today in RED 2 at the matinee I saw.