the term you are looking for is "pulp"

" A little bit of Douglas goes a long way; quite frankly, episodes suffer
more when he has too much of a storyline over none at all."

Calling it here, - Jesse tracks him down and "interrogates" him for info about Mike, then kills him.

Damn straight. It does the wackiness just right while going back to the more emotionally based season 3 episodes. Just about perfect. And of course it has the greatest Troy McClure episode, which in itself is enough to put the season in the top 2 or 3.

Yes and double yes, it has the great David Warner in the Cox role as well. And it was on BBCfucking3 of all places.

I do wonder how many of the AV Clubbers who love the show will turn on it if Walt manages to "live free".

Surely, surely the "Peripeteia" is Walt killing Gus? That's where the show changes from an ascent to a plateau leading into a decline. Walt's character is most changed from Face/Off to Live Free Or Die - witness him sitting in the back of the car after the magnet scheme, like a malevolent demi-god pronouncing the job…

"abstract revenge on the world"

Ok yes from Walt's POV there's a morality going on. But objectively Mike is far more tainted than Brock or his (I think) uncle who was still a kid.

Ok, I see what you mean, his deepest self is prideful and he can never overcome it. But I'd argue, like Whitman, that he contains multitudes and the reality he constructed for himself with Sky and Walt Jr is just as much a reflection of his nature as him walking out on Gretchen was.  He's certainly overcome parts of…

It's true, but Mike was a murdering bastard who was in the game. He'd "asked for it" as much as anyone can. Brock and his brother are the only genuine, blameless victims.

Fantastic point about Jane's dad. Had not thought of it but it does tie in nicely. Ouch, poor bastards, the pair of them.

I'm uncertain, Miller. Ok he's always had a weird pride thing - walkiing out on Gretchen for example. God I hope we get to find out why he did that. But I don't think he was an amoral person before he started selling meth. I think we can see himself almost physically summoning the will to "go dark" - e.g killing Crazy…

That's a tough reading. Not sure I share it, but only because I think not narking on the kid brother is the right thing to do. I was going to mention Hank actually, sure he's a jocky blowhard with a maybe, sorta, just a bit of a racist attitude but he pays his dues, takes the shit and keeps on going. Which is why he's…

"Walter's enormous flaw is pride, which is a pretty easy flaw to hate on.
Jesse's flaw is to love and need love, which sure don't appear to be
bad things. But that love from Walter requires Jesse to overlook his
father's own flaws, and his love for his surrogates requires their
blindness to the danger he causes them.…

Yeh Walt Jr was trying to buy beer underage and Hank came and gave him the "Wendy tour" so I do think there was a plan to have everyone go a but murky. Glad it didn't work out like that.

And? I mean yes Lost had shitty plotting and 2d characters etc etc. But in the universe of the show there were forces at work beyond the characters just as with BB there are forces at work beyond the characters.

Yeh, I'm never not going to see Walt as a sort of hero. He's stood up to the universe and his own nature and bested them. That's heroic, there's nothing else it can be. Being a hero doesn't mean you are a good person.

"and cooking crystal meth, but we'll let that one slide)"

@avclub-0fa4f697b340f6fdecd8055f2703ecf5:disqus et al - yes this is the point. Dowd's estimation of how good the allegory is or isn't is largely irrelevant as he doesn't even (and neither do many many people on this board) understand what it's an allegory for, therefore any judgement he subsequently makes about it is…