Bullshit. There's a large body of evidence documenting that the Afghan mujahedin who the CIA supported throughout the 80s went on to become the Taliban, and that the foreign fighters who supported them became al Qaeda. The only party who seriously contests this is the US government itself - and as a clue to how…

Clearly, no woman could ever internalize sexism after growing up in a profoundly sexist society. Also, Phyllis Schlafly never existed.

Skyler's super-complicit at this point, but it's fairly clear at this point that she's not sticking with Walt out of genuine loyalty to him, but out of self-interest - the moment she decides not to roll on Walt is the moment she hears from Hank that Walt's cancer is back (a neat callback to the moment from last season…

"Statesman"? Her dad was the guy who got Jimmy Carter to start arming right wing death squads in Central America, and sending guns and CIA assistance to the jihadis who would eventually become al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

The people who are rooting for Walt are doing so at this point out of dumb, fist-pumping machismo (it's telling that there's a considerable overlap between fans who luuuuurve late-series Walt and hate the female characters on this show with a passion). It's hard to tell where that sort of thing ends and sociopathy…

Stalinism doesn't suck?

That was pretty cool. I'm looking forward to her new album.

I'm going to predict right now that the both Walt Jr. and the baby die by the end of the series. Horrifying, yes, but too fucking ironic, after all that Walt and Skyler have done to keep the kids in a meth dealer's home.

It's okay though, because he's being SO racist that he must be being IRONICALLY racist somehow, in a way that never really becomes apparent!

If nothing else, the religious, mild or otherwise, want nothing to do with Ayatollah Khomeini because he's been dead for decades. Christ, if you're going to throw out a caricature of religious fundamentalism, can you at least keep it current?

The "separation of art and artist" thing generally implies exactly the kind of thing  @avclub-21260e960c42f13c051d7d2caa49748d:disqus is talking about - Dali was a Franco apologist, Borges was a fan of Pinochet, etc. - but it seems like most of the AV Club staff jumped on the idea of playing "what if artist X hadn't…

Sex work is so glamorous!

@avclub-4ffb0d2ba92f664c2281970110a2e071:disqus - John From Cincinnati did not "kill Deadwood." HBO killed Deadwood because Deadwood had low ratings but was expensive to produce (as all period pieces are), and so Milch pulled out JFC as a backup project he'd been working on for a while. The notion that HBO killed…

I don't think the ending you're sketching out here will actually happen, but I do think it's the one that should happen. Each season, Gilligan has been hammering home, with less and less subtlety, the message that Walt is a monster. Walt the psycho, trying to murder his old friends out of sheer animalistic spite,…

Ed O'Neill, Dayton Callie and Ed O'Neill's parrot. "Excuse me if I stop to avail myself of telepathic assistance!"

John From Cincinnati was fucking awesome.

So, here's my thing with Breaking Bad. I really enjoy this show, and look forward to every new episode, and will miss it when it's gone, BUT… it is a COMPLETELY guilty pleasure for me. Breaking Bad is schlock - well-made, well-acted, wildly entertaining schlock, but schlock nonetheless. And that's okay. It's okay to…

I can't get past the animation. Everything looks like a video game cutscene.

That orca has killed several humans, but I think it's a mistake to say he "committed murder," which suggests all kinds of peculiar things about our relationship to other animals, and animals' relationships to each other (do we commit murder when we kill other animals for food? Does a lion commit murder when it hunts a…

Most Marxists try to recycle and compost.