I just don't get why this episode is so highly rated. It's a great episode, but all the set-up for the heist and the heist itself feels too much like a clichéd Oceans Eleven pastiche. It unoriginally uses a clueless character to provide the opportunity to present the expository dialogue to explain the plan. It even has the "oldest trick in the book" trope of artificially creating suspense by waiting too long to finish up with the task, way beyond the point where it's within safe parameters, and still having it turn out perfectly anyway. I felt the same way about the first episode of the season and that is also a beloved episode so I guess I just don't get it.
I also noticed some logical flaws (but maybe it was just me not getting it again). They establish that they only know six hours ahead of time which train car contains the methylamine. So was it just a stroke of luck that the day they decided to carry out the robbery that that train car was positioned in such a way that the distance between it and the locomotive was exactly the same as the distance between the bridge and the railroad crossing?
With that said, and my rating, it might seem that I don't like this episode but that's not the case at all. Breaking Bad is my favourite show of all time and it simply doesn't have a weak episode. If this was any other show I'd probably rate this episode a 9. But I hold BB episodes to a higher standard and I feel this one doesn't quite live up to it and it gets more praise than it deserves within the BB fandom.
Season five, man. Everyone keeps talking about how it's the best one yet and how Breaking Bad was THE show that only got better with each season, but I can only feel that I miss the brilliance of the "chess match" between Walt and Gus and how season five just makes me depressed with how the protagonist is now completely unlikable, the innocent people get killed in cold blood and the characters you like get dragged through hell. It's all by design, obviously, and executed better than ever but I just can't enjoy it as much. Although, those last four episodes of season 5 probably make up the best television ever produced.
So I don't agree with the consensus that season five is better than season four, even if it's still amazing, as every season is. It's weird though because I usually do agree with the consensus on this show.
I also noticed some logical flaws (but maybe it was just me not getting it again). They establish that they only know six hours ahead of time which train car contains the methylamine. So was it just a stroke of luck that the day they decided to carry out the robbery that that train car was positioned in such a way that the distance between it and the locomotive was exactly the same as the distance between the bridge and the railroad crossing?
With that said, and my rating, it might seem that I don't like this episode but that's not the case at all. Breaking Bad is my favourite show of all time and it simply doesn't have a weak episode. If this was any other show I'd probably rate this episode a 9. But I hold BB episodes to a higher standard and I feel this one doesn't quite live up to it and it gets more praise than it deserves within the BB fandom.
Season five, man. Everyone keeps talking about how it's the best one yet and how Breaking Bad was THE show that only got better with each season, but I can only feel that I miss the brilliance of the "chess match" between Walt and Gus and how season five just makes me depressed with how the protagonist is now completely unlikable, the innocent people get killed in cold blood and the characters you like get dragged through hell. It's all by design, obviously, and executed better than ever but I just can't enjoy it as much. Although, those last four episodes of season 5 probably make up the best television ever produced.
So I don't agree with the consensus that season five is better than season four, even if it's still amazing, as every season is. It's weird though because I usually do agree with the consensus on this show.