Hello!What do you think of my analysis? Any differing interpretations? Anything you think I missed? Art interpretation should be treated as a conversation, so, in addition to the questions I posed directly in the video, I've listed some discussion questions below to kick-start analysis beyond what I did in the video! If you have the means, any and all support on Patreon (link in description) means the world to me and really helps me keep this going. Currents perks are just name in credits, early access, Discord server, and update posts. I’m going to rework the Patreon eventually so I’ll save the stronger pitch til then! 1. Is there some sort of deeper meaning to the nature documentary thing? That's what Walt was literally watching during the moment he said he should have died, AND Jesse mentions himself watching a nature documentary or the Discovery Channel two different times in the episode. What's up with that? 2. The opening scene of the next episode, "Abiquiu," follows pretty directly from "Fly." It's a flashback to Jane and Jesse going to a museum, and shows Jane leaving the cigarette that was shown in the previous episode. However, I don't really have a read on what that scene means, how it connects to "Fly" beyond Jane being important to Jesse, or even how it connects to the rest of its own episode. Thoughts? 3. Are there any other episodes of Breaking Bad (or Better Call Saul?) that you would think would work well with this sort of close reading video? I can't promise I'll actually do another one but I'm very curious what comes to mind.
this might be too huge of an undertaking, but i would love to hear more of your thoughts on the use of color symbolism in brba (and/or better call saul). i've watched both shows all the way through a handful of times, but the deliberate use of color is something that totally went over my head until you touched on it in this analysis. would love to hear more of your thoughts on that if you're jonesing to do more videos on the gilliganverse
16:04 Many people interpret this monologue to be about Walt shifting blame onto anyone but himself, but on my first viewing, my interpretation was that Walt's speech was just intentionally terrible to get his coworkers to leave him alone. The scene opens with a kid not-so-discreetly trying to use it as an excuse to get a free passing grade, nobody wants to volunteer when Carmen asks someone else to speak and the few kids that do talk are horribly awkward. So she shifts the conversation over to the adults who are probably slightly more eloquent and sensitive and gives Walt the mic basically at random. Since Walt really does not want to talk about it, he says the most insensitive and uncomfortable things he can get away with so that his turn is cut short, which ends up working when Carmen cuts him off mid sentence to take the mic from him. Both interpretations are about Walt not wanting to come to terms with the actions that indirectly occurred because of what he did, but the common interpretation is moreso that Walt is jumping through hoops in order to cope for himself while mine is about Walt jumping through hoops so that he doesn't have to cope with it.
I really like this hyperfocus idea, you present it extremely well. Keep it up, been here since the first speedrunning stuff you did and every one is a banger.
this episode was just slapstick and I loved it. not that it's shallow, I just love shows that can be really fucking funny, but also incredibly tragic and with drama. :) the highest of highs and lowest of lows!! an emotional rollercoaster.
It has always had a lot of defenders but yeah as evidenced by its imdb rating there are pleeenty of haters. Look at r/breakingbad they still argue about this episode like every week
I think the fans are split, a good chunk of them consider it just fine but the worst episode by a decent margin, while a good chunk of others consider it one of the better episodes
I was just scrolling through your channel yesterday and thinking “wow i hope skyehoppers post a new video soon”!! So excited to sit down and watch this one :)
“I don’t know for sure if this will be an engaging structure, but I hope it’ll be fun to try for me (and you, I guess).” Yes! PLEASE keep making the art you want to make. Even if I don’t always like it, i respect it so much. (And for the record, I adore this video.)
It might be time for me to finally revisit Breaking Bad. I'm, of some definition, a Breaking Bad "guy" but only in the sense that I had such a troubling off-boarding from the show that I've kind of abandoned it outright and I... don't reflect well on it at all really. But it's been a long time and then some, and my problems with the show kind of overshadow moments like "Fly". Really appreciated this nuanced discussion of the show and it's got me thinking again. Thanks for making this.
The direct connection between fly and ozymandias is so obvious in my opinion that it surprises me that people can’t see the point of the episode. The moment walter white finally betrays jesse fully is when he tells the nazis where he is hiding and reveals the truth about janes death to him, a moment that only hits as hard as it does because of fly.
One thing I have noticed is that some of my favorite art has had extremely turbulent and chaotic productions. Stalker was a nightmare for Tarkovsky to direct, but it remains one of the best movies of all time. I’m not as familiar with the turmoil of breaking bad, but there is something to be said for brilliant art that has somehow been produced by teams with extreme hurdles to overcome. I won’t say that the brilliance of these works derives from that turmoil, because tons of great art comes from smooth productions, but it’s something I might think about. How does a struggle of production impact the art, and why is that struggle not present in the final product?
No need to be so hard on yourself! This video really made me reevaluate what was already my favorite episode of my favorite show and made me appreciate it so much more! I would love to see more videos like this in addition to your usual stuff. So far every video of yours I've seen has been so good that I've immediately wanted to show them to people, they always get me thinking more deeply about the subject matter than I ever had. Even if it takes time to get your videos out, what's important is that they're worth watching, I truly don't mind waiting for the next upload if it'll be of this quality
Great analysis! There's a lot in here I didn't consider despite having watched through the series twice. You always do a great job of explaining themes in a gradual way to bring us as viewers along with!
this was more or less my reading when i first watched the episode, and i never understood why people called an episode with so much underlying tension boring. good video :)
incredible breakdown! ive never really understood the extreme distaste for this episode. i think it stands as a very welcome break from the intensity seen in prior episodes, while maintaining its growing tensions and setting the stage for walts headspace going forward. IMO one of the best episodes :3
I will say, when you binge the entire show you really start to blur the neat ways each individual episode is structured and framed. Nice to see some focused thought given to just one episode as its own piece.
This is video is so well made, I have a feeling that it's going to blow up. I really enjoyed it PS: I would love to see you analyse the game 'Little Nightmares' because of its really deep and atmospheric story, and it has a lot of hints and foreshadowing just like in breaking bad
This to say, I really like the fact that this is actual analysis - looking at what symbols allude to and making points about the presentation. I find it really compelling!
When i was initially watching breaking bad i thought it was overall good, but there was only one episode which stood out in particular. Then i went on to the internet & it turns out everyone hates the fly lol
It is really wild that people don't like this episode, it's so good and such a tight episode to give you an insight into the minds of the characters as shit happens. Also, though there is no overt violence in the episode, the amount of implied violence just simmering under the surface in this episode is palpable. Every moment you can feel Walt desperate to talk about and confess his sins, but he and everyone watching knows the minute that happens, Jessie will at the very least leave him, and more likely, will kill him, smashing his brains against that floor. And Walt's altered state from the sleeping meds and complete lack of sleep leave him weak enough to say what he needs to say, but Walt's continued survivor's instinct is fighting EVERY STEP OF THE WAY to not admit it, or worst for him, admit fault. And I think the framing during that talk is more us seeing Walt sinking deeper & deeper into his own helplessness, as the sleep deprivation and meds weaken the mental faculties, the only and probably greatest power Walt has, and put him much closer to the 2 things that the best parts of him actually want, to honestly admit his acts to Jessie, a friend and someone he deeply loves in a familial way, and to be free of this whole cruelty of still being alive, which has kept him here. And meanwhile, Jesse continues to get into greater heights and grows taller over him, because he's recovering and growing to one degree or another and is becoming more talented and stable in the organization compared to Walt, and could at some point, usurp him and take his place. But Jessie can't see that, and it is often to his detriment.
not sure if this is me being an idiot or a Bravo Vince moment, but i never put it together that jesse was stealing from the lab. this is why i have trust issues (my issue is that i don't know how trust works)
I do think this video is really good and this is more about the episode it's about, i am pretty sure letting the fly land on the finish meth would probably kill it just from the contact high. Granted that might be part of the point, that Walt does not have to do this but does it anyways and thus suffers for it
What do you mean the "worst" episode? I thought it would be considered one of the best episodes in the show? Like, it's so unique and it's good in ways that go beyond breaking bad, it's good as a standalone and it's good in the context of the show. I guess maybe if you watch the show multiple times it starts being a bit more boring? I dunno, I rarely watch shows multiple times. (but also if you don't want to rewatch it you can just skip it, it doesn't make it less great or important)
So there's a lot I like in this analysis, and your interpretations are certainly interesting, but unfortunately I think this video plays into the same conversation that everyone has about Fly, a conversation that I don't think is particularly interesting. It starts with the brainrot people who say "I don't like Fly because I want explosions and Fly has no explosions," and then the response is always "No, Fly is good, actually, because... here's an analysis of the symbolism in Fly." What I find lacking is discourse on the third step in the conversation, which is an actual qualitative appraisal of the symbolism. Now that we know what XYZ *means,* do we think XYZ is *good*? and why or why not. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Fly, not because I don't understand what it's trying to do, but precisely because I understand what it's trying to do and I'm not impressed by it. First of all, I just don't think anyone is ever going to get the same juice out of the guilt-induced OCD thing than Shakespeare, because he already wrote it. Out, damned spot is already a thing, it was done supremely effectively the first time, and when I see imitations they don't inspire anything new in me that I haven't already seen or felt before. Okay, we get it. The Fly Represents Guilt. So what? And this certainly isn't helped by the fact that this episode is allergic to subtlety. Cranston and Paul are no doubt radiant in this episode, and Cranston's delivery during the crash monologue is immaculate, but the subtlety stops at the performances for me. Everything in the script is so on-the-nose about its function and is milked for every second they can squeeze so that they can hit the 47m mark that I can see everything they're doing from a mile away. Case in point, Jesse won't shut up about nature documentaries to the point that it feels like they're trying to gaslight us into believing this is one of his primary character traits. Then, they couldn't just give his ramblings one payoff, they had to give it two: first when Jesse starts talking about the possum, bringing the animal theme back to cancer, then when Walt starts talking about the nature program the night Jane died. My god, just pick one. The conceit is stretched past its limit, there are so many hats on hats, please just take a couple off. Then you add in Johnson's camera work, which is moment-to-moment impressive but generally so tonally jarring to me. It feels like he wasn't sure the script would be interesting enough so he had to pack in a bunch of flashy shit to keep our interest. And so you get, like, super in-your-face scrubbing POV shots and slow-mo fly deaths and *zooooom in on the fly at the end just so you know Walt hasn't excised his guilt it's always going to be there do you get it do you get it The Fly Represents Guilt The Fly Represents Guilt* I GET IT. Don't just point to the thing like "do you see the thing??!! IT'S THEMATIC!!!", please just chill out and let the material breathe. TL;DR I'm glad I watched this video and I like the new things you made me think about, but I'm just kind of tired of people shouting "No Explosions Bad! The Fly Represents Guilt Good!" at each other. Yes people who say dumb things because they don't possess critical analysis skills are dumb, but I also reject the idea that critical understanding automatically confers quality. In the case of Fly, I don't think that holds true because the conceit is already tired to begin with, and then the way they further execute that conceit is so painstakingly obvious in a way that snuffs out the artistic imagination.
@@Skyehoppers sorry lol i was trying to reply to someone who disagreed without elaborating, weird accident lmao i didn't even watch the video yet, but now i feel like i definitely should have a nice day, love your stuff
I have never seen Breaking Bad but the memes, but this video felt like a deja vu... Idk why, but it felt like I have seen the analysis before from someone else.
Hello!What do you think of my analysis? Any differing interpretations? Anything you think I missed? Art interpretation should be treated as a conversation, so, in addition to the questions I posed directly in the video, I've listed some discussion questions below to kick-start analysis beyond what I did in the video! If you have the means, any and all support on Patreon (link in description) means the world to me and really helps me keep this going. Currents perks are just name in credits, early access, Discord server, and update posts. I’m going to rework the Patreon eventually so I’ll save the stronger pitch til then!
1. Is there some sort of deeper meaning to the nature documentary thing? That's what Walt was literally watching during the moment he said he should have died, AND Jesse mentions himself watching a nature documentary or the Discovery Channel two different times in the episode. What's up with that?
2. The opening scene of the next episode, "Abiquiu," follows pretty directly from "Fly." It's a flashback to Jane and Jesse going to a museum, and shows Jane leaving the cigarette that was shown in the previous episode. However, I don't really have a read on what that scene means, how it connects to "Fly" beyond Jane being important to Jesse, or even how it connects to the rest of its own episode. Thoughts?
3. Are there any other episodes of Breaking Bad (or Better Call Saul?) that you would think would work well with this sort of close reading video? I can't promise I'll actually do another one but I'm very curious what comes to mind.
this might be too huge of an undertaking, but i would love to hear more of your thoughts on the use of color symbolism in brba (and/or better call saul). i've watched both shows all the way through a handful of times, but the deliberate use of color is something that totally went over my head until you touched on it in this analysis. would love to hear more of your thoughts on that if you're jonesing to do more videos on the gilliganverse
I think Plan and Execution is an incredible episode of bcs that could use a similar close reading
Including analysis of the whole fucking with Howard arc
16:04
Many people interpret this monologue to be about Walt shifting blame onto anyone but himself, but on my first viewing, my interpretation was that Walt's speech was just intentionally terrible to get his coworkers to leave him alone.
The scene opens with a kid not-so-discreetly trying to use it as an excuse to get a free passing grade, nobody wants to volunteer when Carmen asks someone else to speak and the few kids that do talk are horribly awkward. So she shifts the conversation over to the adults who are probably slightly more eloquent and sensitive and gives Walt the mic basically at random. Since Walt really does not want to talk about it, he says the most insensitive and uncomfortable things he can get away with so that his turn is cut short, which ends up working when Carmen cuts him off mid sentence to take the mic from him.
Both interpretations are about Walt not wanting to come to terms with the actions that indirectly occurred because of what he did, but the common interpretation is moreso that Walt is jumping through hoops in order to cope for himself while mine is about Walt jumping through hoops so that he doesn't have to cope with it.
I really like this hyperfocus idea, you present it extremely well. Keep it up, been here since the first speedrunning stuff you did and every one is a banger.
Thats very touching actually, thank you 😊
this episode was just slapstick and I loved it. not that it's shallow, I just love shows that can be really fucking funny, but also incredibly tragic and with drama. :) the highest of highs and lowest of lows!! an emotional rollercoaster.
Wait people think the fly episode is the worst episode of the show? It's maybe my favorite episode outside of the final season.
Yeah I’m also confused, I’ve only ever heard nothing but praise for that episode’s particular brilliance.
It has always had a lot of defenders but yeah as evidenced by its imdb rating there are pleeenty of haters. Look at r/breakingbad they still argue about this episode like every week
it seems too goofy to believe but given that the average brba fan thinks that skyler was the true villain of the whole show, it kinda tracks
I think the fans are split, a good chunk of them consider it just fine but the worst episode by a decent margin, while a good chunk of others consider it one of the better episodes
I was just scrolling through your channel yesterday and thinking “wow i hope skyehoppers post a new video soon”!! So excited to sit down and watch this one :)
I think I would really like more video essays like this that focus heavily on smaller parts of a larger piece of media.
I am jealous of how consistently great breaking bad is at using multiple colors to represent various things and staying mostly consistent with it
“I don’t know for sure if this will be an engaging structure, but I hope it’ll be fun to try for me (and you, I guess).”
Yes! PLEASE keep making the art you want to make. Even if I don’t always like it, i respect it so much. (And for the record, I adore this video.)
It might be time for me to finally revisit Breaking Bad. I'm, of some definition, a Breaking Bad "guy" but only in the sense that I had such a troubling off-boarding from the show that I've kind of abandoned it outright and I... don't reflect well on it at all really. But it's been a long time and then some, and my problems with the show kind of overshadow moments like "Fly". Really appreciated this nuanced discussion of the show and it's got me thinking again. Thanks for making this.
The direct connection between fly and ozymandias is so obvious in my opinion that it surprises me that people can’t see the point of the episode. The moment walter white finally betrays jesse fully is when he tells the nazis where he is hiding and reveals the truth about janes death to him, a moment that only hits as hard as it does because of fly.
This video's a fantastic effort. Thanks for putting it out there and I'd be glad to watch more.
One thing I have noticed is that some of my favorite art has had extremely turbulent and chaotic productions. Stalker was a nightmare for Tarkovsky to direct, but it remains one of the best movies of all time. I’m not as familiar with the turmoil of breaking bad, but there is something to be said for brilliant art that has somehow been produced by teams with extreme hurdles to overcome. I won’t say that the brilliance of these works derives from that turmoil, because tons of great art comes from smooth productions, but it’s something I might think about. How does a struggle of production impact the art, and why is that struggle not present in the final product?
Skyperfocused
😤
No need to be so hard on yourself! This video really made me reevaluate what was already my favorite episode of my favorite show and made me appreciate it so much more! I would love to see more videos like this in addition to your usual stuff. So far every video of yours I've seen has been so good that I've immediately wanted to show them to people, they always get me thinking more deeply about the subject matter than I ever had. Even if it takes time to get your videos out, what's important is that they're worth watching, I truly don't mind waiting for the next upload if it'll be of this quality
Great analysis! There's a lot in here I didn't consider despite having watched through the series twice. You always do a great job of explaining themes in a gradual way to bring us as viewers along with!
this was more or less my reading when i first watched the episode, and i never understood why people called an episode with so much underlying tension boring. good video :)
this is such a banger i really hope you do more :)
Hey, loved this video style. Great work!
incredible breakdown! ive never really understood the extreme distaste for this episode. i think it stands as a very welcome break from the intensity seen in prior episodes, while maintaining its growing tensions and setting the stage for walts headspace going forward. IMO one of the best episodes :3
I will say, when you binge the entire show you really start to blur the neat ways each individual episode is structured and framed. Nice to see some focused thought given to just one episode as its own piece.
This is video is so well made, I have a feeling that it's going to blow up. I really enjoyed it PS: I would love to see you analyse the game 'Little Nightmares' because of its really deep and atmospheric story, and it has a lot of hints and foreshadowing just like in breaking bad
Skyehoppers video on my favorite Breaking Bad episode we're so back
Delicious! Finally, some good fucking analysis.
This to say, I really like the fact that this is actual analysis - looking at what symbols allude to and making points about the presentation. I find it really compelling!
When i was initially watching breaking bad i thought it was overall good, but there was only one episode which stood out in particular. Then i went on to the internet & it turns out everyone hates the fly lol
It is really wild that people don't like this episode, it's so good and such a tight episode to give you an insight into the minds of the characters as shit happens. Also, though there is no overt violence in the episode, the amount of implied violence just simmering under the surface in this episode is palpable. Every moment you can feel Walt desperate to talk about and confess his sins, but he and everyone watching knows the minute that happens, Jessie will at the very least leave him, and more likely, will kill him, smashing his brains against that floor. And Walt's altered state from the sleeping meds and complete lack of sleep leave him weak enough to say what he needs to say, but Walt's continued survivor's instinct is fighting EVERY STEP OF THE WAY to not admit it, or worst for him, admit fault.
And I think the framing during that talk is more us seeing Walt sinking deeper & deeper into his own helplessness, as the sleep deprivation and meds weaken the mental faculties, the only and probably greatest power Walt has, and put him much closer to the 2 things that the best parts of him actually want, to honestly admit his acts to Jessie, a friend and someone he deeply loves in a familial way, and to be free of this whole cruelty of still being alive, which has kept him here. And meanwhile, Jesse continues to get into greater heights and grows taller over him, because he's recovering and growing to one degree or another and is becoming more talented and stable in the organization compared to Walt, and could at some point, usurp him and take his place. But Jessie can't see that, and it is often to his detriment.
not sure if this is me being an idiot or a Bravo Vince moment, but i never put it together that jesse was stealing from the lab. this is why i have trust issues (my issue is that i don't know how trust works)
I do think this video is really good and this is more about the episode it's about, i am pretty sure letting the fly land on the finish meth would probably kill it just from the contact high. Granted that might be part of the point, that Walt does not have to do this but does it anyways and thus suffers for it
This video was actually amazing! Wario Approved for sure!
Thanks Wario!
Fly was the first breaking bad episode I ever watched, very surprised for people to say it's the worst lol
Really great video! How you make more like it!
People didn't like Fly?! It was always my favorite!
Wait Fly was badly rated? I absolutely loved that episode. That's why I stay away from aggregator websites I guess.
I also love fly, also I cant way for this series!
Not a fan of BB. To me it's a nice show. That's it
Anyways, the fly was brilliant. It cemented how absolutely fxked Walter was.
What do you mean the "worst" episode? I thought it would be considered one of the best episodes in the show?
Like, it's so unique and it's good in ways that go beyond breaking bad, it's good as a standalone and it's good in the context of the show. I guess maybe if you watch the show multiple times it starts being a bit more boring? I dunno, I rarely watch shows multiple times. (but also if you don't want to rewatch it you can just skip it, it doesn't make it less great or important)
So there's a lot I like in this analysis, and your interpretations are certainly interesting, but unfortunately I think this video plays into the same conversation that everyone has about Fly, a conversation that I don't think is particularly interesting. It starts with the brainrot people who say "I don't like Fly because I want explosions and Fly has no explosions," and then the response is always "No, Fly is good, actually, because... here's an analysis of the symbolism in Fly." What I find lacking is discourse on the third step in the conversation, which is an actual qualitative appraisal of the symbolism. Now that we know what XYZ *means,* do we think XYZ is *good*? and why or why not. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Fly, not because I don't understand what it's trying to do, but precisely because I understand what it's trying to do and I'm not impressed by it.
First of all, I just don't think anyone is ever going to get the same juice out of the guilt-induced OCD thing than Shakespeare, because he already wrote it. Out, damned spot is already a thing, it was done supremely effectively the first time, and when I see imitations they don't inspire anything new in me that I haven't already seen or felt before. Okay, we get it. The Fly Represents Guilt. So what? And this certainly isn't helped by the fact that this episode is allergic to subtlety. Cranston and Paul are no doubt radiant in this episode, and Cranston's delivery during the crash monologue is immaculate, but the subtlety stops at the performances for me. Everything in the script is so on-the-nose about its function and is milked for every second they can squeeze so that they can hit the 47m mark that I can see everything they're doing from a mile away. Case in point, Jesse won't shut up about nature documentaries to the point that it feels like they're trying to gaslight us into believing this is one of his primary character traits. Then, they couldn't just give his ramblings one payoff, they had to give it two: first when Jesse starts talking about the possum, bringing the animal theme back to cancer, then when Walt starts talking about the nature program the night Jane died. My god, just pick one. The conceit is stretched past its limit, there are so many hats on hats, please just take a couple off. Then you add in Johnson's camera work, which is moment-to-moment impressive but generally so tonally jarring to me. It feels like he wasn't sure the script would be interesting enough so he had to pack in a bunch of flashy shit to keep our interest. And so you get, like, super in-your-face scrubbing POV shots and slow-mo fly deaths and *zooooom in on the fly at the end just so you know Walt hasn't excised his guilt it's always going to be there do you get it do you get it The Fly Represents Guilt The Fly Represents Guilt* I GET IT. Don't just point to the thing like "do you see the thing??!! IT'S THEMATIC!!!", please just chill out and let the material breathe.
TL;DR I'm glad I watched this video and I like the new things you made me think about, but I'm just kind of tired of people shouting "No Explosions Bad! The Fly Represents Guilt Good!" at each other. Yes people who say dumb things because they don't possess critical analysis skills are dumb, but I also reject the idea that critical understanding automatically confers quality. In the case of Fly, I don't think that holds true because the conceit is already tired to begin with, and then the way they further execute that conceit is so painstakingly obvious in a way that snuffs out the artistic imagination.
elaborate maybe?
@@Skyehoppers sorry lol i was trying to reply to someone who disagreed without elaborating, weird accident
lmao i didn't even watch the video yet, but now i feel like i definitely should
have a nice day, love your stuff
Ah makes sense haha
I have never seen Breaking Bad but the memes, but this video felt like a deja vu... Idk why, but it felt like I have seen the analysis before from someone else.
It's fine i would like to disagree tho
am i deaf in my left ear
What parts arent coming through on the left? The whole video?