Coupling a straight science nerd with a kind hearted druggie was pure genius. And as the show progresses Walt, the original good one gets more corrupted while the bad one gets more and more good. I do think the poisoning was too far out of character.. But then he did watch Jessie's girlfriend die.. One thing not very believable..Hank was a brilliant investigator but didn't pick up on Walt's odd behavior? Funniest scene to me...after they watched a bloody slaying..they both bought matching sneakers and Kenny Rogers t-shirts and went to a diner.

in the first season was so funny.
Ever pedantic Walt over explaining the science and Jesse eager to answer a simple question......incorrectly.
They captured that perfectly.

If you ask Mr. Dixie what time it is, he will tell you how a clock works, so I KNOW Walt the science guy.

And now, finished the binge, and BB is in the rearview mirror.
Sigh.

I agree with what you are feeling about WW. I was mad at him for most of the show, once he turned into a manipulative jerk who used Jesse so horribly. Jesse worshiped the ground he walked on and WW exploited that loyalty.

The ricin storyline was another way of WW cruelly manipulating Jesse's feelings. Here's what I found on yahoo answers which is the best explanation I've found.

Walter has Saul Goodmans bodyguard take the ricin off of him (when he pats him down), knowing that Jesse will put 2 and 2 together to think that it was Walt (which it was, but hold on). Walt knows that Jesse will think he poisoned Brock and will come to kill him but Walt uses this to his advantage. He makes it seem as if it was Gus who did the deed and that Gus is trying to pin it on Walt because he wants Jesse to kill Gus.

So the whole thing was just WW pretending that Gus poisoned the boy and "set him up". That is why Walt took the ricin even though he didn't use it. He wants Jesse to kill Gus so that WW family will be safe.

Pretty damn risky...guess it did not matter to him if Brock died.

This explains a lot..

http://www.reddit.com/r/breakingbad/wiki/faq

Very convoluted show in many ways.
Such quality does not come along often.

way to powerful to watch more then one episode at a time. Whew......we just couldn't watch more then at a time.

And I have a friend who liked the show but bailed after the head on a tortoise scene.

I tend to get really interested in how they do special effects, so can handle most things, at least the 2nd time around.

I tend to get absorbed in wondering how they do the special effects, so usually am not cringy.

I even went to the fan fest in Albuquerque last year. I talk to the actors and writers on twitter...I'm a superfan, lol! Huge Better Call Saul fan, too.