The auction birthday handjob is such a direct, powerful way to show that relationship was dead 15 years ago
Replies
And I feel like it's bordering on altering the story to remove it.
sep 2, 2025, 1:55 am • 3 0 • view
Agreed, unless they add like 20 minutes of Skyler being neglectful and generally unbearable
sep 2, 2025, 1:57 am • 4 0 • view
There was some truly unhinged stuff aimed at the *actress* that was obviously unacceptable, but excluding that stuff, I've wondered how much of The Discourse about Skyler back when the show was airing was from people seeing the handjobless version of the pilot. Gotta be nonzero.
sep 2, 2025, 2:24 am • 5 0 • view
Oh yeah, could be. I didn't follow anything off-screen about the cast but I believe that. And that scene is definitely crucial to establishing how she puts up the facade of a loving wife but actually treats him like dirt when others aren't there to see.
sep 2, 2025, 2:29 am • 3 0 • view
I was aware of The Discourse and some of the shit aimed at the actress as it happened. I wanna say at least one op-ed about that got run in the NYT even. But pretty sure I did not realize about the handjob scene edit until years after the show ended.
sep 2, 2025, 2:32 am • 4 0 • view
It's hardly a graphic or titillating scene, either. I mean, it's excruciating but it's not pornographic.
sep 2, 2025, 2:33 am • 3 0 • view
Look I don't make the rules, it's just not family friendly TV, unlike Gus Fring trying to walk around with half his face blown off.
sep 2, 2025, 2:39 am • 3 0 • view
And Walt reacting with meek resentment. And it being sexually charged somehow
sep 2, 2025, 1:58 am • 1 0 • view
It's literally emasculating! He's being treated as a failure as a father, as a provider, and sexually as a husband. Heisenberg becomes a kind of toxic masculinity outlet for that which is part of why he finds it so addicting (the parallel between that and literal drug addiction is not subtle).
sep 2, 2025, 2:09 am • 1 0 • view
Just wish he embraced dirty dancing instead
sep 2, 2025, 2:11 am • 1 0 • view
She has her own understandable motives but Skyler is one of the least sympathetic characters. She's awful from the start, goes on to do more selfish things, and is smart enough (unlike Marie) to be at least somewhat self-aware about it. Often she *chooses* to be terrible.
sep 2, 2025, 2:18 am • 3 1 • view
What do you mean, "goes on to do more selfish things" ? I don't recall much she did wrong, outside the context set in the first few episodes
sep 2, 2025, 8:32 am • 0 0 • view