"Fly" and "Waiting for Godot" share this similar absurdist tone. Instead, the play is really about the various philosophical contemplations the two share over the absurdity of their situation. Nate: While "Fly" borrows from several different materials, the most prominent is "Waiting for Godot" by legendary playwright Samuel Beckett, a play about two men, Vladimir and Estragon, waiting for an individual named Godot, but we never find out who Godot is, and, spoiler alert, Godot never arrives.
Jesse: Place is full of dead-eyed douchebags, the hours suck, and nobody knows what's going on, so. From Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose sonnets inspired the episode "Ozymandias," to Walt Whitman, whose work served as a major plot device, "Breaking Bad" is chock-full of both cultural and literary references. To understand the purpose of the episode, I think it's important to understand what influenced it. It doesn't move the plot forward in any way, and despite everything that happens, nothing is ever changed or resolved by the end. What's ironic is that the criticism against the episode is justified.
Nearing the end of the season, the series was hopelessly over budget, and showrunner Vince Gilligan and the writers were forced to come up with an episode set in one location to save the cost of moving their production trucks, hence the story of two characters trying to catch a fly. Nate: And in the case of the "Fly," due to the budget. Jeff: Tell your disappointment to suck it. Nate: Since then, bottle episodes have popped up everywhere, sometimes as a creative tool.
George: Who says you gotta have a story? Remember when we were waiting for that table in that Chinese restaurant that time? That could be a TV show. It was even used as a joke in the later season. It was only after Larry David threatened to quit the show that the episode was approved and went on to become one of the most critically acclaimed episodes in the entire series. Nate: NBC initially refused the episode, arguing that there was no real story to keep viewers engaged. Although it's been around for some time, the series that really broke new ground was none other than "Seinfeld," in the episode "Chinese Restaurant," where the entire plot revolves around Jerry and his friends just waiting for a table at a restaurant. Nate: First coined by the creator of the '60s TV series "The Outer Limits," bottle episodes refer to episodes that could be produced cheaply by restricting the number of actors and locations. "Outer Limits" narrator: You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits. A part of it, I think, has to do with what the episode is: what's known in the industry as a bottle episode. Consider the fact that the episode dropped right in the middle of a season progressing at an otherwise breakneck speed, and it's easy to see why many weren't so happy with it. What we see is just these two characters in a lab trying to catch a fly. There are no subplots or big action sequences. Walt discovers that a fly has entered his lab and becomes obsessed to get rid of it, while his partner, Jesse, tries to argue against this unreasonable obsession. The episode that I'm referring to is the 10th episode of season three, "Fly." It's also perhaps the series' most polarizing episode, some hailing it as one of the show's greatest, while heavily despised by others. And it's not an episode with a major character death or a bombastic action sequence, but an episode about nothing. But it's also the reason why my personal favorite and perhaps one of the show's greatest episodes doesn't get the spotlight it deserves. And it's this consistency that has allowed for some of the most memorable episodes in television. From the very first shot to its last, it's a show that doesn't waste a single moment, each episode serving a vital role in the story. Nate Lee: The most impressive feat achieved by "Breaking Bad," in my opinion, isn't the cinematography, the writing, or even the performances, but its consistency.