Finished it up in an 8-episode marathon. The way the show takes off midway through s3 is fucking phenomenal. S4 was fucking amazing. And finally solving the problem of actually getting his money to his kids by using the people whose help Walter refused to begin all of this mess was genius. Waving his hand and the laser dots appeared, so good.
Criticisms - Jesse was too much of a goofball fuckup early on given how important he becomes. His comic stupidity in s1/s2 undermines what they do with him later. Basically, Walter can justify all his evil shit as sacrificing for his family; Jesse doesn't have that illusion and so he isn't able to cope with the shit they had to do to survive. Practically everything in the show becomes about those two counter points. Hell, even Skylar fully switches sides. And Hank doesn't fall for the bullshit because he doesn't have kids. But the audience is mostly hung up on all the fuckups Jesse did early on out of just plain stupidity to switch gears and see him representing Walter's conscience. Hell, that's why Walter was telling Jessie to settle down with that girl and even tell her more about his "job." Because once you have a family, you have an easy excuse for just about anything.
So Walter admitting he did it for himself was, wow. It wasn't like he was lying the whole time - he truly believed he was doing it for his family. It wasn't until his months of isolation that he realized the truth.
As far as the epilogue - Skylar will be fine now. Not so much because of the location of Hank's body (which finally gives closure for hagbeast) but because the police will find Jesse's confession and likely the 80 million dollars. As far as they are aware, Jesse is long dead (they'll assume Walter was the cook) and only dumb & dumber will have any inkling that he's still out there somewhere. Walt Jr will keep the money - maybe not all of it, but I don't see him repeating his father's mistake and refusing charity. Maybe Skylar will have to point that out to him, how pride was his father's downfall. But she won't let it all be for nothing.
Pretty funny - after ep8 I had in mind one possible ending where Walter made it appear to Hank that he was working against his will the entire time, and winds up helping Hank catch the remaining meth dealers. Which gave me a good laugh when Walt makes his "confession" tape with the same idea, and again when it becomes reality for Jesse.
