I'm willing to believe that Walt was just inconsistent when it came to the expression of his ridiculous pride. Kinda like he was always fighting this internal conflict which he occassionaly lost, and that he stopped fighting entirely when he got his cancer. That's what I take away from them never explaining the backstory. I would prefer if they did, but I think they would have done better (much better) to not lead with the "nobel prize in chemistry" and used some less cheap/lofty way to assert that this dude is fuckin smart, yo.
I liked about 3/5ths of Breaking Bad. There was too much filler for me to put it in the "best show ever" category along with The Wire and Mad Men. Any time a woman not named Lydia was on screen the entire thing just ground to a screeching thud. For me, that's kinda a problem. But 3/5ths of it is GREAT.
