The Awkward Breaking Bad Scene That Some Fans Refuse To Rewatch

Breaking Bad is one of the most rewatchable shows of all time. After you finish the series, you want to go back from the start, back to when Walter White (Bryan Cranston) was a mild-mannered chemistry teacher who teamed up with his former student Jesse (Aaron Paul) to try to make some money for his family, to see his downhill spiral once again. And when you rewatch, you pick up on little details you missed the first time, such as how the pizza Walter threw on the roof was intact, rather than cut into slices. 

Not every moment, though, fills fans with such joy. While there are plenty of flawless episodes in Breaking Bad, the show wasn't without its missteps. Sometimes it's not even something inherently wrong with the episode, so much as it's a scene that rubs fans the wrong way. As such, there are certain moments where fans are prone to fast-forward so that they can get back to the good stuff. Now, plenty of fans (rather unfairly) hated Skyler White (Anna Gunn). Therefore, it may not come as too much of a surprise that one of the most awkward moments in the series features her prominently. 

After thinking about it for a while, you may want to skip past the "Happy Birthday" scene, next time you rewatch the show. 

In a Reddit thread started by u/moonlunafury, a lot of people seem to agree that Skyler doing a Marilyn Monroe-inspired rendition of "Happy Birthday" to her boss, Ted Beneke (Christopher Cousins), leaves you feeling all yucky inside. The scene serves as a handy bit of foreshadowing for when Skyler has an affair with Ted. She obviously gets a little flirty in the scene, highlighting her attraction to him. For fans, foreshadowing doesn't compensate for what amounts to a pretty awkward scene to have to sit through, and it doesn't help that Skyler really, really drags out the song. As noted by the original poster, "This scene is so awkward, uncomfortable and loooooong, every time I see it just skip it."

Other Reddit users seemed to feel similarly, based on their comments, which included such reviews as, "The most cringe scene," and "During my first watch I had to mute the scene and avert my eyes for most of it." However, some fans recognized what the scene meant in the context of character relationships. As Redditor u/wheretheressm0ke commented, "It's a reference to when Marilyn Monroe sang happy birthday to JFK. Ted and eventually the other employees asked her to do it because apparently she's done this impression before, and ppl in the room are enjoying it because it's a decent impression. It's def inappropriate for the workplace but not that cringey to me."

Do you think the scene is the most cringe-worthy of the series? Between this and the scene where Walter makes Walt Jr. drink so much tequila he pukes in the pool, it's a toss-up. Luckily, there are numerous other fantastic details within the series, so it's easy to forgive a few indiscretions.