I've finally gotten around to catching up with this critically acclaimed show. The love for Breaking Bad is near universal and most conversations put it up there with Mad Men today and such seminal shows as The Wire, Deadwood, and The Sopranos. Bryan Cranstan has won himself an Emmy for the first three seasons, and probably will again for the fourth in August. It had big shoes to fill and in this first season, I don't think it quite lived up to the hype.
This first season was tragically cut short by the writers strike, ending at episode 7 of 9 planned. It's hard to be too judgmental on a heavily serialized series that doesn't get to finish it's planned story arc. There are a lot of seeds throughout these first seven of greatness, though.
It helps immensely that it is an intriguing premise to begin with. Walter White, our "hero," is a genius chemist that has found himself stuck as a high school teacher. Having to work two jobs to make enough money for his wife, special needs son, and a new baby on the way. Then to be diagnosed with lung cancer with a prognosis of "not good" (technical term). Most people in this situation would not immediately think that the next step would be to make and sell illegal drugs to make a lot of money before you die. Lucky for us, Walt has a DEA agent brother-in-law, Hank, and he sees the huge amounts of money that Hank seizes at drug busts and the wheels start turning.
It's a testament to the writing that at every turn we know Walt's thought process. Walt doesn't immediately jump into the meth game, but it's a gradual process helped by circumstances. Circumstances such as running into his former student, current meth dealer Jesse Pinkman while on a ride-along with Hank. Walt and Jesse's road to riches is also a process, and in most cases a very bumpy ride.
The show also does a great job of upholding logic. Walt, at first, hides his illness from his family. The sustainability of that is not possible with everyone noticing that he's been acting weird. So only three episodes in he reveals to them about the cancer. A lesser show may have tried to stretch credulity to the breaking point and kept that hanging for a whole season. When his old lab partner, now rich, offers to pay for medical treatment, Walt rejects it out of pride and an old grudge of him marrying Walt's old flame. This is a great character moment for Walt moving forward, seeing the depths that his pride reaches, but it also sets ups a logical reason for him to be able to pay for his chemo without his family catching on to where the money is coming from.
In only seven episodes, Walt has had a lot of character development. We first see him running around in his underwear. He then kills one guy in self defense and in the next couple of episodes wrestles with killing the other. Walt eventually does what has to be done to keep his family safe and himself out of jail, but it takes a lot to work up to that point. Slowly, though, he's building confidence. By the end of this season, he walks into then den of a drug lord that stole from them and sets off an explosion to make sure a deal is struck. While not nearly as much development, Jesse gets himself a nice spotlight episode where he becomes more than just comic relief.
The allure of the illegal is maybe the best part of the entire show. After killing the two drug dealers, Walt was through with all of it, and yet he found his way back pretty quickly. It is summed up nicely in the cold open of the finale. Walt and his wife, Skyler, have sex in their car in the school parking lot not far from a parked police car. Afterwards, Skyler asks, "Why was it so damn good?" and Walter simply responds, "Because it was illegal."
Now Walt and Jesse have their operation up and running, but they are working for a psychopath. I'm sure nothing can go wrong in this situation, right? The first season may have fell slightly short of the hype, but I have high hopes and I can't wait to devour the second season.
No comments:
Post a Comment