(S01E01) "Tell me why you're doing this. Seriously."
"Why do you do it?"
"Money. Mainly."
"There you go."
"Nah, come on. Man, some straight like you, giant stick up his ass, all of a sudden at age, what, 60; he's just gonna break bad."
"I'm 50."
If your idea of a dashing leading man doesn't include a guy in his fifties wearing his Fruit of the Loom briefs and a lab smock, then you're not watching the right shows. Bryan Cranston is one of television's most under-appreciated actors. While Jane Kaczmerek was Emmy-nominated seven years in a row for her work on Malcolm in the Middle, and was constantly talked about, Cranston only picked up three nods. It looks like he might have another chance at Emmy gold as his performance in Breaking Bad is amazing.
Breaking Bad explores the ultimate mid-life crisis. Not only is high school chemistry teacher Walter White reaching his fiftieth birthday, he also finds out he has terminal lung cancer. Now the show doesn't come right out and tell us the motivations for his subsequent actions, but I can speculate. His son has cerebral palsy, or some other muscular dystrophic disease and I can only imagine his ongoing health care costs will be substantial. His brother-in-law works for the DEA and through this connection, White learns that a crystal meth bust can net hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's all the motivation he needs and when he sees that a former student of his is in the meth business while on a ride-along with his brother-in-law, he has his way in.
Having White be a chemistry teacher makes him ideally suited for creating meth, which is a complicated recipe of chemicals. Cranston's performance in this role as a buttoned-down middle aged man who literally loses all his inhibitions and fears in light of his impending death is inspired. Much like Mad Men, Bad doesn't follow the typical dramatic formula, and the pacing is impacted by setting up characters, motivations and situations as well here in the pilot.
I mentioned before that the show doesn't tell us exactly why White is willing to take such tremendous risks for money, but I'm glad that it doesn't. He doesn't tell his family that he's dying, and again we're not given any reason for this choice. There's a lot left for us to learn as it goes. I don't imagine that White's new drug venture is going to go smoothly for him and his new partner Jesse Pinkman, so I look forward to seeing how his regular life is impacted, and likely nearly destroyed, by his new vocation.
In the first episode alone, they set up their roving meth lab in an RV, and almost immediately get in trouble with Pinkman's former associates. I don't want to ruin how things turn out there, though you get a pretty damned good idea as the episode starts in the middle of this chaos before flashing back three weeks to show us how we got here.
At first, when the episode started with a dramatic moment of crisis before flashing back, I thought we might be in for another season long "How did we get here?' like FX's Damages, but we caught up to that moment here in the first episode and now the possibilities are endless. It means I have no idea where the show is going to go from here, but I find myself really liking Walter White, and feeling for the struggles that his son faces in every day life. I will go on the record right now as saying the clothing shop scene was one of my favorites. Such a short moment, it told us volumes about the family, the son's struggles with his disease, and the newly liberated attitude that White has taken on, to his family's surprise. This, also, I'm sure we'll get more into as the series progresses.
It's interesting that it plays almost like a pay-channel series that's been edited for television. There's plenty of S- and F-bombs sprinkled throughout the show, beeped via silence. Most shows would just use different words as the "beeps" can take you out of the fiction, but it's not too jarring here, and adds to the realism. It will make for an R-Rated DVD release later, though. Breaking Bad was picked up for a nine episode first season, though only seven episodes were finished before the writers strike halted production. I have no idea if the creators managed to get a satisfying "season finale" at the end of the seventh episode, but I'll be along for the ride regardless.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-27-2008 @ 2:58AM
Ms E said...
Just from the trailers on TV before "Breaking Bad" was shown, I really hope Bryan Cranston wins an acting award. He makes the character so interesting. What a great acting job!
Ms E in Oregon
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1-27-2008 @ 7:09PM
D-Bo said...
Bryan Cranston is a wonderful actor and this show is another example. You definitely missed mentioning the baby in your review Jason, but Bill did a great job of summing it up. I'm hard pressed to pick a favorite scene (the clothing store scene was awesome) but the ebay in bed scene was by far the funniest!
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2-04-2008 @ 9:59AM
jamie said...
great can't wait for the nexted episode excellent acting better than a TV show hope it comes out on DVD as a movie
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3-06-2008 @ 6:31PM
Art said...
Breaking Bad's 1st season was amazing! Ended up being just as geat as I expected with Bryan Cranston playing the lead role as Walter. Can't wait to see how seaon one wraps up this Sunday night at 10PM.
You can find a preview of it here:
http://view.break.com/463734
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1-22-2008 @ 12:12AM
Rick said...
One of the reasons why I caught the pilot was because of the great things I heard about Mad Men, which I tried to watch last night but couldn't catch too much due to the football game. I thought this was a great concept and it's really a great show. I'm going to try and catch it every week but because it's on AMC I'll definitely probably forget.
By the way, I don't understand how a show can be TV-MA, broadcast at 10 Eastern and NOT have swear words unmuted. The only reason why I can think why this is, is because the fact that AMC still wants to be a "good" channel compared to FX for the Parents Television Council.
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1-22-2008 @ 12:40AM
gottacook said...
Unfortunately, Jane Kaczmarek (although she was nominated every year Malcolm in the Middle was on Fox) never did win an Emmy. Cranston should at least have been nominated every year as well.
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1-22-2008 @ 1:30AM
Jeff N. said...
I missed this show. Is it repeated anytime later this week?
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1-22-2008 @ 2:26AM
Jon said...
All of you caught a greatly edited repeat. The original pilot was shown in full in the first time slot. Scenes were deleted and language in the immediate repeat.
(BTW thank TPTB)
Anyway, you guys missed some stuff. An entire humiliating bedroom scene on his 50th birthday. The last scene made sense if the earlier one was included. And some choice language.
All in all, good review. It may appear that AMC is only gonna run the unedited version once, and then they will only run PG versions. Either that or they got in trouble for the pilot.
I am currently watching this for the third time now (edited) and have been trying to diagram motivation for the screenplay. It was all about dominance and forethought. And it was brilliantly written. I hope to God they can keep this up the way Mad Men did.
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1-22-2008 @ 2:46AM
Crow said...
I love this show. Can't wait to see where they take it.
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2-01-2008 @ 2:58AM
Jacqueline Harrington said...
Well...if farmboys, hillbillies and high school dropouts can make meth...why can't a chem teacher?
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1-22-2008 @ 3:30AM
wil said...
Wow, I am really glad I saw the unedited version, because the second scene (you know the one) really paid off.
Ahem. Sorry.
But WTF is wrong with TV censors? We can say Bulls--- but you can't say G---amn? That's F---ing stupid.
Great beginning, and I'm so glad we're covering it at TV Squad. Can't wait for the next episode.
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1-22-2008 @ 3:33AM
Jon said...
Holy crap wil. Arise Chicken here. Thank you.
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1-22-2008 @ 8:09AM
Jason Hughes said...
Thanks for the catch on Jane Kaczmarek, I fixed it in the article. I was wondering if I'd caught an edited re-airing (on later but with cleaner language makes very little sense. I had to cancel the scheduled recording of the original airing because the wife started crying that it was interrupting her overtime Packers game; and then they lost and she was even more cranky!
I'll be sure and catch the initial airings the rest of the way through to see as well if I missed something. I'm not thrilled that they cut an entire scene as well and now probably won't ever re-air it. Damn the wife! I'll have to try and find it on YouTube!
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1-22-2008 @ 5:13PM
chaosrain said...
If you missed the original, check out eztv.it.
1-22-2008 @ 8:28AM
Chip Douglas said...
This show rocks. I am always looking forward to new shows from FX and AMC. Mad Men is brilliant, and so goes Breaking Bad. The pace of the show, I feel, reveals his motivations. He is doing this for his family. The bitter irony that his profession and all of his accolades puts him in a humiliating position. And then to get sideswiped with Cancer is the last straw. This is a man with nothing to loose. The most menacing to society. He is now capable of anything, and he probably will.
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1-22-2008 @ 11:00AM
Christopher said...
I hope this show can keep it up. After watching Mad Men last year I'm thankful that some Networks actually produce quality programs.
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1-22-2008 @ 1:59PM
Lenny said...
It would be great if AMC began streaming episodes of their original shows online rather than just clips.
Just my "Captain Obvious" moment du jour.
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1-24-2008 @ 12:22PM
Jordan said...
The show is really good. I love the dark humor. Today, I was just searching the net and came across www.waltswisdom.com, a viral marketing site for Breaking Bad. It's really cool (and creepy) to see Bryan Cranston deliver a customize message to you in his underwear. Check it out!
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1-23-2008 @ 6:12AM
sam said...
thanks for the heads up on this new show,
I caught a repeat of it and it looks good.
I will be watching this series and reading your reviews.
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1-23-2008 @ 8:06AM
Bill said...
I kinda think his motivations were sprinkled throughout the show. He's a high school chemistry teacher who has to work a second, crappy job to get by. He only has $7,000 to his name. When he's in the ambulance after passing out, he asks them to just drop him off on a corner because he says his insurance isn't so great. His son's got whatever medical problem he has, and his wife's pregnant. His wife freaks out over a $14 charge on their mastercard. The third person to take a shower in the morning gets nothing but cold water in their home (which looks like it might be a trailer). This guy's broke, and he's the family's breadwinner. I'm guessing he doesn't have much for life insurance. So he's looking at a widow with no money, a disabled teenager, and a baby. Sounds like a damn good reason to go all out to make some cash before you go.
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