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"Breaking Bad": Another Strong Entry from AMC
Last Updated: January 17, 2008 at 01:56 AM GMT By Ed Martin When a network catches everyone off guard with a television series that is anointed by critics as the heir apparent to HBO's dearly departed The Sopranos, what in the world does it do for an encore?
That's the challenge that has been facing AMC since last July when it debuted the richly rewarding Mad Men, an instant hit with critics that towers above most of the dramatic fare on broadcast, pay cable or basic cable, even during this golden age of television drama. This is a situation every network would like to find itself in, but what makes it especially sweet for AMC, and perhaps a bit daunting, is that Mad Men marked its first foray into original weekly scripted series programming.
Come Sunday you'll see the network's second original series effort in Breaking Bad, a drama as dark and disturbing as Mad Men is colorful and intoxicating. There's no telling how this morally complex series will play out, but at first blush, Bad is even bolder than Mad, and equally engrossing. To be honest, it comes up short in pure entertainment value, but I'm not complaining. It's a fascinating show.
Breaking Bad tells the torturous story of Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher in New Mexico suffering a monstrous mid-life crisis, even though he has a rock-solid marriage to a much younger and very loving woman who is pregnant with their second child and a teenage son who appears to be a smart, well-behaved kid. They live in a modest home (with a swimming pool!) and have a wide circle of friends and family living nearby, most of whom gather for Walter's surprise birthday party, much to his distress.
So what's his problem? You'll be sorry you asked. Series creator Vince Gilligan (The X-Files) has crushed Walter under heaps of hard luck. His son has cerebral palsy, his students don't take him seriously, his libido is on the decline and he has to work weekends at a car wash to make ends meet. (RJ Mitte, a young actor who was born with cerebral palsy, plays Walter's son with much heart and humor. This is Mitte's first major role. It will not be his last.)
With his problems piling up, poor Walter is made to face a fresh hell just as he turns 50: His doctor diagnoses him with inoperable lung cancer.
Walter is at first devastated by the bad news (which he keeps to himself), and then galvanized into all kinds of wild action, and when Walter "breaks bad" (defined, I believe, as the act of doing something terrible), Bad gets rad. In an entirely believable series of events, Walter -- motivated by a consuming need to make as much money for his family as possible before he succumbs to his cancer -- teams up with a former student turned drug dealer and puts his knowledge of chemistry to use making the best crystal meth on the local market. ("You know the business and I know the chemistry," he tells the kid.) Jesse, the low-life crud-ball (well played by Aaron Paul), can't quite comprehend the fact that he is suddenly in dirty business with a past teacher, operating out of a used RV parked in the desert.
True to his nerd nature, Walter always strips to his briefs before making meth so that his clothing will not reek of its telltale fumes. Let us pause to give credit to Bryan Cranston, the fifty-something actor who portrays Walter and is best known for playing the dimwitted dad on Malcolm in the Middle, for bravely parading around and performing stunts on camera in sorry white underpants (the kind that come in economical six packs at discount stores).
Walter's sudden immersion in secretive criminal behavior produces responses in him that can be collectively described as "growing a set." Emboldened for all the wrong reasons, he becomes a man you wouldn't want to mess with, taking on a trio of teenage turds who are making fun of his physically challenged son and disposing of two menacing rival meth dealers in a manner most deadly. (Actually, you'll probably be moved to cheer during those two sequences, and you probably should.) He also improves in bed. ("Is that you?" his startled wife gasps as Walter, fresh off a dangerous encounter, presses against her from behind.)
Can producer Vince Gilligan and his team have it both ways, asking viewers to care about Walter while rejecting what the chattering airheads on morning television might refer to as his "bad choices"? They can indeed, because it is clear even in the first episode that our hapless hero finds himself in a perfect shit-storm the moment he moves into criminal territory, and that his newfound empowerment and earnings will come at a damning cost. Yes, the subject matter is similar to Showtime's Weeds, but the tone of the two series is completely different. Thoughts of Mary-Louise Parker's endlessly put-upon pot dealer Nancy Botwin won't even cross your mind while watching Bryan Cranston's woebegone Walter While struggle to navigate his treacherous new lifestyle.
To communicate with or to be contacted by the executives and/or companies mentioned in this column, link to JackMyers Connection Hotline. Breaking Bad does not glorify illegal behavior, an easy crutch for countless movies and a handful of television series, too (and I don't mean Weeds). If Bad holds to the principles of its pilot, it could be another significant success for the continually surprising AMC. To which I say, what's next? 
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Reader Comments(1)
Been watching Breaking Bad since it's pilot a few months ago, and it's easily one of the best dramas to hit TV in some time. Great dialogue, interesting characters, and a superb cast has kept me tuning in each week! Really interested to see how the season wraps up this coming Sunday night. AMC really got this show right!
Here's a preview clip for the season finale:
http://www.amctv.com/originals/breakingbad/
Posted at 05:33 PM on Mar 6, 2008 by Zack
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