TV BUZZBINGE: 'BREAKING BAD'
Vince Gilligan's Character-Driven AMC Drama Is a Must-Devour
(AMC) Breaking Bad started in 2008 with a still-belted pair of pants falling from the sky, perfectly inflated at times as if being worn by an invisible man plummeting headfirst to his death. (1).jpg)
The pants belonged to unassuming high school chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston) who, under normal circumstances, lives a rather mundane existence that only makes him feel invisible. Walter’s days of normal circumstances, it turns out, were over. He’d been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and wanted to make sure he left behind a lifetime worth of money for his wife and son and unborn daughter, so in addition to teaching his current students, he had started cooking crystal meth with former student-turned-drug-dealer Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) with a plan to sell large quantities of it as quickly as possible.
It was a story about a good person making a bad choice for a good reason, but we didn’t know any of that yet. All we knew were those pants, floating comically until they hit the ground, and we were introduced to our hero; Walter White was behind the wheel of an RV speeding frantically through the New Mexico desert, wearing nothing but his tightie-whities and a gas mask, with Jesse slumped down unconscious in the passenger seat and two meth dealers sliding around lifelessly on their faces in the back.
If you’ve been known to enjoy a good television crime drama, chances are one episode of Breaking Bad is enough to get you hooked. Another forty-five episodes later, it’s safe to call it one of the best shows of all time. Sure, there are other shows that have a supremely talented cast and other shows that are expertly written. There are other shows that are shot with such style and care, it looks like a movie. Breaking Bad seems to be one of the only shows to have all three of those things going all at once and in perfect harmony.
The most rewarding side effect is the show’s ability to manufacture genuine suspense. It takes their characters and paints them into corners -- dark, dangerous, scary corners -- and what happens next is what you become addicted to. Breaking Bad goes so big so often, you really have no way of knowing what’s going to happen next, and anything you can think of is possible.
That brings me right to where the true genius of the show lies: you kind of break bad a little bit just by watching it. I found myself thinking about it regularly between episodes, developing theories on how recent events could play out (I never do this), and…some of the scenarios I cooked up were more twisted than anything I was capable of prior to watching the show. It has left a mark.
Forty-six episodes in, and most Breaking Bad fans will say there’s only been one clunker (and even “that one” was entertaining in its own way). All will agree that somehow, impossibly, it keeps getting better and better.
For Fans Of: Weeds, The Sopranos, The Wire
Why We Love It: Character Driven, Original, Black Comedy, Breakout Performances
'Breaking Bad' is currently streaming on Netflix.
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