Thursday, January 24, 2008
Fresh off two Golden Globe wins for its original series Mad Men, AMC is hoping to duplicate that success with the new drama Breaking Bad.
The show centers around Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a high school chemistry teacher who has just turned 50 and is facing a mid-life crisis that has been a long time coming. His son has cerebral palsy, his wife loves him but shows little passion and his students give him no respect. On top of that, he takes a part-time job as a register jockey at a car wash, but is frequently sent out to do the washing, which sometimes includes the vehicles of his students. Not to mention he’s just found out that he has inoperable lung cancer.
Walter sees his opportunity for a little excitement when his brother-in-law, a DEA agent, invites him to ride along on a crystal meth bust. He finds an even bigger opportunity when he sees one of his former students, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), fleeing the scene. Walter tracks down the dropout and gives him an ultimatum: let him in on the drug business, or he turns him in. So, the pair set up a meth lab in an RV in the middle of the New Mexico desert, using Walter’s wisdom of chemistry to cook the perfect batch and Jesse’s street smarts to sell it. But, trouble soon finds them, teaching the duo that there’s no such thing as the perfect crime.
For a man who scripted 30 episodes of The X-Files, writer/director Vince Gilligan brings an incredible amount of realism to Breaking Bad. A show with this kind of concept could rely completely on gimmick, but instead has fully realized characters and situations. Some are scenarios we might see on the evening news, and others are so intimate that they reflect the complexity of the characters. And, as with any great television series or movie, Gilligan balances drama and comedy with grace and ease, which shines through in his writing as well as direction.
Credit should also go to the actors. Everyone in the cast, right down to the smallest role, hits their notes perfectly. Cranston brings the talent he applied as Hal on Malcolm in the Middle to the proceedings, but in a much more subdued manner, resulting in a powerful performance. He fully encompasses the transformation of Walter’s character, so that we go from laughing at him to laughing with him.
Paul also does a fine job portraying Jesse. Though it’s never strongly conveyed, you can see Jesse beginning to let his guard down around Walter, illustrating another smart, subtle performance.
While the characters are the strength of the show, they are also its biggest flaw. They display all the qualities that make them complex and fleshed-out, but lack characteristics that make us care. Often, it becomes more interesting to see what will happen in the situation than what will happen to the people in them. But, in television, these relationships can’t be rushed, and Breaking Bad has given its characters plenty of room to grow in the coming season.
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