You wanna Break Bad?

Such is one of the early lines in the pilot episode for the television show "Breaking Bad."  It airs on AMC and has been on for a while at this point.  However, I just started watching it and I must say that I love it.  I don't know why I didn't watch it before. Maybe it was the haggard appearance of Bryan Cranston.

Most people remember him best from the hit TV show "Malcolm in the Middle" in which he played inept, mostly powerless Hal (if you recall, the show took pains never to reveal the family's last name, although some internet legends say it was Wilkerson).  This new role, however, is the complete opposite for him.

For those of you who do not know, "Breaking Bad" is a show about a man who goes by the alliterative name of Walter White. He is a chemistry teacher at a local high school in New Mexico who is recently diagnosed with lung cancer, despite never having smoked cigarettes in his life. He then turns to the drug trade to pay for his treatments. 

This tragedy takes quite a toll on the family once he finally decides to tell them; of particular importance in the show is both the emotional and financial toll taken on the family.  He and his wife, Skyler, are about to have a new daughter to add to their family.  They already have a son with mid-level cerebral palsy. 

Realizing the importance of the enormous amounts of money that his family is going to need ($90,000) for the chemotherapy treatments in the first year alone, Walter enlists the help of a former chemistry student ("Jesse Pinkman," played by Aaron Paul) he taught in order to "break bad."  They begin a partnership and Walter, using his knowledge of chemistry, is able to cook the purest batch of methamphetamine that is so clear, it looks like glass.  

Jesse and Walt (both last names are references to "Reservoir Dogs") begin an unlikely partnership where despite getting along for the most part, differences in age, culture, education, and life experience are often sources of discord.  Despite cooking up this supposedly excellent batch, they need to find a distributor, and Jesse thinks he has one.

Jesse drives the two people he think can help out to the desert and their meth cook spot.  But something goes wrong and bim bam boom, no more distributor.  But what to do with the bodies?  This show is very clever, and the dialogue is witty and sharp.  And who is going to distribute the meth now?

Bryan Cranston plays a man defeated who at some point just decides to say "fuck it" and take charge.  His character is bolder, does more dangerous things, and constantly puts himself in situations that any normal person might not even react to for fear of causing a fuss.

For example, when a hotshot lawyer on a cell phone sneaks in and takes a parking spot Walt was waiting to pull into at the bank and continues to be obnoxious on his phone in the bank, Walter does not act but clearly seethes.  Later on he happens to see the same guy stopped at a car wash.  He watches him go inside.  While the guy is waiting in line and still on his phone, Walter takes the squeegee in the bucket at one of the car wash lanes, opens the guy's hood, puts it on the battery, and walks away. Boom.

Isn't it all of our fantasies to do something like that to someone?  Although we never would, right?
Walt cares too much about his family and knows he has nothing to lose.  He acts boldly, decisively, and swiftly, which is the opposite of how he was before he was diagnosed with cancer. Coupled with Jesse, his foil, a brother-in-law DEA agent who is onto the trail of a "new" group of meth-cookers (and basically thinks Walt's a wuss, so he does not even suspect him)  and whose wife is a cleptomaniac, the characters make the show interesting. 

However, the best parts of the show are when Walt and Jesse are scheming and bickering together because that truly makes the show.  So take a look if you're interested.  It's well worth your while.