Have you ever found yourself wondering how far you would go in order to make ends meet under certain circumstances? What would those circumstances have to be, exactly, and just how willing are you to put your limits, both mental and physical, to the test? Don’t ponder over your own predicament for too long--if you tune into AMC Sunday evenings at 11 PM, you can forget all about your own problems and instead follow those of Walter White in the debut of the 2008 series Breaking Bad.
The producers waste no time in getting the audience’s attention. Within seconds, you get bombarded with a pair of pants and a shirt flying through the desert air, only to get run over by a speeding RV moments later. This puzzling scene is accompanied by sirens, and is interrupted with shots of a puny older white man wearing only tighty-whities and a gas mask as he tries to gain control of the hurtling vehicle, which by now is tumbling directionless all over New Mexico’s rocky topography. As the car comes to a halt, the man rolls out with a video camera, and, still semi-nude and covered in dust, he proudly stands up and states the following into the camera: “My name is Walter Hartwell White. I live at 308 Negra Arroyo Lane, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87104. To all law enforcement entities, this is not an admission of guilt.”
Now what the f*%^ was that?!
Bryan Cranston stars as Walter White, your below-than-average Joe, living with his family in New Mexico. Cranston is no stranger to playing common suburban dads and is best known for his role as Hal, the father in the Malcolm in the Middle series. When it becomes known that White is a high school chemistry teacher who also works a second shift at a car wash to make a few extra bucks, you definitely begin to wonder how the hell he ends up racing in the desert in underwear and gas masks. While pilot episodes usually present a sort of conflict that sets the foundation for the rest of the series, it is rare for the main character to undergo such a drastic personality change to this degree in under 45 minutes.
After the stunning opening sequence, the show takes a break from all the action and brings you back three weeks earlier to the scene of White’s 50th birthday party, where all the underlying issues slowly begin to unfold. Right away, it is apparent that White has a strained but loving relationship with his pregnant wife, Skylar (Anna Gun), and tries his best to be a good father to his son, Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte), who has cerebral palsy. He is unhappy with his life, and yet he can’t seem to really do anything about it until he is randomly reacquainted with an old deadbeat student of his, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). They strike up an odd friendship to say the least, and things only get stranger from there.
Breaking Bad chronicles an over-the-top middle life crisis of a man desperate to grasp hold of something new in his mundane life. The show explores White’s breaking point and how he handles his financial troubles in a manner that relates with many viewers. The program presents many serious issues and falls under the category of “drama,” but with the ridiculousness of some of its contents, it’s difficult to say whether or not producer Vince Gilligan (of X-Files fame) intended for it to be more of a comedy.
Walter White’s life became so unbearable that even he had to step back and revisit who he is as a person as well as his moral standing. How far will he go in order to feel alive again? This series appears to be one with a long over-arching narrative so unless you have plenty of time to dive into a new TV show, avoid at all costs because you will get sucked in and you won’t be able to break away.
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