Maybe it’s the lack of new material coming from the States (due to the WGA Strike) but I absolutely loved this!
It’s basic plotline (from IMDb) is this: “A drama about a high school chemistry teacher who’s suffering from the world’s worst case of mid-life crisis and becomes a criminal.“. That’s an absolutely dreadful synopsis of the show! Firstly, the show is not necessarily a drama (it’s more of a dark comedy drama) and the synopsis is incredibly vague on the plot details. I’d reveal more but it’s better to get a better sense of the synopsis when actually watching the pilot episode.
It stars Bryan Cranston (who we’ll all remember as Hal from ‘Malcolm In The Middle‘) as Walter White (who’s the hero of the show, the high school chemistry teacher as mentioned in IMDb’s synopsis) and he puts in an absolutely fantastic performance in the first 2 episodes. In fact, I’d even say if he continues the series with performances like that, he’ll be up for an Emmy next year without a shadow of a doubt.
The first episode was a nice little opener. It really moved quite slow at the beginning but things soon started to pick up show
The second episode was absolutely fantastic though.. everything from show
to the scene with show
The show really does get it’s tone right. Very funny at times, very dramatic at others.. and it helps to have a good cast (though Bryan Cranston steals the show of course). The scene in the 1st episode with Walt show
And I really enjoy the non-linear timeline in that it hops forward and back in time on numerous occasions in the first few episodes. And how the second episode starts pretty much precisely where the pilot finished. Could possibly be like that for the season I suppose.
Knew I recognised the creator of the series somewhere - Vince Gilligan. Turns out he was a long-time writer and producer on The X-Files. And is also responsible for the script to ‘Hancock‘ (a film I’m really looking forward to this year).
To summarise, I cannot recommend ‘Breaking Bad’ enough. It’s hilarious at times, edge-of-your-seat dramatic at others and the performance of Bryan Cranston makes it just essential viewing.
Rating: 
January 30th, 2008 at 1:41 am
I thought it was god awful. Nothing redeeming about any character to make you want to see what happens next. If this is drama they should continue the strike.
January 30th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I don’t know.. Walter White is quite an interesting character and his reason for dabbling in a meth lab is (presumably) all about the financial benefit for his family’s future.
And continue the strike? So we can watch more reality TV shite? No thank you!
Off topic: And news is ‘Gladiators’ is coming back?! Come on, it was barely entertainment as a child!
It’s back in the States already, but Sky One will be bringing back a UK version to our screens later this year.