“Say my name.” - Walter White a.k.a. Heisenberg
Breaking Bad is a t.v. drama created by Vince Gilligan that ran for 5 seasons, starting in 2008, and ending in 2013. It stars Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris, Anna Gunn, R.J. Mitte, and Betsy Brandt. The show follows mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher Walter White (expertly played by Bryan Cranston), a man who is extremely overqualified for his job. He knows all that there is to know about chemistry, and so when he discovers he has terminal lung cancer, he decides to partner with former student and drug addict Jesse Pinkman (Paul) to try and cook the purest crystal meth on the market, all in an effort to help his family financially after he is gone.
I had heard so much about this show in years past, but never made an effort to get into it. That all changed when I heard about the upcoming Breaking Bad Netflix original movie El Camino. I figured if ever there was a good time to start watching the show, now would be it. I ended up binging the entire show in a little over a month, and right after I finished the show, the El Camino trailer dropped. Talk about perfect timing!
I will start off by saying that almost every good thing I’ve heard about this show is true. This is how television should be. It’s packed with enough great moments and quotable lines to last a lifetime. I think the thing that I admired the most about this show was how you could easily tell that every event had been masterfully planned from the very beginning. All of the choices made in earlier episodes come back to haunt the characters later in the series. In other words, every action has a reaction, which is very fitting, considering that a large part of the show is about chemistry. Vince Gilligan really knew what he was doing here.
It almost goes without saying that all of the acting in this show is brilliant. Bryan Cranston especially shines here, and so does Aaron Paul. There were never really any moments in the show where I thought the acting could’ve been better. The characters were all extremely well written, and felt very real. There were some characters that I took almost an immediate liking to, (Gus, Mike, Hank, Saul, Skinny Pete, Badger, Jesse.) There were characters that I just hated, (Todd, Hector, Jesse’s parents, Marie, Skyler, Lydia.) And then there was Walt. Walt is someone who I was always rooting for, even when I hated the things he would do. He is one of the most consistently fascinating characters in all of television.
The music is almost always amazing, to the point that I made a sizeable playlist on my phone dedicated entirely to songs from the show. The locations are beautiful, and the way they presented food in this show made my mouth water every time. The camerawork is immaculate, and I was consistently surprised at where they would place the camera to create an interesting shot.
In short, the show looks and sounds incredible, and got emotional reactions out of me very frequently. This is easily one of the best shows on t.v., and I would put it right up there with the first season of True Detective.
Rating: TV-MA
Grade: A+
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