Writer & Director: Vince Gilligan
Cast: Bryan Cranston (Walter White), Anna Gunn (Skyler White), Betsy Brandt (Marie Schrader), Dean Norris (Hank Schrader), Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman), RJ Mitte (Walter White Jr.), Marius Stan (Bogdan), Linda Speciale (Sexy Neighbor), Allan Pacheco (Irving), Jason Byrd (Chemistry Student), Roberta Marquez (Chad's Girlfriend), Christopher Dempsey (E.M.T.), Carmen Serano (Carmen), Evan Bobrick (Chad), Aaron Hill (Jock), Greg Chase (Dr. Belknap), Max Arciniega (Krazy-8), Steven Michael Quezada (Gomez), Jesus Ramirez (Jock's Friend #1), Joshua S. Patton (Jock's Friend #2) & John Koyama (Emilio)
Cast: Bryan Cranston (Walter White), Anna Gunn (Skyler White), Betsy Brandt (Marie Schrader), Dean Norris (Hank Schrader), Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman), RJ Mitte (Walter White Jr.), Marius Stan (Bogdan), Linda Speciale (Sexy Neighbor), Allan Pacheco (Irving), Jason Byrd (Chemistry Student), Roberta Marquez (Chad's Girlfriend), Christopher Dempsey (E.M.T.), Carmen Serano (Carmen), Evan Bobrick (Chad), Aaron Hill (Jock), Greg Chase (Dr. Belknap), Max Arciniega (Krazy-8), Steven Michael Quezada (Gomez), Jesus Ramirez (Jock's Friend #1), Joshua S. Patton (Jock's Friend #2) & John Koyama (Emilio)
"Some straight like you, giant stick up his ass --age what? Sixty? He's just gonna break bad?"
-- Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul)
Former X-Files producer Vince Gilligan wrote many memorable episodes of that '90s classic -- including "Drive", guest-starring Bryan Cranston as a man driven insane by sonar waves. Cranston's had a decades-long career, but he only really became "famous" thanks to Malcolm In The Middle ('00-06), where he played childlike father Hal. Gilligan must have loved Cranston's appearance in his X-Files episode, as he chosen to give him an edgy, dramatic role as Walter White...
Walter's one of life's mild-mannered doormats; a chemistry teacher living in Albuquerque who makes ends meet as a car wash cashier. He has a beautiful, sexually-frustrated wife called Skyler (Deadwood's Anna Gunn) and a teenage son with cerebral palsy called Walter White Jr (RJ Mitte).
Having just turned 50, Walter is diagnosed with lung cancer and given 2 years to live. Suddenly inspired to make something of the time he has left, and ensure his family are financially secure after he's gone, Walter decides to keep his illness a secret and use his knowledge of chemistry to help dropout student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) cook and sell methamphetamine...
Yes, the hero of the Breaking Bad is a drug dealer. But he's also a terminally ill man utilizing his only life-skill for the greater good of his family, now that his mid-life crisis has turned into a life crisis. It's a mildly controversial premise that provides plenty of mordant sparks, and can thus be found on cable channel AMC in the States. There's no way the sight of a gun-toting Bryan Cranston, stripped down to his underwear in the desert, having crashed a mobile meth lab, would make its way onto mainstream US television. It was a bit strange some of the tougher swearing and female nudity was censored, though..
The Emmy-winning Cranston is absolutely superb here. Just amazing. I've admired and enjoyed his comic performances on Malcolm In The Middle for years, but this is a delicious 180-degree turn from that show's frantic man-child character. With a brown-stain moustache, pale freckly body, schlubby posture, and introverted demeanour, Walter's a loser making the best of a bad hand.
Regularly belittled by brother-in-law Dean Norris, a macho cop who works for the DEA, and treated as a joke by his students, only his love for chemistry and family unit keep him going. But even they represent a degree of hardship: son Walter Jr's disability must have been tough going (although this episode leaves that avenue unexplored), while his sex life is non-existent.
However, when faced with certain death, there are signs Walter will become "the mouse who roared". Echoing Michael Douglas' character in Falling Down (together with aspects of Ed Norton's office drone in Fight Club), Walter makes the tough decision to "break bad" and consequently wakes up from a lifetime's slumber to get his life back on-track as it draws to a close. I particularly liked the darkly-comic moment when Skyler gives her husband a hand-job in bed, as she browses Ebay -- and how that scene juxtaposed nicely with Walter's bedroom antics in the final shot.
The supporting cast are overshadowed by Cranston, although Anna Gunn makes for an appealingly normal wife and Aaron Paul's streetwise slacker Pinkman should make for an intriguing partner-in-crime for Walter, and I'm looking forward to seeing this "odd couple" growing closer. It's also an interesting creative decision to include a character with cerebral palsy, as that lends a layer of complexity to proceedings.
Vince Gilligan deserves a huge amount of credit, of course. As writer and director, this "Pilot" was a particularly brilliant synergy of inventive, concise writing and smooth direction. There are so many wonderful ideas and sequences scattered throughout, too -- from the dizzying RV car chase opening (a textbook example of how to start a Pilot with a bang), to the poignant scene of Walter lighting matches and throwing them into his pool -- cherished chemical reactions signifying his soon-to-be-extinguished life...
Overall, Breaking Bad gets off to a blistering start: a compelling story full of incident, rounded characterizations and dark beauty. Like all great pilots, it keeps you glued 'till the end and leaves enough dangling to draw you back for more. Now that the set-up has been established, it'll be interesting to see how they keep the weekly episodes interesting. The added brilliance of Bryan Cranston (seriously, wow) will ensure your addiction.
28 September 2008
FX, 10pm
