22 January 2008

Breaking Bad S1 E1 Pilot

The role of Walter White, in AMC's new series Breaking Bad is a big leap from the Bryan Cranston I used to watch on Malcom in the Middle. In this new series, Cranston plays a chemistry teacher who is experiencing the crappiest time of his life. He's 50 and he still hasn't quite made it. With his wife newly pregnant, a teenage disabled son to take care of, and a terminal cancer to endure, he hopes to change things for his family (at least before he dies).

Through his policeman-brother in law, he saw an opportunity. While watching a video of a drug bust, he learns that there is a big amount of money involved in this illegal activity. With his knowledge and deep understanding of chemicals, Walter White decides to partner with one of his former students, a meth dealer and together they cook the purest crystal meth in town. Predictably, things do not go too well and it gets bloody and violent.

The series attempts to show how people make terrible judgments in the moment of desperation. A midlife crisis at its worst, people do make bad choices when they're at the pits. It's something we see in the news everyday.

But the strongest element to this series so far, is not in the story, but in Bryan Cranston, who did a terrific job "breaking bad". He was repressed yet funny, emphatic but not exaggerated.

Hopefully, the series extends to more than the seven episodes it already has produced, for the sake of this guy. He deserves the big acting break, since I now can honestly say, he's so good at it.