Breaking Bad Delivers a Quality Product

Walter White's mustache is the saddest facial hair on TV. Along with a pair of glasses and some really well-selected wardrobe (I swear my high school chemistry teacher had the same frames AND wore the same type of chinos), it transforms Bryan Cranston, best known to viewers as the oft-bemused dad on Malcolm in the Middle into White, a high school chemistry teacher with an incredibly depressing life. At least he has a nice family that he loves, but his son struggles with MS, and his wife is more focused on her eBay auctions than their sex life. Although he once earned accolades for work on a Nobel-worthy project, it's a struggle to engage his students in learning about chemistry. (As someone who knows what it is like to try to get a group of college freshman excited about learning how to do library research, I can totally relate to his awkward moments in front of the class.) As if all that weren't bad enough, he has a thankless after-school job at a car wash to make ends meet. And as if all THAT weren't bad enough, he's just received a terminal cancer diagnosis. Lung cancer, and he's never been a smoker.

Well, wouldn't you kind of feel like the world owes you and that it might be okay to break the rules for once? Having just seen, through his brother-in-law, the money there is to be made cooking meth, Walter hooks up with Pinkman, a former student (Walter flunked him) with drug know-how and connections. They purchase an RV in which to cook, and after seeing the finished product, Pinkman declares Walter "an artist." Their efforts to get their product on the market meet with some complications (which have already been recapped pretty well here, so I won't go into more detail), but they manage to escape the danger--and law enforcement--to cook again another day.

There has been a lot of buzz about this show; partly because any new scripted TV is getting a lot of attention right now, and partly because AMC's other original show, Mad Men did so well. I'm pleased to say that Breaking Bad delivers on its early promise. Cranston is incredible as Walter White; I certainly hope he gets noticed for awards consideration. He could have chosen to go bigger and over the top (think Michael Douglas in Falling Down) with his performance, but he keeps it subtle until the major outbursts of pent-up anger (in this episode, directed at the car wash owner and some punky kids who were teasing his son at a clothing store). All the same, I could usually tell exactly what he is thinking. I have high hopes for the relationship between Walter and Pinkman, too. There's a lot of potential there for a great oddball friendship to develop.

Next week, Walt's wife gets suspicious about how he's been spending his time.

If you missed it last night, you've got plenty of chances to catch up. AMC is scheduled to rebroadcast it multiple times this week.

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Amy Kane spends as much quality time with her television as possible, when she's not busy at her day job as a cube dweller.

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