Bryan Cranston has taken the world of acting by the jugular, showing that he may be one of the best actors of our time. It’s taken him a long time to get here after being known as the clumsy do-wrong dad Hal in Malcolm in the Middle. He’s now known as whatever role he inhabits since you don’t see that character anymore; he’s unrecognisable. He disappears into his roles like he did in Drive, like he will in Red Tails and all of the upcoming projects of the world’s busiest actor.
He, of course, does this in Breaking Bad meaning that you only see Walter White. There is no Hal to be seen. Not even a tiny percentage of that character. Breaking Bad is his pivotal role, the one that broke him free of the comedy chains. A pivotal role which the UK has been deprived of. It is easily one of the best TV programmes ever made.
Just as Party Down, it was never aired in the UK except for a few episodes on FX which I’ve personally never seen on there. It seems as though it was horribly advertised considering no one knew it was on and no one I know has actually seen it. It is a difficult programme to market but that’s no excuse when it does so well in America. The fact that the UK is lagging behind so badly with one of the greatest dramas is a crime. It’s necessary that a channel picks it up and utilises it as they will draw in high ratings and have a lot of episodes to catch-up on; a pleasure not a chore. Charlie Brooker recently tweeted “if there’s a better TV show than Breaking Bad anywhere in the world, I’ve yet to find it” which is a massive testimonial to the man who called The Wire the best one he’d ever seen. It is one of the most innovative TV programmes off such a simple premise: how far would you go if you were in dire straits?
Walter White is a wasted genius who has just turned 50 when he gets some terrible news: he has cancer and it’s very, very unlikely he’ll survive. With death dawning on him he realises that there will barely be any consequences for his actions and decides to stop being the nice, normal guy that he is and uses his knowledge of chemistry to produce the most pure form of crystal meth. With the help of his former student now drug dealer, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), he starts a new wave of meth and make as much money as possible. It seems easy enough to live in a world without consequence but when his brother-in-law is a DEA agent, his wife has no clue and his son has cerebral palsy then it all can get a bit too much for our main man.
It’s hard to describe his character. Is he a hero? An anti-hero? A villain? You can’t help but urge him on even if he is now producing drugs – he’s fighting what we’d love to fight: normality. It’s hard not to support him. Even in his most unlikable and unmerciful of moments. It’s a cut throat business when you deal meth for a living. One he’ll soon learn to well. His character arc is something the writers should take great pride in. He’s forever unpredictable; he switches personas instantly and fluidly recites monologues that could persuade the most stubborn of people. His personality is built from years of regression and wasted talent, which are his strengths and weaknesses. With the dull setting of suburbia and suburban life it’s a statement that even the most surprising of people can rebel against the banality of normality. The change from chemistry teacher to meth distributor is a slippery slope and he inevitably falls from family man to attempting drug lord. With all the violence that is necessary to fulfil that post.
The relationship between Walter and Jesse is messy and filled with problems. There’s the obvious age gap, a difference in upbringing, a class divide and then there’s the problem of Walter’s paranoia and double-life and Jesse’s apathy fuels these; those are just a few of their many problems but the less you know, the better. As the story progresses through the seasons, the quality is never lost and it feels as though it only gets better. With the final season – the fifth – now dawning, it’s been built up so well that there is no way that it can disappoint. The writers have clearly had an actual idea instead of just prolonging it until it’s cancelled; it’s actually stopping out of choice which is a rarity.
The quality makes you think it’s an HBO series and it seems as though AMC are pulling through really well with theirs. They have this, The Walking Dead and Mad Men; their quality in TV programmes is booming with great potential to carry it on. Although they’ve made some questionable decisions with The Walking Dead – lowering the budget, getting rid of Darabont to name a few – they better not mess up their run by either mass producing or selling out and make stuff like Desperate Housewives, 90210 and so on.
With Made in Chelsea and all scripted-reality TV programmes being the exception, we’re in this golden era of television; there’ll always be something to watch, possibly too much to watch. Thanks to Netflix, seasons one to three are now available in the UK, finally. Don’t deprive yourself, take this advice. You will not regret watching Breaking Bad. So watch it. Bitch.