Underground & Overseas: Breaking Bad

Posted by: Cameron McLeod  •  May 10, 2010 @ 7:22am

Filed under: Underground & Overseas

Put yourself in this situation.

You're a Nobel Prize winning chemist who, after a series of unfortunate events, has become a high-school chemistry teacher. Your family is barely scraping by. You take a job at a local car wash to help add some extra money.

Shortly thereafter, you're diagnosed with terminal lung cancer with 6 months (at most) left to live.

You know how much debt your family is in, and how much more your death will cost.

What would you do?

Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle) is in just this situation. He decides to put his chemistry skills to use to make some very fast cash, no matter the cost. What does this mean?

Well, he starts cooking Crystal Meth, of course!

Breaking Bad, currently in its third season and airing on AMC, is my 2nd entry in my "Underground & Overseas" series where I discuss the shows you're probably not watching, but should really consider starting!

Honestly... Go find it on DVD. I'll wait.

...

Breaking Bad has quickly moved up my list of favourite TV shows... probably in my top 5 right now. I'll discuss more of my top 5 in later entries.

I think there are two reasons I enjoy it so much. First is the acting. WOW. This is probably the best-acted drama on TV right now. Most of the kudos need to go to Bryan Cranston (there's a reason he's won 2 Emmys in a row for his work on this show), though more recently Aaron Paul (who plays Jesse Pinkman) and Dean Norris (who plays Hank Shrader) have done some incredible work.

The other reason is that Breaking Bad does a fantastic job of showing the consequences of some of the decisions people make. And in the drug trafficking trade, they're usually pretty bad consequences. The far-fetched premise is grounded by the real issues they tackle.

Let's talk about some of the other characters who are big players here:

	Jesse Pinkman Jesse is Walter's 'partner' in the drug trade. He's a young kid who was once taught by Walt. They develop a weird kind of father/son relationship as the series goes on.
	Hank Shrader Hank is Walt's brother-in-law. He also happens to be a member of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) who happens to be hunting Walt down! Pretty much the only character with a true moral compass on the show, his badass and exuberant exterior is a mirror to his internal feelings of inadequacy.

There are other characters on the show that have a lot of screen time each episode, but I don't like them very much so I'm not gonna talk about them.

Nominated for 4 Emmys in 2008, and then 5 in 2009, Breaking Bad has won 3 of them; two for Bryan Cranston's work, and another for the pilot episode.

All right. this article is all done. What do you guys think about this show? Too far-fetched?

Tags: Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston, Jesse Pinkman, Hank Shrader, AMC, crystal meth, underground, Underground & Overseas

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Original Comments Posted (3)

crimson says...

Sounds like an interesting show. I'll have to give it a shot.

May 11, 2010 12:47pm

ariana says...

I'm pretty convinced. Next time I'm surfing the interwebs for a new show to try, this is top of the list!

May 11, 2010 1:59pm

crimson says...

I bought season 1, and I just finished watching the first two episodes. This show is great. The one thing that just really sticks out about this show, is the black humour. That scene with the bathtub at the end of the second episode was freakin' gold.

May 30, 2010 10:35pm

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