Created by Vince Gilligan
January 20, 2008-September 29, 2013
Dear readers, I have to admit that at times, I like to imagine myself as being a person that is somewhat "in the know" as I typically try to see feature films as soon as possible therefore reviewing them also as quickly as possible to provide you with my personal assessment before you can even head out of the doors to the theaters yourselves. Also, I like to also sometimes think of myself playing this specific role in regards to those films that are off of the beaten path, possibly pointing you towards an experience you may not otherwise have taken without a gentle push from e. But then, there are those times when you have pushed me towards a viewing experience and at this time, not only do I have to vehemently express to you that all of you were 1000% percent correct, I thank you profusely and endlessly!!!!
With all due respect to the voluminous experience that is Director Steve McQueen's "12 Years A Slave," what I spent watching over the course of October and November would have easily sailed to being my #1 pick for the best film of 2013 if it only were indeed a film at all...and even so, I have never experienced something quite like this before. In the past on this site, I have paid tribute to two television series, "Lost" and "Freaks and Geeks," respectively, as viewing experiences that have easily eclipsed what I would typically receive when going to the movie.with regards to the writing, direction, acting and the depth and completeness of the storytelling overall. At this time, I turn my attention towards the AMC channel's "Breaking Bad," which is easily one of the highest television achievements that I have ever had the sheer pleasure of watching...and I truly mean...EVER!
Like the program mythical blue tinged crystal meth, "Breaking Bad" was supremely compulsive and exhaustively addictive television, the kind of which I have never experienced on quite this same level before as the sensation began immediately with its audacious first episode and only increased in power and intensity all the way through to its flat out perfect finale. I cannot even begin to tell you about how many times over the course of its five seasons that I had fully intended to watch only one episode for the evening and then found myself watching two or even three and then finding myself salivating to get back to the video store to try and compete with some unknown customer for the next disc in the series. (I am not ashamed to admit that the staff of said video store, Video Station, all began to know me by name as my frequent telephone calls inquiring about availability quickly built up a certain legend.)
Every single episode of the series was stellar, filled with one jaw dropping and increasingly anxiety inducing sequence after another after another and not even one episode was wasted or remotely sub par and that feat, in and of itself, is saying something. (Hey, even my beloved "Lost" had a couple of clunkers during its six season lifespan.) And yet, as I celebrate "Breaking Bad," I am truly uncertain as to how much of this series that I can even write to you about! If you are one of the uninitiated, I wish for you to experience the program as I did--knowing absolutely NOTHING other than the primary conceit and concept of the series: Set in Albuquerque, new Mexico, veteran 50 year old high school Chemistry teacher Walter White (the formidable Bryan Cranston), arrested in a stagnated point in his life and discovering the horrifying news that he is dying from lung cancer, makes the shocking decision to utilize his knowledge of Chemistry, as well as the street smarts of petty drug dealing former student Jesse Pinkman (a sensational and devastating Aaron Paul), to create and sell the perfect crystal meth in hopes to make just enough money to have his family financially secure once he dies. The trajectory of the series, as according to the show's Creator/Executive Producer/Show Runner and occasional Writer and Director Vince Gilligan was to take this milquetoast "Mr. Chips" and transform him into the heartless, malevolent "Scarface" crystal meth kingpin and his complete success with this endeavor cannot begin to be over-stated.
On a sheer production level, "Breaking Bad" easily stands shoulder to shoulder with any major feature film that hits our theater screens. Its thematic aesthetics which merge the elements of film noir, 1970s era conspiracy films and television cop dramas, the urban western and the darkest of black comedy alongside the stunning cinematography, set design, editing, and excellent music score by Composer Dave Porter already sets the series apart from nearly everything else on television. Gilligan, leading his first rate team of writers and directors (a special shout out must be given to Michelle MacLaren who helmed many of the series' most harrowing installments), for delivering MASTER CLASS level skill, craftsmanship and artistry for each and every episode with gave us accelerated storytelling that never squelched upon quality, detail, intelligence, plausibility and copious amounts of shock and awe.
Conceptually, "Breaking Bad" spouted a wellspring of riches and then some. It exists as a Kafka-esque metamorphosis story, not only for Walter White and Jesse Pinkman but also for Walter's wife Skylar (the astounding Anna Gunn) and several additional characters within the series. "Breaking Bad' fearlessly plunges into the darkest corners of our collective humanity, from the very beginning at that, as the series asks of us over and over again, "What would we do if we were in this situation? How far would we go to protect ourselves and our own? To what lengths would you travel? To what degree would you compromise every belief that you ever held to achieve your goal and ensure your sense of survival? How far would you move your own personal moral compass" Gilligan wisely presents his entire series without one shred of judgement allowing the audience to make any connections, decisions and assessments as they wish. As Gilligan stated within many interviews contained within the DVD sets, his intent was not to make audiences necessarily empathize with Walter White but it was his impetus that we always understood his motivations. And while we will never fully agree with his methods (believe me, if you have not seen the series, you will be fully disturbed by the lengths to which Walter White will travel) and may even reject him, his goal was to keep Walter White interesting to watch and regard. Did he ever!
Knowing, and therefore understanding, the motivations that fuel Walter White, the very ones that keep him so hypnotically compelling, can also be rooted in the series' very sly yet extremely pointed cultural commentary in regards to our widening economic disparity between the classes and the dissolution of the middle class in particular. In the very first episode, we see Walter White's simple suburban lifestyle with his family and just how far his meager teaching salary plus his additional funds from his second job at a local car wash after school, is able (or not able) to carry them. Upon learning of his diagnosis, there is the question of whether to even pursue treatment simply because of the medical and insurance costs and the limits of his equally meager health plan. Walter White, fearing of leaving his family destitute, plus being an individual who has long felt sidelined and emasculated within his own life, is a man pushed to the brink of desperation...and desperate times...
Even so, I was extremely amazed to see how my sympathies continuously shifted throughout the sires in regards to both Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Where I had initially written Jesse off as some street punk kid, he gradually becomes the series' moral center delving into flat-out wrenching Dostoyevsky-ian levels of crime, punishment and redemption where Walter White, on the other hand, goes over the brink into complete emotional emptiness.
"Breaking Bad" is indeed taking a hard look at the choices we are all faced with, at least those of us not of the top 1%, who may find our lives inexplicably tuned inside out for any manner of reasons beyond our control. We are indeed living in desperate times and if pushed to the wall, what are we made of? What are our individual survival instincts? Even as nonredeemable as Walter White becomes, there is a sense of a vicarious thrill to see just how much he can circumvent the system or does he? "Breaking Bad" then becomes a series that is not just about hubris, avarice and even megalomania, but it is also about power and powerlessness, how both of those levels can alter at any given moment and how even the most powerful can have absolutely nothing, when it is all said and done.
All of these themes, concepts and I am certain so many more that I have not picked up on due to flying through this series (and I have been told that re-watching the series is highly rewarding) would not be worth mentioning if not for the performance of Bryan Cranston, which is titanic! It is truly difficult for me to even believe that the man who played that goofy, ding-dong sitcom Dad of "Malcolm In The Middle" is even the same human being as the one we see as Walter White on "Breaking Bad." In a series about a man's metamorphosis, Cranston himself has transformed his entire being into a figure that is completely unrecognizable to anything he has portrayed in the past. The levels to which he ascends or descends to bring this character to life is precisely the kind of acting commitment that is truly of such rarity. For the entirety of the series, and even when Walter becomes a terrifying figure to behold, Bryan Cranston keeps us transfixed until the series' final shot, as he discovers every conceivable layer in which to play this character and to do so with such lived-in completeness. He keeps us guessing as to his true feelings all the way to the end as we find ourselves questions whether the true nature of Walter White existed within his sweet family man, high school teacher or was his true nature concealed all of these years until the time allowed it to fully emerge, in this case, the brutal drug kingpin.
Ensuring a character like this remains interesting is easier said than done and if I were able to ask Cranston and Vince Gilligan one question it would be to ask just how in the hell did they find that creative sweet spot to ensure audiences kept watching a figure that becomes as reprehensible as Walter White becomes, when in many cases, audiences would have tuned out? If you haven't seen it, Bryan Cranston truly delivers one of the GREATEST television performances to date. If you have seen it, you already know what I am talking about as it is delivered without vanity and often reaches Shakespearian levels. In the third season episode entitled "Fly," Cranston delivers a monologue that is nothing less than "To be or not to be," and I am telling you, I wanted to jump out of my seat and applaud him.
Aaron Paul is Bryan Cranston's equal and I could not even begin to imagine any other actor taking on this role and building that specific powder keg of (ahem) chemistry with Cranston. It is a performance that is by turns hilarious in its coarseness and crippling in its despair. Throughout the series, we are invited to see the true heart of Jesse Pinkman, this misfit kid, this drug addicted street urchin who embarks upon his own journey of self-discovery and ultimately, self-worth yet his road to any sense of possible fulfillment is littered with dead bodies, and the conflicted mannerisms and motivations of Walter White, who simultaneously serves as mentor, Father figure, partner in crime, psychological abuser, savior and exploiter to him..and sometimes all at once. With Walter, Jesse, Skylar and even with the character of Gus Fring (played to spine tingling PERFECTION by Giancarlo Esposito, veteran of several of Spike Lee's early films including his volcanic turn in 1989's "Do The Right Thing"), "Breaking Bad" also asks of us to regard the masks we wear in society, to ourselves and to truly know who are we when we face ourselves in the mirror. And over and again, this concept and voyage into the heart of darkness made for television and storytelling that was extraordinarily riveting.
As I stated at the outset, "Breaking Bad" is a television series that could easily have been the best film of 2013 and it was easily better than many films I saw this year, or even last year or the year before. Certainly it is relatively unfair to compare 5 seasons worth of episodes to a standard two hour feature film. But even so, there are some qualities that I feel that feature filmmakers need to pay strict attention to in regards to what Vince Gilligan and his top flight team have accomplished with "Breaking Bad."
First of all, the conception and actual writing from episode to episode is just so damn smart, as it always treats the audience and characters as intelligent human begins worthy of a high quality experience. Secondly, Gilligan, his cast and crew were always unafraid to take conceptual risks with their own show by shockingly setting the "re-set button" more times than I could have counted, making "Breaking Bad" completely unpredictable and the very show to explode conventions just as you are expecting situations to play out in ways that we are much too familiar. Probably most importantly, "Breaking Bad" is also a television program that explored the nature of consequences in a fashion that I had never seen before. Unlike most series, whether in television or film, when experiences and events occur only to be forgotten and never referenced ever again, "Breaking Bad" never forgot even one moment, no matter how seemingly insignificant, and therefore created a horrifying domino effect that steamrolled through the series all the way to its conclusion. Moments from season 1 continued to play out in season 5 and I deeply appreciated how much attention and again, commitment Gilligan and his team paid to weaving this unique and uncompromising tapestry.
I could go on and on but if I did so, it would stop you from taking the plunge to experience this program for yourselves. I began watching the series after it had completed its initial run and mostly on a whim, despite the rumblings from those of you who already knew the power and the majesty contained within. Episode one grabbed me fiercely. By episode two, I was completely hooked. To those of you who have not seen the series, the following words will be meaningless. Words like: RV, The cousins, Ding!, Pink teddy bear, Heisenberg, Crawlspace, Tuco, video cameras, Los Pollos Hermanos, Lily of the Valley, Ricin...
To those of you who have seen the series, you know EXACTLY of what I speak.
So, what are you waiting for?????????
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