I have three reactions whenever I watch Breaking Bad, without fail.
The first is to mentally scream “Waaaaaaaaaaaaaalt!” at every appearance of Walter White on the screen. This urge, if fully realized, would assuredly NOT be a mental scream, but a very real hollerrrrrr - HOWEVER since I watch it with Nathan, and since he has only ever seen one episode of Lost (and it was the series finale, what the hell), and since I am sure even a die-hard Lost fan would slap me with zest if I did that…I don’t.
The second is to compare the Bryan Cranston of Malcolm in the Middle to the one I am seeing now, which never fails to flabbergast me.
The third is to hate every single fucking character on the show.
Oh yeah, there’s a fourth reaction: it’s compulsively hitting the “play now” Netflix button to get the next episode up before I have a coronary.
I am deep in a Breaking Bad K-hole (the only respite being episodes of Downton Abbey here and there…more on that GLORIOUSNESS when I finish it) and have just finished the second season, so I could totally write a fucking thesis right now. BUT I WON’T. Because I have learned that I’m the main enjoyer of the writing down of my own obsessions. What I will say, and what bears serious mentioning, is how top-notch the acting is. Bryan Cranston makes me stare open-mouthed on the regular, marveling at how a simple glance or miniscule twitch of his lips can convey twelve different emotions, pages of subtext, and make you alternately disgusted with and sympathetic to his character. He switches from frail cancer victim to actually terrifying…thug in seconds. The thing that impresses me the most is this constant volcanic quality he gives Wa(aaaaaaalt!). There are so many things happening in his life that he becomes a tough son of a bitch, yet everything is still roiling underneath the surface, and you can SEE that. Swan song to Cranston is over: everyone else is amazing, too.
The writing can be slow. Yet everything unfurls, and with a purpose. The cliffhangers aren’t predictable, and the season finales are oddly quiet. To me, it’s like the literary equivalent of something you read just to appreciate a masterful structure. Vince Gilligan, the creator of the show, writes every episode (as far as I know) and I hardly ever see that. I don’t think Alan Ball wrote every ep of Six Feet Under.
The fact that most characters are straight up reprehensible, including the main one (even though you are conditioned to side with him), only makes the whole thing more interesting. It reminds me of Weeds in the way that Nancy keeps digging herself a hole she’ll never crawl out of legally, or even like, physically alive.
Anyway, I was just sitting on this and had to spew. Back to work. Bryan Cranston rules.
