Breaking Bad – A Retrospective
Breaking Bad is fantastic, it’s incredible and I’m sure if
you have had any interaction with anyone who has seen ‘Breaking Bad’ you will have
heard how good it truly is. It is extremely rare that such a show arrived on
our screens and took the world by storm, everyone was talking about it and it
seemed to be the water-cooler conversation event of our generation. Walter White’s
descent from lonely chemistry teacher to meth kingpin captivated everyone, the
moral ambiguity and the razor-thin tension surrounding his fate was pitch-perfect throughout all 5 seasons. With the anticipation surrounding ‘El Camino:
A Breaking Bad Film’ I thought I would go back and look at this fantastic feat
of television.
Season 1
Walter White is first seen as this bumbling hyperventilating
man in that enticing in media res sequence as he stands out in a situation that
he does not fit in with, from there the ‘Pilot’ takes us back to three weeks earlier
and explains how the middle aged chemistry teacher ending up in such a
dangerous situation. The show has this winking self-awareness, this world we
are presented to entraps us in and we know what’s going to happen in the
endgame and this tension is the goldmine of the show. From the ‘Pilot’ we know
things aren’t going to work out for Walt, his brother is in the DEA, his family
is unapologetically normal but the world he unveils and becomes more of a part of
is a disturbing antithesis to our preconceptions of this man. The first season is
a slow look at Walt putting himself in a progressively dangerous place, the way
the plot is paced is through a slow acceleration, every event compels Walt to cook
more and more, it is a tense and disturbing set of events that keeps the viewer
mesmerised. The first season is surprisingly big on comedy in comparison to the
later seasons, Jesse and Walt’s relationship is hilarious to watch and it actually
indulges in some entertaining levels of slapstick self-awareness which is a welcome
change of pace to the tension. Gilligan and Cranston’s collaboration over the
character of Walter White is nothing shy of revolutionary, this character is
fascinating to watch and the slow inclines of evil that Season 1 demonstrates
is captivatingly interesting.
Season 2
Walt stares at a pink bear in his pool, the bear has had its
left eye blown off, Walt’s face is full of anguish and shock hidden behind something
evil and malicious. Season 2 is a beautifully intense series of episodes that
mould the show into the staple of Television that it becomes, I see this season
as the ‘beginning of Walt’s descend into evil’ in the entire season he goes
from an understandingly flawed character into someone who committed an act of
evil that caused many people’s lives motivated by anger. The season opens with Walt
and Jesse escaping and killing Tuco, resolving the cliff-hanger from last season
and in many ways the rest of the episodes are dealing with the fallout from
those actions. Seeing Walt and Jesse start their own empire is entertaining and
some of the highlights of the season, Jesse becomes more and more forthright
until he descends into heroin abuse resulting in that harrowing scene from the
finale. It is full of hope, before everything crashes down to the ground in
those final episode, my favourite being ‘Over’ in which Walt finds out his
cancer is in remission and he seems to viscously act out in anger, combining the
guilt of his actions with the realisation he doesn’t have the excuse of his own
mortality. It is character combined with more and more tensions and
complications within the world these characters reside in, the drug industry is
unorganised and chaotic, and Walt seems like the man with the intelligence to
profit from it, however this results in his own self-destruction and those
haunting events of ‘ABQ’
Season 3
I could happily write the entirety of this review about the
character of Gustavo Fring and Giancarlo Esposito’s magnificent performance if I’m
quite honest, he will always remain as my highlight of ‘Breaking Bad’. Season 3
revolves around the rise and fall of Gus and Walt’s partnership and the unravelling
of Jesse due to this partnership, it feels like this incredible chess game as
characters’ actions all have lasting consequences that reveal themselves in
unpredictable fashions. Gus is a threatening force who is the first intellectual
that stands at odds with Walt, these characters live on this fine wire of
tension that compels the season up until when Walt breaks the wire in that finale.
The Season has this fascinating mid-season turn, Hank seems to be getting
closer and closer to finding out about Jesse and Walt but then Gus steps in and
sends The Twins to kill Hank instead of Walt, resulting in him being hospitalised
and the Cartel being less and less powerful. This begins the incredible
acceleration towards Walt breaking a deal with Gus’ and propelling Season 4’s
arc revolving around Gus’ downfall. I also want to give a massive shout pout to
the criminally underrated episode ‘The Fly’ which is essentially a bottle episode
revolving around Walt and Jesse trying to kill a fly, it is weird and full of
character and is essential in giving these two characters the downtime they
deserved.
Season 4
And here’s where things crank up even further, this entire
season revolves around Walt and Jesse’s attempts to kill Gus after the
thrilling opening showing the power of Gustavo Fring compelling Walt to realise,
he isn’t safe whilst Gus is still alive. The season is tenser and darker than
the previous three, Walt is at the most risk of his professional life as each
episode puts him closer and closer to Gus murdering him. Jesse struggles to cope
with the fact he murdered Gale, and this turns him into this shell of the
person he used to be, he spends a lot of time barely functioning and it is
clear that Walt is the person to blame for Jesse’s breakdown. Gus gets some
much-needed backstory and ‘Hermanos’ is a stand-out with that fascinating
flashback showing his partner’s murder at the hands of Hector Salamanca,
building and exploring this fantastic rivalry and the reason behind Gus being the
person he is. It has this fantastically natural flow to the season, watching
Jesse fall and get back up again countless times due to Walt is captivating
television. The Season Finale ‘Face-off’ is where all the cards are placed on
the table, everything is revealed and as Walt says himself, he wins. The iconic
death of Gus is shocking, grotesque and terrifically rewarding as well as that
horrifically dark reveal that it was Walt who poisoned Brock basically confirms
his descent completely into Heisenberg. Season 4 is intense captivating television
in which every episode is addictively entertaining, and it all pays off in one
of the most satisfying season finales of all time.
Season 5
By Season 5 it is fair to say Gilligan had a lot on his
shoulders when he had the task to conclude ‘Breaking Bad’ as the hype and
speculation around the show had become unlike anyone had ever seen. The first few
episodes seem surprisingly optimistic, Walt has the possibility to make his own
empire, to take Gus’ place but it hits a point where it is clear he isn’t doing
this for the money, he is doing this for the glory and the adrenaline. Season 5
is my personal favourite of the show as it somehow improves on the tension provided
throughout yet with that added level of closure and satisfaction as events we
knew had to happen, finally happen. That’s not to say that this is predictable,
the decision to add the new characters of Jack’s gang is ingenious as the events
we were expected are elevated to allow a fascinating level of surprise and
excitement. Just as everything seems to be turning Walter White’s way, Hank discovers
his secret in a moment so entertainingly unexpected and creates this fantastic
turnaround into the demise of Walter White. Of course, I have to mention ‘Ozymandias’
how can I not? I recently rewatched the show for the first time after its original
run and I was still shaking with tension and shock throughout all of ‘Ozymandias’.
It is horrifically dark, intensely upsetting and the kind of thing Television is
made to be with its twists and turns drawing in a captivated audience. However,
it is the finale that I believe to be ‘Breaking Bad’s’ finest hour, with its
melancholy goodbye to the show and the character of Walter White being satisfying
yet upsetting and an ending that I couldn’t imagine being better.
The One Who Knocks
I adore everything about this show’s run, and it is
definitely something I loved revisiting. Bryan Cranston delivers the single greatest
performance in any television show, that is a bold statement that I make with
confidence as Cranston creates a beautiful chaotic and insane man. Aaron Paul
is insanely sympathetic as ‘Jesse’, Paul has to go to every extreme of his
acting ability in order to communicate the darkness his character goes through
which is beyond admirable. The show is shot to perfection, the cinematography
is about the level of any AMC show but ‘Breaking Bad’ includes some fantastic
breaking of forms and colour grading that adds to the show’s aesthetic
beautifully. The ensemble cast including Anna Gunn as ‘Skylar’, Jonathon Banks
as ‘Mike’ and the wonderful Bob Odenkirk as ‘Saul Goodman’ are all developed
and interesting, with loads of variety. It is a bold and beautiful show, utilising
developed characters with some of the best use of tension and plot pacing I have
ever seen that make ‘Breaking Bad’ a staple of modern television.
Thanks for Reading!