Rating:

In short the plot is a more serious Bryan Cranston than we’ve seen playing chemistry teacher Walter White, who gets diagnosed with cancer. With a son, Walter Jr, who is disabled and a wife, Skyler, who is pregnant with her second child in her late thirties he decides the best way to take care of his family is to start making crystal meth with one of his old dead beat students, Jesse. The further he goes to try and provide for his family the darker and more complicated his life becomes with crazy drug dealer’s, increasing extended family issues with his wife’s sister, Marie, and to top it off a bother in law, Hank, who is a Drug Enforcement Administration Officer.

The episodes found on this set are:

Ep 1: Pilot – Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher who learns that he has lung cancer. With a new lease on life, Walter becomes a drug dealer to secure his family’s financial security.

Aired: 1/20/2008

Ep 2: Cat’s in the Bag… – Following their debacle in the desert, Walter and Jesse are left with a mess to dispose of. Later, Skyler grows suspicious of Walt’s recent activity.

Aired: 1/27/2008

Ep 3: …and the Bag’s in the River – Walter is left to deal with Krazy-8 alone following an argument with Jesse. After Marie raises concerns that Walt Jr. is smoking cannabis, Hank shows him the dangers of drug use.

Aired: 2/10/2008

Ep 4: Cancer Man – The DEA becomes suspicious of a new drug kingpin. Walt reveals that he has cancer to Marie and Hank. Elsewhere, Jesse visits his estranged family.

Aired: 2/17/2008

Ep 5: Gray Matter – Walter and Skyler attend a former colleague’s party. Jesse tries free himself from the drugs. Later, Skyler organizes an intervention for Walt.

Aired: 2/24/2008

Ep 6: Crazy Handful of Nothin’ – The side effects of chemo begin to plague Walt, who is also cooking meth again. Jesse’s friend, Skinny Pete, introduces him to a distributor named Tuco, but things go awry and Jesse ends up hospitalised.

Aired: 3/2/2008

Ep 7: A No-Rough-Stuff Type Deal – Walter accepts his new identity as a drug dealer after a PTA meeting. Elsewhere, Jesse decides to put his aunt’s house on the market, and Skyler is the recipient of a baby shower.

Aired: 3/9/2008

Special Features Included In The Set Are:

Commentaries on episodes one and six by actor Bryan Cranston (Walter White), series creator Vince Gilligan and the largest commentary cast of actor’s I’ve ever heard with everyone on the show from Aaron Paul (who plays Jesse) to RJ Mitte (who plays Walter Jr.).

Making of Breaking Bad: A Behind The Scenes Featurette.

Inside Breaking Bad: Interviews with cast and crew reveal how they make the series and all the attention to detail that goes into making it realistic as possible.

AMC Shootout Interviews: Interviews/Discussions with Bryan Cranston, Vince Gilligan and others taken from the AMC Shootout show.

There are also Deleted Scenes, A Photo Gallery, Actor Screen Tests and A Breaking Bad Commercial.

I feel this show and the quality being put into it will help make it the next version of the Wire, while Mad Men is more like the equivilant to the next version of Sopranos yet both shows are something entirely of their own. I suggest fans of television that is made like movies give both these series a try. Breaking Bad’s first season barely broke the surface of these character’s and the storyline possibilties they hold. Thanks for your time.

Rating:

The pilot episode gives us what appears to be a basic plot – a good guy, White, is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Strapped with poor insurance and a teacher’s salary, he turns to a former student, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) to sell drugs to pay for his treatment. So far, if this sounds like a retread of Michael Douglas’s character in “Falling Down,” you wouldn’t be far off.

But then it turns out that Walter is more than meets the eye. Sure, his family doesn’t really respect him – his brother-in-law is a DEA agent and is shocked to hear that wallflower Walt would even consider smoking a joint. It turns out that Walter is a genius when it comes to chemistry, and his sidekick Jesse is shocked to discover that in one afternoon Walter cranks out crystal meth of such purity as the local market has never seen before. Indeed, the DEA discovers a sample of the product and is convinced that a new drug kingpin has arrived in town.

All of this is told in gradual steps – we see brief flashbacks of Walter at CalTech lecturing to a beautiful grad student while simultaneously seducing her, only to later learn that she is married to Walter’s former best friend and classmate who has made millions patenting chemicals that he and Walter worked on together. Exactly why Walter is teaching indifferent high school students when he is so gifted is never explained, but thanks to Cranston’s steller performance and some wonderful writing we see that Walter is a proud, conflicted, flawed man who has made some hard choices but never blames anyone for his failures.

And his failures are many. Walter is the only guy left in America driving a Pontiac Aztec, for pete’s sake! His marriage has fallen into tedium, and his wife tries to squeak a few pennies out of selling junk on EBay. Walter is not really close to anyone, and did I forget to mention the terminal lung cancer?

Watching Walter emerge from his stifled teacher existence as he fights to raise the heaping gobs of money for his cancer treatment while keeping his wife in the dark is a pure joy. Liberated by his terminal status, Walter has never been more alive.

This is an excellent series, if a bit short at 7 episodes. Here’s looking forward to Season 2. Also, even though this is a product of “basic cable” on AMC, there is a spot of nudity and some rather prolific swearing, so don’t be fooled into thinking this is something that has been sanitized for network TV – this is hard-core stuff.

Rating:

In short the plot is a more serious Bryan Cranston than we’ve seen playing chemistry teacher Walter White, who gets diagnosed with cancer. With a son, Walter Jr, who is disabled and a wife, Skyler, who is pregnant with her second child in her late thirties he decides the best way to take care of his family is to start making crystal meth with one of his old dead beat students, Jesse. The further he goes to try and provide for his family the darker and more complicated his life becomes with crazy drug dealer’s, increasing extended family issues with his wife’s sister, Marie, and to top it off a bother in law, Hank, who is a Drug Enforcement Administration Officer.

The episodes found on this set are:

Ep 1: Pilot – Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher who learns that he has lung cancer. With a new lease on life, Walter becomes a drug dealer to secure his family’s financial security.

Aired: 1/20/2008

Ep 2: Cat’s in the Bag… – Following their debacle in the desert, Walter and Jesse are left with a mess to dispose of. Later, Skyler grows suspicious of Walt’s recent activity.

Aired: 1/27/2008

Ep 3: …and the Bag’s in the River – Walter is left to deal with Krazy-8 alone following an argument with Jesse. After Marie raises concerns that Walt Jr. is smoking cannabis, Hank shows him the dangers of drug use.

Aired: 2/10/2008

Ep 4: Cancer Man – The DEA becomes suspicious of a new drug kingpin. Walt reveals that he has cancer to Marie and Hank. Elsewhere, Jesse visits his estranged family.

Aired: 2/17/2008

Ep 5: Gray Matter – Walter and Skyler attend a former colleague’s party. Jesse tries free himself from the drugs. Later, Skyler organizes an intervention for Walt.

Aired: 2/24/2008

Ep 6: Crazy Handful of Nothin’ – The side effects of chemo begin to plague Walt, who is also cooking meth again. Jesse’s friend, Skinny Pete, introduces him to a distributor named Tuco, but things go awry and Jesse ends up hospitalised.

Aired: 3/2/2008

Ep 7: A No-Rough-Stuff Type Deal – Walter accepts his new identity as a drug dealer after a PTA meeting. Elsewhere, Jesse decides to put his aunt’s house on the market, and Skyler is the recipient of a baby shower.

Aired: 3/9/2008

Some people have said that the new season has taken too long to air but they must not realize AMC and HBO take a year between seasons of all their big shows. The second season is currently airing (started March 8th 2009), which happens to be one year after the first. Only the first episode into the second season and already it’s become more riveting, intense, dramatic and complex than the first season. The second season premiere really left us with a shocking ending that leaves one eagerly awaiting how the rest of the season will follow.

I feel this show and the quality being put into it will help make it the next version of the Wire, while Mad Men is more like the equivilant to the next version of Sopranos yet both shows are something entirely of their own. I suggest fans of television that is made like movies give both these series a try. Breaking Bad’s first season barely broke the surface of these character’s and the storyline possibilties they hold. Thanks for your time.

*Rather than clutter up the review page I have listed the special features included with this set in my comments section for those wondering about them.

Rating:

I honestly didn’t have high hopes for this show as, although I’m a huge fan of Bryan Cranston for his work on Malcolm In The Middle, I struggled to believe he could pull off such a train wreck of a character. The family is a typical middle class American family struggling to take care of their disabled son trying to make him have as normal a life as possible. In a way I can relate to the situation as I’m disabled myself and know how much of a strain it can be on parents. Sure, it’s not the same disability, but the family struggling through it is definitely displayed well and R.J. Mitte as Walter Jr. is an excellent fit. Although I’m betting he was only cast because he too has Cerebral Palsy, he still fits the bill and plays the character brilliantly.

Fantastic, fantastic show. I don’t want to tell you much about the seasons events as it is quite short and risks spoiling certain events. I have to tell you that there are times in which this show doesn’t hold back. It has no qualms about showing you the brutality of a broken man fighting against his own sense of morality, joining the drug world and even dealing with the fact that he killed a guy. Oh and obviously he’s dying and is reminded of that from time to time but it’s certainly gelled together brilliantly.

Just to wrap it up I can only really say this TV show is amazing in every way and I would highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. Bryan Cranston is a very underrated actor, but he’s determined to prove himself for which he does a terrific job. When this DVD set comes out in the UK I’ll certainly be one of the first to buy it.

Rating:

And lest you think that the book is full of morose and morbid stories, please know that this book will make you laugh and smile as much as it will make you cry; cancer seems to brings out an extraordinary range of emotions.

Understand this disease and understand better the people you love who face this disease. Read the The Cancer Book.