Breaking Bad: 4 Days Out

When a cancer patient awaits the results of a PET-CT scan, the anxiety can be overwhelming. Walt deals with that anxiety by preparing for the worst, which in his case means cooking. And cooking in mass quantities, though even he wasn't prepared for just how massive it turned out to be. As for poor dumb Jesse, I'm just waiting for his whole life to fall apart again.

Jesse is a nice guy, but he's not that smart and he has the absolute worst luck of almost anyone on television. So now that he's getting into this semi-serious relationship with the landlord/neighbor, I'm just waiting for something horrible to happen to him or her or both. It's inevitable. Nobody suffers like Jesse suffers. Well, except for tonight. There was a whole lot of suffering going on from everybody. I'm sure Skinny Pete was suffering too, wherever he wound up.

It was nice to slow everything down and get an episode of just Walter and Jesse. Their relationship is so complicated, co-dependent and destructive at the same time. With his imminent death on his mind, because he was prepared for the worst out of that PET-CT, Walt essentially forced Jesse to take off into the desert and get some mad cooking going on. He had to lie to get him there, but Jesse wouldn't have appreciated Georgia O'Keefe anyway; though he would have seen a lot of vaginas in her work.

As soon as Walt told Jesse to put the keys someplace safe, I knew they were in trouble. As many times as Jesse screws things up, you'd think Walt would have learned by now. As it turns out, the keys might have been better sitting in their work area. What followed was a bizarre near-death experience in the desert that actually brought the two of them closer together, in a bizarre way. It also brought them more than a million dollars street value of meth, and they weren't even done.

I loved how when Walt was building the battery to save their asses, he was quizzing Jesse like he was a student, and then was ultimately disappointed when Jesse proved himself again to be kind of an idiot. It's those moments that really make these characters live and breathe on the screen. There was some amazing performances by both Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul in this episode.

Surprising to me was the results of Walt's PET-CT. With his tumor reduced by 80% and his cancer in remission, the ticking clock on this show's life expectancy just got extended. Hell, theoretically it could be extended indefinitely. I'm ashamed to admit I never even considered remission as a way to extend the show. And considering AMC is already on board a third season, it makes sense to slow down Walt's decline, though I don't think they can stop it altogether. That would just change the tone of the whole show.

Breaking Bad: A No Rough Stuff Type Deal

Well, I have to say that while this finale did establish a certain status quo, albeit a highly precarious one, it was by no means a satisfying series ender. Thus, I fully expect that AMC will renew this amazing show for a second season post haste. Did you here me, AMC? Whatever you need to do to secure these actors and get this ball rolling. And maybe give me at least 13 episodes next time, eh?

It's an interesting parallel developing between Walter White's skirting with the law; okay let's call it escalating all-out belligerent assault on the law; and his sister-in-law Betsy Brandt's kleptomania. When a baby shower gift from turns out to be stolen, leading to Skyler's near arrest when she goes to return it, it sets up a conversation between Skyler and Walt whereby he can feel out how she would take it if she found out he was perhaps on the other side of the law as well. It may not go as he was hoping.

I hate to tell you, though, Walt. It's not apples to apples comparing shoplifting to murder, arson, desecration of a body, property destruction and production of methamphetamine, just to name the biggies. That said, though, Skyler hasn't turned her sister in as of yet so it's not yet clear how strong her moral compass is.

Also telling was the unexpected amore in the school meeting regarding the missing lab equipment (let's add withholding evidence and hindering a police investigation) leading to the madcap car sex between Skyler and Walt. When she asked him why that was so amazing, his terse response: "Because it was illegal." Walt's becoming an adrenaline junkie, and his trigger is illegal activity. He's been buttoned down and powerless too long, and the tastes he's getting of real power out there on the "streets," as it were are going straight to his head.

The irony of the whole thing is that the guy who's been dealing in drug trafficking for years and years, Jesse Pinkman, is by far the reluctant partner in all of this. He'd just as soon pack it all up and move to Oregon, as he suggested at one point, than deal with the obvious risks of getting into bed with Tuco. Remember that Tuco is the guy that nearly put Jesse into a permanent coma. And, as I learned tonight, that particular outburst of violent insanity isn't uncommon with Tuco. Nor is the target of his psychopathic rage always so obvious.

Nevertheless, through Walt's maneuverings last episode that's exactly who they find themselves intricately tied to. The money's looking real good, but the dangers may just outweigh the potential benefits. Not only from Tuco himself, should anything go not to his liking and set off his incredibly dangerous temper, but from Hank and his DEA hounds tracking the stolen lab equipment and trying to find this new meth producer in town. It's an extremely dangerous game they're playing, and I don't even know if it's enough to handle Walt's bills as his answer to how much he needed was simply "more."

One sequence within the show set itself up to be much more sinister and dangerous than it turned out to be, which was a bit of a disappointment. Jesse selling his house due to the "incident" earlier made perfect sense. And when the boys were forced to cook in his basement at the same time that an Open House was scheduled upstairs, I was certain that something serious was going to come out of it. Ultimately, other than some surprise comic relief in the whole situation, it just seemed to be resolved far too easily for my taste. Almost like the whole segment was either an afterthought to lighten the episode, or something more serious that they ultimately changed at the last minute, perhaps due to this episode having to be the season finale.

As a season finale, the episode was paced brilliantly. With the end sequence, wherein Tuco nearly beats to death his own henchmen simply for presuming to speak for him, Walt and Jesse saw that this business arrangement has even more risks than Walt seemed able to believe. Leaving me with that lingering image and afterthought was the perfect tone to set for the hiatus between seasons (you are renewing it, right AMC?). I still have the burgeoning situation with Betsy's shoplifting and how Skyler plans to respond to it, as well as the underlying situations with Gray Matter to get to next season. Not to mention that whole lung cancer thing Walt is dealing with.

The more risks that Walt takes on in his illegal gambit just brings to question more and more why he refuses financial assistance, either directly or through taking a job, from his former friend and partner Elliott. What happened between Walt, Elliott and Elliott's wife Gretchen that would so harden him against them that while he'd still attend a birthday party for Walt, he'd never accept a job or an offer to cover medical expenses from them?

Breaking Bad has proven to be a refreshing and amazing show.

Breaking Bad: Crazy Handful of Nothin'

I hadn't even realized how quickly this season has gone by until the closing moments told me that the next episode was the season finale. That's way too soon, and yes I understand there was a pesky writer's strike which played havoc with production schedules. But Breaking Bad is just too good of a show that's just starting to find its groove. Bryan Cranston just constantly blows me away with his performance, and Aaron Paul continues to find ways to turn what could be a very one-dimensional, archetypical street thug into a complex personality.

That said, after this episode I find myself wondering if Cranston's Walter really needs Paul's Jesse anymore. I'm sure he ultimately does but he seemed to handle things pretty well himself. Walt is clearly emboldened by his prior misdeeds, murder and arson on top of the obvious drug activities, as well as his sense of impending mortality. His new-found courage, or lunacy, reached a crescendo in how he ultimately handled the Tuco situation. By the way, I thought that was a really well handled flash-forward effect. By showing us the carnage and the bald Walter, I know it's something that's to come as the chemo hadn't taken his hair yet, but I didn't yet know when.

After having both failed to find other ways to get by in life in last week's episode, Walt came back and agreed again to work with Jesse. Still left unresolved is why he's so adamant in refusing his former partner's money for his treatment. Preferring to take on the tremendous risks of cooking and selling meth over accepting a handout from a friend, or at least a former friend, is a pretty huge statement. Whether it's a huge statement of Walt's stubborn independence or pride or an indication of tremendously bad blood in that relationship remains to be seen. And hopefully it will be addressed, because right now it's a huge albatross hanging over the story.

Meanwhile out in the desert, the arrangement put in place for "cooking" is that Walt is the chemist and Jesse the salesman, with no crossover between the two. That plan quickly fell apart, though, as Walt's deteriorating health in response to his chemotherapy chased him from the RV mid-batch, leaving Jesse to finish up. This also led to Jesse discovering that Walt had cancer as he'd watched an aunt die from the disease. In a moment of tenderness, Jesse suggested, "Put an icepack on your head during chemo. My aunt said it helped with the hair loss." Later, when Jesse brought back a paltry $1,300 from his various sales, Walter was disgusted and immediately started making suggestions on how to rectify the situation. By the end of things, arbitrary lines would be broken and Walt would be fully involved in this side of the operation as well.

When Walt asked Jesse if he knew any distributors to whom they could move large quantities, Jesse responded, "Yeah, I used to. Until you killed him." A sobering reminder of this dark path they're going down. With that distributor, Krazy 8, out of the picture, a guy named Tuco had horned in on his territory. But despite Walt's insistence Jesse explained that you can't just go up to someone like that and try to sell. You have to have an "in." And then, later, Jesse finds his "in" with a friend of his who used to share a cell with Tuco.

Unfortunately, when Jesse called to give Walt this good news, Walt was in the middle of going over his high school lab equipment with DEA agent and brother-in-law Hank. The gas mask they'd found in the desert when investigating the new clean strain of meth circulating had led Hank back to Walt's high school. At this point, Walt should be incredibly grateful that he comes across as such a stick-in-the-mud because it was just beyond Hank's comprehension to think that Walt could possibly be involved. I would suspect he'll be in for quite a rude awakening if and when he finds out.

Throughout the episode I was treated to Walt both receiving his chemo treatments and responding to them. From bouts of sickness to clumps of hair falling out to him ultimately shaving his head when the bald patches were getting too prominent. I also got to experience an incredibly awkward group therapy session in which Skyler and Walt, Jr. lamented that he goes off in the afternoons and seems withdrawn. Honestly, Walter has been a withdrawn man since I've met him and I have a hard time believing this is a dramatic character change. Sure, he's probably become more withdrawn and it's more challenging now, but should they really be surprised.

The creators did a good job of setting up high school janitor Hugo as a sympathetic character while at the same time showing us Walt's declining health. It always seemed to be Hugo who was there to help clean up after Walt's bouts of vomiting as a result of the chemo. Be it to clean it up so Walt could get back to teaching the kids or just to offer him a stick of gum, Hugo came across as a decent guy. So I guess I should have seen it coming when Hugo took the fall for the missing lab equipment. Even though his only crime seemed to be the fact that he was a pothead, it was enough for Hank to connect him. Ultimately he was cleared of that, but he was still looking at losing his job and going down in some fashion for possession. Another notch on the bedpost of victims Walt is ratcheting up.

While Walt was busy dealing with this, poor Jesse was getting his ass kicked ... again. He has spent at least half of this series so far either getting his ass handed to him physically or verbally. And this time it was by Tuco and his goons. At the arranged meeting, after Jesse demanded he be paid $35,000 up front for the pound of meth he brought rather than trust that Tuco would repay him later, he instead got beaten nearly into a coma. And then Tuco just took the meth anyway. Walt didn't even know this had happened for the longest time. When he found out, he went and saw him in the hospital where Jesse had a neck brace, broken bones and extensive injuries. Again, something that might not have happened were it not for Walt.

At this point the episode came full circle as bald Walt arrived at Tuco's pad with a bag of meth. I've seen Walt show increasing signs of reckless behavior, but this was him entering into a whole new arena of crazy. Manhandled and escorted to the same room in which Jesse met his grisly fate, Walt made his demands. "Thirty-five for the pound of meth you stole, and another fifteen for my partner's pain and suffering." Standing there with nothing but a bag of meth, torn open in front of him on Tuco's desk, Tuco could do nothing but laugh.

"Let me get this straight. I steal your dope. I beat the piss out of your mule boy. And then you walk in here and bring me more meth?" Tuco laughed. "You got one part of that wrong. This is not meth," Walt said picking up a piece of it and throwing it to the ground. The next shot was ground level outside as all the windows blew out upstairs. Here I have terminal high school chemistry teacher Walt walking into the hornet's nest. He knows what they're capable of because he's seen Jesse and knows they've already stolen a pound of meth from them. It would be nothing to these people to kill a sickly looking middle-aged white dude.

But a show of strength was exactly what Tuco would respond to and suddenly Walt had made the business deal that Jesse couldn't. Of course, it will still probably all turn out horrible for Walt as this is a very dangerous crowd he's now climbing into the proverbial bed with. So far, Walt has managed to roll with every punch the meth game has dealt him, but I have to figure he's going to meet his match soon.

Breaking Bad: Gray Matter

This episode served as a bridge to the next chapter of both Jesse and Walt's lives. In the previous installment, Walt withdrew from the sordid world of drug trafficking and focused on his family, revealing his cancer and looking at the varying options available to him. Meanwhile, his erstwhile partner Jesse had a bad drug reaction and sought refuge in the home of his parents, which didn't turn out as well as he had hoped. Here they both continued their efforts to move on with their lives, to varying degrees of failure.

The failure for both seems also to be a matter of some pride. For Jesse, it is the same pride that hinders so many young people trying to make a go of it in the professional, or so-called "real" world. Not willing to pay his dues at the bottom of the corporate ladder, a la his whacked out friend Badger, Jesse sought to get a real estate sales job with no prior professional experience. And when offered the costume wearing sign spinning job, he balked.

For Walt, it's a little more complicated. "Gray Matter" refers not only to the portion of the brain that can be irrevocably destroyed by crystal meth, but also to the name of the company that apparently Walt should have been a part of. When Skyler and Walt attend a birthday party for Elliott Schwartz, I learn that the two were science partners in college. In fact, it was the combination of their names (Schwartz is German for black) that created the Gray Matter name that became Gray Matter Technologies, Elliott's award-winning research company that he owns with his wife, the very familiar Gretchen. Gretchen is the girl from the flashback I saw to Walt in college breaking down the components of the body a couple of episodes ago.

Elliott lives in a palatial estate with his wife and receives personally signed gifts from the likes of Eric Clapton, while Walt struggles to make ends meet with a high school teacher's salary and a son with cerebral palsy; let's face it, medical bills aren't cheap in this country. And yet Elliott proudly introduces Walt as an integral part of Gray Matter as well as a "master of crystallography," indicating that there certainly doesn't seem to be any ill will from Elliott's perspective toward Walt. Even his subsequent job offer seemed sincere, despite the fact that Skyler had already spilled about Walt's cancer.

The question becomes: Why did Walt walk away from this enterprise to become a high school teacher? Was it because of Gretchen? Did Walt pine for this girl in college only to lose her to Elliott, or was there more to it than that? I wonder, considering the difficulties they've faced, how Skyler feels about Walt's decision to not be a part of Gray Matter, or even how much she knows about it. Perhaps she came into Walt's life well after that chapter was closed. Certainly she seems to want him to do what's best for himself and struggles to see why he doesn't always seem to want to.

It was this concern that led to the intervention scene with Walt, Walt Jr. and Skyler, as well as Hank and Marie. While Skyler wanted to have this "family meeting" so that everyone could tell Walt what a terrible mistake it would be for him to deny chemotherapy, she was appalled when first Marie and then Hank supported the notion that Walt should be able to make his own decision. At that point, Walt took the pillow and revealed that he felt kind of like he'd never made a decision of his own in his entire life; this is a very interesting statement and the fact that Skyler let it stand with nary a retort is also very interesting and potentially telling. He wanted to take control of this one aspect of his life and rather than live out his last days weakened and sick from chemo, he wanted to really live.

In the end, though, after a touching scene with Walt in bed hugging Skyler's pillow, looking over her mix of cancer and baby books, and smelling her skin creme, he reneges on his original convictions and tells her he'll get the treatment. But, despite the fact that Elliott still has an offer on the table to pay for the treatment because, as Gretchen told Walt later, half of everything they own including their company name is rightfully Walt's, Walt insists that he can take care of the expenses himself. Pride? Or something more going on with his past?

Meanwhile, Jesse's impatience to earn money in the real world, probably that is made more difficult by the crappy pay that he'd be facing there compared to what he can make in the drug trade, leads him back in the meth business, this time with the paroled and imbecilic aforementioned Badger. Taking most of the credit for the pure and beautiful meth Walt had cooked, Jesse convinces Badger that the two of them can accomplish the same thing. But when the batches consistently come out cloudy and below Walt's established standard, Jesse rejects and pitches them. Ultimately, Badger can't take it anymore and the two of them fight tearing up equipment in the Winnebago, which leads to Jesse abandoning Badger in the desert.

As such, both of my wayward "heroes" have failed to accomplish their needs and desires on their own, and so I have Walt in the final scenes showing up back at Jesse's with a simple proposition: "Wanna cook?" The significance of this decision by Walt is profound. He had an offer on the table for a legitimate job in his preferred field of study, offering excellent insurance working with his college friend and partner. He also had a second offer to just flat out pay for his surgery from that same friend. But Walt would rather take the inherent risks of cooking meth and trying to become a drug producer/dealer than take any legitimate and real offers. The falling out between Walt and Elliott/Gretchen story has to be simply epic. Not so bad that Walt wouldn't go to his party, but enough that he'd make this decision rather than take what he perceives as "charity" from Elliott and Gretchen.

Light on the action but heavy on background and character depth, I thought this was an excellent episode of a show that continues to impress me more and more. I still have no idea where it's going to go, but I suspect it will end the same way the series title does. And it's gonna be a helluva ride all the way down. The stage is set for the action and chaos to kick into gear.

Breaking Bad: Cancer Man

This episode was about calming down and reassessing one's life and family. I got to see Walter open up and share his cancer with his extended family, albeit reluctantly and only done really because Skyler couldn't handle it alone. Walter, in fact, remained incredibly stoic, silent and passive about his impending fate. He also stayed true to his original vision, which was not to leave his family with a mountain of debt.

As for Jesse, I finally got to meet the rest of the Pinkman clan and they're nothing like I expected - or they're exactly like I expected - and yet somehow they appeared to have a profound influence on where Jesse's life is heading and what he wants to do about it.When I first met the Pinkmans I wasn't told who I was looking at. It was a mother and father sitting with their son at the dinner table discussing playing the piccolo and oboe. Everyone was overly polite and supportive and emotionally vacant despite saying all the right things. It was painfully perfect, if such a thing can be believed. It was at that point that Jesse came crashing into this bizarrely serene world, quite literally.

After the events of the first three episodes, both White and Pinkman had withdrawn into their respective worlds. For Walter this meant opening up to Skyler and ultimately his family about his cancer and dealing with the consequences of this action. For Pinkman it meant separating himself from a career in drug trafficking and focusing more on drug using. When his friends guilted him into smoking the pure meth White had cooked, he had a subsequent bad reaction, becoming paranoid and hallucinating serious threats. It was running from this that lead him to the Pinkman clan.

Walt was trying to figure out what treatments he could possibly afford while his wife and sister-in-law were making appointments and planning for him to get the best and most expensive treatments possible regardless of cost or personal hardship. Their concern is that he get better and be there for his wife and family. Walt's concern was how much debt he was going to leave the family in when he dies, already dismissing the admittedly slim chance that he could go into remission and actually live considerably longer. Walt Jr.'s cry that Walter just "give up and die" then was so beautifully written into the scene when Walter was balking at a $90,000 price tag. Such a subtle moment spoke volumes to Walter about the massive importance of his decision. Here he was worrying about money when his son only sees his dad dying and not wanting to live. An impossible situation with impossible decisions but those are the ones he was facing.

Meanwhile, Jesse was staying with his parents and his little brother Jacob for a few days. While they don't know for sure, his parents guess that he was high on something when he arrived and clearly do not want to deal with his drug problems again. Jacob's room was littered with awards and scholastic honors and I could tell Jesse feels inferior to them. His mother awkwardly opens the door asking if the boys are okay and then very blatantly leaves the door wide open, indicating she doesn't trust Jesse alone in the room with Jacob.

The oddest exchange of the night followed when Jesse lashed out about how that act showed the parents didn't want Jesse negatively influencing their favorite son. It was this line that brought Jacob out of his shell as he whirled on Jesse, stunned that he could be their favorite son. "All they talk about is you," he told his older brother. Now, based on what I'd seen of his parents I couldn't see how this could be true, unless they were always bitching about what a failure he was.

I already know Jesse failed in school and hasn't done much with his life as of yet, except deal drugs. In fact, I'm not even sure how he got such a nice house. His parents have a nice house so either they hooked him up with his or he bought it with drug money. Either way, I am curious as to whether or not Jesse was a child with incredible promise as Jacob appeared to be or if he was always kind of a screw-up.

In the end, Jesse nobly took the fall for Jacob's joint leading to his eviction from the Pinkman home but more importantly it revealed cracks in the Pinkman home's facade of perfection. Then, when he destroyed the joint rather than return it to his brother, he showed that he wanted his brother to live up to his own potential rather than follow on Jesse's faltered path. It was good to see the growth potential in Pinkman's character.

There was a lot of personal issues dealt with here and I saw how these characters could easily settle back into non-meth lives; even Pinkman showed the potential to try and clean his act up. But, in the end, an offer came up for the rest of White's batch and Pinkman arrived at the White house with Walter's $4,000 share of those profits. With the looming costs of his own treatment hanging over him and the fact that there is still a show to do here, I think it's pretty obvious what's going to happen.

Add to that the opening of the episode where the DEA, with Walter's brother-in-law taking point on the investigation, has discovered his 99.1% pure meth as well as the disappearance of Krazy-8 and his cousin. He's tracking a possible new "kingpin" in town, who may just turn out to be the "cancer man."

Breaking Bad: And the Bag's In the River

With this episode I came to the conclusion of what would be considered the "First Act" of the Breaking Bad saga. I have to say that I was very impressed with this conclusion, and with the opening. Cranston continues to dominate the screen with his tragic portrayal of a desperate man whose health is clearly failing more and more with each passing moment. Hard decisions are made, and the hardest and best decision he's made yet looks to be the one the episode ends on.

Before I can get to the end, I need to start at the beginning. And this episode picks up (literally!) where the last one left off, with the most disgusting mess in the history of broadcast television being cleaned up by our meth-cooking "odd couple." Honestly, I'm not sure if these two will be able to work together after these events, nor do I really have any idea where the show will go from here.

It could be just as compelling if they completely give up their ideas of cooking meth for cash because they've still got all this crap they've already done to keep covered up. With Walt's brother-in-law Hank and his DEA goons already hot on that trail, there'd still be plenty of meat left for a show. I like that I'm not sure where this show is going and find that I don't really care because the ride-along is so great. In a way it reminds me of Prison Break in that I'm following some, let's face it, pretty bad dudes now and I still find myself rooting for them.

I'm not sure that the flashback sequence to a younger Walt and some unknown girl writing down the chemical makeup percentages of the human body worked. It was a nice juxtaposition during the cleanup scene at the beginning, as I saw how all those chemicals could turn into a gooey sludge, but this is the first flashback the show has given me, and I'm not sure I see the overall significance, unless the mention and question of a missing component in the scientific equation being a soul will speak to an impending spiritual crisis.

When Pinkman leaves Walter for the day to finally take care of the Krazy 8 situation; remember the guy strapped to a pole in the basement with one of those horseshoe bike locks, I finally get to see what Walter is made of. Walter gets to see what Walter is made of, and it's tougher stuff than I would have imagined. Again, Cranston shined throughout this episode as he wrestled with his conscience and reason on what to do about Krazy 8.

The climactic sequence where Krazy 8 manages to convince Walter that the only right thing to do is set him free, followed by Walter's epiphany regarding the broken plate was a brilliant piece of writing for the show. The plate was broken when a coughing fit knocked Walter unconscious as he was bringing a plate of sandwiches to Krazy 8 in the basement. What an incredibly clever piece of storytelling, and a brilliantly executed resolution to the problem by White. In fact, what Pinkman comes home to find in regards to the state of the RV and his house speaks volumes about where White is psychologically, and gets me psyched for what's coming next.

HIGHLIGHTS

DEA Agent Hank's wife swiping a pair of heels from a shoe store, under the watchful eye of a way-too-typical disinterested sales clerk on the phone no less

Hank's "scared straight" talk outside a dilapidated motel where he lectures Walt, Jr. about pot being a gateway drug because he mistakenly believes he's doing pot. Bonus points for Wendy the meth-head hooker showing her teeth and then going off to bang Pinkman after Hank dismisses her. Walt, Jr.'s clueless reactions throughout this sequence are priceless.

Walter making a Pros and Cons list of the benefits on either side of the "to kill or not to kill" Krazy 8 situation. Reasons to kill him: "He'll kill your entire family if you let him go."

The aforementioned revelation to check the pieces of the plate, reassembling it like a puzzle, and the subsequent method by which White "handled" the Krazy 8 problem.

The end where, finally, Walter confronts his wife and tells her: "Skyler, there's something I have to tell you."

Again, I have no idea where the show might go from here. Walter and Jesse are hip-deep in it already so the question they have to face is how far are they willing to go to get the riches they've yet to achieve. Or is it worth it at all for either of them? And have they been smart enough to get away with anything?

Breaking Bad: Cat's in the Bag

Things are starting to unravel fast for my "odd couple" of meth makers. Last episode left them with two dead bodies in the back of a wrecked RV filled with meth ingredients. How could it get worse? Well, what if one of those dead bodies isn't so much ... dead that is? The boys haven't sold any drugs yet, Pinkman's house is falling apart and White's marriage may not be far behind. Cranston's getting well deserved raves for his stellar performance, but as with most buddy comedies, and let's face it this is becoming a very dark comedy, it takes two great actors to pull it off, and Aaron Paul's Pinkman is an amazing foil for Cranston's White.

Breaking Bad finds a striking balance between humor, horror and anguish that had me laughing out loud at parts, shouting in revulsion at others and torn up inside at still other moments. It's an astonishing juggling act to master and more impressive to have me this emotionally invested in the characters after only two airings. And to this point, as they've had the most screen time, it's a credit to the acting abilities of both Cranston and Paul. In fact, Pinkman went from an annoying wannabe drug dealer to someone who, sure, is still all those things but I still care what happens to him. I feel bad for the horrible situations White has essentially forced on him against his will.

With this episode, Bad fulfilled its promise of being at least part comedy, though a very, very dark comedy. In fact, in this episode much of the humor is found in what to do with the dead and not-quite-as-dead-as-I-thought drug dealers Mr. White blew up (chemically) in last the episode. When Pinkman loses the drug dealer who didn't die (he gets out of the RV and wanders off), White finds him stumbling along the neighborhood road while driving home. The dude looks seriously messed up, but when he sees White driving along next to him, trying to talk to him, he takes off running ... right into a tree. Knocked out he ends up stuffed in the trunk and ultimately "chained" in Pinkman's basement.

So the boys have two problems. One dead body in an RV that's heating up in the sun and one very much not dead body chained to a pole in the basement. Who's going to take care of which one? What do you do? Well, flip a coin obviously.

One of the most disgusting but funny moments of the night came when Pinkman used hydrofluoric acid in his bathtub, despite Mr. White's insistence he use plastic and discovers that hydrofluoric acid eats through ceramic, wood, well everything that was underneath it. The resultant "mess" were completely predictable, and the timing a bit too convenient, but still fun.

As for their new prisoner, well Mr. White tries very hard to kill him, but when he gains consciousness and some semblance of coherence, he winds up with plenty of drinking water, a meal, a bucket for doing ... well, you know what. And even some toilet paper. Yes, hardened criminals these two.

I also started to see the deterioration of Mr. White's health, as he has begun to have periodic coughing spasms. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I believe the doctor said he had a year at the outset with chemotherapy. As he's clearly not doing chemo, what does that give him? Six months? Three? A few weeks? Who knows, but the scene where the Whites find out they're having a little girl and his wife asks him if he'll be so happy about having a little girl when she's a teenager. Oh man, that's acting. Knowing he won't live long enough to see his daughter, but having to keep this from his wife and play happy. It was heartbreaking.

And then his wife calls him out on Pinkman, having used *69 to deduce who he was and even checked out his "not MySpace" page. White, backed into a corner, tells her that Pinkman is his pot dealer and then, in the speech of the night, says: "I just haven't got to be myself lately, but I love you. Nothing about that has changed. Nothing ever will. So right now what I need is for you to climb down out of my ass. Can you do that? Will you do that for me, honey? Please, just once get off my ass. You know, I'd appreciate it. I really would."

Of course, she does no thing and goes to confront Pinkman, when he's trying to drag the body into the house no less, and tells him that White "told me everything." Well, not everything, but Pinkman agrees to stop selling pot to her husband.

Once I got past the fact that they are talking about disposing of dead bodies and killing people (albeit very bad people) it's easy to laugh at the absurdity that I've seen so far.Pinkman and White have managed to cook up a batch of amazing crystal meth, kill one person, inadvertently kidnap another, make a mess of Pinkman's house and neither of them has seen a dime off of this enterprise, though Pinkman did get to smoke some of White's fine meth, and White sampled some of Pinkman's weed so it's not a total loss, right?

If things don't turn around, I'm actually going to start feeling really bad for these two. Surely something good will come of all of this? Surely White will be able to do something good for his family before he dies? Man, at this point I'm not sure, but I'm sure enjoying the ride. It's official, AMC is on a hot streak with Mad Men and now Breaking Bad. Whatever's next is bound to be worth checking out. And kudos to Bryan Cranston for managing to work a fully nude scene into this episode, even though he had to spend most of the episode fully dressed.

Breaking Bad: Pilot

My idea of a dashing leading man doesn't include a guy in his fifties wearing his Fruit of the Loom briefs and a lab smock. So I must not be watching the right show. Bryan Cranston is one of television's most under-appreciated actors. He might have another chance at Emmy gold as his performance in Breaking Bad is amazing.

Breaking Bad explores the ultimate mid-life crisis. Not only is high school chemistry teacher Walter White reaching his fiftieth birthday, he also finds out he has terminal lung cancer. Now the show doesn't come right out and tell us the motivations for his subsequent actions, but I can speculate. His son has cerebral palsy, or some other muscular dystrophy disease and I can only imagine his ongoing health care costs will be substantial. His brother-in-law works for the DEA and through this connection, White learns that a crystal meth bust can net hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's all the motivation he needs and when he sees that a former student of his is in the meth business while on a ride-along with his brother-in-law, he has his way in.

Having White be a chemistry teacher makes him ideally suited for creating meth, which is a complicated recipe of chemicals. Cranston's performance in this role as a buttoned-down middle aged man who literally loses all his inhibitions and fears in light of his impending death is inspired. Much like Mad Men, Bad doesn't follow the typical dramatic formula, and the pacing is impacted by setting up characters, motivations and situations as well here in the pilot.

I mentioned before that the show doesn't tell us exactly why White is willing to take such tremendous risks for money, but I'm glad that it doesn't. He doesn't tell his family that he's dying, and again I'm not given any reason for this choice. There's a lot left for me to learn as it goes. I don't imagine that White's new drug venture is going to go smoothly for him and his new partner Jesse Pinkman, so I look forward to seeing how his regular life is impacted, and likely nearly destroyed, by his new vocation.

In the first episode alone, they set up their roving meth lab in an RV, and almost immediately get in trouble with Pinkman's former associates. I don't want to ruin how things turn out there, though you get a pretty damned good idea as the episode starts in the middle of this chaos before flashing back three weeks to show how they got here.

At first, when the episode started with a dramatic moment of crisis before flashing back, I thought I might be in for another season long "How did we get here?' like FX's Damages, but I caught up to that moment here in the first episode and now the possibilities are endless. It means I have no idea where the show is going to go from here, but I find myself really liking Walter White, and feeling for the struggles that his son faces in every day life. I will go on the record right now as saying the clothing shop scene was one of my favorites. Such a short moment, it told me volumes about the family, the son's struggles with his disease, and the newly liberated attitude that White has taken on, to his family's surprise.

Breaking Bad was picked up for a nine episode first season, though only seven episodes were finished before the writers strike halted production. I have no idea if the creators managed to get a satisfying "season finale" at the end of the seventh episode, but I'll be along for the ride regardless.