The acclaimed AMC series Breaking Bad is about the ultimate family man: a man who does everything he does just so his family may have a better life. He is on the way out, and he knows he’s about to leave his family with nothing. As such he sets out to get as much money for his family, and he doesn’t care if it involves starting a meth business or strangling a man in the basement.
It is here I begin my new project for my “TV Timeout” column: Operation AMC. It is not a new feature, per se, but I have now just begun my journey to watch every episode of two AMC mainstays: Breaking Bad and Mad Men. I will report back after I have finished each season of both shows. I have begun with Breaking Bad, the show which has won Brian Cranston three consecutive Emmys for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
Cranston plays Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher living out an unfulfilling existence. He is forced to work a second job at a car wash, which barely makes ends meet. He is prone to random cough attacks, and after he passes out on the job he is taken to the hospital, where he finds out he has lung cancer. Fearing he will leave his family with nothing, he decides to start making and selling meth with an ex-student of his, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul).
Needless to say, havoc ensues. The show makes no secret of the fact that Walter is a man in a foreign country when it comes to dealing drugs, but God help you if you get in his way. Call him what you want, but Walter White is a man who knows what he wants. Many people may see Breaking Bad as a series about a man whose morality is collapsing on a daily basis, and while that is true up to a point that is not what the show’s about. Above all else he’s a man who is so in love with his family he feels he has no choice. He doesn’t want to do the things he does, but he feels he has to. There is never a look of joy on his face during any scenes in which he is committing a criminal act. He is only happy when he is at home.
It’s not easy, though. His devotion to his new life leads him to become distant from his family. It isn’t until the fourth episode (“Cancer Man”) that he even tells his family that he has cancer. He doesn’t want to upset anyone else’s state of equilibrium, so he prefers to keep the news to himself. His wife begs him to get treated but he refuses for a while, simply asking to live whatever’s left of his life his way. To her this isn’t acceptable.
Walter’s wife, Skyler, is played by Anna Gunn. In a way, Skyler is the most tragic character in the show, and in a way the most selfish. She knows that if she loses Walter she won’t be left with much at all, and she is brought to tears at the thought of losing him. She genuinely loves him, but she also needs him, and to her there is no other option besides treatment. When their in-laws start to side with Walter, she just about breaks down, because in all honesty she doesn’t care about Walter’s comfort. She just wants to keep him. Meanwhile, their son Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte) begins to become disillusioned with his dad. He is not being a strong paternal figure but instead a reserved wimp who is succumbing to his illness. He takes these feelings and for the first time in his life he starts to act out against his parents.
In just 7 episodes, the first season of Breaking Bad is some brilliant exposition, no doubt setting the table for the greatness that awaits me in the next two seasons. White’s transition to drug lord is believable at every step, because we know that he doesn’t really care what crap he gets himself into. He’s willing to distance himself from his family because he knows in the long run it benefits them. His brother, a DEA agent, begins to investigate the new meth-cooker in town, and eventually he is led to Walt’s high school where the equipment was stolen from.
Aaron Paul’s character Jesse, who at first appeared to be an idiot meth-head, is also able to create a fully realized character by season’s end. His greatest interest is being successful, whether he does it by-the-book or through more illicit means. At one point he tries to get a real job, but scoffs when he realizes it’s as a sidewalk mascot character. However, he goes back into the meth business when Walter comes back. Not to mention Jesse gets the best line of the first season: “Yeah science!”
In a way the first season of Breaking Bad was a 7-hour-long pilot. The end of the season doesn’t resort to any big fireworks or marriages, surprise kisses or the like, but instead calms down and looks forward at where the show will go. This open-endedness doesn’t hurt what was a brilliant season. It introduces you to each of the characters, introduces the plot, and I can’t wait to see where the series goes when I start season two.
At one point, Walt is asked why he’s doing what he’s doing. He merely responds by saying that he is “awake”. When told his life is near its end, he decides that there is no way he is going to waste these final months or years. He has spent his entire life sleepwalking, and when his life is finally over he wants to be able to know that everything he did was worth it, and that he gives his family the best future he possibly can.
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