Breaking Bad Season 1

With Breaking Bad Season 1 began what has come to be known as the greatest television drama ever made. Although it is interesting to see that this perhaps stemmed from the growth in the use of telling a continuous story, rather just a slight, if any, continuity with an eventual sometimes arbitrary end. Breaking Bad makes wholesale use of the concept starting with the concept of turning Mr. Chips into Scarface, which effectively grants a different sort of flavor for every season. The first season is the initial turning point where we see our main character Walter White, played brilliantly by Bryan Cranston, meekly enter into the drug trade through his knowledge of chemistry and the aid of a junkie former student of his Jesse Pinkman, played brilliantly by Aaron Paul. The first season is almost a series of unfortunate events from White's diagnosis of lung cancer to his rather hapless foray into the dark world of drugs as he attempts to change himself to become more like the men he ends up having to kill to save his own life. There is no reason to go episode by episode as there actually is only a single bad episode of the entire series, and it's not in this season. That isn't to say there are not a few weak points, the show seems to have no idea what to do with its female characters in this season other than have them complain, but one can almost forget that given the strength of the rest of the season. The series effortlessly balances comedy with drama, as even as dark as it eventually becomes there are still laughs in the series that feel natural to the story. The funny thing is this season is even incomplete, accidentally so do to the writer's strike, but that hardly matters. The thing is everything that happens in the pilot might be what another show might cover in 8 episodes. Breaking Bad doesn't take a break, yet never seems rushed. Here we are given the proper introduction to our main protagonist, his sidekick, and the underworld of old sunny Albuquerque.
5/5