Breaking Bad, season 1
Jan. 19th, 2012 12:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWhat I knew beforehand via fannish osmosis and enthusiastic media: the show's basic premise as laid out in the pilot (chemistry teacher, devoted husband and father, is diagnosed with third degree lung cancer, decides to solve financial situation by cooking meth), and that, as every article mentioning the show brings up, this is a story where over the course of several seasons the main character goes from hero the audience roots for to antihero to villain the audience is supposed to root against. This intrigued me, because while many a show gets that reaction for their main character inadvertendly (sometimes something yours truly finds unfair, sometimes something I understand), it's pretty daring to go for it deliberately. Not to mention that it could simply happen that no matter what crap the main character pulls, the audience, having once decided they love him, keeps on loving him (hello there, Tony Soprano), and/or they accuse the writers of writing him ooc and go into denial about canon. (Male form used deliberately. While there are a few female characters fandom responds to this way, they are very very rare, and it's more usual to condemm a female character for even a small percentage of the kind of behaviour that's generously accepted in a male.)
After finding out that the first season only has seven episodes, I decided to marathon it before rl takes me away on the road again. The resulting impression:
the acting on the show is as good as advertised, and Bryan Cranston in the main part really is outstanding. So far, I find the writing to be good as well, though I hope future seasons offer more depth for the female characters, especially since the last two episodes augured well in that direction. This one basically belongs to Walter (the chemistry teacher going drug producer), Jesse Pinkman (former student, drug dealer) and Hank (Walter's brother-in-law, cop, DEA agent). I think one of the crucial reasons why the season works is that it doesn't treat Walter's cancer just as a gimick to kickstart the premise, but shows the every day painfulness and effects throughout. (Sidenote: usually if tv shows do a cancer story, they go for leukemia and don't let the character affected do more than look pale and maybe a bit thinner, so that was refreshingly honest by comparison.) If I hadn't been told in advance where the show would be going with Walter in terms of the hero-antihero-villain thing, would I have spotted signs? Perhaps, perhaps not; Walter in the first season comes across as sympathetic, the opponents he's given are bullies, and the show clearly gets a kick out of letting him outwit psycho drug dealer thugs with science. In fact, some of the dynamic between him and Jesse must be satisfying to every frustrated teacher in the audience who tried in vain to impress upon the passive bored kids that their subject is cool as well. All this being said, there are signs of his corruption. Not only is the show careful to give him mid season alternate and legitimate possibilities to solve his financial problems and leave his family secure, which Walther declines (so there is no "he had no choice in a rotten situation" excuse anymore) in favour of meth cooking, but by the end of the season, when Jesse asks how much money he wants out of the business before he dies, Walter says "more"; he's become greedy. There's also the human cost; via the character of Hank we're constantly reminded of what happens with the product Walther creates, and what it does to people. Additionally, there is a very sympathetic janitor at the school where Walter teaches, who helps him when Walter goes through the worst of his chemo therapy, and who ends up paying the price for Walter's double life as he - a Native American and someone with a bit of pot in his car - is immediately suspected and condemned by the cops when Hank deduces that some of the equipment used to cook the new high quality meth came from Walther's school. Walter doesn't even consider helping the man.
If Walther starts out as a sympathetic underdog scientist who by the end of the season is still largely sympathetic but does show a few signs of being affected to the negative by what he's decided to do, Jesse's development is the reverse. He starts out as an obnoxious dumb punk with practically the sole non-negative quality that he doesn't try to cheat Walter out of profit percentage and then gains layers. Not by being excused or seeing the light, but by showing feelings beyond self gratification, both in the developing relationship with Walter and in interactions such as the one with his younger brother. He's the type of character you go from disliking though being amused by to being amused by and liking despite yourself.
Walter's wife, Skyler, didn't emerge beyond "loving spouse" for me until the later half of the season, but I appreciate that she's never presented as stupid or oblivious and almost immediately realises something is off with Walter, and is pro-active about that. Since she lacks some crucial information she draws the wrong conclusions, but that's not her fault. You know how often in tv shows you're frustrated because much of the plot development depends on people not talking to each other? Well, Skyler talks to Walter. (And others.) The only other regular female character with lines is her sister-in-law Marie, who other than in the episode where the family talks Walter into going for chemo therapy, where she had some unexpected strong moments, so far comes across as more of a satirical type than a character, but as I said, I hope for more in future seasons. Skyler's brother Hank, her husband the cop, is by contrast a great character, and something I like is that he's consistently presented as smart (it would have been easy to make Walter the only intelligent character; this show doesn't) and dedicated to his job, as well as good at it (most of the time, biased arrest of the poor janitor notwithstanding).
In conclusion: a very good first season; I'm curious to find out more.
After finding out that the first season only has seven episodes, I decided to marathon it before rl takes me away on the road again. The resulting impression:
the acting on the show is as good as advertised, and Bryan Cranston in the main part really is outstanding. So far, I find the writing to be good as well, though I hope future seasons offer more depth for the female characters, especially since the last two episodes augured well in that direction. This one basically belongs to Walter (the chemistry teacher going drug producer), Jesse Pinkman (former student, drug dealer) and Hank (Walter's brother-in-law, cop, DEA agent). I think one of the crucial reasons why the season works is that it doesn't treat Walter's cancer just as a gimick to kickstart the premise, but shows the every day painfulness and effects throughout. (Sidenote: usually if tv shows do a cancer story, they go for leukemia and don't let the character affected do more than look pale and maybe a bit thinner, so that was refreshingly honest by comparison.) If I hadn't been told in advance where the show would be going with Walter in terms of the hero-antihero-villain thing, would I have spotted signs? Perhaps, perhaps not; Walter in the first season comes across as sympathetic, the opponents he's given are bullies, and the show clearly gets a kick out of letting him outwit psycho drug dealer thugs with science. In fact, some of the dynamic between him and Jesse must be satisfying to every frustrated teacher in the audience who tried in vain to impress upon the passive bored kids that their subject is cool as well. All this being said, there are signs of his corruption. Not only is the show careful to give him mid season alternate and legitimate possibilities to solve his financial problems and leave his family secure, which Walther declines (so there is no "he had no choice in a rotten situation" excuse anymore) in favour of meth cooking, but by the end of the season, when Jesse asks how much money he wants out of the business before he dies, Walter says "more"; he's become greedy. There's also the human cost; via the character of Hank we're constantly reminded of what happens with the product Walther creates, and what it does to people. Additionally, there is a very sympathetic janitor at the school where Walter teaches, who helps him when Walter goes through the worst of his chemo therapy, and who ends up paying the price for Walter's double life as he - a Native American and someone with a bit of pot in his car - is immediately suspected and condemned by the cops when Hank deduces that some of the equipment used to cook the new high quality meth came from Walther's school. Walter doesn't even consider helping the man.
If Walther starts out as a sympathetic underdog scientist who by the end of the season is still largely sympathetic but does show a few signs of being affected to the negative by what he's decided to do, Jesse's development is the reverse. He starts out as an obnoxious dumb punk with practically the sole non-negative quality that he doesn't try to cheat Walter out of profit percentage and then gains layers. Not by being excused or seeing the light, but by showing feelings beyond self gratification, both in the developing relationship with Walter and in interactions such as the one with his younger brother. He's the type of character you go from disliking though being amused by to being amused by and liking despite yourself.
Walter's wife, Skyler, didn't emerge beyond "loving spouse" for me until the later half of the season, but I appreciate that she's never presented as stupid or oblivious and almost immediately realises something is off with Walter, and is pro-active about that. Since she lacks some crucial information she draws the wrong conclusions, but that's not her fault. You know how often in tv shows you're frustrated because much of the plot development depends on people not talking to each other? Well, Skyler talks to Walter. (And others.) The only other regular female character with lines is her sister-in-law Marie, who other than in the episode where the family talks Walter into going for chemo therapy, where she had some unexpected strong moments, so far comes across as more of a satirical type than a character, but as I said, I hope for more in future seasons. Skyler's brother Hank, her husband the cop, is by contrast a great character, and something I like is that he's consistently presented as smart (it would have been easy to make Walter the only intelligent character; this show doesn't) and dedicated to his job, as well as good at it (most of the time, biased arrest of the poor janitor notwithstanding).
In conclusion: a very good first season; I'm curious to find out more.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-19 04:34 pm (UTC)I think Breaking Bad is the best "new" show I discovered in the last year. The good news is, it just keeps getting better and better. That includes Skyler's development and deepening as a character. You get to know Marie better as well, but I still sometimes get the feeling the writers aren't always sure how best to integrate her into the rest of the show -- I get the sense that some of her stuff is more distant, parallel commentary. Skyler, however, remains very central to the plot of the show. I went from strongly disliking her in the first season -- mostly because I'm a private person and I really empathized with Walter's need to deal with his cancer on his own terms, which meant the push-pull of needing to open up to his family, led by Skyler, was initially off-putting to me -- to really loving her by the end of the fourth.
I'm also impressed that the show creator and writers are very clear that the series has a finite amount of episodes left. That, plus a lot of foreshadowing type stuff, makes me trust that they know what story they're telling.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-20 10:15 pm (UTC)