A year?
One year?
Seriously?
‘Breaking Bad’ Season Five: “Fifty-One”
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Tag Archives: Walter White
‘Breaking Bad’ Season Five: “Hazard Pay”
Hmm.
As I’ve stated before, I grade Breaking Bad on a curve. Even a “bad” episode of Breaking Bad is a million times better than any episode of Two And A Half Men, or 99% of other shows on TV. There is no “bad” episode of Breaking Bad, anyway. There are only episodes ranging from “good” to “holy fucking shit, that was incredible.”
‘Breaking Bad’ Season Five: “Madrigal”
(Catch my write-up of the season premiere here.)
Even after last week’s season premiere, it was unclear what path Breaking Bad would take in its fifth and final season. “Live Free Or Die” was all about cleaning up Season Four’s messes, and “Madrigal” does a little of that before heading in an entirely new and surprising direction.
‘Breaking Bad’ Season Five Premiere: “Live Free Or Die”
(Catch up on Season Four here.)
After a rollicking Season Four in which Breaking Bad became, quite deservedly, one of the buzziest shows on TV, the Season Five premiere had a lot to live up to. While a few threads were left unresolved in “Face Off,” in many ways, things were tied off much more neatly than we’re used to from this show. All the most menacing villains were offed in one fell swoop, meaning that vice grip of tension Vince Gilligan held us in over the last season or so was finally relaxed. Now, we can breathe.
‘Breaking Bad’ Season Four Finale & Favorites: “Face Off”
(Wrapping up my assessment of Breaking Bad‘s fourth season. Find the first installment here.)
13. “FACE OFF”
Oh, Breaking Bad. So clever with those episode titles!
Let me start this review by repurposing some familiar song lyrics:
“Ding dong, the Fring is dead…”
‘Breaking Bad’ Season Four: “Crawl Space” & “End Times”
(Continuing my assessment of Breaking Bad‘s fourth season. Find the first installment here.)
11. “CRAWL SPACE”
So this is it. Three episodes to go, and with ominous titles like “Crawl Space” and “End Times” and “Face Off,” you know it won’t be a trio of light-hearted comedies about everyone making nice over a bucket of chicken at Los Pollos Hermanos. These titles make it pretty explicit — shit’s gonna go down.
‘Breaking Bad’ Season Four: “Bug” & “Salud”
(Continuing my assessment of Breaking Bad‘s fourth season. Find the first installment here.)
9. “BUG”
After last week’s tense, cinematic Gus-centric flashback episode, “Bug” gets the forward momentum back on track, focusing on the series’ core characters and the central relationship of Breaking Bad — Walt and Jesse’s. For the entirety of Season Four, Walt and Jesse have been operating on completely different wavelengths, both physically and emotionally. Walt is acting out like a reckless rebellious teenager at work, while maintaining his mild-mannered “normal” persona for his family; after a drug-addled flirtation with apathy and self-destruction, Jesse cleaned up his act and became a key player in whatever plan Gus is cooking up (in addition to all that meth).
‘Breaking Bad’ Season Four: “Problem Dog” & “Hermanos”
(Continuing my assessment of Breaking Bad‘s fourth season. Find the first installment here.)
7. “PROBLEM DOG”
In my last installment, I bemoaned Walt’s twin stupid choices — letting some Honduran maids into the meth lab, and buying his son a flashy new sports car. In “Problem Dog,” Walt makes a decision that’s ten times stupider and more reckless than either of those. It’s the kind of moment Walter White and Breaking Bad do so well — Walt decides to take the new car for a joy ride before taking it back, and, naturally, wrecks it. Rather than do any one of ten more sensible things, he decides to blow up the car. This in no way solves the problem — there’s still a record of him buying it, and it also gets him in trouble with the law (briefly, before Saul makes it all go away). I groaned and gnashed my teeth when Walt took the car for a spin, knowing he was fucking himself over yet again, but this behavior felt more in character than what happened last week in “Cornered.” When Walt makes a stupid move, it tends to be colossally stupid. Not the kind of dumb thing any parent or husband or meth dealer would do, but the sort of thing only Walter White, a man at the end of his rope, would do. Blowing up a brand new car definitely falls into that category.
‘Breaking Bad’ Season Four: “Shotgun” & “Cornered”
(Continuing my assessment of Breaking Bad‘s fourth season. Find the first installment here.)
5. “SHOTGUN”
“Walter!!”
That’s me, screaming at my TV set in fury at the end of “Shotgun,” which contains the most jaw-dropping “I can’t believe he just did that!” moment of the season to date. And it’s not a violent life-or-death situation, like when Walt let Jane die in Season Two or ran over Jesse’s nemesis in Season Three. It’s just Walt getting drunk and loose-lipped. But that’s what’s so good about this show — the most indelible moments are often the quietest, most everyday occurrences. (Or, sometimes, a plane crash.)
‘Breaking Bad’ Season Four: “Open House” & “Bullet Points”
(Continuing my assessment of Breaking Bad‘s fourth season. Find the first installment here.)
3. “OPEN HOUSE”
Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. In my last post, I emphasized the stark bleakness of Breaking Bad. And bleak it is. When you think Breaking Bad, you think of those shocking bursts of violence and mayhem, the nail-biting tension, or the overall scuzzy feel of the world these characters inhabit — the way you may need to take a shower after certain episodes.
