Breaking Bad

I heard so much buzz on the internet about the AMC show, "Breaking Bad" that I dove into season one this weekend.  Needless to say, I was back at Barnes & Noble on Labor Day buying seasons two and three on Blu-ray.  This show is absolutely riveting.

Breaking Bad follows the story of a brilliant chemist who, at the age of 50, doesn't have a whole lot going on in his life.  He chose to teach high school but many of his students are portrayed as ungrateful good-for-nothings who drive rich cars and just want to hook up with each other.  Meanwhile Walter White (the protagonist) at age 50 has got a younger wife who is pregnant, and a handicapped son that gets teased a lot in high school.  He has a second job working at the car wash where he scrubs tires on the sports cars that some of his students drive and they take demeaning pictures of him on their cell phones to talk about him with each other.

This is Aaron in the persona of the meth junkie Jesse
Pinkman.  They really do a number on his appearance.

So into all of this, Mr. White gets terminal lung cancer. The doctors tell him he only has nine months or so to live.  The chemotherapy that might save his life costs $90,000 and his insurance won't cover it. Plus he'll be leaving his wife and only son with a mountain of medical bills for fighting his cancer (not to mention) a newborn daughter.  So what does the brilliant Mr. White do?

Well he seizes a unique opportunity.  His friend works at the D.E.A. and takes him along to observe a drug bust on a meth lab and he notices one of his former students escape from just having banged a woman in the house next door.  He says nothing.  He follows the former student home and points out that his partner (the cook for the meth lab) has been arrested thereby destroying his livelihood.  He offers to cook meth for the kid if he'll make him a partner in the business.  The kid agrees...flabbergasted that the teacher that flunked him wants to "Break Bad".

This is Aaron in real life. Big
difference as you can tell.

So Mr. White ends up cooking the purest meth ever.  And the crap that these two go through in episode after episode as they deal with cartel enforcers, drug distributors, and hide from the D.E.A. is unbelievable. I can't pull my eyes away.  Also Mr. White's partner, played by Aaron Paul, is a really good-lookin' fella that they have to dirty up for the show.  It's interesting because in some scenes he looks completely strung out but in others (like when he tries to go clean and actually get a job) he looks good but his education makes it impossible for him to earn a living with any dignity.

Things I saw in the first season that surprised me:

1) Lots of meth manufacturing.

2) Nudity.

3) Drug dealers not only killed, but dissolved in hydrofluoric acid that eats through a bathtub and crashes through a floor in a house. They literally have to scoop up the bloody soup of human body with a dustpan and brushes.

4) Incredible cleverness on behalf of the protagonist (and resourcefulness).  Jesse gets almost beaten to death and Mr. White faces off with a huge drug distributor and demands $50,000 from Tuco and manages to get it. I won't spoil how but it is mind-blowing. On top of that, Mr. White gets a deal to sell four pounds of meth to this guy a week.

5) The sheer destruction of a good man like Mr. White as he descends into a world of absolute filth. Yet he is protective of Jesse (sometimes) and it's clear that he doesn't want the boy to come to harm but he certainly doesn't go easy on him at all.  Sometimes Mr. White pushes him to murder which he is growing more comfortable with as the series progresses (the first time he murdered someone was really really hard for him).  But the other aspect that is amazing about this show is Mr. White's intellect. He is far beyond the primitive minds of the drug dealers that he has to do business with and because he knows his life is almost over, the risks he is willing to take are incredible.  And of course his marriage is falling apart because the life he is choosing to lead to cushion his wife and children with money is a secret one...and the secrets are pushing all of his loved ones away.

6) The acting in this show is Academy Award level. It seriously is that good.

This isn't a show for the young adult, smurf-loving, middle-grade fiction crowd. It's a show for adults. I'm an adult...I write adult fiction...and this adult show is absolutely amazing.  If you think of yourself as having adult tastes...you need to watch!