Breaking Bad
I have a new favorite show. Breaking Bad, (Drama/Comedy) a new original series airing on AMC. If you haven't heard of this show, you may want to check it out.
How do I summarize this?...
It's about a chemistry teacher, Walter White, who finds out he has terminal cancer and has two years to live. In order to provide for his family, he secretly decides to 'break bad' and cook meth to make a lot of money, really fast. He teams up with a former student of his, Jesse Pinkman, and the two of them become a very entertaining odd couple. The show doesn't glorify drugs, however. In fact, what you see is a drama in which the main character finds out the consequences of making a very bad decision and how it affects the people around him in his life. As things get really dangerous and intense, the show takes you on a roller coaster ride. Your typical chemistry teacher goes up against some insane drug kingpins and fights to keep his new life secret from his family. Oh, did I mention his brother-in-law and good friend Hank is DEA? Yeah, things get interesting as you might imagine! Balance the show off with just the right amount of comedy and, I'll tell you what, I became instantly hooked! It truly is an amazing and well written show that constantly has me wanting to see more.
I haven't had a favorite TV show since The X Files, which ended it's run in 2003. I don't think any show will ever replace that as my all time favorite, but I haven't had anything I've been hooked on since then. This is finally a show I'm dying to see each week. It's probably no coincidence that a former writer of The X Files, Vince Gillian, is the creator. In only the first 7 episodes (which makes up a very short Season 1) the show won two Emmys! Simply incredible, but if you watch the show, it's plain to see why. The writing and acting is phenomenal. I can't praise the show enough.
Walter White, the lead role, is played by actor Bryan Cranston. You might recognize him. He played the father in Malcolm in the Middle. I recently had a chance to ask Bryan Cranston a question about the show...
Lance Foxx: "Similar to what The X Files has done with it's two major motion pictures, do you believe Breaking Bad has the potential to make it as a feature film? Would you support that or do you believe it should stay a television drama?"
Bryan Cranston: "I would welcome that if the story is appropriate. A story should dictate the medium, not the other way around. In other words, if a story is big enough, or needs to be told over 1.5 to 2 hours and it encompasses a larger frame, then it's probably appropriate to be a film. If a story is better told in chapter form, well that's more a television series. So this story is best told in series format, where you follow a man's life over the course of two years. I don't know that Breaking Bad would work as a film - and I say that, but someone could propose a storyline that's big and has a beginning, a middle and end that really makes a lot of sense. And if that's the case I'm all for that."