After a highly anticipated and long wait, AMC’s critically-acclaimed drama Breaking Bad kicks off Season 4 this upcoming spring with a BANG . . . literally.
Breaking Bad is the ill-fated saga of Walter White (Bryan Cranston); a quiet and hard-lucked high school chemistry teacher who is unfortunately diagnosed with a non-operable form of lung cancer. Facing the inevitable fact that he will leave his pregnant wife and a son diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy with no financial security, he accidentally and reluctantly begins to live a double life as a “cooker” of Crystal Methamphetamine.
Aided by Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), a former student and recovering drug addict, Walter White embarks on a fatalistic path on becoming a small-time meth cooker, to a shadowy distributor named “Heisenburg”, and then into a mass producer of Crystal Meth that becomes in integral part of the Mexican drug-cartel trade in the American Southwest.
Even with the more than adequate financial security provided by his double life, the price Walter White has to pay for his devil’s bargain is too steep. He soon loses his morals, his innocence, and the most precious thing in his life, his family.
Season 3 left our anti-hero in a precarious and unfortunate situation. Hunted by the Drug Enforcement Agency, twin mute assassins from the Mexican cartels, and his renegade former boss; Walter White is forced to play a chess-game between his enemies in order to survive. One false move will lead to the deaths of everyone he cares about.
Bryan Cranston’s outstanding performance as Walter White shows why he is a multiple award winner. He portrays Walter White quite perfectly. Bryan Cranston has the ability and the believability to portray Walter White as a meek and repressed man and a calculating criminal at the same time. His gradual transformation to mild-mannered chemistry teacher to a cold-blooded killer is nothing short of extra ordinary.
Aaron Paul, who plays Walter White’s partner Jesse Pinkman, also deserves much recognition for his work. His portrayal of a recovering drug-addict trying to play drug kingpin is terrific. Jesse Pinkman’s character development of a “wanna-be gangster” to a person who believes that he isn’t the person that he represents on the exterior in is one of the best things about the show.
Also, what really makes Breaking Bad one of best TV shows out right now is the story and character development. Creator and producer Vince Gilligan created a show that makes its audience reflect on their own lives and the choices we have to make.
Breaking Bad is a great example of what any normal person would do if their backs were against the wall. It makes the audience think about how far they would go with their decisions whether it is through legal or illegal means, to save everything that matters to them. The audience is left to question if they themselves are willing the pay the price and the consequences of their decisions to protect people they care about.
While Season 4 of Breaking Bad is still a long ways away; the beginning of Season 5 is greatly anticipated. With the cliffhanger and life-changing last scene of Season 4 still fresh in the minds of many fans, we can’t wait what the show has in store for its fans.