(Apology to self for the long delay in writing)
I am taking a break from watching the long list of Anime that I want to see and whose review is still pending. Thought I'd start watching something with real people in it.
The options were The Sopranos or Breaking Bad. (I am watching Dexter, the Mentalist and The Big Bang Theory too, but that's a weekly drivel that I am avoiding.)
I chose Breaking Bad because it is a low key affair as compared to the Sopranos. It isn't particularly famous in India, and as far as I know it is not coming to any television near us/me. At this year's Emmys, it was totally surprising to find that a show I hadn't heard of (including In Treatment) was getting critical praise. And as I recall Bryan Cranston also won the Emmy for the leading actor, for season 2.
So, what would I choose - The Sopranos, rated as the best series ever by EW and many others or Breaking Bad, which ended its second season and to which I have no clue....
I chose shorter over longer, unfamiliar over successfully famous.
Season 1, episode 1
Cranston is a good chemistry teacher, hardly making ends meet by working two jobs and trying to raise a family. But his dreary life takes another downward turn when he finds out that he has lung cancer and not much long to live.
With time running out, he decides to make a quick buck by befriending a local meth dealer, previously his student, he has the goods on.
The first episode was slow in some places and I think, that will be the pace for the whole series. Cranston is unbelievably real, and seems a desperate man whose looking for a way out, breaking bad.
Obviously the show will guide us through his transformation from in-the-dumps chem teacher to a meth-dealer-without-any-baggage?.
I am also interested in this meth-creation process. While Cranston calls this science, others refer to it as an art, 'cooking'.
Premature rating (one episode): 3/5
Strengths: high potential to evolve, good direction,
Weakness: can be emotional? (I think)
Could haves: Plenty?
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