LIVE: Breaking Bad, Episode 2
Last Sunday, everyone's favorite chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-cook, Breaking Bad's Walter White, returned to everyone's new favorite crappy-movie-channel-turned-future-Emmy-factory, AMC. This week, we're going to live-blog the action.
For those not up to speed (pun kind of!) on the fact that AMC actually has two shows worth watching, here's the jist: high school chemistry teacher and not-so-successful family man Walter White (Bryan Cranston) gets diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, partners with former student and every-high-school-burnout-you-ever-forgot-about, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), to make money for his family (wife Skyler played by Anna Gunn, son-with-cerebral-palsy played by RJ Mitte, newborn baby played by the Olson twins circa early Full House) by cooking and selling meth.
Unfortunately, they suck at it. From Walt's DEA agent brother-in-law leading the chase for mysterious meth-man Heisenberg (read: Walt); to exploding heads of drug cartel snitches on turtles; to Walt indirectly causing a midair plane collision by letting a heroin addict suffocate on her own vomit, suffice to say: shit gets bananas.
Highlights from the series premiere: Skyler's discovery of Walt's criminal ways and divorce-ultimatum, Jesse's rehab counselor pancaking his six-year-old daughter with his car, and a border-crossing coyote-mission gone wrong with a set of 'roided out Heisenberg-hunting twins that affirms the rule that bad guys don't look at explosions.
The sneak peek last week — with Walt getting pulled over by a cop — leaves us asking questions: will Walt's resemblance to Heisenberg's police sketch get him canned? Will the broken windshield finally force Walt to get rid of that godawful Pontiac Aztek? Is every mid-life crisis accompanied by the song A Horse With No Name?
Join us in a live-blog jamobree that will hopefully get this show more recognition. Come on, people, how many comparisons by critics to The Wire does a show need before at least one of my coworkers watches it?
The show airs tonight at 10 PM EST on AMC.
Mary Shyne is a recent NYU grad with a BA in English, which is to say I live in Brooklyn and eat a lot of canned food from Associated. You can read her blog here.