Thursday, August 5, 2010

Breaking Bad: Compelling TV with brilliant story-telling

Just finished watching the second season of AMC's Breaking Bad and now am eagerly waiting for the release of third season on DVD; it won't be out before March 2011, going by the dates for release on DVD for the first two seasons. That's a long wait!

The first two seasons have been phenomenal; very absorbing right through with no slacking of excitement in the slightest at any moment. It has been so captivating that I have frequently found it hard to resist temptation to continue and watch the next episode after finishing one.

Each episode usually begins with a sense of fore-boding with a preview of whats to come later in the episode or season, and takes the viewers through a edge of the seat thrill-a-minute ride for 45 minutes or so, and leaves the viewers begging for more at the end.

What surprises me most is that I am firmly rooting for the main characters Walter White (Bryan Cranston in a superb performance) & Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) despite the heinous crimes they willingly or unwillingly commit. Given the story line (a chemistry teacher - and one of his pupils - turn into Meth producers & dealers, killing a few people directly along the way), it is very easy to not like the main characters. However, the story firmly focuses on their struggles, and their ingenuity - especially Walter's application of his immense practical knowledge of Chemistry - in coming out of every tough situation with flying colors, or at least with only minor setbacks.

The show totally ignores or avoids showing any negative aspects of what the main characters do - with hardly any scenes of the sufferings and travails of their end users - the drug addicts. Even the seriousness of Jesse Pinkman's drug habit (which leads to his girl-friend's death) gets lost in the excitement of the other story lines.

All said and done, this is a show worth watching - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Put it on your Netflix queue; or even better - buy the DVD.

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