BB initials

I'm so in love with Breaking Bad right now that it is quite embarrassing. I'm halfway season 3 (just watched episode 7!), trying to convince myself that I must slow down because there will be a long wait afterwards for, according to what I heard, season 4 won't start until August 2011!

That show is simply amazing, so well-shot (some shots are stunning, better than most of what we can see in movies) and cleverly written. I love all the little details, the symbolism and metaphors, the misdirections and sudden changes of pace that completely take the audience by surprise; I love the funny lines and hilarious moments of levity (mostly in season 1) that made the most horrible stuff bearable; I love the morally-challenged characters and the fact that the writers dared to make the lead character so unlikeable sometimes.
 
For those who are interested in this but haven't seen the show, here's a the pitch (and it could be the summary of the first episode of the series): Walter White, a chemistry teacher whose wife is pregnant and 16 year-old son has cerebral palsy, can hardly pay the bills of a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, in spite of a second humiliating job. One day he finds out that he has inoperable lung cancer and little time left. The opportunity of using his chemistry skills in the drug industry arises when he sees again one Jesse Pinkman, former student of his, fleeing from a meth lab scene so he starts crossing the proverbial line in a desire to secure his family's financial future, but selling drugs is a risky business (and his wife's brother-in-law is a DEA agent!) filled with dangerous people so troubles very soon ensue. 

Bryan Cranston who might get a third Emmy thanks to this show said about his character that Walter White was "a good man who made bad decisions" but it's way more complicated than that. Becoming a "meth manufacturer" revealed a lot of dark stuff about Walt, his ego, his frustrations, his lies. Since the show plays on metaphors, I'd say that the drug business was nothing but a catalyst for our brilliant chemist, that not only released the tough Heisenberg but also many demons, weaknesses and pettiness. From Mr White to the black precipitate that Heisenberg represents, it took a combination of circumstances ––a stage 3  lung cancer and its expensive chemiotherapy, Hank's offer to tag along when the DEA shut down a meth lab that led to the "reunion" with a former student turned meth dealer, and the dangerous acquaintances the oddly-matched partners made after they started cooking meth together–– but the first matter was Walter himself, a man who was a chemistry genius yet ended teaching chemistry in a public highschool in Albuquerque, while his research work has seemingly been used by old pals of his who found success and billions...

The characters study is simply terrific, not only concerning the lead but also the supporting characters played by a first-rate cast.

( Thoughts under the cut are a bit spoilerish, nothing major but there are a few allusions to certain stuff )