Breaking Bad has now been so excellent for so long, that it’s become easy to take it for granted. Tonight’s episode was an alive, full-blooded reminder of why you shouldn’t. [Spoilers ahead…and potentially huge spoilers in just the first scene that showed a future version of Walt…well, just watch it.]
In the mid-season cliffhanger from last year, Hank finally found out the truth about his brother-in-law, mild-mannered chemistry teacher turned meth lord Walter White/Heisenberg (but Walter didn’t know that). I thought for sure that it would take at least an episode or two before Walter figured out Hank was on to him and they had their inevitable, long-in-the-works confrontation, but no they got to it t-o-n-i-g-h-t.
Walt found out his Whitman book was missing. He found out Hank had it. He found out Hank put a bug on his car, and then went to his house in order to smooth things out. For his trouble, he got punched in the face, and they had their mythical confrontation. He revealed that his cancer is back, and Hank has no idea how to proceed from here. Excellent. [There was also more of Jesse feeling guilty and giving money away, a subplot I’m really tired of, and it’s now become clear that Walter’s last real loose end is his former protege/partner, who’s now recklessly fucking up for the 400th time.] Grade for the Premiere: A
Low Winter Sun will probably never be as good as Breaking Bad…or The Wire…or The Shield…or—–okay, I’ll stop. The premiere is the first new AMC drama in years, and although I’m glad that they’re taking a break from their endless stream of reality shows, I have to admit that Low Winter Sun is not the most inspired choice for a new show. It’s the first show they’ve come up with that doesn’t create an entirely distinctive world, and none of the main characters really grabbed me either. However, this was clearly more about set-up and plot, and it’s never fair to grade a serialized drama on the first episode alone so I’ll keep watching. So far, the show seems to revolve around the murder of a dirty cop by two other detectives (Mark Strong and the always-worthwhile Lennie James), the Internal Affairs investigation around it, and a drug dealer that the dirty cop was helping who is involved in some confrontation with a mafia-type referred to as “the old man.” Hopefully, we’ll get a more detailed portrait of Detroit as the show keeps going. Grade for the premiere: B-
Talking Bad…The idiotic idea to do a recap show after a drama started with AMC’s Talking Dead after each new Walking Dead episode, also hosted by the always glib Chris Hardwicke (what a career this guy has squeezed out of basically showing up). However, this is an infinitely better show to recap/discuss than The Walking Dead since this one has actual layers and not everything is right on the surface. I actually was more interested in the conversation here than I ever would have been watching Robert Kirkman (the TWD comic book creator) sit on a couch trying to pretend his show works on multiple levels. Funnest Fact: That “Heisenberg” not only refers to Werner Heisenberg (a chemistry teacher who also had cancer) but also that Heisenberg’s literal chemistry means “an element that gets progressively darker over time and is unstable at the core.” Grade for the Premiere: B