Cooking up Some Ramblings With Walt and Jessie
So before I get to this review/rambling diatribe, just want to point out I am switching my format from the previous episodes. While I enjoyed writing actual reviews, those were taking way more effort than I expected and seeing as…
The first season of Breaking Bad was great, but felt at times a bit rushed and lacking in finesse. Some episodes seemed too eager to have defining moments which ended up seeming tacked on while others struggled at time with…
Breaking Bad is generally excellent at setting up its various big moments and tapping the full potential of these moments. Even in the first season, we had an entire two-episode arc about how Walt and Jessie would deal with the ramifications of…
If you are bored like me and reading up on Season 1 of Breaking Bad almost ten years after it aired, you will likely find that Crazy Handful of Nothin' is often cited by fans as the episode where Breaking Bad grabbed…
Breaking Bad has a certain storyline that it promises its viewers. We expect there to be drug dealing, tense set pieces, and morally questionable actions. However, based on their current situations, it doesn't quite make sense for Walt and Jessie…
Despite the joke in my title, that final scene with Walt blowing up the car was my least favorite part of this episode. After the very focused tension of the last two episodes, the show did need to step back…
Breaking Bad doesn't ever take the easy way out. The last episode forced Walt to deal with consequences of his actions rather than speed right to the next action scene. Well this episode takes it a step further and…
Most shows tend to gloss over some of the less glamorous aspects of a plot to get to the next action scene. I mean, who wants to see a protagonist deal with his wife all over his secret in the second episode? Who really wants to know how the main characters dealt with the two bodies from the climax of the first episode? Who the hell wants to spend an entire episode watching characters having emotional responses to what they did in the first episode. Well seeing as this is the episode that hooked me on Breaking Bad, I can definitely say "me".
Could Breaking Bad have begun its first episode in a less unorthodox fashion? Sure, it could but then it wouldn’t be Breaking Bad. It’s a great start to a series, what with Walt speeding around in an RV, dressed in only his tightie whities, a couple of bodies sloshing around in the back of the vehicle. It’s such a bizarre and frenetic scene and, coupled with his great confession to his family and that badass image of him pointing the gun at the sirens, does a fantastic job of making you wonder “whaaaat is happening?” (in a good way).
