By Sabrina Cognata

I have to admit, when I first saw the previews for this show my initial reaction was Oh, they gave the dad from MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE his own show, rad.  Thankfully, I am an idiot and Bryan Cranston is more than the character Hal.  As for pilots, this one is absolutely awesome in the way the action starts suddenly and you’re immediately drawn into the story because you have to know why?  It’s the cosmic question and the easiest way to hook a viewer.  Walter is the everyday man.  As a character he’s easy to relate to and sympathetic.  You like Walter especially once he decides to go rogue and goes from everyday man to anti-hero.

Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is driving an out of control R.V. while wearing a gas mask in the middle of the desert.  His pants are flying in the wind and the scene is one of utter and total chaos.  He crashes the automobile in a ditch and you see the remnants of what may or may not be a laboratory, along with a body in the passenger seat and two others passed out on the floor.  Walter grabs his identification, a gun and a video camera.  He composes himself and looks into the camera saying this is not an admission of guilt, but an explanation to his family, that what he’s doing he’s doing for them because he loves them and eventually, it will all make sense.  Then the intro credits begin.

We’re in a flashback.  Today is Walter’s birthday.  He is old and boring and eating tofu bacon.  His son has cerebral palsy and his wife, Skylar (Anna Gunn), is pregnant.  Walter teaches chemistry at the local high school and looks like he might just snap at any second and kill all his students while talking about the magical wonders of beryllium.  He has a second job working at a carwash and you’re starting to realize that his life is hard and unfulfilling.  When he gets home his wife’s thrown him a surprise party and he looks so tired I am not even sure he can enjoy it.  His brother-in-law, Hank (Dean Norris), brags about busting meth labs because he’s a DEA agent and if you are stupid you will miss that this is crucial foreshadowing.  Hank invites Walter along for a ride along, but Walter meekly turns down the offer.


Walter’s life is hard and everyday is the same.  First there is teaching.  Then there is the car wash.  One day while at the car wash, he starts coughing and he keels over.  At the doctors office he is told he has an inoperable lung tumor and will probably die no matter what.  Walter is out of options.  His teaching pension will not support a wife, new baby and cripple teenage son.  After hearing from Hank how much meth dealers make Walter asks to participate in a ride along.  During the ride along, he sees a former student, Jesse (Aaron Paul), escape the scene and follows him.  Walter confronts Jesse and eventually convinces him he isn’t a narc, but just a desperate man.  Jesse tells him they’re going to need a place to cook the drugs up and they invest in an R.V.

The R.V. is hidden in the New Mexico desert.  Walter and Jesse meet and begin to get down to work, only Walter prefers to work in his underwear so his clothes do not stink of meth.  He hangs his stuff outside the trailer and the two get to work.  With Jesse’s guidance Walter makes a batch of the finest meth ever to grace that part of the desert.  Jesse immediately brings it to the local dealer, who happens to have paired up with Jesse’s former partner who was recently arrested and wants to blame Jesse.  Jesse takes the two to the mobile meth lab where he is beat up and Walter is left to show them his secret.  Walter ends up causing an explosion that ends up making the two dealers pass out.


Meanwhile, in the confusion a fire is started and sirens are heard in the distance.  Walter puts gas masks on Jesse and the dealers and takes off into the sunset where he crashes the R.V. and begins to panic.  He says his piece into the camera and stares off into the distance.  First he tries to shoot himself but the gun will not go off, and then when he points it in another direction it does.  Finally, fire trucks emerge and Walter realizes that no one is there to arrest him for cooking up the meth.  That night he goes home with a bag filled with money and amorously grabs his wife with the understanding that life was never gratifying until he realized he had to start living it.