Breaking Bad is a great show. It is about Walter White, a highly overqualified high school chemistry teacher who has to work afternoons at a car wash to make ends meet. All his colleagues from grad school have gone on to do great things with their careers, and Walter feels boxed in by life. His teenage son has a disability. His wife is pregnant with an unplanned child. He is stressed out. He drives a Pontiac Aztec.
Then one day he collapses at the car wash and is rushed to the hospital where he is told that he has terminal lung cancer, he will die in a year and a half or less.
Walter White decides to turn to the dark side. He breaks bad. He decides to manufacture methamphetamine to make a huge pile of cash before he dies, so he can take care of his family financially after he's gone. He partners up with a junkie named Jesse Pinkman who flunked out of Walter's chemistry class a few years earlier.
Within a short time Walter is rolling in money, and wondering why he didn't make this decision a long time ago.
Just kidding.
This isn't a great show because things go right. Its a great show because of the things that fall apart. Walter White is a sympathetic character. You can see why he wants to use his chemistry knowledge in a way that will take care of his family financially. But the decisions he makes don't go so well, and you know its going to end badly, yet time after time he scrapes through and lives to see another day.
You'll probably recognize Bryan Cranston as the dad from Malcolm in the Middle. You may recognize Aaron Paul from a minor role in the series Big Love. Both actors are brilliant.
I don't know if you're in the natural audience for this show. You'll know if its a show you'll like by watching the pilot.
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