TV-Reviewed

When the series started, I had no idea how serialized the show would turn out to be. But if you miss an episode, you really miss out on a fair amount of the story. The serialized drama has really taken off in recent years thanks to shows like 24, Lost, Prison Break, Heroes, etc. This, the season finale, picked up right where we left off last week. Walt made an incredible deal (or rather a demand) with Tuco and poor Jesse Pinkman was recovering from a serious beatdown.

Just coming off of this, Jesse is blown away by the fact that Walt went ahead and made the deal with Tuco. You’d think Walt had lost his mind, and perhaps he has. Cooking for Tuco is a serious problem. He’s not the kind of guy who’s going to let Walt walk away should his cancer go into remission and want out of the business. With no exit strategy, Walt’s distant future doesn’t look so good.

Walt’s greed got the better part of him this week. You can see it in him. He’s more demanding, more assertive. He’s turning into a type-A personality when he’s around Jesse and Tuco. This personality change isn’t present when he’s at home, but when working with Jesse and Tuco, it posed a problem. To cook meth, you typically need pseudoephedrine to make meth. Because it’s impossible to buy more than one or two boxes of that a trip, it’s hard to get the cold medicine. Ever the scientist, Walt found a way around that and worked with Jesse to steal a supply of chemicals which will allow them to cook.

The fellas have now set up shop in Jesse’s basement. It wasn’t the best thing to do, but they need a new place now that their RV isn’t working anymore. With the money they’re raking in, wouldn’t you think they would buy another RV or something? It’s very risky to be doing that work in the basement.

After watching the finale, I couldn’t help but think this didn’t feel like a finale to anything. There was nothing different about it from the previous episodes. Typically a cliffhanger is introduced to keep viewers in suspense, but nothing like that was done. So although I rated this episode highly overall, I wouldn’t consider it a good way to end the first season.

All that being said, Breaking Bad is easily the best new show of 2008. There’s nothing that comes close to it. This is the kind of show you’d expect HBO to be making, not AMC. But kudos to them for seeing this project through. I hope the second season begins filming soon.

Breaking Bad - A-No-Rough-Stuff-Type-Deal
Original Air Date: March 09, 2008

Rating: 9.0