Things go from 'Mad' to semi-'Bad'
January 19, 2008
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television Critic
Let's say you've just turned 50 and a doctor gives you a few years to live with inoperable lung cancer. What do you do next?
Well, obviously, if you're a high school chemistry teacher, you start cooking crystal meth in partnership with the rotten kid you flunked the other day.
That's the life choice Walter makes, because Walter (Bryan Cranston, the dad from "Malcolm in the Middle") has a sucky life, suffers a terrible mustache and yucky eyeglasses, and can barely, uh, get strong like a bull for his pregnant wife when she wants to, uh, hand it to him.
This is AMC's new drama, following on the heels of its first big series, the great Golden Globe winner "Mad Men." This is no "Mad Men," though it's a respectable, semifailed attempt.
"Breaking Bad" is grim and not very entertaining or thought-provoking. It's billed as a dark comedy, but where's the comedy? Here's a middle-age loser (despite having once earned a Nobel Prize) who coughs all the time and trades in a quiet life of desperation for an anxious new future as a drug chef.
I'm not sure exactly why TV is in love with chronicling/glorifying/demystifying criminals. But TV is. This is a step up in the nasty drug genre, compared to Showtime's "Weeds," which is better, even though "Breaking Bad" has a craftier creator in Vince Gilligan, who wrote a ton of excellent "X-Files" episodes.
"Breaking" could be a good study of acting, since Cranston and Aaron Paul (as his partner, Jesse) get under the grimy skin of their characters. But there's not enough of the good stuff, like writing, directing, mood, cinematography -- you get the point.
And remember. Don't do drugs, kids. Sex is way better.
delfman@suntimes.com
BY DOUG ELFMAN Television Critic
Let's say you've just turned 50 and a doctor gives you a few years to live with inoperable lung cancer. What do you do next?
Well, obviously, if you're a high school chemistry teacher, you start cooking crystal meth in partnership with the rotten kid you flunked the other day.
That's the life choice Walter makes, because Walter (Bryan Cranston, the dad from "Malcolm in the Middle") has a sucky life, suffers a terrible mustache and yucky eyeglasses, and can barely, uh, get strong like a bull for his pregnant wife when she wants to, uh, hand it to him.
This is AMC's new drama, following on the heels of its first big series, the great Golden Globe winner "Mad Men." This is no "Mad Men," though it's a respectable, semifailed attempt.
"Breaking Bad" is grim and not very entertaining or thought-provoking. It's billed as a dark comedy, but where's the comedy? Here's a middle-age loser (despite having once earned a Nobel Prize) who coughs all the time and trades in a quiet life of desperation for an anxious new future as a drug chef.
I'm not sure exactly why TV is in love with chronicling/glorifying/demystifying criminals. But TV is. This is a step up in the nasty drug genre, compared to Showtime's "Weeds," which is better, even though "Breaking Bad" has a craftier creator in Vince Gilligan, who wrote a ton of excellent "X-Files" episodes.
"Breaking" could be a good study of acting, since Cranston and Aaron Paul (as his partner, Jesse) get under the grimy skin of their characters. But there's not enough of the good stuff, like writing, directing, mood, cinematography -- you get the point.
And remember. Don't do drugs, kids. Sex is way better.
delfman@suntimes.com
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