Tuesday, October 1, 2013

TV Threshold: Breaking Bad



Breaking Bad is now over.

I will have much more to say about this later, but I would like to discuss this show's TV Threshold.

If you recall, the TV Threshold is the point at which you buy into a series.  It's the point you tell your friends to wait for in order for them to truly understand how good the show is.

MILD SPOILERS AHEAD

Breaking Bad had a fantastic pilot and excellent word of mouth.  But the Threshold Episode for me was the third episode of the 1st season, "...And the Bag's In the River."

Walt and Jesse have a drug dealer chained up in their basement.  He knows who they are.  If they let him go, he could come back for revenge.  If not, then they have to kill him.

It was here that I started to realize what the show was.  It was a show without easy answers.  And the evil that men do would not be simple.  It would be so much easier to off a nameless threat.  But they really make this drug dealing prisoner a full human being while never removing his threat.

And it was at this point that I finally understood all of the hoopla over Bryan Cranston's performance.  I mean... wow!  It was heartbreaking, infuriating, and terrifying almost all at the same time.  How did Malcolm's dad become such a great actor?

So that is my conclusion:

BREAKING BAD:
TV THRESHOLD - SEASON 1, EPISODE 3

Thoughts?

2 comments:

  1. I couldn't agree more. We just watched that episode a couple days ago and when Walt looked in the garbage can at the plate pieces you could just about see the changes occurring in his mind. I'm hooked!

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  2. That was a great episode. Though I think the episode before that got me hooked with that bathtub scene.

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