There’s no way to tell for sure.
In the background, something is churning frantically.
It sounds like a washing machine but turns out to be a car, shuddering in mechanical death spasms.
Credit: Ben Leuner/AMC
I imagine him saying: “Okay, guys, here’s the deal.
Our main character is a high school teacher named Walt White.
He recruits his ex-student, a drug pusher/slacker dude named Jesse.
Which could be soon.
And they said yes!AMCsaid yes!
God bless those guys!
As a result, this modest basic-cable data pipe is now broadcasting the best-scripted show on TV.
Your Uncle Stevie may not care much forMad Men, but he has never seen anything likeBBon the tube.
The only thing that comes close isTwin Peaks, also byBlue Velvetauteur David Lynch.
ButPeakslost its focus once it moved beyond the death of Laura Palmer.
Aaron Paul is terrific as Jesse a puffy-eyed whiner reminiscent of Bill Paxton inAliens.
you might almost hear him groaning, “Game over, man!
But the real revelation is Bryan Cranston as Walt White.
He’s an American Everyman living under a constant Condition Red threat-level alert.
The second episode (“Grilled”) is a perfect case in point.
Or is it the other way around?
It’s like watchingNo Country for Old Mencrossbred with the malevolent spirit of the originalTexas Chainsaw Massacre.
The swimming pool with the eye in it could be right down the block too.
That’s exactly what makes it all so funny, so frightening, and so compelling.
This is rich stuff.
