A couple of years ago, I started watching the much hailed series, Breaking Bad. The plan was to go through and review each episode on Reviewstream as I had done for several series before. Unfortunately, the site changed its guidelines and reviewing a show episode by episode no longer became feasible. As I didn't have the monetary justification, I put the show watching on the back burner as I focused on other things.
Now that the blog is up and running, I figured that I could get back into it and just post the write ups here. It would give readers some original content to break up all of the "Daily Dose of Awesome" posts and hold them over while I work my way through lengthy Stephen King books or long running anime series like Rurouni Kenshin.
As to why I'm starting with episode 3, it is because I already reviewed the episodes. You can read said reviews here. I also want to add that because it had been a while, I did go back and watch the episodes again just to make sure that everything was fresh in my mind. As such, let's dive into the third episode.
The main focus is on Walt as he tries to figure out what to do with his hostage. Pinkman insists that Walt live up to his end of the coin flip (which is apparently serious business), but Walt can't bring himself to do it. He attempts to weigh his options with a pros and cons list, but it is to no avail.
I was a little surprised that Walt sat down to talk with Krazy 8. It seems like getting to know your victim is counter productive. It is explained, though, as Walt flat out says that he's looking for a reason not to cross that line.
It leads to a great scene where the two just talk and get to know each other. It's enough to convince Walt to let him go. On the one hand, you know what's going to happen, but Max Arciniega does such a great job in his performance that you can't blame Walt for thinking that he was being sincere.
It leads to a rather brutal scene as Walt proves Krazy 8's assertion that Walt didn't have it in him wrong and chokes the dealer to death with the bike lock.
You'd think that Walt would want to go for a ranged weapon. He knew that 8 had the shard on him, yet he still went up close. It's more tense, I'll grant you that, but the questionable decision does result in Walt's leg getting stabbed more than once as 8 desperately struggles to hit Walt with his improvised weapon.
There's a B-plot where Walt's son is suspected of smoking weed, leading to Hank being recruited to scare him straight. It's not as engaging, but it isn't an illogical path for the characters to take.
On the plus side, it gives Dean Norris a bit more screen time. While his character is very different from the manipulative, angry Big Jim Rennie, Norris is still incredibly fun to watch. I did get a kick out of his DEA agent being dismissive about the dangers of weed. He also shines later on after they discover the scene of the fiasco that went down in the last two episodes.
We're three episodes in and I still have no strong feelings about Skyler one way or the other. While she does berate Walt a little, you can't exactly fault her for it. He did quit his job and lied to her about where he was. All things considered, you can't exactly blame her for being upset. Of course, the show is still young so who knows what path her character may take later on down the line.
I do wonder how Walt is going to make it for five whole seasons. He's passing out and sounds like he's hacking up a lung fairly regularly. I'm guessing he'll eventually start getting treatment. The episode ends with the implication that he's going to tell Skyler about his condition and it is the only way that he has any hope of making it long enough to become a major drug kingpin.
I'm glad I'm getting back into this show. It has a nice balance of tension, drama, and humor. Even this relatively quiet episode still advanced the plot quite a bit and moved Walt further down the rabbit hole.
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