The answer: Yes. The question: Was it worth the yearlong wait? (MINOR SPOILER ALERT) Vince Gilligan’s stellar drama Breaking Bad returned to AMC last night for season 2, and right from the intriguing black-and-white opening sequence — the eyeball floating in the pool while sirens wailed; the pink, half-burnt, one-eyed teddy bear suspended underwater — I was hooked all over again. And the fix lasted through the strung-out junkyard scene with frighteningly unhinged drug lord Tuco, through the awkward burst of passion in the kitchen, right up until that drive of doom. Godspeed, boys.
Clearly, chemistry teacher/meth cooker Walt (the marvelous Bryan Cranston, who also directed this episode) is barreling deeper into danger, and it’s squirmy fun watching him trying to cover up his double life and adapt his book smarts to street-smarts situations. There’s an subtle and unlikely paternal bond forming between Walt and his former student, wasteoid Jesse (Aaron Paul), with whom he’s entered this precarious drug partnership. (Enjoyed the whole ricin/rice-and-beans exchange.) And the show’s secondary characters are popping too: Walt’s macho-yet-compassionate brother-in-law, DEA agent Hank (Dean Norris) serves as nifty comic counterpoint without turning into a caricature, even when he’s telling a co-worker to take a cell-phone picture of him grinning with the corpses at a crime scene.
I could go on and on, but you should read Ken Tucker’s terrific review of the new season here. In related news, Mr. Stephen King gets down with his Bad self here. (By the way, I took a peek at the next episode and… it’s even better. You’ll never look at—or hear—one of those ring-for-service bells quite the same way again.) All right, enough about other people’s opinions: What was your take on the season premiere, PopWatchers?
Breaking Bad was AMAZING!!! I cant wait to see where the season goes.
I just hope we get more episodes in season 2 than we did in season 1
I’m just glad there’s finally a series giving props to meth dealers.
WOW ! This is one AWESOME show ! Congrats to all of those responsible for putting together such a riviting drama ! Please keep up the GREAT work !
this is the best show nobody is watching..(spot previously held by Battlestar Galactica) its a shame that some of TV’s best moments are found in great shows like this..like gems they have to be mined by us viewers..wish more people were aware of this really fine dark “dramedy” .
so is walt going to kill Tuco and then be the reigning drug guy in town? Yikes!!
It really saddens me to see so only a few comments here, do people generally not appreciate good television? I don’t understand it.. it’s the same thing with Mad Men, which I also very much admire, no one on here has anything to say about it.
Well back to topic. I just loved the season premiere! Once again it delivered everything I could possibly wish for, brilliant suspenseful Drama sweetened with just the right amount of comedic moments to loosen things up a bit. Have I said how much I admired that?
I was so glad to see ALL the characters develop, we got to know them better, and therefore care for them more. I can honestly say there’s not one person on this show that doesn’t reach me in some way, be that in a positive or a negative way.
And judging by this column and many others, also by Stephen King’s, it’s only getting better! BOOYAH!
As someone in the UkK who loved the first series and wants to see lots more it always pains me to see that US shows I like get canned so quickly. I hope this doesnt happen to Cranston’s show as I think its marvelous and he’s exceptional in the lead role.
Best show I have seen in a long time. Second seasons first episode was worth waiting for and I hear that the second episode is even better. I can’t get enough of this show. I put it up there with Sopranos. Great show, I hope it doesn’t get canceled.
Stephen King is always spot on about his reviews and or descriptions about shows. I am “hooked” on BB. Try not to get too attached because they can be gone in an instant.:(
I am never shocked nor rocked by TV, but this episode blew me away.
Kudos to AMC for doing the 1st season marathon Friday night so those of us who missed it could catch up.
I CAN NOT WAIT for the next episode of this brilliant show.
You know I always look forward, yet dread to watch this show. Damn. Good. Television.
It’s good TV but it’s no LOST. No, seriously, that’s a compliment.
My friends haven’t seen the show. Most haven’t heard of it. I’ve been telling them about the 2nd season about to start, and I’ve got some of them Tivo-ing the show. I agree with other comments, this is amazing TV. In a class with Sopranos, The Wire, Dexter. I have never watched American Idol or Dancing with Stars… what they call “reality” shows. Breaking Bad is true, honest, startling, comical, intelligent–completely satisfying. More real in its way than any of that other junk. Brilliant scripts, great acting on all sides–even Crazy 8 locked in the basement was a complex character. One of my favorite moments in the first season was when Walt used fulminate of mercury to blow up Tuco’s “office.” Also, when he used a gas station window-washer/squeegee to destroy the BMW belonging to the rude Yuppie dickhead with the headset cell phone. Better living through chemistry, eh? I’ve already ordered the DVDs of season 1. Tell all your friends to watch this gem of a show!
what channel is this show on?????? please contact me! “Going Bad” – what channel & what nights & time?
Get the hell out of here with Lost, that show is so overrated it’s starting to annoy me. All it does is teasing, teasing and more teasing. I’m tired of it.
While Lost once was a fine show, it NEVER came close to the greatness of The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under and now Breaking Bad and Mad Men.