The third season of AMC’s Breaking Bad premiered on Sunday night scored 2 million viewers, making it the show’s highest rated episode to date, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Since its debut in 2008, Breaking Bad has received endless critical praise, including two Emmys for actor Bryan Cranston. So what makes this show worthy of all the hype? For one the acting is superb and the characters are fresh. Cranston, Anne Gunn, and Aaron Paul lead this undeniably dark and twisted drama through a potentially alienating story line and make it riveting television.
Cranston plays Walt White, an Albuquerque high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Determined to leave his wife and two children (his son has cerebral palsy) with a substantial inheritance after his death, he joins the drug trade with a former student, Jesse (Aaron Paul). Chemistry teachers make great crystal meth dealers. As Walt and Jesse dive further into the drug trade, everything only becomes more complicated. To protect his family, Walt has to keep his life hidden from his wife Skyler (Anne Gunn).
If the first two seasons of Breaking Bad were about setting up this scenario, the third season is about the consequences of Walt’s and Jesse’s action. Jesse is in rehab which may, no doubt, affect his dealing life. Walt tells Skyler, “I’m a manufacturer, not a dealer,” as their divorce becomes imminent. But not as imminent as the Mexican drug lords who want Walt dead.
Here is an excellent recap of Sunday’s episode. Watch Breaking Bad from the beginning (there are only 21 episodes thus far); you won’t be disappointed.
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