Breaking Bad - The Season 4 Premiere (and Recap)

Who would have ever guessed that silly dad from Malcolm in the Middle would become such a bad-ass?!?! Bryan Cranston plays Walter White, the main protagonist on my favorite television show, Breaking Bad. With great acclaim from Variety Magazine stating it has a "jarring feel of a Tarantino film" and Rolling Stone claiming it's a "Southwestern noir the Coen brothers would make if they did TV," how could you not want to watch this show! After waiting through a suspenseful cliffhanger, my anxious little mind was finally appeased by the Season 4 Premiere on AMC. So for those of you who haven't watched the show, or have never even heard of it (as I know plenty of people who haven't), here's a quick recap:

Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with lung cancer. Too proud to ask for help, Walt uses his talented knowledge of chemistry to pay for his rising medical costs: Cooking Crystal Meth. Unsure how to deal his product on the streets, Walt teams up with one of his prior high school dropout students, Jesse Pinkman (played by Aaron Paul). As Walt and Jesse start pushing the product, Walt's recipe is the most purest (and bluest) meth on the streets. After associating himself with a sleazy lawyer (Saul Goodman played by Bob Odenkirk), his wife leaving him because of his "new career" (Skyler played by Anna Gunn), and his brother-in-law Hank (a DEA agent) getting paralyzed because of his misdeeds, Walt continues down a dark and twisted path.

Walt ends up teaming with the crime lord Gus (a man masqueraded as community businessman), who provides him the proper resources and facilities to carry out the drug operations. Walt slowly teaches his recipe to Gale, a lab assistant assigned to him by Gus. However with all of Walt's knowledge transferred to Gale, Gus plans to kill Walt and Jesse. In a desperate measure to save himself from getting shot in the head, Walt calls Jesse to assassinate Gale so no other living person knows his cooking secrets. So what was this big cliffhanger? We were left with a gun pointing at Walt and a nervous Jesse firing a gun at Gale...

After the ending of the Season 3 Finale, my emotions were running wild and was left on the edge of my seat of wondering the fates of my favorite protagonists. Thankfully, the Season 4 Premiere has finally aired and lived up to all my expectations! Walt's plan worked, where Jesse was able to cap the lab assistant, buying them a little more time. However they must plan and act quickly if they want to stay alive. We discovered the true capability of Gus' darkside where he silently killed one of his own lackeys with a razor blade to instill fear into Walt's and Jesse's minds. We also discover Walt is corrupting the people he loves. Skyler illegally lied to a locksmith so she could gain access into Walt's house. He's creating a monster in Jesse, where Jesse has easily justified his murderous deed. And as for paralyzed Hank, he's a pathetic man losing the motivation to live, wasting his time buying rocks on the Internet rather than putting his willpower into rehabilitation.

Breaking Bad is a highly character driven show with quirky and dark situations. Walt has morphed from the innocent school teacher into the ultimate gangster. He may have put his cancer into remission, but he is slowly losing his family and friends. In my opinion, the scene in which Walt is at the point of no return was when he murdered two drug dealers by shooting them to the ground after running them over with his car. Walt use to be a man of moral judgment, maybe even a mentor to Jesse. But instead, he commanded Jesse to murder, a crime Jesse wasn't willing or ready to commit.

However, even though Walt is becoming a master criminal, he's still a likable character. Since he was forced into something he wasn't willing to do, I believe the audience can identify with his emotions and actions. Walt didn't deserve cancer and desires to leave the criminal business that has ironically saved his life (at least for now). But as Michael Corleone once said, "When I thought I was out, they pulled me back in!"

This season, we are in for a wild and crazy ride as Walt and Jesse try to survive their hostile environment. And even if they get rid of Gus, will they have to bury themselves even further into the criminal underworld so they can stay alive?

Once more, I have to reiterate, if you haven't seen this show, watch it now! All the previous seasons are on Blu-Ray and DVD. I promise, if you watch this show, you won't be disappointed!

So on Death List Five, as an ongoing series, Breaking Bad ranks #5.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 1

In high school, one of the main drivers that got me into comic books was Smallville. In its first season, it was pretty much mindless entertainment with super-heroics and the freak of the week. The following seasons still had the occasional bad guy enhanced by Kryptonite, however there was an even grander story arc building. So like Smallville, I believe the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was only the primer for great things to come.

With the magic of Netflix, I've decided to dive into the Whedonverse while killing myself on the elliptical at the gym. Joss Whedon definitely has a cult following, so why not join in with his major breakthrough - Buffy. I never watched it when it originally aired on the WB, but I've been exposed to some of Whedon's other work including Astonishing X-Men and Dollhouse (I will definetly blog on this after rewatching - I LOVE Eliza Dushku).

So when we are first introduced to Buffy (played by the beautiful Sarah Michelle Gellar), she just moved to Sunnydale after having trouble at her old school in LA (you can see the Kristy Swanson movie for her Slayer Past). It turns out Sunnydale was built on top of Hellmouth, the nexus of the supernatural. Destined to be a vampire slayer, it was fate that Buffy was brought there to battle the evil forces that attack the town. So in order to balance the trifecta of her high school, personal, and slayer lives, Buffy has a cast of characters to support her along the way:

• Xander Harris (played by Nicholas Brendon) - He's a goofy high schooler who is a great friend to Buffy, but wants more...
• Willow Rosenberg (played by Alyson Hannigan) - She a geeky yet intelligent chick who becomes Buffy's best friend. However she really has the hots for Xander.
• Rupert Giles (played by Anthony Stewart Head) - He's the school libraian who just happens to be Buffy's watcher and slayer trainer.
• Cordelia Chase (played by Charisma Carpenter) - She's the beautiful but stuck-up mean girl of Sunnydale High.
• Angel (played by David Boreanaz) - He's the mysterious man who Buffy is infatuated with (and ends up getting his own spin-off series)

This is probably more for personal reference, but here's a quick rundown of each episode from Season 1:

1. Welcome to the Hellmouth - Buffy tries to be a normal student at Sunnydale High School...
2. The Harvest - Buffy welcomes her fate as the slayer after preventing the Master from escaping Hellmouth through the Vessel.
3. Witch - A witch switches bodies with her daughter so she can be a cheerleader, casting spells on anyone in her way.
4. Teacher's Pet - The sexy school teacher is really giant praying mantis who seduces and eats teenage school boys.
5. Never Kill a Boy on the First Date - Buffy discovers it is hard to have a normal boyfriend and be a slayer.
6. The Pack - Xander and others become possesed by evil hyenas that eat the Principal.
7. Angel - Buffy falls for Angel until she discovers he's a vampire.
8. I, Robot... You, Jane - A demon is wreaking havok across the internet after his spirit is scanned in from a book.
9. The Puppet Show - The dummy is really a demon hunter.
10. Nightmares - We see the deepest fears of the Buffy crew.
11. Out of Mind, Out of Sight - The invisible girl wants Cordelia Dead!
12. Prophecy Girl - Will Buffy give up slaying to stay alive or face the Master to save humanity?

Overall, it was a fun first season. It will be entertaining to see actors who played minor roles throughout the series land bigger roles in other projects later. For instance the vampire Darla, played by Julie Benz, later becomes Rita on Dexter (you can definitely tell by her blond hair and distinctive voice). There is some awesome dialogue with witty punchlines between Buffy, Xander, and Willow. At the local hangout called The Bronze, some great music was featured by live Indie / Grunge performers (at this time, the WB was fantastic at featuring new bands). So Season 1 established a strong cast by battling the monster of the week, but now I'm ready for more charater development and watch Whedon's story unfold.

So on Death List Five, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 ranks #4.

Justified: Season 2 Premiere

I love crime fiction. Not that I condone to any of these acts of violence, but it makes for great stories. When looking at pop culture, majority of the organized crime syndicates shown on the screen take place in the big cities like The Sopranos and Goodfellas. However, FX airs a great series focusing on crime in the Deep South: Justified.

Justified is based on novels by Elmore Leonard, who also wrote Rum Punch, the basis for Jackie Brown. The main character is Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, who is a trigger happy lawman who is reassigned from Miami to his hometown of Harlan County in Kentucky. Last season left off with Raylan taking down the Crowder family, a redneck gang that thrived on drugs, firearms, and racism. Boyd Crowder, son of the family's crimelord, helped Raylan take down his own father, ending in a firefight and him escaping.

With the start of Season 2, major plot-lines are forming to continue the flow of this great series:

• Raylan is on the search for Boyd, a relationship that has turned each other into respected archenemies
• Internal affairs is keeping a close eye on Raylan, as many of his captives end up in a pinewood box
• Raylan is juggling a love life between Ava (once married to the Crowder family) and his ex-wife Winona
• We are introduced to the Bennetts, the Dixie Mafia organization which will certainly provide most of the conflict this season. The family is led by Ma Mags, a motherly figure who runs the local shopping mart, bakes "apple pie," and farms "cash crops."

Justified is an awesome show that presents the grittiness of the South. One of the captivating features of this series are the intense moments created between the characters, whether its a standoff, interrogation, or torture. The premiere had a rough scene where a man had to make up for is wrongdoings by placing his leg in a bone-crushing bear trap.


In addition to the intriguing story, Raylan Givens is played by Timothy Olyphant, a complex and interesting character. Trademarked by his hat, Raylan is a smooth talker, knows how to take a punch, a sharp thinker who makes some-what questionable decisions, but remains a likable guy. Besides closely resembling Josh Duhamel (as pointed out in Timothy's appearance in The Office), Olyphant plays an appealing personality that the audience enjoys to watch.

So on Death List Five, as an ongoing series, Justified ranks #4.