Breaking Bad: Felina

 "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And... I was really... I was alive."

We start with Walt, miserable and freezing in New Hampshire. Alone, isolated, off grid, trying to get a car to start and getting a police scare to remind him he's hunted. Oh, and he's dying. He's in a grim situation.

Yet, from this downbeat teaser, we get Walt visiting Albuquerque one late time like an avenging demon. The plan to eventually provide for his family is inspired, even if, like everything else, it's Heisenberg. It's Heisenberg who tells the truth to Skyler. It's even Heisenberg who touches his baby daughter for one last time, as even monsters love their children. But monsters can be terrible, and Heisenberg more than most.

I correctly predicted before the start exactly who would die in this finale. That doesn't matter. Poetically, Jack and his whole gang, Lydia and Walt all HAD to die. It was just a matter of how, and it was all realised with such brilliance, from the machine gun contraption in the boot to the dispatching of both Todd and Jack.

Best of all, of course, is Walt's phone chat with Lydia, casually and cruelly telling her that the reason she probably feels under the weather is the ricin (at last!) that he slipped her.

Walt and Jesse's final parting is meaningful, as is Jesse's joyful freedom. For Walt, though, there can be only one ending.

A perfect finale to a perfect television series. This is literally sublime.

Breaking Bad: Granite State

 "Just so you know, this isn't personal."

Oh my. Where to start? Suddenly everything is going horribly wrong. Walt is still dying of cancer; chemo takes place in less than ideal conditions; he's forced to live in a shack in deepest, darkest New Hampshire (still a better fate than Saul, seemingly, destined for Nebraska, which this foreigner assumes to be the most obscure state in the USA- it's always the pretty much square ones), off grid, starved of company, unable to use his money or even send it to his family. Yes, Flynn is a good lad.

Also, Skyler is doomed. As Saul points out, she knows not where she is, and so she has nothing to trade. It all promises to be, as Walt (not Heisenberg; he even grows his hair), all for nothing.

Except he plans to kill Jack and all of his Nazi mates. My God, I hope so, after the slave labour for poor, despairing Jesse; the swastika tattoos; the callous murder of Andrea in front of Jesse. I'll say this now: Jack and his gang- including dead-eyed, evil Todd- are all going to die, like Walt will. I hope that amoral, cynical bitch Lydia dies too, but I suspect she won't.

And then we get the final betrayal, just when Walt appears to be ready to give himself up, as Elliott and Gretchen insult him on telly. One episode to go. I can't believe it. It will be quite the ride. This is how you do telly as art.This is Dickens. This is Thackeray. This is genius.

Breaking Bad: Ozymandias

 "What the hell is wrong with you? We're family!"

Having started my blog on this brutal and almost perfect piece of television, about how a man once lord of all he surveys who finds it all crumble to dust among the sands, with the above quote, I'll also now do something unusual and quote in full the eponymous poem from Percy Bysshe "the missus wrote Frankenstein" Shelley:

"I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.” 

It's all so very apt, is it not?

It all falls apart. We begin with an opening scene from the old days, when Jesse and Walt were friends and Heisenberg was not a thing. But the ghosts of the past fade away to be replaced by the intensity of the present, as Walt- not Heisenberg, perhaps for the last time- pleads for Hank's life, yet Hank is the alpha male even in death, as Walt is humiliated by Jack and his gang of white supremacist scum. He is no longer the kingpin, forced to run away. The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Things get even more intense as Marie goes on the warpath, thinking Hank has Walt just where he ewant him... and forces Marie to tell Flynn the truth, in deeply painful scenes. Flynn's reaction- like R.J. Mitte's acting- is very real. He's just a teenage boy, young and naive. His parents are not who he thought they were, and his world falls apart. The lone and level sands stretch far away.

And then we have the intensity of the final scenes, the altercation between Walt and Skyler with a knife as an appalled Flynn calls the police on his father. And Walt's phone call to Skyler- with police listening in- is classic abusive spouse. He's lost the plot- and helped Skyler inadvertently by making her collaboration seem like coercive control.

Then there's Jesse, having a very bad day. He dodges being killed only to be forced to work as a meth slave to stop his girlfriend and stepson being killed. Ouch.

Everything has changed. No one is safe. Nothing is sacred. Two episodes left. Walt has lost everything, and even been rejected by his baby daughter. Ouch. As a dad, this hits home.

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Breaking Bad: To'hajilee

 "Don't drink and drive. But, if you do, call me."

Wow. This is one of the most intricately plotted episodes of television I've ever seen, with all the interlocking pieces of the elegantly structured plot balanced out perfectly as we see the intertwining of two intertwining yet opposing plans- one from Walt, the other from Hank and Jesse- in a zero sum game in which they try and destroy each other...

Yet we end with a chaotic shootout which neither side wanted and neither side can control, ending in the ultimate cliffhanger. Will Hank survive? His emotional last phone call to Marie is ominous. There's no status quo now. No one is safe. Walt is dying, it's just a question of how soon, and desperate. And the acting is, of course, as superlative as the writing (and directing, much artier this week), with Cranston, Paul and Norris worthy of particularly high praise.

Yet there are also signs of things breaking down for poor Lydia without Walt, whose absence is crashing the quality of meth with uneducated criminals taking the place of a first class chemist. Things fall apart everywhere. No centre, it seems, can hold. The last fifteen minutes, certainly, show is that we are now approaching the end, and anything can happen.

Breaking Bad is better than ever. Also, it's very nearly over...

Breaking Bad: Rabid Dog

 "For three hours straight, all he talked about was something called Babylon 5..."

So this is it. The die is cast. From now on, all is in flux and there is no status quo. This is a supremely well-acted, written and directed piece of television, from Bryan Cranston's extraordinary "bad lying" acting to the shots of Jesse approaching Walt at the end.

Obviously, this episode is all about two things: Jesse turning against Walt and agreeing to cooperate fully with Hank (I'm glad he finally confides in Gomie), and Walt coming to terms with the necessity of killing Jesse. The dynamic between Jesse and Hank is fascinating.And it's ironic that the plan to have Jesse with a wire would have worked if not for his paranoia; it's only his angry phone call to Walt that makes Walt decide to kill him.

It's fascinating seeing Walt being advised to kill Jesse, not only by Seventies Porn Saul but by Skyler, who really crosses a line at this point. This resectable suburban wife encourages her husband to commit murder; her fall is complete.

Then there's the continuing naive faith of Flynn... surely his illusions will soon be brutally shattered? And the angst of Betsy, who may have said too much to her shrink. 

Nothing is safe. Anything can happen. Telly doesn't get much better than this.

Breaking Bad: Confessions

 "Goodbye, Mr Jesse Pinkman. Hello, Mr Credit to Society."

You have to hand it to this episode. I mean, I might as well just stop describing individual episodes of Breaking Bad as superlative, as you can pretty much take that for granted. But this particular episode manages to be basically functional, putting pieces in place for the next act, and therefore traditionally requiring a slight dip in quality.

Hah! No such thing happens.

The episode centres around Walt's incredible confession, a devilishy clever work of cleverness that weaves together the facts that we've all seen over the last few seasons in a way that implicates Hank. It's a tour de force of both writing and acting. Walt- no, Heisenberg, is as vgood an actor as Bryan Cranston here. There is no higher praise.

Yet Aaron Paul is no less superlative in his performance. The scene in the desert where, yet again, Jesse shows that he may be undereducated but he's bloody clevee, something the snobbish Walt will never realise. It's unsurprising that he refuses to cooperate with a secretive Hank, himself at the start of another descent into obsessive self-destructiveness, but less surprising that, as soon as he puts two and five together with the ricin (he's wrong, but sort of right,,,), he turms against Walt, in a very fiery way. Will he now cooperate with Hank.

This very much fees like the beginning of the end.

And there are stiull subtleties to mention. Walt manipulating his own son, the poor boy. Marie's alienation from obsessive Hank. Skyler's dead eyes. Todd muscling in on the meth trade.

This is soooo good. That is all.

Breaking Bad: Blood Money

 "Spock's like a toothbrush."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is quite simply the finest episode of television drama that I have ever seen. I've seen, and blogged, a lot of telly. Naturally, we choose to watch what we are likely to enjoy, so, despite my individual tastes and quirks, I'm biased towards quality.

And nothing I've ever see tops this. Oh, the script- even the extended Star Trek dialogue riff which brilliantly introduces us to Jesse's depression- Aaron Paul gives the single best  performance of the condition that I have EVER seen, and would be the standoiut performer in any lesser episode of television. He is, in that sense, incredibly unlucky to share this episode with Dean Norris, Because, although one could argue that he benefits from a first class script and first class direction, he rises to the occasion with superlative aplomb. His performance- in facial expression, line delivery, every possible nuance- will live not only in the history of television, but in the history of acrting. In a word: wow.

Mr Norris' performance here is equivalent to any performance of Hamlet I've ever seen. The man is an acting genius.

The episode itself is gripping. Jesse is depressed, and seriously so. Walt and Skyler believe themselves to be free of the life of crime, but such things are impossible. Both Lydia and cancer are there to puncture such illusions. I mean, we really ought to praise Brian Cranston's acting too. His genius is so constant that we take it for granted.

The final scene..I struggleto think of one better. Hank is a jock, a simple man on the surface. But no human being is without complexity, as the character study of Hank has revealed over the seasons. And war is declared betweemn Hank and Heisenberg, as there can be only one alpha male.

Go Hank. And the deepest of respect to anyone involved in this work of art. Thank you.

Breaking Bad: Gliding Over All

 "Lydia, learn to take yes for an answer..."

SPOILERS. Be warned. Be very waerned.

Wow. This episode is extraordinarily played and shot, with a mood of foreboding and tension surrounding literally everything. This is, seemingly, the tale of Walt and Skyler rescuing their family, and retiring rich from criminality to a life of happiness ever after... something which we know damn well will never happen: Walt isn't in this episode at all. Only Heisenberg.

He has much blood on his hands, and not just Mike's. The nine potential informants- cleverly handled via the prisoner's dilemma by Hank- are all betrayed, stabbed multiple times in the chest, like Julius Caesar. Et tu, Heisenberg? This kind of darkness underlies the appatrent international success, shown by montages of success to ironic soundtracks, and literally more money than they could ever spend.

There is one notable loose end, of which we are purposefully reminded: the ricin, the Chekhov's Gun that seemingly never gets fired. But everything else is closed- even Jesse being paid off in an incredibly tense scene.

And then that ending, at the very last moment...

I'm glad I don't have to wait as long as the original viewers. Wow.

Breaking Bad: Dead Freight

 "Everyone sounds like Meryl Street with a gun to their head..."

This is a heist episode, obviously. The heist is splendidly tense, magnificently helmed and hugely entertaining, as every heist should be, Yet that ending, with the hired help killing a kid who witnessed it, having been told earlier by Walt that there had to be no witnesses... ouch. Last season Walt was accusing Gus of killing children, which he would never do. He's really crossed a line here, one from which there can be no redemption.

So Skyler is right to stick to her guns in using what power she has to resist him, keeping the kids safe and away (at what cost?) as a quid pro quo for tolerating him- in a way that implied cold eyed, meaningless sex. And Hank, going all David Brent after his promotion, is naive to trust the man who bugged his office- just as Walt and Jesse are, perhaps, also wrong to trust the devious Lydia as Mike postpones her execution yet again. She's a fascinating character- scheming, moral, yet she'd do anything for her daughter. I love how eager Mike is to kill her.

It's a paranoid episode, full of bugs, mistrust and unexpected problems, much like organised crime itself. And it's an episode in which Heisenberg get what they want and solve their little problem. But in doing so they pass the point of no return into real darkness.

This is dark, dark, brilliant telly.

Breaking Bad: Fifty-One

 "Tell me, can a geezer do donuts?

So Walt is fifty-one, exactly one year before the fast forward that opened the season... and little more than a single year, diegetically at least, from all this first started , which feels scarcely conceivable.This birthday episode is not full of action but of deep character drama, with both script and performances- all round- being simply superlative. Also, Rian bloody Johnson directs.

We start with Walt and Walt Jr being all laddish with fast, horrible cars. I realise, at forty-five, it's long past time for me to start planning m own mid-life crisis, but I don't think I'll be doing it like this, thank you very much. It's another sign of Walt's reckless side, and the hubris that suffuses this episode.

This is Walt vs Skyler. Emerging from the depths of her depression- literally; once again the swimming pool acts as a great big metaphor- Skyler is determined, even if only vaguely, not to accept Walt's criminal lifestyle. Not sharing his hubris; she can see what he can't; it inevitably ends only in death. Which is how I'm sure the season will end for Walt. Skyler realises she's powerless, her threats don't work after an almighty and extraordinary row between her and, well, Heisenberg. But she can wait, for the cancer. And outlive him. Compromised and helpless, this is her only option. This is intense stuff.

Skyler is right about the danger, but she's wrong to think there's any escape from the meth business. You leave it only by death. Dangers abound. Hank is doing sterling work at the DEA, making connections that will lead him, I'm sure, closer to Heisengerg,,, and he's getting promoted. Much will come of this, I'm sure. But for now it's fascinating to see the interplay between Walt and an unsuspecting Hank.

Then there's Lydia, the plotting psychopath, who is trying to get out of the meth business and whom Mike wants to kill because of it. There's a lot going on here, and so much tension. I'm not sure if the implied time bomb at the end is real or metaphorical, but it's the perfect ending either way. This is televisual perfection, as ever.

Breaking Bad: Madrigal

 "You are a time bomb. Tick, tick, ticking. And I have no intention of being around for the bomb."

I have the distinct impression that Mike may well be right about the above. Perhaps literally. I've no doubt Walt will not survive the season.

However, this is brilliantly executed telly drama. Mike, perhaps, after a few episodes of neglect, is the main character here. He's interrogated by Hank (now the golden boy again) and Steve Gomez, ho know that he, and eleven colleagues, hold the key to what Gus was up to, and if one should squeal...

We meet Lydia, whois nervous about this. She sets off to start killing all eleven but, as Mike confronts her and is about to kill her, she impresses him with her dignity,so she lives. I'm sure she's a chgaracter of which we'll learn more.

Walt and Jesse are certainly bonded closer than ever before. After a  clever little searching montage, Walt has Jesse find the poiuson cigarette... and has him as putty in his hands. For Walt is now mostly Heisenberg, Skyler is suffering depression after what she did to Ted, but Walt hugs her and consoles her that evil gets easier over time,

Shiver...

The theme here- Mike; Walt and Skyler;  Lydia... os that evil is often done for the sake of the children, a horrible truth.

This is, as if it needed saying, top telly.

Breaking Bad: Live Free or Die

 "What about that stuff you young guys wear on the end of your pricks? Speak now or forever speak soprano."

This is an interesting opener. On the surface, it's a matter of tying up loose ends following the eventful finale. Yet there's a sombre mood throughout, while Walt is very, very Heisenberg indeed. Could this final season see Walt become a true kingpin... but not ultimalely survive?

Fundanenttally, the main thrust of this is a heist. As a heist, it's fun, with the use of the magnets reminding us of Walt's cleverness and big science brain. The urgent mutual need to destroy the recordings from Gus' six quadrillion cameras is a suble way of getting Mike (he's back!) together with Walt and Jesse. Will he stay with them?

It's interesting that Skyler starts out being distant with Walt. She's now seen he's capable of killing, and he scares her. Yet, when she hears that Ted has woken up, and she visits him, appalled at the sight before her, he's clearly scared of her, and as much as begs for his life. Skyler, too, has dipped her hands in the blood, and this is a dramatic reminder. Unsurprisingly, this brings her and Walt together.

As for the opening scene, with Walt turning fifty-two and engaging in spy type stuff... I have no idea. But this is enthralling stuff.

Breaking Bad: Face Off

 "All I can say is... if I ever get anal polyps, I'll know what to name them."

Wow. That's how you do a finale. This is the perfect showdown- tense, clever, beautifully shot (with Vince Gilligan himself writing and directing)- and with a magnificent climax.

This whole season has been Walt vs Gus, life or death. Here we reach resolution, helped my absolutely superlative performances from Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Giancarlo Esposito and Mark Margolis, who utters not a word, as ever, but conveys so much.

The various twists and turns of the plot are a delight, but ultimately Walt succeeds in having Gus killed... and the scene of his calm, collected, horrific death is extraordinary. So, of course, is the final revelation that little Brock was poisoned, not with ricin, but by Walt. Like Gus, Walt is now not above risking the life of a child. How far he has fallen.

This is not a Skyler episode, but her hands, too, are dipped inexorably in the blood. At the end, on hearing of Gus' death, she asks "Was it you?" and is told that "I won". She gets the rather obvious subtext loud and clear.

Ultimately, though, this is a big step, but one that makes sense, in the extraordinary evolution of Walt from mild-mannered, dorky chemistry teacher to a kind of drug Corleone. Simply sublime.

And the title? Nice pun, but my God, that's dark.

Breaking Bad: End Times

 "There will be an appropriate response..."

The landscape in Breaking Bad, showcasing the severely expansive vistas of New Mexico, have always brought about thoughts of a Western. Well, it's high noon. This is a showdown. The tension is unbearable before we even start, as Walt allows Skyler (who is starting to realise the fuller implications of what she's got herself into), Walt Jr and the baby to escape to protective custody with Hank and Maria. But a man's got to do what a man's got to do. So Walt holes up at home with that gun from a few episodes ago. Cranston is, of course, sublime throughout.

But so are Paul and Esposito, as Gus continues to manipulate Jesse, perhaps with too much transparency by now, paralleled by Hank manipulating Steve Gomez into a raid on the laundry... that seemingly accomplishes nothing. The umpteen dimensional chess continues, even as the stakes rise.

The tension rises, helped by some extraordinary directorial technique: I see Vince Gilligan directed this himself. And then suddenly the tension implodes, as we slowly, along with Jesse, absorb the news that Brock, the son of Jesse's erstwhile girlfriend, has been poisoned with ricin. That ricin. And we're so shocked at this point that we almost forget how exquisite is the plotting here.

Things speed up. Jesse tells his girlfriend (how will he explain it?) that it's ricin. And, in a scene that oozes superlative acting and direction from every pore, he visits Walt, blaming him and about to kill him. Only with Walt's gentle coaxing does it dawn on him that it's Gus who has the motive- manipulating Jesse, the one man stopping him from killing Walt, into doing his work for him- and the form, having killed children in the past.

Walt and Jesse are united, at last, against Gus. Yet Walt's intricate assassination attempt fails. Gus seems almost supernatural in his aloof, non-macho yet alpha male invulnerability.

I can't wait until the next one. My only regret is the fear that I will never again see television as good as this.

Breaking Bad: Salud

 "I had to spank you..."

Wow. Yet again we see how this extraordinary season fits together like clockwork as we follow on from the Gus flashbacks from a few episodes ago and see that pool again, this tim ithout the yellow-tinted camerawork to tell us non-diegetically that we're looking at the past. Plot threads develop, and fascinatingly so, but for once the feud between Gus and Walt must yield to a much older feud of Gus'.

There's so much cleverness in how this is written, scripted, shown and played. A simple sub-plot about Walt missing Walt Jr's birthday becmes the catalyst for so much more, as Walt has to pretend it was a gambling relapse and experiences his son's tender concern... and accidentally calls him Jesse, something which is bound to be referred to again.

But the core of all this is Bryan Cranston's extraordinary monologue about his own childhood memories of his late father, who died of Huntingdon's Disease when he was six. It's an incredible bit of acting, followed in turn by Walt Jr's impression of how his own father has seemed over the last year.

There's also Skyler's plan to save Ted from the IRS- and herself and Walt from prison, of course- in a sharp example of how her plot threads have changed over the last season or so as she's fully embraced criminality, at least in its white collar form. The fictional "bequest" from an "aunt" in Luxembourg is to solve that debt problem... and he's spending it on other things! It's a fascinating sub-plot, especially as it shows how the power has shifted between them.

And power, of course, shifts south of the border too, as Gus serves cold his revenge on Don Eladio in an immaculately planned assassination in which an extraordinarily unflappable Gus takes a calculated yet dangerous risk. There is an air of menace. There is violence. There is Jesse proving himself in a shootout after Mike is wounded. And the sublime Giancarlo Esposito gives us what must surely be the most elegant vomiting scene in television history.

Breaking Bad: Problem Dog

 "Let's ditch the thesaurus..."

I'm loving this season. It is, as I suspected, all a (mostly) very calm and totally zero sum comnpetition between Walt and Gus, only one of whom can survive. Gus is ultra-cool, calm and collected, a man of no drama and no sudden movres, for whom nothing is unplanned. Waly, or Heisenberg, may not be the polatr opposite but, well... he's capable of joyriding in a stupidly expensive car, setting it on fire ad having to pay $52,000 to but off the consequences.

There are other consequences too. One of them is a staggering income of millions per year, far more, as Skyler now realises, than one mere car wash could possibly launder. Still, I'm sure sjhe will find a clever solution. Skylrer, despite her protests, is proving to be quite adaptable,including in terms of her morals. With time to adjust, she's happy to accept a life of comfort from criminality, and also clearly finds Heisenberg sexier than Walt...

More immediately significant is Walt and Jesse plotting together to kill Gus. There's a clever, and well-earned, bit of misdirection here as we learn that Jesse, while he has his demons (the opening scene, with him shooting baddies in a video game but seeing one of the baddies turn into Gale, is dripping with significance for his character), is no fool, and realises exactly how he's being played by Mike and Gus. Yet the opportunity never quite presents itself.

Gus's trouble proves to come from another angle; there's a reason why Hank is doing so well lately as the gripping final scene has him doing his Poirot routine to his old DEA colleagues on why Gus is their man... and he has Gus' fingerprints as the coup de grace.

Yet it's Jesse's episode, and Aaron Paul is phenomenon. His final speech at the 12 step programme, angrily deconstructing the selfish amorality of the 12 step philosophy, is powerful. And he finally burns that bridge magnificently.

This is all very clever, and things are speeding up. Television doesn't get a lot better than this.

Breaking Bad: Cornered

 "I'm not in danger, Skyler. I am the danger!"

Another fascinating character episode here, in the middle of the seasaon, as tensions build towards what feels like an inevitable clash between clever improviser Walt and the heavily controlling, calm, collected, and careful Gus. These episodes feel like chess at times, with us following one of the players. And this is a dangerous game, as the superbly shot empty scene shows us with the two blokes dying horribly of carbon monoxide.

And Gus' manipulation of Jesse here, driving that wedge between him and Walt, is materfully played. Jesse, self-loathing waster that he is, is no fool, yet Gus has him exactly where he wants him- and the fact that Walt knows exactly what's going on won't help him.

I love the scenes with Jesse and Mike; Mike is swiftly becoming a favourite character with his exasperation, yet also with his wrldly yet respectful dealings with the coldly inscrutable Gus.

This is a dangerous game. And Skyler, at last, is beginning to understand that, and perhaps what her husband is. Finally, she sees a flash of Heisenberg, and it scares here with the hint that Walt is not some innocent nebbish of a man who might be in trouble, but something much darker.

So she runs, as far as she can, to a literal crossroads, a cool little spot where fur states- Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico- meet. She's back, but the sexy times are over.For now. I'm betting Skyler will adjust yet again.

This is, needless to say, television of the very first class.

Breaking Bad: Shotgun

 "Since when do vegans eat fried chicken?"

This is a bloody clever, subtle, psychological episode, from the opening char chase with it's fittingly panicked-looking directrion to the final scene with Hank discovering the Los Hermanos Pollos connection.

At a surface level, much of thus episode is on the everyday mundanity of the work required in the meth trade, from cooking to money drops. There are multiple speeded up montages to the same soundtrack. Yet behind it all is tension; what is Gus, the unseen puppetmaster, forever in control with his all-seeing cameras, going to do to Jesse and then to Walt? This season seems to be shaping up to be a contest between the two of them but, at this stage, it's hardly an equal one.

Gus is controlled and controlling, his lack of presence being a sign of strength. He decides, and then stays in the background while his decisions are implemented. Doing, and having to be seen, is for underlings. Not having to be seen is power.

And Gus wins here. The manipulation of Jesse through clever psychology, driving the beginnings of a wedge between him and Walt through divide and rule tactics, works like clockwork. Walt may be having sex with Skyler again (crime is sexy, as in the first season), and be back in the family home,]the proud co-owner of a car wash-cum-money laundromat.

Yet Skyler is still naive, having no idea of the dangers Walt is in. Not least of which is his own tongue, as a tipsy Walt ends up perhaps saying things to Hank that he shouldn't have. 

It's going to be fascinating seeing how all this plays out. I'm loving this season.

Breaking Bad: Bullet Points

" The ozone layer is already thin because of the cow farts..."

This is a second set-up episode in a row, a brave choice but a necessary one as scenes giving us the appearance of a semblance of order gradually yield to the realisation that Walt is in a chaotic and perilous situattion.

Skyler, in being the brains behind both the car wash and the gambling cover story, is showing herself to be an impressively efficient administrator. Yet the thought has to be admitted that her thirst to impose order arises out of a kind of wishful thinking, a refusal to accept the reality that Waly now leads- and so, behind the curtain, does she. For all the tension- and little character moments between the two of them- as they rehearse their story for the benefit mainly of Hank, there are in reality far bigger things to be afraid of that are (as yet) beyond Skyler's comprehension.

All of which Walt pretty much says to Saul as he ponders the precariousness of his situation, with Hank closing in (I love the chat between Hank and Walt as Hank proudly declares Gale to have been Heisenberg; these scenes of Hank getting close are clever and fun, yet it's not easy writing to keep them nevertheless so plausible. Yet the threat of Hank is as nothing compared to the certainty that Gus will kill both Walt and Jesse if they're not on their best game.

And they aren't, particularly Jesse. His dissolute, squalid lifesryle belies a man who has given up hope, who sees no future and is just waiting out the days until his murder as hedonistically as he can, devoid of meaning or human connection. And the arrival of Mike, lately of arather cool opening sequence, indicates that things are set to reach a crisis point.

This episode is masterful. Next episode looks eventful.

Breaking Bad: Half Measures

 "I won't be wearing bells..."

This, yet another exercise in how to make sublime television from Breaking Bad, is an extraordinarily clever and extremely hard hitting episode. The title is very apt indeed, and the conclusion is even foreshadowed by a littl story told to Walt by Mike about his former days as a beat cop: he decided to give a regular wife beating piece of scum a warning rather that just killing him, and the long suffering lady died two weeks later.

That's the little microcosm, but the overall structure of the episode is incredible, from the opening montage with the prostitute we occasionally see, shot like an advert, to the shocking conclusion. There are other plot threads, too; Skyler continues trying to persuade Walt to lander the money her way. And Hank, after briefly coming to question how Walt is staying afloat financially without a job, is finally persuaded by Marie to leave hospital, using methods that, I imagine, must have been interesting to read in the script as an actor...

But it's clear what the main plot thread is here; the uncharacteristic pub conversation between Walt and Jesse make it clear where things are headed. Jesse, ever protective of children and wanting to avenge his mate from last season, plots the deaths of the dealers who did the deed and are using his gorlfriend's brother Tomas as a mule and a killer. Walt, of course, thinks this is madness. It will fatally rock the boat, and it's a little absurd to have moral standards if you're dealing meth.

Walt, after pondering a really bad idea, finally seems to hit upon a solution in making a clean breast to Gus, who brokers a truce. Jesse shows guts, but not brains, in insisting no more use of children, but Gus capitulates. And that's that... except that consequences are unpreductable. And Walt hears on the news, conveniently, during a family dinner- a phenomenon that must certainly have its own TV Tropes page- that Tomas has been killed in a contracr killing.

The final scene is superbly shot and soundtracked (the unsettling music sounds like Trent Reznor but probably isn't) as high noon approaches and Jesse begins a shootout with the two men responsible. So it's a real shock to see Walt, from out of nowhere, ram into them with a car and shoot the survivor dead. The bridges are all burned, and no one is safe. Roll on the finale. Wow.