Breaking Bad, the second original program from AMC after the critically acclaimed Mad Men, is labeled a dark comedy and definitely delivers on the dark part. The lead Walt is a science teacher who moonlights at car wash; he has a severely disabled kid with another on the way. Oh and he has just been diagnosed with a terminal case of cancer. The problem though is the comedy portion of the show, or more importantly the lack there of.
Not only is the show not that funny, you know it never a good sign whenever an episode, let a lone a pilot of a new show, starts off with a flash back. Whenever a show starts off with a “Three Days Earlier” basically what the writers are telling you is “listen, the actual beginning is pretty boring, so we are going to start in the exciting third act to draw you in before we get to the boring part. As an added bonus, we get to write less because we can just reshow a few scenes.”
What’s worse is there were a couple of characters you know have the potential of being funny but they just weren’t. First is the drug dealer/former student Walt hooks up with when he decides to start making meth to make sure his family is more financially secure when he is gone, but the drug dealer isn’t as snarky as he could be to amp up the humor. Then there is Walt’s brother-in-law/DEA agent who is your typical meathead authority figure but really didn’t have many lines for you to laugh at.
Verdict: Despite the disappointing start, it does have potential if the writers work out the kinks early on especially in raising the laughs quota. I am still going to give it another try or two. Because really, what else am I going to watch, dudes singing karaoke? Breaking Bad airs Sundays at 10:00 on AMC. You can also download Breaking Bad on iTunes. You can also download the show for free on Amazon Unbox for a limited time (see ad below, if it says $0.00 it is still free). Both have a making of the show video free for download.
"the drug dealer isn’t as snarky as he could be to amp up the humor. "
ReplyDeleteThis isn't a show for people who want "snarky" or "amped" humor. If it is entertaining, it is precisely because it avoids crass gimmicks in the dialog. It is less Colbert, more Kubrick. I don't watch TV, but I went out of my way to get this show on iTunes because it is actually worth the time I spent watching the first two episodes.