Wednesday, August 10, 2011

What I’m Watching: Breaking Bad


Breaking Bad: Season 4, Episode 4 “Bullet Points” (B+)

Now this is an episode that’s fantastically reminiscent of the third season. The writing in this hour is so sharp, and the delivery of the dialogue by all the main players is so focused and deliberate. This is a particularly stellar episode for Anna Gunn, who hasn’t had quite as much to do lately. Watching her script the story of Walt’s gambling to Marie and Hank is absolutely enthralling, arguing with him about how best to play cards and using the line “it’s a doozy, so hold on to your hats.” There were plenty of layers in their conversation, including Walt’s question about why he was so ashamed, calling her out on sleeping with her boss, and apologizing only for the sake of the script. Skyler’s response was quite scathing: “Lying doesn’t come as easily to me as it does to you.” It was fascinating to see Hank perk up when Walt came to visit, and him gleefully showing Walt that video of Gale was perfectly matched with Walt’s white face. The two of them opening up to each other proved incredibly interesting, as Walt got full access to the case information and narrowly avoided being given away by Gale’s use of the initials WW. Erring his woes to Saul didn’t prove too effective, and I seriously doubt that Walt would consider trying to disappear, or that Skyler would even remotely think about going for it. I was surprised that Mike was the one that brought Jesse’s behavior to Gus and asked him for permission to deal with it, and it’s more than unsettling that Jesse doesn’t even care where they’re going. Nothing says more than that look Walt gives the camera when he demands to know where Jesse is, and next week is going to be furiously intense.

No comments: