Review Breaking Bad: The Complete First Season [Blu-ray]

Breaking Bad: The Complete First Season [Blu-ray] Best Review

I did not start watching AMC's "Breaking Bad" until after the second season had already aired. Having played catch-up and seen Seasons 1-3 in their entirety, I do not hesitate when I tell people that this is simply the best show on television right now, bar none.

But most people spend these reviews talking about how great the series is, so I'll skip the warm-and-fuzzies and talk directly about the Season 1 DVD set that you are probably trying to decide whether to buy or not. Here's my recommendation: Buy it.

First off, the box and cases. The box art is terrific, with the iconic Walt-White-in-tightie-whities stuck right onto the front. The box (which doesn't take up more than 3/4 an inch of shelf space, if even that) contains two plastic disc cases -- the first holds Episodes 1-6, and the second holds Episode 7 along with the Bonus Features. While I would avoid getting the box (which is something in between paper and cardboard) wet, the plastic cases hold up pretty well... I've dropped them several times and they've never so much as cracked on me.

The picture quality is terrific. AMC is known for shooting their scripted television almost cinematically, so if you're a full-screen fanatic, get the heck out of here because widescreen is the only way to watch these. Blu-Ray babies: Sorry, the colors don't necessarily pop, but this isn't the kind of show that necessarily would benefit from that anyway.

And finally, the bonus features. Audio commentaries are attached to both the pilot episode and Episode 6 ("Crazy Handful of Nothin'"), and feature showrunner Vince Gilligan, along with cast and occasionally crew. Most of the time, it can be pretty entertaining. The second disc has a Making Of feature for those of you who like that sort of thing; the real meat of the behind-the-scenes, though, comes from their 'Inside Breaking Bad' video compilation, in which each video is dedicated to a different aspect of the show (one video deals with Bryan Cranston shaving his head for the role, while another deals with the aforementioned tightie-whities). Also on the disc is a photo gallery and a segment of AMC's interview program called "Shootout," when Cranston, Gilligan, and producer Mark Johnson appeared to promote the show. And last but certainly not least, the Bonus Features include screen tests of actors Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, Betsy Brandt, and Dean Norris; really cool stuff if, again, you are into that sort of thing.

Overall, a terrific box set for the show's first season, cut short by the writers' strike a few years ago. Season 2's boxset is even better, and I recommend that as soon as you buy this set, you hop on over and buy that one as well.

I hope this review was informative, and I hope you enjoy the show as much as I did.

The picture

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Breaking Bad: The Complete First Season [Blu-ray] Overview

Emmy Award winner Bryan Cranston stars as Walter White, a down-on-his-luck chemistry teacher struggling to make ends meet for his wife (Anna Gunn) and physically challenged son (RJ Mitte). Everything changes when Walter receives a startling diagnosis: terminal lung cancer. With only a few years to live and nothing to lose, Walter uses his training as a chemist to cook and sell crystal meth with one of his former students (Aaron Paul). As his status grows, so do his lies, but Walt will stop at nothing to make sure his family is taken care of after he's gone, even if it means putting all their lives on the line. Executive produced by Vince Gilligan and Mark Johnson.

Breaking Bad: The Complete First Season [Blu-ray] Specifications

No one would confuse the desperate dad Bryan Cranston plays in this character-driven drama with the fun-loving Hal from Malcolm in the Middle. In AMC's Breaking Bad, Walter White lives in the suburbs with his wife--and wears tighty-whiteys--but the similarities end there. During the pilot, the cash-strapped chemistry teacher finds out he has inoperable lung cancer. He and Skyler (Deadwood's Anna Gunn) have one son, Walter Jr. (R.J. Mitte), and a daughter on the way. With two years to get his affairs in order, Walter comes up with a wild plan: he and former student Jesse (Aaron Paul), a drug dealer, will open a meth lab.

In the hands of creator Vince Gilligan (The X-Files), Bad's first season plays like the improbable offspring of Weeds and The Shield. With nothing left to lose, the Albuquerque 50-year-old uses his death sentence as a catalyst to break every rule he's ever followed while keeping his family--including Skyler's radiologist sister, Marie (Betsy Brandt), and her DEA agent husband, Hank (Dean Norris)--out of the loop. Throughout these seven episodes, Walt takes on a hostage, a dead body, and a partner who likes to sample his own product. Based on the description alone, the program shouldn't work as well as it does, except Gilligan and company keep the situations psychologically believable and Emmy winner Cranston makes Walt surprisingly sympathetic as he swings between compassion and self-interest. As he tells his students, "Chemistry is the study of change," a statement that applies equally well to the show, since Walt ends up in a very different place than the one he began. This three-disc set comes complete with cast and crew commentary, an installment of AMC's Shootout, two featurettes, deleted scenes, and screen tests. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Customer Reviews

Unbelievable show! - Charizard -
After hearing everyone talk about this at work (I don't own an actual TV) I decided to buy the boxed set for the first season and chance it. This show is amazing! Fantastic portrayals of suprisingly deep characters. Great suspense!



Absorbing Low Key Show about Chemistry Teacher AKA Drug Dealer - Lynn Ellingwood - Webster, NY United States
Teachers do the most interesting things these days and teaching doesn't seem to be one of them. Breaking Bad is an about a Chemistry Teacher who learns he has lung cancer. He wavers on treatment but doesn't waiver on learning a new line of work to help his family after he is gone. It's called drug dealing and he makes crystal meth. He even enlists a former student and high school dropout to help him in his new endeavor. The show is absorbing and very interesting. It is low key and not showy but doesn't hesitate to see humor in the man's predicament. His wife is pregnant with their second child. Their first child has cerebral palsy. His sister in law is a shop lifter married to a fervent DEA agent. The dropout he ignored in school now becomes his favorite pupil. So much for role models. Good show with a lot going for it.



Haveta Disagree Some - Dermot - maryland
Three stars for Cranston's solid acting. But geeze. Teacher with a wife, son with medical problems, and baby on the way...doesn't have life insurance? Learns he has cancer and thinks, well, I'll just sell meth. Hm. I don't see the psychological or economic basis. And that absence lingers throughout. The first season leads to that dreadful scene in the drug merchant's lair...with lots of bad acting and that ridiculous explosion. This is stuff for adolescent boys of a certain ilk. But Cranston is terrific.

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