1×01 – Pilot

Diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, chemistry teacher Walter White teams up with his former student, Jesse Pinkman, to cook and sell crystal meth.

• I seen this pilot muplite times by now that’s it engraved into my head.
• I have also seen several episodes of this show out of order and know plenty of spoilers about the show.
• So this isn’t a show where I’m watching to be susprised because I have already been spoiled to death, instead just to experience the greatest of the greatest show of all time (many have said) from beginning to end.
• A professor at the University of Southern California gave Bryan Cranston lessons in chemistry basics for the series, so Cranston was able to correct some writer’s mistakes. – Good to know the chemistry in the show is mostly right, but I wouldn’t have been able to tell either way.
• An actual DEA agent showed the crew and the cast how to make crystal meth. However, some steps were always omitted from the filming to avoid anyone using the show as a “how to” guide. – Smart move because someone would have definitely tried doing that.

1×02 – Cat’s In The Bag…

After their first drug deal goes terribly wrong, Walt and Jesse are forced to deal with a corpse and a prisoner. Meanwhile, Skyler grows suspicious of Walt’s activities.

• MyShout was a play on Myspace right? I didn’t miss another old social media site did I?
• I didn’t expect to see Jesse and Skylar meet so soon. I figured that would’ve taken a few seasons.
• To be fair I also didn’t expect Skylar to know about Jesse for awhile either.
• Walter is still very much Walter, but you can see the foreshadowing of Heisenberg even in the early episodes of season 1.

1×03 – …And The Bag’s In The River

As Jesse struggles to sell the meth he and Walter made, the chemistry teacher faces his own dilemmas, such as hiding his cancer from his wife and deciding what to do with Jesse’s prisoner Krazy-8.

• During filming, the introduction of Wendy the prostitute was briefly interrupted when a non-actor attempted to pick up actress Julia Minesci, mistaking her for an actual prostitute. – I’m laughing, but that’s horrible. At least the wardrobe department know they did a good job…seriously that’s horrible, but also pretty funny in hindsight.
• Jesse and Walter cleaning up their “mess” from the last episode is just funny to me for some reason? Is that sick? Oh well.
• Walter’s first kill!
• I like that the show built to it happening by having Crazy 8 and Walter bond emotionally before it becomes time for Walter to have to kill him in the end.
• Also by this time I was dying for Walter to shave his head. He’s looks infinitely more badass that way.

1×04 – Cancer Man

Walt tells the rest of his family about his cancer. Jesse tries to make amends with his own parents.

• The title is an allusion to the informal nickname of the The X-Files character known as the Cigarette-Smoking Man. – Oh that makes sense and makes for a cool connection between the two shows I’m currently watching for the first time.
• Speaking of The X-Files, Bryan Cranston impressed Vince Gilligan, who was as a writer and producer on the show, with his performance in the season six episode “The X-Files: Drive (1998) and it was apparently instrumental in getting him the role of Walter White. – Another interesting connection between the shows.
• I knew there had to had been some type of performance that convinced Vince Gilligan that Bryan Cranston was the guy for the role of Walter White because it sure definitely wasn’t Malcolm In The Middle.
• Don’t we all wish we could do something to get back at the person who takes our driving spot? Maybe not blow their car up like Walt here, but still something right?
• I like seeing Jesse’s family and reasons why he is the way he is.
• Also the graded papers from Walter to Jesse was a sudden, but smart way of showing us their relationship before becoming partners in crime.

1×05 – Gray Matter

Walt rejects everyone who tries to help him with the cancer. Jesse tries his best to create Walt’s meth, with the help of an old friend.

• It’s funny to think this whole show could have virtually ended if Walter had just taken his friend’s offer to pay for his treatment.
• But we wouldn’t have a show if Walter took the easy way, so thank goodness he didn’t take the easy way.
• Jesse trying to find someone else to cook meth was indeed funny, but it shows that yes he could work with anyone and settle on making average meth, but he cook his best meth with Walter and he doesn’t want to settle for just average meth. I have never said meth more in my entire than I just did with that sentence.
• The intervention scene was very well. Got everyone thoughts and feelings out into the open not just to each other, but also to us the audience.

1×06 – Crazy Handful Of Nothin’

With the side effects and cost of his treatment mounting, Walt demands that Jesse finds a wholesaler to buy their drugs – which lands him in trouble.

• Heisenberg is officially born here, bald head and all.
• No he’s not the Heisenberg we come to love to hate, but he’s born here and it’s great seeing the very beginning of him.
• Walter chose the name Heisenberg because of Werner Heisenberg a very important physicist who died of cancer. – I like the tie in with a actual physicist and it makes sense why Walter would choose that name because he’s still a nerd for chemistry deep down.
• This episode feels like the first real episode of Breaking Bad in a way. Everything before this sets up why Walter is doing this, his family, his relationships with them, Jesse, and it all comes together in this great episode.
• And the last scene is pretty much iconic at this point even knowing it’s coming doesn’t undermine how badass it is.
• Walter may not fully be Heisenberg yet, but you see the traces of him here and it’s just great storytelling.

1×07 – A No-Rough-Stuff-Type Deal

Walt and Jesse try to up their game by making more of the crystal every week for Tuco. Unfortunately, some of the ingredients they need are not easy to find. Meanwhile, Skyler realizes that her sister is a shoplifter.

• The title is a reference to a quote from “Fargo,” mirroring an inexperienced character trying to commit a big crime for the first time. – This just reminds me that I need to I need to watch Fargo.
• This is a pretty good season finale, not as good as the previous episode, but still good nevertheless.
• “Yeah, science.”
• I mimic Tuco the moment I knew he started “tight, tight, tight” line. It’s funny the random moments that are engraved in your head for some reason.
• Tuco is the perfect first antagonist for Walter and Jesse because of how f*cking nuts he is.
• The first season was supposed to be longer than 7 episodes, but was cut off because of the Writer’s Strike in 2008. – I would of been fine with more episodes, but knowing what Vince Gilligan had planned it’s probably a blessing in disguise including…
• Jesse was originally intended by creator Vince Gilligan to be killed in this episode, rather than Tuco’s man. – I cannot stress this enough how big of a mistake that would’ve been. I read that several reasons why Jesse wasn’t killed off including: Jesse was well liked by the fans, the Writer’s Strike disrupted plans, Vince liked Aaron Paul and decided to keep him on. Whatever reason it was, thank goodness for it. I’m not saying that the show would of become horrible without Jesse, I’m sure it would of been alright, but come on. Breaking Bad is regarded as one of the best shows of all time if not the best and a lot of that is because of Walter and Jesse’s relationship. The show would of lost a lot of it’s magic if Jesse was killed off here.

Overall:

This was a good first season, doesn’t reach the highs that I know Breaking Bad will achieve in the future seasons, but hey a good season of Breaking Bad is better than an average TV show season just saying. Favorite episode is Crazy Handful Of Nothin’ and favorite character…can you even have a favorite character in this show? I mean everyone does some pretty awful stuff during the course of the show. I’ll just go with Jesse, off the simple fact that is he makes me laugh. Season 1 sets up all the groundwork for the show just to go crazy with from season 2 onward and I’m excited to experience it all in it’s correct order.

Pros: Walter’s character development, backstory on all the characters, and the set up of the show.

Cons: Short length, no real conclusion to the season.

Other Seasons In Reviews: The Office – S1, 24 – S1, Dexter – S1