What would you do if you found out that you only had a few months left to live?
Many people have been telling me how awesome Breaking Bad is, and it's one of those series, like Game of Thrones, where it is easily dismissed until you have actually seen a couple of episodes!
This series recently came up on Netflix, so I thought I would find out what all the hype is about. Now I am hooked!
For those of you that haven't yet seen it or don't really know much about it, Breaking Bad is about all about a 50 year old Albuquerque high school old chemistry teacher called Walter White, who is struggling to make ends-meat to provide for his pregnant wife and teenage son (who suffers with cerebral palsy). As if that wasn't bad enough, Walt is rushed into hospital after a black out to find out that he has an advanced stage of lung cancer with only months left to live, and naturally his family want him to go through chemotherapy to try and prolong his life. However all this is very expensive and Walt is reluctant to spend his remaining days being ill and bed-ridden, not to mention risk leaving his loved ones in thousands of dollars worth of debt should the treatment be unsuccessful.
Walter's brother-in-law, Hank, is a DEA agent, bringing down the dealers and drug lords. One day Walt decides to join a ride-along with Hank and his partner to a local drug bust, where he discovers that one of his ex-students, Jesse Pinkman, is dealing in crystal meth and making a LOT of money from it. With the thought of leaving his family behind with a new born baby and lots of debt, Walt decides to team up with Jesse and apply his chemistry skills to cook up the purest crystal meth anyone has ever seen in order to secure his family with a comfy little nest-egg after he departs.
The series really does serve up a large plate of emotions; on one hand it is hilarious as Walt and Jesse make the most unlikely duo ever imagined, working on a trail-by-error basis getting into the most ridiculous situations, whilst on the other hand we see how Walt's desperation turns him from mild-mannered family man to complete sociopath as he deals with his illness, lies to his loved ones and deals with dangerous psychos just to give his family the security they need after his death. The series also tests our morals, as on one hand we know that it's wrong to manufacture and supply drugs, but given the circumstances, is Walter's situation really justified?
It's an excellent series and well worth a watch. I'm sure many here will agree