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Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 13
"ABQ"
May 31, 2009 - 10:05p.m.
For at least half of "ABQ," I wasn't typing notes. I was staring at the screen with my hands over my mouth. Anxiety and shock bring on that response, and tonight's season finale had both, in deep, sorrowful ...
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Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 12
"Phoenix"
May 24, 2009 - 10:05p.m.
I wasn't discouraged by last week's merely-good episode. This whole season, whenever the pawns needed to be moved into place for some crisis, Breaking Bad has done so with panache, flair, and an eye for unexpected thematic resonances ...
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Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 11
"Mandala"
May 17, 2009 - 10:05p.m.
Week after week this season, Breaking Bad has been topping itself. I suppose it's inevitable that we'd have a merely good episode at some point. "Mandala," despite an ending as gripping as as the show has ever produced ...
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Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 10
"Over"
May 10, 2009 - 10:05p.m.
For every question, there is an answer, even though it might not be the one we want. Last week Walter found out that he was going to live beyond the next few weeks. We knew then that the question of ...
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Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 9
"4 Days Out"
May 3, 2009 - 09:05p.m.
You know what would be a good slogan for a water company? "Water. Clearly." Can't take credit for that one -- it's a Noel Murray original. But it came to mind as a good synopsis for this water-themed episode ...
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Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 8
"Better Call Saul"
April 26, 2009 - 09:04p.m.
Remember back in Season 1, when selling meth seemed like the answer to all of life's problems? Since then we've run down the catalog of all the bad things that can happen when you go into the drug ...
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Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 7
"Negro Y Azul"
April 19, 2009 - 10:04p.m.
"Bonds are what make matter ... matter," Walter tells a recalcitrant student as this week's episode begins. As it ends, Jesse's neighbor and landlord gropes for his hand. A bond has been created -- a new compound has been formed ... -
Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 6
"Peekaboo"
April 12, 2009 - 10:04p.m.
Tonight's episode is all about family. While Walter finds it increasingly hard to act on his determination to put family first, Jesse gets distracted from his mission to safeguard his business by a family that's failing. The family ... -
Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 5
“Breakage”
April 5, 2009 - 11:04p.m.
Donna claims that she’s been at an academic meeting in Montreal all weekend long, and that her plane home has been delayed by icy conditions in Chicago, so she’ll need me to cover the Breaking Bad beat tonight ... -
Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 4
"Down"
March 29, 2009 - 10:03p.m.
I know none of you have forgotten Creepy Pink Burned Bear. As of tonight's flash-forward, CPBB is now evidence, being fished out of the pool by a guy in a hazmat suit, bagged, and lined up in a long ... -
Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 3
"Bit By A Dead Bee"
March 22, 2009 - 10:03p.m.
This episode's title comes from To Have And Have Not, but I think I'll retitle it "Internal Affairs." As in the secret plan that Walter concocts to help himself and Jesse get away clean in the Tuco shooting ... -
Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 2
"Grilled"
March 15, 2009 - 05:03p.m.
An '89 Monte Carlo lowrider abandoned in the desert, hydraulics bouncing wildly, a shower of shotgun shell casings thrown off the trunk lid with every lift and raining to the ground. It's another altogether chilling and original image presented ... -
Breaking Bad: season 2, episode 1
"Seven Thirty-Seven"
March 8, 2009 - 05:03p.m.
It's been a full year since we saw a bald Walter White carrying a bloody bag of money out of a decaying building, in the scene that signaled his transformation from "just the chemist" to a full-fledged drug dealer ... -
Breaking Bad: season 1, episode 7
"A No Rough Stuff Type Deal"
March 9, 2008 - 10:03p.m.
You want science? We'll give you science.
The season finale tried a little too hard to tug on all the strings that have been set up in the past six episodes. Walt's outlaw status turning him into a ... -
Breaking Bad: season 1, episode 6
"Crazy Handful of Nothin'"
March 2, 2008 - 10:03p.m.
The seven-episode first season is drawing to a close, and we've got a humdinger going here. Just when you thought the chemistry angle was totally played, "Crazy Handful of Nothin'" brings it from all sides. Walt submits to chemistry ... -
Breaking Bad: season 1, episode 5
"Gray Matter"
February 25, 2008 - 10:02p.m.
Has AMC changed its name from American Movie Classics to just AMC, an acronym with only a historical connection to the words it used to stand for? Kind of like Kentucky Fried Chicken did a few years back? That would ... -
Breaking Bad: season 1, episode 4
"Cancer Man"
February 17, 2008 - 10:02p.m.
Context, dude. This week we're backing off from the intense in-the-moment experiences of last week, and taking the long view. Family's gotta be told about the cancer. Meth's still out there to be sold. Debt's still ... -
Breaking Bad: season 1, episode 3
"... And The Bag's In The River"
February 11, 2008 - 09:02p.m.
This one's for people who can't stand Jesse. After he and Walt spend some quality time in respirator masks scooping a fine slurry of acid-decomposed human remains off the floors, Cap'n Cook fires up a bowl, fights ... -
Breaking Bad: season 1, episode 2
"Cat's In The Bag"
January 27, 2008 - 10:01p.m.
At the end of the powerhouse premiere last week, I thought: Well, it's all downhill from here. The synopsis for the next episode has Walter trying to deal with the bodies of the drug dealers he killed, and his ... -
Breaking Bad: season 1, episode 1
"Pilot"
January 22, 2008 - 03:01p.m.
After the towering achievement of Mad Men, third-rate movie channel AMC is suddenly a hot spot for serialized dramas. I hope that the basic cable equivalent of a shitload of viewers tuned in to the premiere of Breaking Bad on ...
