Bryan Cranston as Walter White in Breaking Bad

Most of you have already caught a season or two — or all of it — on download. For those of you who haven’t, make sure you set up an 11pm date tonight with Walter White. Yes, Breaking Bad breaks on STAR World tonight.

Lauded the world over and a recipient of many awards, the show that first beamed into American homes in 2008, makes its way to Indian screens for the first time. This is an intriguing story of an honest chemistry teacher who turns to a life of crime in his dying days — and does a bloody good job while at it! Here’s why you need to tune into Breaking Bad tonight and keep tuning in, Monday to Friday at 11pm on STAR World.

The plot: Walter White (Bryan Cranston) finds his life of a chemistry teacher and family man thrown into a tizzy when he is told that he has inoperable lung cancer. Honest and upright all his life, Walt hardly has any savings and time is running out for him to make enough to ensure that his pregnant wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) and 17-year-old son Walter Jr (RJ Mitte), a boy with cerebral palsy, are provided for. The only way out? Walt becomes a meth seller, slowly but steadily going over to the darker side, till a day comes when the lines between his two lives start blurring. Assisting Walt in his life of crime is his ex-student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul).

Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, creator Vince Gilligan (X-Files, The Lone Gunmen) has said that Breaking Bad germinated from the desire to depict a protagonist’s degeneration into an antagonist. At first a hesitant offender, Walt finds himself turned into a seasoned criminal and even relishing his bad ways.

The plot based on Walter White’s dual existence is taut and thrilling. The show is similar in theme to Weeds, a TV series in which a widowed mother of two took to trading marijuana to support her family. But in its execution and its ability to keep the suspense alive even after five years, Breaking Bad is head-and-shoulders above.

The first episode tonight starts with Walt watching the TV news about an impressive stash of meth that has been recovered from dealers. Little does he know that he will be calling the shots in the same trade by the end of the season.

The players: Bryan Cranston — who we last saw as CIA man Jack O’Donnell in Oscar winner Argo — is the life and soul of Breaking Bad. Having helped a team at the California Institute of Technology in chemistry, Walt is a genius who starts off leading a Jekyll and Hyde existence and gradually goes over completely to the negative side. Both Cranston and Gilligan have described Walt’s turn as “from Mr Chips to Scarface”.

Walt’s wife Skyler is an independent woman who begins to get increasingly anxious as she sees his personality take a 360-degree turn. Walt’s partner-in-crime Jesse Pinkman has been a drug dealer even before he joined hands with his former teacher to churn out high-quality meth. Walter Jr can’t digest the fact that his strong dad suffers from cancer. Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) is Walt’s brother-in-law who provides the show’s comic relief. The problem? Hank is a drug enforcement supervisor and is willing to take on anyone — even his wife’s brother — for the sake of duty.

The intrigue: Breaking Bad has been described as “an explicitly addictive series, full of cliff-hangers, with a visual flair that is rare for television”. Walt is the one catalysing all the action, playing a cat-and-mouse game with the cops. Edgy and with the ability to keep you glued to your seat, the show packs in enough nail-biting moments in each episode, even as the viewer battles a dilemma — to sympathise with Walt or chastise him?

The awards: Breaking Bad has won more awards than any other TV series in the recent past. Cranston has won three successive Emmy Awards, while co-star Aaron Paul has won twice. Cranston has three Golden Globe nominations.

Priyanka Roy

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