Following an airline disaster for which he’s indirectly responsible, high school chemistry teacher-turned-meth manufacturer Walter White (Bryan Cranston) finds himself in a situation he’d give anything to find a way out of. His wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) has finally realized where the family’s sudden influx of cash is coming from, and she wants a divorce. Blaming himself for the overdose of his girlfriend, Walter’s young partner Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) has quit the business and entered rehab.

Walt’s brother-in-law Hank (Dean Norris) continues his obsessive quest to find the meth manufacturer known only as “Heisenberg,” unaware that the man he and his fellow DEA agents are looking for is right under his nose. Further, “The Cousins” (Daniel and Luis Moncada), a pair of ruthless, silent killers in the employ of a Mexican drug cartel, have crossed the border and begun hunting Walter, looking for revenge.

CRITIQUE

I’m an idiot. Not for the reason(s) you might be thinking, but because I’m coming to Breaking Bad late in the game. Despite the numerous accolades the show has received, the awards it’s won, and several recommendations by people whose opinions I trust, I’d never bothered to give the show a look. When I found out I would be reviewing this latest Blu-ray release, I started wishing I had, but only because I don’t like going into a later-season review cold.

About three minutes into the first episode I really started wishing I’d been watching since the beginning--not because I was lost, but because I was hooked. I immediately realized I’d been missing out on something incredibly good, something that makes most of television look even more like a wasteland of mediocrity. Like I said--I’m an idiot.

If you’re already a fan of the show, you already know how great it is and don’t need to read me gush about it. If you’ve never seen the show, everything you’ve heard about it is true. This is far and away one of the best series currently being broadcast. The writing is fantastic, and the acting is top-to-bottom excellent. This is a family drama, a modern noir, and a jet-black comedy all rolled into one, and it never falters when moving between these elements. Whatever creator Vince Gilligan and his cohorts set out to accomplish at any given turn, they do, and do so with seemingly no effort.

For me, what really separates this show from others (even some very good ones) is its combination of the cinematic and the novelistic. In the way it looks and in the way it tells its story, Breaking Bad is like virtually nothing else on television. Shots here remind me of images from the films of David Lean and John Ford--sweeping vistas and long, unbroken shots of objects and people moving from great distances into the foreground (the latter creating unease and tension in a way that’s positively Hitchcockian).

Scenes run for as long as they should, whether that be up to seven or eight minutes (almost unheard of in television) or less than one. Whatever is required to give a scene the space it needs, that’s how long it’s given. There’s never any rush to move on, no pandering to the needs of an audience accustomed to flipping channels in order to satiate a short attention span.

Also, the plot unfolds like a really good novel, doling out information and character development in a way that is both arresting and organic. The story has beats, but it’s not about the beats. The beats come as they should, as natural consequences or developments rather than something to prevent you from changing the channel during commercials.    

I say this without having seen the previous seasons (I’ll see them soon, though; I ordered them shortly after I dove into this batch), but this chapter of the story struck me as one in which the lit fuse is steadily getting shorter, inching closer to the inevitable boom. The thirteen episodes that comprise this season (several of which are presented here in uncut form, with language and sexual content that wouldn’t fly on basic cable) begin in the aftermath of an event of cataclysmic proportions.

Further, there’s a continued steady buildup of events as the episodes unfold, all of them growing out of what comes before, and at the end you’re left with characters who’ve been pushed into the inevitable next step of their existence and a situation that leaves you anxious to see what happens next but at the same time almost afraid to because you know it won’t be easy for these people you’re watching, people you’ve become drawn to and whose lives you’ve become invested in. That’s a grand achievement for fiction (although it’s something to which most fiction should aspire, it’s nevertheless something most fiction fails to achieve), and an especially grand one for fiction dealing with subject matter such as this.

THE VIDEO

The episodes are presented in their original 1.78:1 aspect ratio; the 1080p transfers have been encoded with AVC and the episodes are spread across three 50GB discs. This is one of the strongest--if not the strongest--high-def presentation of a television series I’ve come across. From what I understand, the series, unlike most television shows, is shot on film rather than digital video, and the image has that extra degree of refinement film gives you.

Colors, which can be wildly stylized at times (the many desert-set scenes run very hot), are, depending on the intent, vivid, bright, cold, or earthy, but they always look absolutely great. The level of visible detail is outstanding. Black levels never falter. The film source brings with it a nice layer of fine grain; it can get ever so slightly noisy at times, which is really the only thing for which I can fault the presentation.

THE AUDIO

The sole audio option for each episode is a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. While not as strong as the video, the audio here is still pretty damned great, thanks in no small part to the show’s terrific sound design. Locations have a good sense of place, with appropriate atmosphere and space. There’s some good low-end action, and effects sound fantastic (especially gunshots, which have that unsettling crack and echo you get with real gunshots).

Music--both David Porter’s outstanding score and the occasional bit of prerecorded music (whoever’s responsible for choosing The Association’s “Windy” for use in Episode Twelve deserves a raise and a medal)--always gets a terrific presentation. Dialogue generally sounds fine, although whispered or hushed lines can be difficult to make out at times.

English, English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

Nine commentaries kick off the extras. Featuring Gilligan, a few other members of the producing/writing team, and virtually every member of the main cast, these are very good tracks.

Deleted scenes are included for eight episodes. A bit of unused footage from the season opener is also tossed in. (All of this footage is presented in standard definition.)

A gag reel (3 minutes, SD) provides the usual screw-ups and whatnot.

Seven featurettes break down this way:

White Heat: Cranston on Fire (3 minutes, HD) looks at the filming of a pyrotechnics-fueled scene from the season opener.

Pizza of Destiny: Cranston’s Greatest Shot (2 minutes, HD) is a brief bit about one of the season’s funniest moments.

Silent But Deadly: The Brothers Moncada (9 minutes, HD) focuses on Luis Moncada and Moncada, the actors who play “The Cousins.”

Team S.C.I.E.N.C.E. (4 minutes, HD) is a short cartoon created by Paul’s character.

The Music of Breaking Bad (4 minutes, HD) is an interview with series composer David Porter.

Hit and Run (3 minutes, HD) covers the planning and filming of the final scene of the season’s penultimate episode.

AMC News Visits the Breaking Bad Writing Room (3 minutes, SD) is a promo piece containing interviews with Gilligan and co-executive producer Michelle Maxwell MacLaren.

A mini video podcast (68 minutes total, HD) is also included for each episode. An audio podcast is recorded for each episode, and this is videotaped footage from those recording sessions.  

Better Call Saul (10 minutes, HD) is a collection of commercials for Bob Odenkirk’s character’s law office.

Twenty installments of Inside Breaking Bad (75 minutes, HD), which were originally created for the series’ official website, are also included. Each episode of this season gets its own installment, while the remaining seven clips focus on more general themes and storylines from the series.

Exclusive to this Blu-ray release is a Breaking Bad Family Photo Album, a high-def slideshow of behind-the-scenes and promotional photos.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you’re a fan of the show, you certainly don’t need me to tell you this set is worth every penny; all you need to know is that the presentation is as excellent as the show itself. If you’ve never seen the show, go ahead and pick up this set and the previous two; you definitely will not be disappointed.