Quick Take: Breaking Bad, "Box Cutter"
"Something in the hole went, 'Click, click.' The box cutter went, 'Click, click.'" - Wu-Tang Clan, "Careful (Click Click)"
Review: Breaking Bad, "Box Cutter"
(S0401) At some point in the not too distant past, seemingly out of nowhere, Breaking Bad shed its underdog facade and emerged as something of a cultural phenomenon. Last night's fourth season premiere was one of the most anticipated (at least by critics) television episodes in recent memory (I would probably say that the series finale of Lost was the last time I felt this same level excitement/hype, followed closely by the premiere of The Paul Reiser Show).
A couple of years ago, Breaking Bad was one of those little shows on some relatively (at the time) obscure cable channel that a few passionate fans were always telling their friends to check out. In the past, Breaking Bad always played second fiddle to AMC's initial flagship series, Mad Men. This makes sense because Mad Men came first, plus it's much easier to market (not to mention it's a fabulous show). The elevator pitch is simple, but when you think about it, Mad Men is a much more "complex" (for lack of a better term) show than Breaking Bad. While Mad Men addresses a host of issues and themes, Breaking Bad is basically a show about a single man's metamorphosis from essentially good to essentially bad and the effect this change has on the people around him.
These days, Breaking Bad takes a back seat to no one. It's hard to be an underdog when you're raking in Emmys and critical praise like Charles Barkley on an epic heater at Caesar's Palace.
The show has become a freaking juggernaut, and deservedly so. All spring and summer critics have been analyzing and speculating about every little tidbit released to the press. Jesse's new hairstyle in the promotional posters became Mona Lisa's smile. The teaser trailer became the Zapruder film. We obsessed over every detail, trying to gain some insight into the upcoming season. We wrote preview pieces. We wrote retrospectives looking back at the first three seasons and picked out our favorite moments. More than anything, we kissed the show's ass.
The story that stands out the most to me is the recent piece by Chuck Klosterman in which he basically argues that Breaking Bad is the greatest television show of all time. He describes the pantheon of history's top shows that includes The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad and goes on to say that, of this group, Breaking Bad is the best, or at least his favorite.
I really like Chuck Klosterman. I enjoy his articles and books (with the exception of Fargo Rock City, I didn't particularly care for that one) and I find his ideas on an array of subjects endlessly fascinating. I respect his opinion and agree with almost every argument he makes, but I just can't sign off on this one. And it isn't because I don't think Breaking Bad is worthy or that its three first seasons can't hold their own against any three seasons in television history. I just feel that it's simply too early to put Breaking Bad in this pantheon. Part of achieving greatness is sticking the landing and since Breaking Bad is still in progress it's impossible to tell how everything is going to play out. It's not out of the question to consider the possibility that Breaking Bad could stumble a bit down the stretch. The legacies of great shows like Seinfeld and The Sopranos are forever tainted by unpopular series finales. I say we hold off on trying to figure out where Breaking Bad fits in the TV pantheon and enjoy the show while it's on the air. In a few years, once the series is wrapped up, we can really dig in and determine the where the show belongs in relation to the all-time greats. And who knows, maybe by then it will have been proven that Chuck Klosterman was right all along.
So now that the build-up and hype surrounding the premiere have reached a crescendo and the season has begun, we can stop talking about the show in abstract terms, stop making predictions, stop trying to define Breaking Bad's historical significance and start talking about the episodes themselves. Thank god! So, what did everyone think about "Box Cutter"? Did it live up the hype? To me it did. I enjoyed the premiere immensely. The measured pace of the episode, the long moments of silence interrupted by spurts of brutal violence, felt like a microcosm of the show as a whole.
I won't do a full-on recap of the episode; it would be kind of redundant. My colleague Mike Proper has already done an excellent job describing what happened in "Box Cutter." Instead, I'd like to examine a few scenes in particular that really made an impression on me.
Breaking Bad has become famous for its often self-contained, pre-opening credits vignettes. These mini-stories sometimes have little to do with the episode that follows, but are designed to give the viewer some insight into the world in which Walter White (Bryan Cranston) operates. The opening of "Box Cutter" isn't as experimental as some of the past vignettes, but it certainly is poignant. Season Four begins with Gale (David Costabile) in the underground lab showing off his new equipment to Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). It took me a few seconds to figure out what exactly I was seeing. At first, I was thinking to myself, "Wait a second, I thought Jesse (Aaron Paul) killed Gale?" Then it dawned on me that I was witnessing a flashback to a time just before Walt entered these two mens' lives and changed them forever. Gale has a sample of Walt's blue meth and try as he might, he can't replicate its color or purity. "His is the best I've ever seen, hands down... and I know that you want the best," Gale says to Gus. Gale wants Gus to recruit the cook behind this superior product, but little does he know that by doing so he is sealing his fate.
Walt's sheer destructive power is rarely more evident than it is during the scene early in "Box Cutter" with Jesse, Walt, Victor (Jeremiah Bitsui), and Mike (Jonathan Banks) in the lab. Jesse and Walt are tied up, yet still seem to be a position of power. With Gale dead, the assumption is that Gus will have to spare their lives in order to keep his operation running smoothly. Mike, normally unflappable, is clearly caught off guard by Walt's clever maneuvering. He knows full well what his boss' reaction will be when he finds out that his orders to kill Walt were not carried out. "I guess I better get this over with," he says as he picks up the phone to call Gus.
Walt's feeling of invincibility is short lived. When he begs his captors to "let us cook," Victor turns the tables on him by donning the gas-mask and going to work himself. The whole time he had been guarding the lab, he was watching Walt work, figuring out his process in order to replicate it if necessary. It's a really good twist, one I didn't see coming until it had already arrived. Walt has become a sort of egomaniac when it comes to cooking meth. No one can cook as well as him, and therefore he can pretty much get away with anything. When he sees Victor, a man with no training, a man that Walt views as little more than a street thug, doing Walt's job and doing it rather capably, it seems to make him question his indispensability.
The scene when Gus arrives at the lab is absolutely fantastic. He slowly descends down the staircase and, without saying a single word, starts to put on a lab outfit. The tension in the room is suffocating. I found myself forgetting to take a breath, eyes glued to screen. It's obvious that Gus is putting the coat on to keep bloodstains off of his suit, but it isn't clear who will be the one to die. You can see the panic start to boil over inside Walt and he begins to plead for his (and Jesse's) life, appealing to Gus' business sense. "You won't do this. You're too smart. You can't afford to do this. Please just let us go to work." His begging seems to work (at least in the short term) because instead of killing Walt and Jesse, the blade of Gus' box cutter finds a home deep inside Victor's throat. Gus doesn't even give his trusted employee a quick death. He holds Victor upright, putting on a show for Jesse and Walt (and maybe even Mike), who are forced to watch as Victor gasps for air, the blood slowly draining from his neck. The survivors are rightfully terrified and disgusted, their horror amplified by the fact that Fring still hasn't uttered a sound. After Gus climbs back up the stairs and prepares to leave the lab he finally speaks. By this point, he could pretty much say anything, no matter how threatening, and it would be a sort of relief - his silence is excruciating. "Well, get back to work."
Jesse and Walt aren't the only people to be relieved to get back to work. I am so glad to be able to have the chance to write about new episodes of Breaking Bad again. Despite the presence of excellent shows like Friday Night Lights and Game of Thrones, the television landscape has been missing something crucial in Breaking Bad's absence. And just because I'm not quite ready to put Breaking Bad atop the list of best shows of all-time doesn't mean that it isn't the best show on right now. It is. And by pretty wide margin. Welcome back, Breaking Bad. We've missed you.
