The second season of AMC's Emmy-winning "Breaking Bad" premieres on Sunday, March 8th @ 10 PM ET.

Reviews upcoming.

Variety's review:
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Breaking Bad
(Series -- AMC, Sun. March 8, 10 p.m.)
by BRIAN LOWRY

Filmed in Albuquerque by High Bridge and Gran Via Prods. in association with Sony Pictures Television. Executive producers, Vince Gilligan, Mark Johnson; producers, Karen Moore, Stewart A. Lyons, Melissa Bernstein; director, Bryan Cranston; writer, J. Roberts;

Walt White - Bryan Cranston
Skyler White - Anna Gunn
Jesse - Aaron Paul
Hank - Dean Norris
Mary - Betsy Brandt
Walt Jr. - RJ Mitte

After a strike-shortened first season, "Breaking Bad's" return approximates the mental state of its central character: The show appears chaotic, confused, in danger of careering out of control. Yet there's a guiding plan here, and a sense of uncertainty -- created by the hook of a protagonist with terminal cancer -- that keeps the series utterly compelling, since it's impossible to anticipate how the show intends to get from point A to the inevitability of point B. Season two is both grim and gritty, with the jarring feel of a Tarantino film -- and I inhaled the first three episodes like a junkie.

For those who missed the first batch, the series focuses on Walt White (Emmy winner Bryan Cranston, who also directs the premiere), a low-key high-school chemistry teacher who discovers he has lung cancer. With a special-needs teenage son (RJ Mitte) and an unexpectedly pregnant wife (Anna Gunn), he reconnects with a former student, Jesse (Aaron Paul), and begins cooking crystal meth, determined to sock away a nest egg before kicking the bucket.

Walt's act of desperation is fraught with consequences, beginning with the human detritus with which he's forced to interact. As such, he's faced with one moral dilemma after another -- the latest being his uneasy alliance with drug kingpin Tuco (Raymond Cruz), a wild, meth-snorting thug whose fits of rage can be directed at anyone unfortunate enough to be near him. Cruz isn't likely to win any Imagen Awards for the character, but he's crazy scary -- somewhere between Dennis Hopper in "Blue Velvet" and Hannibal Lecter.

Walt and Jesse's adventures with Tuco dominate these initial episodes, making the series less about Walt's midlife (or really, mid-death) crisis than a tense, brutal look at this foreign world through his eyes. It's almost like he's falling downstairs, morally speaking, with a camera perched over his shoulder.

Cranston continues to astound in the pivotal role, with Walt having calculated that he must raise north of $700,000 from his illicit enterprise to provide for his family. In the third hour, that inward tumult erupts into a sobering explanation about his current predicament -- reflecting a life filled with regrets and longing -- that has made this portrait of suburban masculinity an oddly appropriate companion to the earlier milieu that AMC explores in "Mad Men."

The supporting performances are also uniformly strong, including Dean Norris as Walt's brother-in-law, a gung-ho DEA agent who always seems to be this close to inadvertently stumbling onto Walt's second career.

And who knows, he very well might. "Breaking Bad" would seem to be hard-pressed to enjoy a lengthy run, but series creator Vince Gilligan and his crew have done a remarkable job in compressing events, so much so that you begin to lose track of how long Walt has left.

Until then, there's a message here that resonates dramatically as well as more pragmatically for an audience with plenty of options: Time is precious, so live for today -- or at least, today's episode. It's a mildly unsettling mentality, to be sure, but thus far "Bad's" mercurial formula adds up to one really good trip.

EW's review:
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Breaking Bad (2009)
by Ken Tucker

These days, TV characters seem to break down into two categories: You've got your supercompetent types, both serious (all the "CSI"
franchise folks) and smart-alecky ("The Mentalist"; spy Michael Westen on "Burn Notice"); and you've got your damaged-goods types, from "House"'s pill-popping narcissist-genius to the wild-child woman on "Saving Grace" to the meth-making, go-for-broke cancer-afflicted hero — um, make that ''hero'' — of "Breaking Bad."

I'm not saying one group is better entertainment than the other — I do like some "Mentalist" after a hard day's work, and remain devoted to the crispy original "CSI." But as far as the effed-up people go, Bryan Cranston's Walt White is my man of the moment, and "Breaking Bad"'s new second season is a doozy of dysfunction. Walt, you may recall, is a high school chemistry teacher using his powers for moral relativism: Yes, making crank and selling it is bad, but at least he's using the profits to leave behind a nest egg for the family when he dies. 
And that's good, in a twisted sort of way.

The twistedness, however, just keeps on coming. Having established in the first season that Walt, with his dumb-thug former student Jesse (the excellently stupefied Aaron Paul), will do anything, even kill, to make the money he needs for his family, the second season doesn't bother with soul-searching or recapping. Series creator Vince Gilligan ("The X-Files") starts off where season 1 ended, with Walt and Jesse cutting deals with the hopped-up, violent Tuco (Raymond Cruz, never over-the-top).

Meanwhile, Walt's pregnant wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn), is torn between sympathy for her husband and frustration over his erratic, secretive behavior. She's also had it with her self-centered, kleptomaniac sister (Betsy Brandt). Gunn's performance is artfully delicate, defined by all the clichés she avoids: never a shrew, never a doormat. And despite the series' one corny coincidence — Walt's brother-in-law just happens to be a DEA agent — Dean Norris' Hank is much less of a macho joke this season, and more of a man under his
own weighty pressures of work and family.

Ultimately, "Bad" is a superlatively fresh metaphor for a middle-age crisis: It took cancer and lawbreaking to jolt Walt out of his suburban stupor, to experience life again—to take chances, risk danger, do things he didn't think himself capable of doing. None of this would work, of course, without Emmy winner Cranston's ferocious, funny selflessness as an actor. For all its bleakness and darkness, there's
a glowing exhilaration about this series: It's a feel-good show about feeling really bad.

Grade: A

LA Times review:
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Getting the moral goods on "Breaking Bad"

The AMC series returns to find the stakes ever higher as Walter White fights for his soul.

by Mary McNamara
March 7, 2009

A few months ago, I found myself in the middle of a rather surprising debate over the merits of “Breaking Bad,” which opens its second season on AMC Sunday night.

The folks involved were critics, scholars, writers, producers and other representatives of the generally mouthy and highly opinionated. So the surprise was not that we disagreed but what we disagreed about.

No one took issue with the general brilliance of Vince Gilligan's show, the terrific writing, acting, direction or cinematography. for his portrayal of Walter White, a mild-mannered chemistry teacher who, upon learning he has terminal cancer, becomes a master chef of methamphetamine in order to bequeath his family a measure of financial security. Although the writers strike limited its season to seven episodes, the show received all manner of accolades and awards.

No, what bothered some was the show's message: that a desperate Everyman could find his true calling, his manhood, by manufacturing Grade A meth.

Yes, the idea of a science geek going street was blackly hilarious and Cranston's Walter was so beset and struggling that your heart went out to him. But were we really supposed to root for a guy who, a few episodes in, turned down a perfectly good job offer because it stung his pride only to seek personal salvation through a really good version of such a terrible drug?

Weren't we tired of the idea that crime is empowering (and an aphrodisiac), especially for those who once considered themselves nice guys? Wasn't it time we stopped celebrating the Bad Boy, stopped making it seem like life on the edge is the only one worth living?

Yes, that's right, a bunch of snarky, godless media types sitting around talking about morality. What can I say? It happens.

Especially these days when some of the best stories on television involve a rogues' gallery of transgressive "heroes" -- crooked cops, mobsters, adulterers, serial killers, prostitutes, drug addicts -- many of whom treat their pathologies with a wink and a smile or a persuasive voice-over. Going to extremes is the order of the day -- marriage is dissected through polygamy on "Big Love," multiple-personality motherhood is portrayed as kind of cool on "United States of Tara." House is still mean, drug-addicted, and reckless, and Satan remains the best character on "Reaper." White isn't the only second-career drug dealer in town -- over at Showtime, "Weeds' " Nancy Botwin is getting spanked by a Mexican drug lord. So why set your hair on fire over crystal meth?

Because "Breaking Bad" is set-your-hair-on-fire television, that's why.

And because what makes it such a powerful show also makes it a disturbing show, as the second season seems bent on proving.

Smart but never slick, funny but never glib, dark but never (praise all saints and angels) noir, "Breaking Bad" is actually not another addition to the Brotherhood of the Made Guy formula, it turns out to be the formula's antidote. And if people like me weren't wondering, "Wow, how far is too far, and is seeing the mushy grit of a chemically dissolved human being scooped up and thrown in a trash bag maybe it?" then "Breaking Bad" wouldn't be the show it is.

It was difficult not to watch the first season in a state of perpetual flinch. The relentless New Mexico desert light -- how disinterested could God and nature get? -- just seemed to add insult to Walter's injury: A man who never smoked, condemned to die of lung cancer. He was so lost and clueless as he invited evil into his life, thinking he could control it with math and attention to detail, just as if he had never met a drug addict before or even seen "Fargo." His former student turned sidekick, Jesse (Aaron Paul), was such a twitching, fried-brainstem mess you could practically smell him -- the flop sweat, the ashtray funk of his clothes, the chemical film on his skin.

In comparison, Walter's wife, Skylar (Anna Gunn), and son (RJ Mitte) were so soapy clean, so lovely and irritatingly real that the viewer felt complicit in their betrayal as we watched Walter dance with the devil.

In the second season, things are trending away from the humor in the situation. Having seen firsthand what his super-meth can do -- after snorting some, drug dealer Tuco beats one of his men into a bloody pulp -- Walter's swagger of newly awakened machismo is gone, replaced with something much grimmer that appears to be consuming him as quickly and effectively as the cancer.

This man is not finding his inner gangster, he's selling his soul, right before our eyes, and it is no longer going unnoticed either by him or his family.

The DEA brother-in-law is still a blowhard, but he's a brave blowhard who actually understands what's at stake. Still, we don't want Walter to get caught. Even though he deserves to get caught -- and needs to get caught, although maybe it's too late. Because when you willingly enter a world where murder is the cost of doing business, there really is no going back to a life of Diaper Genies and helping Walter Jr. make good choices.

As the second season seems intent on proving, it is impossible for a non-sociopath to lead two distinct and morally opposing lives, despite what some of our favorite movies and television shows would have us believe. Whatever is at the strong, still center of Walter White must either take a final stand or give way all together. Which will be something worth watching and perhaps even rooting for.

NY Times review:
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Better Living Through Chemistry
by GINIA BELLAFANTE
Published: March 6, 2009

When the AMC drama “Breaking Bad,” about a terminally ill scientist with a doomed career, inadequate health coverage, and a newfound taste for drug dealing, made its debut last winter, its aggressively dismal mood struck some viewers as groundless and a bit much.

The Dow, then, remained comfortably above 10,000; the insurance industry seemed robust, and most Americans did not know the name Bernie Madoff or wonder whether, in his baseball cap, he looked more like Barry Levinson or Larry David. The End of Everything as We Know It did not seem imminent. Now, of course, the extremist misery of “Breaking Bad” (which begins its second season on Sunday) feels virtually like reportage.

Even at the moment, it would be hard to compete with the misfortunes of Walt White, a former Caltech chemistry genius who failed to live up to the legend of his graduate student days. At 50, he is teaching high school chemistry in Albuquerque. Although he contributed to the work of a Nobel-winning team, the job, inexplicably, is the best he can get — there is no adjunct position at the University of New Mexico even remotely on the horizon.

Adding to the injustice, Walt’s best friend at Cal Tech has applied his talents to amassing a fortune and married Walt’s brilliant and ethereal-looking ex. At a birthday party for his friend, Walt discovers that all his other classmates are also living in houses of vast square footage. One brings a guitar that belonged to Eric Clapton, despite an invitation that specified no gifts. Having obeyed, Walt is mortified to add to a pile of lavishly wrapped presents some packets of ramen noodles with nostalgic value.

Walt is given to us by Bryan Cranston, who won an Emmy for his performance last year and deserved it largely for avoiding a tenor of bitterness that such collected indignities might easily engender. He plays Walt, a suburbanite with so much more to complain about than anyone out of a mid-20th-century American novel, as a man bewildered by his circumstances but loftily above grievance. There is a sustained Zen quality to Mr. Cranston’s performance; he seems like someone utterly immune to agitation.

And yet there is more and more to unnerve. That Walt is living out his grim existence in the combatively sunny Southwest is just another cruel joke, the chief one being that he is suffering from lung cancer — Stage 3A — even though he doesn’t smoke. The series began with Walt partnering with a former student in the crystal-meth business. Walt is so skilled around the test tubes and compounds that he doesn’t even need Sudafed as a base ingredient. He can cook up top-quality methamphetamine — the Château Lafite Rothschild of methamphetamine — essentially from scratch, which provides him with a more expansive supply than his competitors and thus the money to pay for the top oncologist in town.

Initially, Walt isn’t even moved to seek treatment — it is his wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn), who forces him out of his passivity. Since its outset, “Breaking Bad” has drawn the inevitable comparisons to “Weeds,” but the two series have very little to say to each other, partly because Walt is diving into underground economies out of a more gripping sense of fiscal necessity, but also because the drug trade seems to provide him with a sort of existential rejuvenation. He is making the most potent crystal meth in the city; he is excelling at something. And his decision to do so appears to be the first real choice he has made in years.

The show’s current season quickens the pace, but not at the expense of its meditative spirit. Walt is in trouble with his kingpin distributor, a gold-toothed psychopath who also happens to be under the surveillance of Walt’s brother-in-law, Hank (Dean Norris), an agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration who seems close to figuring out what Walt is doing when he isn’t receiving chemo.

There is a genuine suspense and thrill to the show now, but it succeeds largely as a treatise not on the tragedy of cancer but on the sheer monotony of it, the relentless waiting around. Aided by a camera that largely sits still and lingers, the series has a way of acutely portraying the attendant uncertainties and discomforts of severe illness as something like dull routine. In the first season Walt’s hair fell out in tidy patches in the shower, and whenever he retreated from class to go throw up, the same janitor was around to help him. The doctors are dependably tone deaf to the stresses of his condition.

In a stunning evocation of medical insensitivity, Walt, forced to see a psychiatrist when he disappears from his family for a few days, is asked why he took off. “Doctor, my wife is seven months pregnant with a baby we did not intend,” he explains in serenely blunt summation. “My 15-year-old son has cerebral palsy. I am an extremely overqualified high school chemistry teacher. When I can work, I make $43,700 per year. I have watched all of my colleagues and friends surpass me in every way imaginable, and within 18 months, I will be dead.”

“Breaking Bad” could make even Detroit or A.I.G. look, briefly, on the bright side.

"Breaking Bad"

AMC, Sundays at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time.

Created and written by Vince Gilligan; directed by Bryan Cranston; Mr. Gilligan and Mark Johnson, executive producers; Karen Moore, Stewart A. Lyons and Melissa Bernstein, producers; Sam Catlin, co-producer; Diane Mercer, associate producer; Lynne Willingham, editor; Michael Slovis, director of photography; Robb Wilson King, production designer. Produced by High Bridge Productions Inc. and Gran Via Productions in association with Sony Pictures Television for AMC.

WITH: Bryan Cranston (Walter H. White), Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman), Anna Gunn (Skyler White), Dean Norris (Hank), Betsy Brandt (Marie), R J Mitte (Walter White Jr.) and Raymond Cruz (Tuco).

Hollywood Reporter's review:
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TV Review: "Breaking Bad"
by Ray Richmond

Bottom Line: From great risk comes great rewards. "Breaking Bad" is as jarringly inspired as TV gets.

It's difficult to fathom a more dangerous and enthralling piece of television than "Breaking Bad," the AMC drama that is quietly redefining the creative and content limits of primetime. It broke from the starting gate last year like a gunshot to the temple, grabbing viewers by the throat and letting go only when the WGA strike interceded to slice two episodes from its first-season order of nine. But creator-producer-writer Vince Gilligan hardly seems to have been thrown off-stride to behold the first three hours of Season 2, which take us to a dark, chilling place rarely visited on the small screen.

Simply put, what Gilligan and company are crafting in many ways transcends the medium itself, producing material with an indie art house feel and a profoundly unsettling "No Country for Old Men" vibe. Moreover, star Bryan Cranston, the surprise lead actor winner at last year's Emmys, has raised his game even higher, leaving no trace of the goofball "Malcolm in the Middle" dad. This is television as God intended.

The "Breaking Bad" story line casts the brilliant Cranston as a pathetic high school chemistry teacher named Walt White who -- upon learning he's dying of lung cancer -- chucks it all to become a crystal meth chef in a mobile lab with a perpetually irritated ne'er-do-well former student, Jesse (the terrific Aaron Paul), to make enough money to provide for his family after he's gone. That family includes a pregnant all-American blonde wife (Anna Gunn) and an adolescent son afflicted with cerebral palsy (RJ Mitte).

Complicating matters further is the fact Walt's brother-in-law (a wonderfully pugnacious Dean Norris) happens to be a DEA agent. Whoops! Cranston and Paul enjoy a magnificent chemistry (no pun intended) that's at once grippingly harrowing and blackly comic, bumbling and stumbling their way through a world neither has any business being anywhere near.

If you were mesmerized by the claustrophobic look and style of a drama masterfully shot in the New Mexico desert by director of photography Michael Slovis, well, you ain't seen nothin' yet. The violence is more brutal. The mood is starker. And the suspense is pretty much off-the-scale, particularly in the breathtaking second episode, "Grilled," from writer George Mastras and directed by "Hill Street Blues" alum Charles Haid. The first two segments are greatly bolstered by a rip-roaring guest turn from Raymond Cruz of "The Closer" as a murderous psychopath of a dealer.

Cranston has tossed himself so deeply into this role it's possible to see into the very soul of his tortured alter ego. "Breaking Bad" is indeed so flat-out superb it appears to be operating at a different level than just about everybody else save AMC's own "Mad Men" and maybe a couple of shows over at FX. May it live long and prosper.

Airdate: 10-11 p.m. Sunday, March 8 (AMC)
Production: Sony Pictures Television and AMC
Executive producers: Vince Gilligan, Mark Johnson
Producers: Karen Moore, Stewart A. Lyons, Melissa Bernstein
Consulting producer: John Shiban
Co-producer: Sam Catlin
Writers: J. Roberts, George Mastras, Peter Gould, Moira Walley-Beckett
Directors: Bryan Cranston, Charles Haid, Terry McDonough
Director of photography: Michael Slovis
Production designer: Robb Wilson King
Costume designer: Kathleen Detoro
Editors: Lynne Willingham, Kelley Dixon, Skip Macdonald
Composer: Dave Porter
Casting: Sharon Bialy, Sherry Thomas, Shari Rhodes
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, RJ Mitte, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt, Raymond Cruz, Tess Harper, Mark Margolis, Steven Michael Quezada

Episode Title: "Seven Thirty-Seven"

Synopsis: Walt and Jesse once again bear witness to Tuco's incendiary disposition, which leads them to decide that it's time to put an end to their business dealings with him, but the question is how; Hank serves as a go-between for estranged sisters Skyler and Marie.

Discuss.

That was a crazy episode, and surprisingly, Bryan Cranston's quite the director too. Seeing Walt's descent into this crime world and the effect that it's having on his family is powerful material. Cranston and Aaron Paul make an excellent duo, and this Tuco storyline can't end well, so it'll be interesting to see where this hostage cliffhanger goes next week. I'm also glad that they're rounding out the supporting cast more. They didn't have as much time to do that last season with the writers' strike, but now more can be done there hopefully. Anna Gunn had some great scenes here, particularly the one with Dean Norris, and if the show can ever break out with Emmy nominations beyond Bryan Cranston, they can start by seriously looking at Anna Gunn in supporting actress and Aaron Paul in supporting actor (maybe Dean Norris too eventually). Raymond Cruz is great too as Tuco, and a complete 180 from Lt. Sanchez on "The Closer." Really strong and dark season opener.

Grade for "Seven Thirty-Seven": A-

Ditto to everything said. Splendid opener, and Cranston did a great job both in front of and behind the camera. I'd love to think Gunn and Paul could break through -- they both showed their true colors here and did a stellar job in the process.

Episode Grade: A

That was an amazing start to the season.

Who knew Cranston was such a great director?!

Possible tape for Series, Cranston and Gunn.

Well, there's another contender for multiple Emmy awards, with this one episode. Absolutely brilliant. Dark and intense, amazingly entertaining.

And great news on the ratings front, 1.7 million tuned in, up from last season's average by 42%

Episode Title: "Grilled"

Synopsis: Trying to dissociate themselves from the volatile Tuco takes a bad turn when Walt and Jesse get trapped with the dealer, and Skyler, worried about her missing husband, receives comfort from her sister and brother-in-law; Hank, meanwhile, pays a business call on Jesse's mother.

Guest Stars: Raymond Cruz, Tess Harper

Discuss.

I liked how they framed the episode as a missing-persons case for Walt, with Walt Jr. making flyers and Skyler posting them around town, and Hank meeting with Jesse's mother as a last resort. Tuco was crazy in this, and Raymond Cruz had a great run with him. I was equally taken by Mark Margolis here, who routinely is a scene-stealer in his guest appearances, and did that again as Tio with that bell of his. I was expecting a much more gruesome end for Tuco based on what they did last season, but it was interesting seeing Walt and Jesse try to manuever out of the hostage situation like that, and when both Jesse and Walt botched the poisoning attempts.

Grade for "Grilled": B+

Another brilliant episode! They are really off to a great start.

Episode Title: "Bit By a Dead Bee"

Synopsis: Walt and Jesse attempt to cover their tracks and distance themselves from Tuco, but they soon find that business is taking a hit along with their financial situation; Hank and his DEA investigation into the meth ring get a major break that just might put Walt and Jesse in their crosshairs.

Discuss.

The plotting in this episode was insane. I wondered in the beginning how Walt and Jesse were going to manuever back into their normal lives after all that had happened with Tuco and Hank on their tails, but having Walt fake amnesia and Jesse staging his own arrest was brilliant. I can't get over this show sometimes. Bryan Cranston has a first possible tape submission with this (his scene with the psychiatriast pretty much had Emmy-bait written all over it), and Aaron Paul's showing excellent range with this and "Big Love" this season. They're also making Hank a bit less one-sided this season, which is welcome too.

Grade for "Bit By a Dead Bee": A

quote:

Originally posted by Atypical:
The plotting in this episode was insane. I wondered in the beginning how Walt and Jesse were going to manuever back into their normal lives after all that had happened with Tuco and Hank on their tails, but having Walt fake amnesia and Jesse staging his own arrest was brilliant. I can't get over this show sometimes. Bryan Cranston has a first possible tape submission with this (his scene with the psychiatriast pretty much had Emmy-bait written all over it), and Aaron Paul's showing excellent range with this and "Big Love" this season. They're also making Hank a bit less one-sided this season, which is welcome too.

Grade for "Bit By a Dead Bee": A

I am loving this season. All three episodes have been brilliant. If they continue to put out high quality episodes like this, I would support a Best Drama Series win.

That shot of Walt on the bus was amazing. I also loved how they brought in Tuco's grandfather/uncle/whatever (the old man with the bell) I was like...oh shi%!

Cranston for the win again!

Episode Title: "Down"

Synopsis: Despite Walt's attempt to reconnect with the family, a suspicious Skyler keeps him at arm's length and worries about what he's been up to while he's been away from the house; Jesse finds himself on the streets once again and struggles to improve his lot in life.

Discuss.

Man this episode once again was intense. Plus, Aaron Paul has more material for the Emmy's, he was amazing. Nothing was going right for Jesse.

I was on board before, but now I'm really on board for the Aaron Paul Emmy campaign. Great showcase for him.