Breaking Bad - Series 2

This series saw the show continue to become more stronger.

This series, due to the Writer's Strike of 2008 which cut short the first series, started by wrapping up the series 1 continuity in the first few episodes. It was interesting to see how in wake of Tuco's demise, Walter and Jesse started to take his place as distributors and I liked how they learnt how to deal with problems and build their empire and how this would cause more conflict among Walt and Jesse. This also allowed for the dark side of the drug world to be shown, especially through Jesse meeting a kid left alone in a crack house and the murder of the kid's father and his friend Combo. The introduction of Saul Goodman, Gustavo 'Gus' Fring and Mike Ehrmantraut, also helped to make Jesse and Walt's influence more prominent and powerful.

The series also focused more on how Walt's lies and actions impacted on his family life and how it caused it to start falling apart. Within this, more stronger characterisation of Skyler and Walter Jr took place, allowing them to grow more effectively and hold their own against the development of other characters. The build up of lies and trying to deal with the criminal world saw Walt neglecting his family, especially with him missing the birth of his daughter in order to make a deal with Gus and prompting Skyler to leave him. One character in particular who had a great deal of good development was Hank, which took place after he was traumatised from his showdown with Tuco and the bomb explosion in Juarez. This saw him become more of a deeper and well thought out character that I could sympathise and connect with.

It was good to see more development into Jesse with his family throwing him out and having to try and fend for himself. Through this and the many traumatic events that happen to Jesse throughout the series including the death of his girlfriend Jane Margolis, I see how much Jesse was tested and had to grow up a lot. In contrast, Walt become more darker and determined to see the operation increase, while after learning that his tumour had decreased it was interesting to see how he sought the excitement and instead moved into a willingness to commit crime instead out of the need to. This helped to further his development a lot and move the character into new territory. His darker side can also be seen when, after Jane had relapsed and Jesse became addicted to heroin, Walt watched as Jane choked on her vomit and died, and then left, leaving Jesse to think it was his fault.

Walt's action can be seen as very terrible after the mystery of the pink teddy and the other teasers seen in numerous episodes was revealed to be the result of a deadly and destructive plane collison caused by Jane's grief-stricken father, showing how Walt's action are starting to have far reaching consequences. Although the old Walt still comes through by his support of Hank and how he saved himself and Jesse from dying in the desert. Although the quick deterioration of their friendship comes as an interesting way to end the series.

Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul gave superb performances, along with Dean Norris who did very well with Hank's new development.  Anna Gunn and RJ Mitte also gave strong performances, while Raymond Cruz gave a very convincing and good performance as the crazy Tuco Salamanca.  Bob Odenkirk, Giancarlo Esposito and Jonathan Banks did well to add a lot of new areas of exploration for the show.