Breaking Bad: "Mas" Is All About Chemistry

Breaking Bad start with a disclaimer, you say?  Anytime one of the darkest shows on television feels a need to warn you ahead of time that the sex and violence might be too much to handle, you'd expect to be changing your pants by 11 o'clock.  Sadly, "Mas," the titular marker of Walt's return to the meth game doesn't add up to much more than an hour-long place setter.

Yes, Walter's gone back to the criminal lifestyle and we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief that episodes like last week's "Green Light" will do more than simply bide their time in waiting.  But the fact that we don't get to actually see him making that decision places a very dour note on the momentum-shift. 

A testament to Bryan Cranston's acting to be sure, but Walter seemed so resolute in his decision to abstain from crime, that I'm hard-pressed to understand what besides Gus's speech about a man providing for his family could have changed his mind, and why we couldn't have seen it.

But it's a great reminder of Walt's character to see him geeking out over the equipment and facilities of his new set-up.  It's almost enough to overlook the insanity that is running a state-of-the-art crystal meth superlab guarded by a super-secret entrance in a laundry factory.  How quaint.

"Mas" gives more of the spotlight to Hank, however, and that's good and bad news.  We're seeing him come apart at the seams more and more, losing his friend and partner to the very job offer he ignored out of fear, but it still doesn't' feel like enough.  It gives Marie more to do than kleptomania, but there's no reason for Hank to still be in denial.  Either break down so we can push the character along, or get off the pot.

And speaking of character development, what the hell happened to Jesse?  One week he's a suave drug-pushing devil with blue eyes, and the next he's ending every sentence with "bitch," grabbing his crotch and wearing that ridiculous hat again.  Setting up Walter and Jesse as rival dealers is a fantastic storyline, but it won't be half as interesting to watch if Aaron Paul loses the character development he's put in.

This week's narrative winner would have to be Skyler.  We're slowly getting to watch Anna Gunn break bad (notice she's even started wearing more green), and while her continued relationship with Ted doesn't' make much sense, her remaining love for Walter and temptation to spend the fruits of his labor feel exceptionally real.

It's not the best Breaking Bad has to offer.  But at least we got some AMC boobs out of it.

Someday, my love.