TV is the New Reading

‘Breaking Bad’ breaks

ground with dark

images, storylines

“What’s the matter? Never seen a severed head on a turtle before?”

No. No, I haven’t. Not before a couple of weeks ago, that is, when the severed head of a Drug Enforcement Agency informant turned up on the back of a tortoise in a particularly eye-popping installment of “Breaking Bad.”

But then, before “Breaking Bad,” I had never seen a man’s body partially disincorporated in hydrofluoric acid in a bathtub, only to come crashing through a ceiling to splatter about in someone’s hallway. Also, I’d never seen an automated teller machine crush someone’s head before.

Such is the world of chemistry teacher Walter White, played in all his twisted darkness by Bryan Cranston. Ever since his diagnosis with terminal lung cancer, coupled with his lack of health insurance and life insurance while his wife is pregnant with his second child – and his astonishment at the amount of money nabbed in a local meth bust – he’s been leading a double life as Mr. Heisenberg, cooking up glass-grade crystal meth in New Mexico.

But a buttoned-down suburbanite can’t just cook up the best meth anyone’s ever tweaked out on. He’s got to sell it, and this commerce puts him in touch with a former student, small-time meth dealer Jesse Pinkman, and several truly unsavory characters.

Turtle guy

As it happens, the fellow mounted on the back of the tortoise was not among them. We met that gentleman mere minutes before in a hotel room where he was ragging on White’s brother-in-law, Hank.

Hank’s a newly promoted DEA agent in the southwestern United States who hasn’t learned Spanish and the turtle guy, nicknamed “Tortuga” – or, the Tortoise – was ordering luxury items for his hacienda on the taxpayers’ dime in exchange for ratting out his colleagues.

Cut to the desert, where Hank’s colleagues are ripping on him for his naivete. Hank, doing his best to ignore them, spots something in the distance. On closer investigation it’s actually Tortuga’s head, clambering along on the back of a tortoise with the words “Hola DEA” carved into its shell.

The other agents start laughing at Hank’s horror at what he was seeing. “What’s the matter?” they hooted as he reeled back toward the vehicles. “Never seen a severed head on a turtle before?”

Their laughter subsided when Tortuga’s head, packed full of explosives, detonated, cratering the tortoise and taking out four DEA agents and the lower leg of Hank’s new partner.

In terms of “in your face,” that was pretty bad. Hank, a larger-than-life figure in his local operation, was already feeling out of his depth, having panic attacks in the elevators. And the quick violence of a meth addict crushing the head of her husband with a stolen ATM aside, much worse was the day Pinkman spent with the couple’s malnourished and neglected son, in terms of a good hard look at how horrible things can get in the lives of drug addicts.

Antihero

Plus, the costs of doing business keep ramping up. As White’s operation expands, so do his liabilities. Most recently, one of Pinkman’s dealers got nabbed by the DEA and White had to part with more than $80,000 of his hard-earned drug money to spring him loose. On top of that, his attorney tracked “Mr. Heisenberg” to his mild-mannered chemistry teacher persona in a matter of hours.

As the second season progresses, between White’s failing health, mounting costs and Hank’s eagle-eyed investigations, the show seems determined to throw obstacle after obstacle in the way of White’s ability to secure the American Dream for his wife and family.

And sympathetic as White’s motives well may be, given the ravages and violence of narcotics on society – as witnessed in the show itself – he’s the very definition of the word “antihero.” You can’t really root for him, but at the same time it’s hard to avoid doing so.

“Breaking Bad” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on American Movie Classics.

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