Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 3: "Open House" Review

Tweet As always, this review may contain spoilers, so if you have not yet seen the episode and do not wish to have anything spoiled stop reading here; come back when you have seen the episode.

Remember a time when you were younger?  More specifically, do you remember middle school?  I don't remember most of it but what I do recall is always looking forward to the first day of school.  The chance to see people you have not seen in a while, play some recess basketball, and all that good stuff.  Then a week in you realize that its not what its cracked up to be and you pray for the last day of school.  That is kind of what this season of Breaking Bad has been like so far.  We were so excited for it to start up again, but now prey that the Breaking Bad of old comes back.  Don't get me wrong, this is still a great show, with very good actors and a very interesting story-line, its just that...right now the show is in transition and its not as good as it was before.  That's not to say that it wont get there, it will just need some time to.  The writers know what they are doing and if these episodes are necessary, then so be it, I will wait.  So how has 'Open House' continued the trend of the other 2 episodes?  Lets examine things.  The problems I have with the current season are as follows: Walter has been reduced to a secondary character, Hank has been reduced to an annoying character, Jesse has been reduced to a one-dimensional character, Marie brings back an old (and boring) story line of hers, and the police (or lack there of).  You may have noticed that I did not take my obligatory shot at Skyler, this is because she actually displayed something in this episode (and that character development was a long time coming).  But more on that later, for now lets focus on the bad.

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 2: "Thirty-eight Snub" Review

Tweet Sorry this review took a bit of time, with Champions league action underway and The addition of a new staff member (check out his debut article for us here)  I only recently had enough time to put together this review.  As always, there may be spoilers ahead so beware and enjoy!

After the way season three of Breaking Bad ended,  it almost feels awkward watching season four's much slower pace.  The wonderful thing about Breaking Bad is that it can set whatever pace it wants and the quality of the program will not suffer.  'Thirty-eight snub', like 'box cutter' moves slowly, but is developing some key story points for later.  One of these points is Walt's continuing character development.  Remember in season one how all we wanted was for him to succeed?  How bad-ass he looked at times playing the role of his alter-ego 'Heisenberg'?  All of that is gone now.  He has truly broke bad, and at this point it really is tough to root for him like we once did.  Major props have to go to Bryan Cranston for portraying this change of character in Walter White as the series moved along.  It really is unbelievable that this guy was once the dad from 'Malcolm in the Middle'.

In this episode we see how Walter is attempting to cope with his current situation, an uneasy relationship with his employer Gus.  While the logical thing for him to do would be to just keep cooking and leave it at that (after all, he always wanted a professional relationship in the meth business).  However, Walt has his own way of dealing with things and apparently can not co-exist with Gus anymore.  Here we are treated to a nice scene portraying how Walt has changed from a moral stand point.  Back in season one he flat out refused to commit murder, now?  He is buying a gun with no cereal number, intending to use it on Gus.  The Breaking Bad staff as usual does a nice job of making the scene feel realistic.  I do not know much about buying guns illegally, but what I saw in this episode feels accurate enough.  Ultimately Walt does not kill Gus, at least not in this episode, but who knows anymore?  The reasons for this can be summed up in two words: intelligence and Mike.  Gus is far too intelligent to allow him self to be vulnerable at this point as he has correctly guessed Walt's plan. On the other hand, Mike is way too skilled to let Walt even think of getting within 50 feet of Gus.  This combination will make it difficult for Walt to do anything and when he tried to get Mike to betray Gus in this episode, he got a much deserved beating.