Pilot

Episode Summary & Review

Summary

A high-school chemistry teacher (Bryan Cranston) is diagnosed with a deadly cancer, so he puts his expertise to use and teams with an ex-student (Aaron Paul) to manufacture top-grade crystal meth in hopes of providing for his family after he’s gone.

Our Take

Walter White, a 50-year-old chemistry teacher with a pregnant wife and a teenage son with cerebral palsy, learns he has inoperable lung cancer. On a ride-along with his DEA agent brother-in-law, he sees a former student, Jesse Pinkman, fleeing a meth lab — and sees his way out. The two partner up to cook in an RV in the desert, and the pilot ends with two dead dealers, a hostage in a basement, and Walt delivering a video confession to his family while we flash back to him standing in the road in his underwear. The best pilot of the modern era.