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‘Breaking Bad’: Finding the funny

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We call this show a “dark comedy,” but until Sunday arrived, just about all of “Breaking Bad’s” epic moments had been purely dramatic. Sure, we’ve seen a pantless Bryan Cranston on advertisements for the show and witnessed such things as Aaron Paul falling into a port-a-potty, but to me those moments had been window dressing for what was always more of an emotional tale with a very raw, dark center.

The really good stuff? I immediately think of Walter White (Cranston) strangling a man with a bike lock, Tuco’s uncle tapping his bell and last week’s exploding turtle. “The end justifies the extreme,” is the show’s fancy tagline, and the extreme has always proved far more compelling than any of the humor that’s been sprinkled in along the way.

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On Sunday night, though, that formula changed. And to my very pleasant surprise, it worked wonderfully. No, masterfully. That’s how I’d choose to describe that one sequence with Walt, Jesse and the drug deal staged especially for Hank’s DEA surveillance camera. The surreal humor packed into those few minutes was funnier than anything we’ve seen to date on this show, and I haven’t even gotten to Saul Goodman yet.

Just to recap the fake exchange, here’s what was suddenly playing out before our eyes: a man committing a crime … for the benefit of two other criminals … because he prefers prison and has managed a way to go there and get paid for it … and all of this was orchestrated by a lawyer who twice suggested that the easiest thing for all parties involved would be for someone to just kill his client.

And then it got better.

The fall guy showed up late for the gig, throwing everything into hysterical confusion. Badger (Matt Jones) couldn’t figure out why the man beside him wasn’t making the exchange; the man couldn’t figure out why Badger kept trying to bug him; the agents in the surveillance vehicle were trying to figure out what was the big holdup; and Walt and Jesse looked on in absolute horror as they put the pieces together and realized that Badger had arrived to the wrong bench with the wrong bald guy. The right bald guy (there were a total of four bald men in this sequence, which may be some sort of record) was just now showing up, tardy to the one job he could absolutely not be tardy for.

And then it got better.

As it always manages to do, Walt’s brilliant mind went into overdrive just when the situation called for it. He peeled out, dropped a freaked Jesse off at the corner, then went over and stopped directly in front of his DEA agent brother-in-law and the surveillance camera that had been filming the whole thing. Earlier in the episode, Hank hilariously told Walt that they didn’t exactly have an ‘experiential overlap’ in their day-to-day lives. Now their worlds were colliding, but Walt was the only one in on the joke. “HEY! I THOUGHT THAT WAS YOU!” Walt said as he pulled up to the surveillance car, stalling as long as he could while Jesse whisper-yelled to Badger that he’d landed on the wrong bench. “Oh! You’re working!? … ‘OK, I’ll leave.’ … “Better if I go this way or that way?” My jaw was on the floor again, this time because of the humor. Few things are as funny as when the brilliant Walter White is forced to play dumb.

And then it got better.

Funnier than anything already mentioned were the two wordless moments to come. First, there was the way in which the bald guy immediately threw up his hands and dropped to the ground after the exchange, even before the cops moved in (I’m going to prison! Yay!) And then there was my favorite part – Walt scooping Jesse up at the other corner, but struggling with the lock just when they really needed to bolt. That passenger door, for a brief instant, just wouldn’t open. And it almost seemed like an outtake, one of those accidents that couldn’t possibly have been scripted because it was just so utterly surprising and perfect for the situation. Here were these two partners in crime, in over their heads, having just pulled off the most amazing of saves and yet … struggling with the car door.

This was either the result of Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul brilliantly staying in character as the door actually jammed, or brilliance from the writer’s room. Whatever the cause, the result on Wednesday night, when I saw an advance screening of this episode with about 400 of my closest friends, was a theater that actually applauded as it laughed. That’s how well the whole thing played, and set to the playful horns of a mariachi band, the entire sequence was like a waltz.

And now, let me get to Bob Odenkirk. He’s the actor who embodies the new guy, Saul Goodman, the sleazy lawyer who actually set up the whole fake exchange. I have to admit that when his cheesy commercial first aired, I chuckled but was also worried. Would a character like this be too much? Would the comedy be too broad?

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But then he busted his way into that interrogation room, where Badger was already being questioned, and he started to drop those lines about the cop (DJ Qualls) looking young enough to be in need of a nap and a juice box, and from then on I found myself laughing at nearly every punch line. The guy was just so despicable, you almost had to love him. Until, of course, he invaded Walt’s sacred haven – his high school classroom. And blackmailed him. Or didn’t blackmail him. It was a bit unclear to Walt what Saul wanted, or what he’d do if he didn’t get what he wanted. But we knew this wasn’t good. You don’t want a guy like Saul Goodman around any longer than he needs to be, but “Even drug dealers need lawyers,” Saul told Walt. “Especially drug dealers.”

The episode basically ended on that dark note. Bravo, Mr. Odenkirk, for playing a scumbag so convincingly. And to the writers for bringing in the comic relief and an intriguing new plot line to a show that needed a little air to be let out of the balloon this week – when you have a drug war and severed heads and exploding turtles in one episode, going a little lighter and allowing for a little more fun in the next is a welcome change of pace. Especially when the execution is as good as it was here.

-- Josh Gajewski

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