Breaking Bad Wind
“I have spent my whole life scared. Frightened of farts that could happen, might happen, might not happen. Fifty years I spent like that. Finding myself awake at three in the morning, holding it in. But you know what? Ever since my diagnosis, I fart just fine.”
– Walter Brown
Breaking Bad Wind is an American drama television series set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is the two-year-long story of Walter Brown (Bryan Cranston), a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer at the beginning of the series. Realizing that he has spent his whole life frightened of cutting the cheese in front of others, Brown resolves to spend his remaining years cooking methane and teams up with his former student, Jesse Pinkring (Aaron Paul), a Tex–Mex addict.
Premise
The show was created by Vince Gilligan, a former script writer for The X-Files, who noticed that, despite the long-running and terrifying nature of the series, "We didn't hear so much as a squeaker from Mulder or Scully." He took his idea of a show where the characters had "real lives, real problems, and real gas" to Fox, but the idea was rejected as being "too vulgar", the first time the network had made such a decision. So he went to AMC, formerly American Movie Classics, ironically a network synonymous with old farts.
The show was sold on the authenticity of each character's letting one rip. Gilligan said in an interview, "Whatever show, however realist it was supposed to be, always used the same stupid raspberry sounds. From the pilot on, I insisted that all my actors drop their guts for real."
Such was Gilligan's quest for professionals, he even employed Giancarlo Esposito as Gas Fring, a Chilean overlord, despite the fact that Esposito spoke very poor Spanish. "To me the two balanced each other out," Gillian explained. "His Spanish wasn't the best, but no one who ever shot a scene with Gian could doubt his dedication. There was one day when Bryan [Cranston] just kept fluffing a line. Gian must have had to drop ass twelve takes in a row, and he did it. That's a professional."
For the first few seasons, all actors were expected to kill the canary on the spot. As the series went on, the script called for more and more booty ticklers and Gilligan reluctantly agreed to let actors record their panty burps when they felt one coming, in a makeshift, on-set recording studio, called the Cook House.
Characters
- Bryan Cranston as Walter Brown, a chemistry teacher diagnosed with lung cancer who turns to making methane. As the series goes on, his character becomes darker, as does his underwear. Cranston said he was attracted to the idea of playing a terminally ill man after six years working with Frankie Muniz on Malcolm in the Middle.
- Anna Gunn as Skyler Brown, Walter's wife, was extremely bloated for the first two seasons, possibly with wind. She becomes increasingly suspicious of her husband's constant sneaking out.
- Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkring, Walter's former student, a Mexican food addict who partners up with Walt and makes high-level methane. Paul recalls that he had to work hard at developing his street talk: "About halfway through season 1, it hit me: just start every sentence with 'eh yo' and call men 'bitch'."
- Dean Norris as Hank Schrader, Walter and Skyler's brother-in-law and a Federal Air Regulation Department (FARD) agent. There is a constant tension throughout the series, as Walter is almost constantly baking brownies right under Schrader's nose.
- RJ Mitte as Walter Brown, Jr., Walter and Skyler's son, who was born with a serious handicap: no anus whatsoever. This means that when he speaks, he sounds like shit.
- Giancarlo Esposito as Gas Fring, a high-end low-end distributor who owns a fast food chain and produces more methane in the south-west than all the cows you could name. His name is a pun on "gas firing", the phrase Gilligan's son used to refer to flatulence.
- Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodfayer, a sleaze-ball lawyer who regularly brings moments of light relief to the show.
Episodes
Season 1 (2008)
"cooks" and real time "gang bangers".
“Nah, come on, man, some straight like you doesn’t decide all of a sudden ... at age what? 60? ... that he’s just going to break wind.”
Struggling high school chemistry teacher Walter Brown is diagnosed with inoperable, advanced lung cancer. When the doctor gives him the news, Brown accidentally breaks wind, and something inside him snaps. In his soul that is, not like something literally snapped in his bowels. He decides never again will he hold his farts in.
On a ride along with his FARD agent brother-in-law Hank (Dean Norris), Walter sees a former student of his, Jesse Pinkring (Aaron Paul), fleeing the scene of a burning Mexican restaurant.
It dawns on Brown that with his chemical knowhow and Jesse's street smarts and contacts, they could produce the purest methane-inducing food known to man. He later contacts Jesse and the pair team up.
Walter and Jesse's chemically enhanced "meth" soon proves popular but draws the attention of the Mexican community, who like to have a monopoly on farts in the region. They are kidnapped by Tuco Salamanca, who takes them to his ranch in the middle of the desert.
Tuco is ultimately shot dead by Hank, on the scene after the FARD got wind of Tuco's whereabouts. The FARD takes Tuco's senile uncle, Tío Salamanca, prisoner but he refuses to be a stool pigeon.
Season 2 (2009)
“I’m a blowfish, yeah! Blowfishing this up!”
Walter finds himself facing insurmountable medical bills from his cancer treatment. He turns from using the flatulence-producing food on himself to mass-producing it for others.
His and Jesse's incipient business runs into early trouble, when a flatulence-loving couple steal some of their purest beans-and-cheese mix. Jesse finds out their address and goes after them but is knocked out while playing Peekaboo with their son – fatally focusing his attention on an orifice apart from his anus.
When he comes to, he finds the man trying to drill into the bottom of a stolen ATM machine while his wife demands some of his cheese to "even her out" after too many beans. The man refuses to give her any of his stash, and refers to her repeatedly as "skanky ass". The woman takes offense at this apparent slight at her back-end blowouts and pushes the ATM onto him, which ironically forces one last flatulent sound from his body.
Jesse flees the scene, but is deeply affected having seen the effect wind is having on the community. He becomes more and more of a heavy user of chilli, so much so that he causes his new neighbor Jane to develop a habit. The two begin consuming so much Mejicano that Walter refuses to give Jesse his half of the money until he gets clean (in the pants department).
Increasingly concerned about his partner's health, Walt breaks into his house to find Jesse asleep next to Jane. He blurps directly into her mouth, killing her. Meanwhile, Skyler starts to smell something fishy and demands a separation.
Season 3 (2010)
“I fucked Ted.”
Walter wishes to reunite his family, but Skyler is still suspicious of him. Walter believes he can mend the tension between them by confessing to her that he has been producing methane. Skyler is appalled by the confession and demands a divorce. Some time later, she begins an affair with Ted, her colleague, and, tellingly, consents to anal sex with him, symbolically blocking the orifice that is behind all her marital troubles.
Meanwhile, Gas Fring offers to pay Walter $3m to bring his chemical wizardry to his novelty Mexican restaurant chain, Los Pedos Grandes, where customers pay through the nose to burn through the butt. Jesse finally gets his pants clean, but continues to produce methane by himself. However, he struggles to produce the chemically pure farts that Walter managed, and Hank is sniffing around, on his trail.
Season 4 (2011)
right under his nose.
“I AM THE ONE WHO POPS!”
The degeneration of Walter's moral character becomes clear: he has moved on from simply farting openly in front of others in season 1, to producing his own methane-inducing concoctions on a mass industrial level. He now openly wishes to make the entire South West so flatulent that it will become a national security threat.
Jesse begins to spiral out of control, depressed by the death of Jane in season 2 and the mark he is making on society. A symbol of how altered he is comes in episode 4, when he shaves his own and others' buttocks during a rave at his house.
However, Walter and Jesse are bound together by their common enemy – Gas Fring – who is attempting to get the most pure methane out of the pair, all the while playing them off against a flatulent cartel of Mexicans. Walter ultimately kills Fring, working with Tio Salamanca in a touching scene of multicultural cohesion, as the pair combine efforts to create a homemade Dutch oven which blows half of Fring's head off.
The season was the most poorly received of the series, with critics complaining that the characters' flatus, which had at one point been used sparingly, was now so constant it was difficult to understand the dialogue.
Season 5 (2012–2013)
“I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really ... I was alive.”
The show's moral agent comes back with a vengeance. Walter is depicted as being wracked with paranoia about being caught by the authorities, and is constantly spraying air freshener in his wake. Despite Walter's best efforts, Hank begins to smell a rat.
Hank's suspicions are confirmed when he finds a book of dirty limericks which had been given to Walter by an ex-associate of Fring's. Hank's reaction is one of the most famous moments of the series.
Hank angrily confronts Walter, accusing of him of "rubbing my nose in it" for the last two years, but without evidence, he struggles to pull the plug on (or rather, plug up) Walter's operations.
Walter's just deserts consequently come from a difference source: after two seasons of little or no mention of his illness, he receives some shock news: while his lung cancer has "cleared up nicely", years of abusing his sphincter has led to him developing rectal cancer.
The last episode ends ambiguously, with a close up of Walter's buttocks and what appears to be a tiny episode of flatus. Some fans see this as Walter "exhaling his last" while others maintain it is a sign that his wind, like his indomitable will, shall go on.
Reception
Critical reception was initially mixed, with some critics turning their noses up at the show.
Daniel Thomas of The New York Times sniffed: "If HBO regularly takes this country's television to the gutter, AMC seems content to stay in the toilet." Some critics complained that the show made no sense at all, with Michael Smith of the Miami Herald asking, "Are we expected to believe Walter Brown's air truffles are so special that a hard-nosed criminal like Gas Fring would let him live? The basic concept stinks."
However, John Taylor of the Los Angeles Times said, "They say farts are like your kids – you only love your own. But I have to say, I love Bryan Cranston's too." Likewise, Michael Barryman of the Detroit Newspaper wrote, "This show combines real farts with real emotion – that's not to be sniffed at."
Terry Byman, initially a supporter of the show, disliked the change in Walter's character in season 5: "He has gone from anti-hero to monster. Once I celebrated Walter's bottom burps as the war cry of the downtrodden everyman – but this season his farts have really put my nose out of joint."
Many social commentators kicked up a stink about the way the series glorified flatulence, with the consequent possibility of copycat crimes. "I know somewhere in America there is a kid watching Breaking Bad Wind, and brewing up some methane at the same time, and that makes my stomach turn," said Reverend Jackie Jesson.
The show won several MTV Awards, including Most Farts in An Original TV Series and Nicest Male Ass for Aaron Paul.
Saul Goodfayer
The show has proved successful enough for AMC to commission a prequel, Better Call Saul, based on the adventures of Walter and Jesse's lawyer, Saul Goodfayer. In Breaking Bad, Saul's primary contribution to the show was to introduce and explain a fart expression every week.
Writer Vince Gilligan likened the device to Colombo's regular references to his wife, "except we replaced the spouse with an anus".
Even the character's name is a pun on "it's all good for you", referring to the relief of expelling a brass eye-opener. Gilligan reflected in a 2011 interview that the "Beans, Beans the Musical Fruit" rhyme was a heavy influence on him at the time: "I just kept thinking about that line – 'the more you toot, the better you feel' – and I'd say it over and over again, turning it around in my head. I think in the end I drove my wife crazy with it, but I knew I wanted to make a reference to that with Saul's name, and so Saul Goodfayer was born."
However, Gilligan has recently revealed that Saul's scenes were among the most difficult to write. "It started off fun, slipping fart references in at every available moment. But it soon became an albatross around our necks. I have the utmost respect for anyone who manages to make fart reference after fart reference and still keep it fresh."
See also
