Madrigal

After the heart stopping finish to season 4, we are now starting to see how everything falls into place in season 5. This episode shows us how small and insignificant Albuquerque is in the grand scheme of things. Madrigal is the real evil in Breaking Bad and we are now just starting to find this out. The landscape has changed and it promises to be be a wild season to follow.

'Breaking Bad' is one of the most popular rated shows on IMDb, is one of those rarities where every season has either been very positively received or near-universally acclaimed critically and where all of my friends have said nothing but great things about.

Very few shows in recent memory had me so hooked from the very start that before the week was over the whole show had been watched, especially when for a lot of shows now airing watching one episode all the way through can be an endeavour. 'Breaking Bad' had that effect on me, and its reputation as one of the best, consistently brilliant and most addictive shows in many years (maybe even ever) is more than deserved in my eyes. Its weakest season is perhaps the first season, understandable as any show's first season is the one where things are still settling.

Actually everything is established remarkably from the very start, but once the writing and characterisation becomes even meatier the show reaches even higher levels.

It would be a hard task following on from such an incredible start to the season, but "Madrigal" does so brilliantly, it really does sing. It is a transition episode, but a fine one at that, and may not have the tight pace and red-hot intensity of the best episodes, but everything that makes 'Breaking Bad' as a show so great is present. Lydia is a fascinating character and the episode is worth seeing for her and how she's introduced, Madrigal itself cuts a formidable presence.

Visually, "Madrigal" is both stylish and beautiful, with photography and editing that are cinematic quality and put a lot of films today to shame, where there are a lot of visually beautiful ones but also some painfully amateurish looking ones. The music always has the appropriate mood, never too intrusive, never too muted.

The writing in "Madrigal" is a fine example of how to have a lot of style but also to have a lot of substance. The dialogue throughout is thought-provoking and tense, while also have a darkly wicked sense of humour, nail-biting tension and heart-tugging pathos. The story is texturally rich, intimate, tense and layered, with the pace of it consistently deliberate but taut.

Can't say anything bad about the acting. Bryan Cranston is phenomenal as one of the most fascinating anti-heroes, or even of any kind of character, in either film or television. Aaron Paul has never been better and Anna Gunn is affecting. The supporting cast are both intriguing and entertaining. The characters are compelling in their realism, likewise with their chemistry, and the episode is superbly directed.

In conclusion, truly impressive. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This was a great episode to further establish season 5! This episode dels with investigating Gus's connections as well as Walt's interest in continueing the business!

This episode begins with an intense opener that gives us a hint of the extend of Gus influence, as well as how many was actually involved in his meth-business! While unraveling this, we are introduced to Lydia, one of the villains of the season! We learn that she will put herself before anyone else, based on her opinions and actions!

The scene with Walt and Jesse involving "The Cigarette" was really emotional and somehow dark thanks to Aaron Pauls acting and out knowledge of the truth!

A very important moment... in a show all about the importance of important moments... has, after the now classic polite-interrogation scene between Hank/Gomez and Mike... and after both Mike, then Hank, were able to one-up each other...

Mike leaves the room, door closed behind him, and the camera stays on Hank and Gomez, who have been main characters from the beginning of the series (ie a main character and his sidekick), and they don't say anything because, at this point, Mike is as important as they are...

It's a great scene from one of the more bizarre episodes... in that its comparably so corporate and clean compared to all the others... including a prologue set in Germany that seems almost like another show altogether (or perhaps simply foreshadowing the more offbeat and colorful BETTER CALL SAUL)...

Then there's poor "banjo-eyes" Lydia being visited by Hank and his agents, and while this is her first appearance as one of the primary Final Season players, it seems like she's been there all along... for more reasons than her character having been an important phantom operator in Gus's overall operation...

A business that's now handed to Walter White in what feels like a back-to-basics/garage band aura for his overall hit-and-miss odyssey: being in charge yet having less actual control than ever.

After the jaw-dropping season premiere, the outrageous in Breaking Bad is getting cranked down.

This episode centers around Walter's pulsating desire to fill the power corridors and start cooking again. In this quest of his, he is ready to make some uncanny alliances.

The highlight of the episode, however, is the introduction of a new villain, Lydia (Laura Fraser), a former associate of Gus Fring who works for Los Pollos Hermanos' parent company, Madrigal. She is described by Fraser as being "extremely highly strung, calculating, enterprising," who wants to "survive at all costs." However her intro is far from this description. In this episode she is seen as nervous, jittery and extremely uncalculating.

This episode also reinforces the concept that has been the center-piece of this series so far; "the things we do for family".