Stylized Realism: The Cinematography of Breaking Bad, Season 1 | Features

"Breaking Bad"'s more traditionalist elements—like domestic and workplace scenes marked by a combination of standard close-ups, American two-shots, and master shots—were, from the outset, invigorated by moments of conspicuous flair, as in the pilot's depiction of Walt standing in the middle of a desert road, his gun raised at approaching vehicles. It's an arresting image whose diagonal-line arrangement is repeated throughout the first season (see, also: Walt showing a coin to Jesse in episode two, and the lines of chairs in a doctor's waiting room in episode five). Other similar gestures also reappear, such as jazzy music montages of Walt and Jesse cooking, and creative POV shots from the bottom of a bathtub and the inside of a refrigerator or clothes dryer—all unique, tightly framed perspectives that reflect the characters' claustrophobic positions.

Further action movie-ish embellishments become prevalent as the season advances. Those include the monster-movie silhouette of Walt at the top of a staircase in episode three, the whiplash editing used for Walt's homicide in that same episode, and the clichéd sight of Walt not turning around or flinching as he walks away from a car explosion in episode four. That stylization reaches an apex in episode six, whose first fifteen minutes boast almost as many flamboyant strokes as the previous five episodes combined: an opening view of sparkling columns of light shining through a door's bullet holes; cross-cutting between Walt laying down the law to Jesse and forthcoming curbside chaos, highlighted by a dramatic zoom out from bald Walt's bloody face; a series of hallucinatory time-lapse views of the city, highway and desert; and a schizoid montage of Jesse slinging dope to a variety of colorful customers.

"Breaking Bad"'s aesthetic progression toward more overt dynamism is to some extent a reflection of the show's increasing confidence in itself, likely aided by the fact that cinematographer Reynaldo Villalobos ("A Bronx Tale") helms six of the initial run's seven episodes. However, it's also a fundamental articulation of Walt's own transformation from someone straddling a line between the everyday and the extreme, to a man more fully aware of, and comfortable embracing, his darker, radical impulses.

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