He is slicing up ginger with the precision of Marco Pierre White, and preparing some sort of exotic broth that I can’t imagine Funyon-fiend Jesse would enjoy. On the contrary, Gus is as calm and collected as ever. Pinkman edges around the kitchen nervously, flattened in fear. This is Jesse’s last chance to lace Gus’ food with ricin, and he is atrocious at playing it cool. Two dinners in particular stick out to me, the first of which is when Gus invites Jesse over to his house for a lovely and terrifying homecooked meal.

The dinner table in Breaking Bad is another site for huge amounts of conflict and negotiation, which is as true to real life as you can get (especially if you have ever seen my family play Cranium after a boozy birthday dinner). Apart from maybe Kevin Bacon’s recent return to the small screen. It’s a damn desperate sight, probably the saddest use of bacon in all of television history. He arranges his own bacon to say ‘52’, a last gasp attempt at normalcy before the inevitable demise of all things. She tearfully stands up and rips the bacon into a messy ‘51’, ever the dutiful wife caught between some bacon and a hard place.īy his 52nd birthday, a now-anonymous Walt is alone in a diner in New Hampshire, miles away from his family. When he goads Skyler to arrange Walt’s birthday breakfast, it is an image of menial tragedy. Walt Jr doesn’t know any of this yet, he just thinks his Dad is good at counting cards. By his 51st birthday, Skyler is laundering Walt’s meth money for him, she has had an affair with Ted and about 2 million people have died as a result of Walt’s transgressions. This bacon barometer becomes a bit of a yardstick for the show, a salty signifier of their lives slowly eroding around them. She even thoughtfully made it vegan because she is worried about his health (spoiler alert: too late for that sister). They may not have presents, champagne or an unannounced pool party ( that comes later) – but they do have his age in bacon.

For now, it’s a picture of middle class domestic bliss. The cutest, saddest little ritual that becomes even more heartbreaking in retrospect. It’s an iconic dish, straight off the bat. It’s Walt’s birthday, and Skyler has cooked eggs with her signature ‘50’ written in bacon. walt jr loves breakfast (h/t buzzfeed)īreakfast is the most important meal of the day, so it’s no mistake that it opens season one of Breaking Bad. Trust me, you can learn a hell of a lot about someone from a plate of food. Not only is it accurate, but the food often plays a key part in the plot, even assisting characterisation at times. Which is why, I think, Breaking Bad is a pristine example of on-point food representation. I want lengthy dinners where you see the preparation, the meal itself and the clean up. I want more realism, more people dropping something delicious on the ground and picking it up to eat it anyway. People go on dates but only pick at breadsticks (so dry!), walk out of cafés without paying (illegal!) or simply never eat at all (aliens!), and it pisses me the hell off. So it is my all-time biggest gripes when film and television ignore the finer details of food consumption in everyday life. I want to know what’s for lunch tomorrow. I want to know what you’re having for dinner. I want to know what everyone is eating all the time. Alex Casey, however, wishes to applaud a less critically-indulged area of the Breaking Bad universe: the wondrous food of Middle America. Breaking Bad is acclaimed for delivering heart-stopping drama, spectacular violence and television’s most infamous anti-hero.

New jr writer 2015