Breaking Bad returns tonight for a fourth season at 10 p.m. on AMC. Bryan Cranston has won the Best Actor in a drama Emmy three years in a row as chemistry teacher-turned-drug-kingpin Walter White, but he is not in the running this year. That’s because AMC bumped the show out of its usual late-winter start to July, thus missing the May 31 eligibility deadline. This gives these guys a chance at an Emmy win: Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire), Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights), Hugh Laurie (House), Timothy Oliphant (Justified) and Jon Hamm (Mad Men). They all deserve it, but I’d probably vote Hamm off an outstanding season, although it would also be pretty cool if Chandler won.
Cranston is an outstanding actor (think about it–this guy used to play Hal on Malcolm in the Middle!) and a good man to boot, just a warm, wonderful interview. You can’t help but cheer his good fortune.
Walter White, however, just gets darker and nastier every season. White is part of a pack of morally reprehensible leading characters who seemed so in vogue a season or two ago but now seem out of step as I argue in this article in today’s Toronto Star.
