The reviews are unanimous in their approval, and nearly all of them arrive at the same place: Bryan Cranston. Reviewing the pilot in 2008 or looking back years later, critics single out his performance as the mild-mannered chemistry teacher who starts cooking meth after a cancer diagnosis. Vince Gilligan’s writing draws the next most praise for mixing desperation, dark comedy and suspense without settling on one. The later pieces, written on a rewatch, add that the series plans ahead carefully and rewards a second viewing.
The reservations are small and scattered rather than shared. The Hollywood Reporter finds the early episodes too relaxed about the drug at their centre. Variety worries the series is front-loaded and may play like a little-seen indie film stretched across television. The Guardian, otherwise admiring, notes the female characters are thinly drawn. The spread of scores is narrow, from warm to warmer, and nobody dissents from the whole.