THAT TIME WALTER WHITE FROM BREAKING BAD DID IMPROV AS A BRITISH METALHEAD

This just in from Vulture: two years before the premiere of best-show-in-the-history-of-ever TV series Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston — the actor who plays nebbish school-teacher-turned-meth-cook Walter White (and previously played the dad on Malcolm in the Middle) — appeared on the first-ever episode of the U.S. version of Australian improv comedy TV show Thank God You’re Here. And for those of us accustomed to seeing Cranston as Heisenberg on a weekly basis, Cranston’s nimble, light-hearted, comedic impression of a British rockstar is surprisingly hilarious. Watch:

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read any further if you haven’t seen this past week’s episode!

So… what did you think of this week’s train heist? For a show that’s had very few, if any, missteps over its five-season course, I think this is a pretty major one. Here’s what I wrote in an email to a friend right after watching:

I mean, it’s cool in theory; who doesn’t love a good train heist in an action movie? But this isn’t an action flick, and somehow, in a show that has many fantastical elements — giant magnets to erase hard drives, mobile meth labs, guys chained to poles with bike locks, poison flowers, etc — a train heist seems somehow TOO fantastical. I can’t ever remember feeling that with this show in the past… it was always somewhat believable. A train heist seems like too much. Not in the way it was executed, but just that it exists at all. Surely the writers could’ve come up with some other way to get these guys their methalamine.

That said, the show executed it really well from a directing standpoint. My heart was racing, and Emily was literally on the edge of the couch. As far as train heists go, this was a great one. There was obviously going to be some kind of event that prevented it from going off completely smoothly, and that it came in the form of the good samaritan was fitting (and ironic).

The twist at the end involving Landry (lol) [actor Jesse Plemmons, who plays “Todd,” appeared as the well-meaning Landry Clarke in television series Friday Night Lights] almost redeemed the cheesiness of there being a train heist. THAT is what we’ve grown to expect from Breaking Bad… the unexpected. But I said “almost”… not sure I’m down with this episode.

Wat u think??

-VN