I imagine Bryan Cranston's ...
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Question: I imagine
Bryan Cranston's win for
Breaking Bad was a shocker for most people watching the Emmys. I know I did a double take. I thought my husband and I were two of the five or six people in the country who watched it. In fact, I've never met anyone who's even heard of the show, and when I tell them the plot, they cringe. This is a hard sell even by fans like myself. I can't seem to convince anyone that the story and acting around the plot, while being the darkest of dark comedies imaginable, is still hysterically funny. I'm not yet a fan of the other actors except for his teenaged sidekick, but
he is fabulous. Like most critics, I'm not sure how long the show can continue to grow given its bleak storyline, but most shows really are not meant to go on forever. I'm curious to know what you think about the win. Is it just that Cranston is popular in Hollywood? Would that be enough to propel him to a win for a show nobody ever heard of or watched? Or is AMC being rewarded for taking risks with new and exciting original series? And lastly, do you think this win will help to find the show a bigger audience? Maybe even a dozen people watching?
Answer: Bryan Cranston's win was unquestionably the surprise of the night, but a refreshing one in that it made me think that the voters in this category actually watched the screeners to make this unexpected pick. When I
reviewed the show back in January, I dwelled at length on Cranston's revelatory performance, which only grew stronger over the course of the season.
Breaking Bad largely flew under the radar, and can be a difficult show to watch and (as earlier noted) to promote, but there's no doubting that Cranston was worthy of a nomination and a win against such heavyweight competition. In terms of analyzing the win beyond the obvious merits of the work, I would add that I know few actors in Hollywood who are as well-liked or as genuinely personable as Bryan Cranston, and in some ways you could see the win as making up for him having been passed over so frequently during the
Malcolm years. (Loved his acceptance speech joke: "I guess the restraining order has been lifted.") The fact that he's a good guy taking a major career risk didn't hurt his chances. It's also true that this is the year that AMC arrived at the Emmys, with
Mad Men triumphant in the top drama category. I'd like to think the Emmy wins will help grow the audience for both shows, but I won't hold my breath, especially for a show as challenging as
Breaking Bad. What really matters in this case is that the Emmys did right by a show that could use the exposure. If only
Friday Night Lights and
The Wire had been so fortunate.
