Breaking Bad: The Complete Fourth Season (DVD Box Set 4 Disc)

This item arrived quickly via Amazon Prime.The picture quality of this Blu-ray is fantastic. Fine detail is plentiful and colors are quite vivid. The audio is clear as crystal, and I noticed no technical issues with the overall presentation of this season on Blu-ray. The acting is very strong in this season, particularly from Giancarlo Esposito who plays the main antagonist Gustavo Fring. While there still seems to be a bit too much time focused on Walt's family, the overall narrative is still immensely strong.This fourth season continues the journey of Walter White, the former high school chemistry teacher who turned to drug manufacturing in order to provide a financial nest egg for his family after his diagnosis of lung cancer. As the season begins, Hank is still recovering from the cartel's assassination attempt and begins to suspect Gus Fring is involved in drug smuggling, Jessie slides deep into depression and drug use following his murder of Gale, Walt is trying to keep Gus from killing both him and Jessie, and Skyler is trying to find ways to launder Walt's illegal earnings.All in all, the acting and presentation of this season is immense. As I said in the review for season 1, there is a reason that this show has been regarded as one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of television. It's a frightful and engaging journey into a world of violence, money and mistrust, told from the perspective of a once timid and fearful man fighting to finally gain the respect and authority he's been denied his entire life.It's a solid season, and one that looks and sounds all the better on Blu-ray.

There's nothing wrong with the story line or episodes in Season 4. The series itself is the best drama ever to come to TV. Period. End of Story, as Betsy Brandt's character is wont to say. That's not the issue. The problem is that for those of us with significant hearing loss who depend on captions or subtitles will find these discs in particular do not have either. The DVDs are in French and Spanish. Well, hallelujah! Twice in Spanish for some stupid reason. I do not speak either language. For unexplained reasons, when Sony Entertainment put this season together wherever they do these things, people speaking English were completely left out of the picture. No captions or subtitles for you, speaker of English. Fooey on you! So, taking the bull by the horns, I finally got a decent answer from Sony quite recently. They apologized and said that this season above all others, made the mistake of no captions or subtitles in English. Does not really make any difference if you have an all-region DVD player. What matters is if you have a decoder. If you are sharp enough to install VLC Media Player onto your home theater operation, more power to you, because it might be able to decode what's on there. Lo and Behold, it might even be English! Good luck with that. I can play the DVD on my computer and VLC is there and able to to decode. Not so with DVD players(2 of them) in my living room where it is more comfortable. Drat! But at least Sony coughed it up and said they goofed up. Imagine that. An apology from this corporate giant.This DVD series is an important season to watch because of what's to come. And I ain't tellin'! Good luck with the captions and subtitle hunt in English.

My addiction to this series is no different from the addiction of the methamphetamine users who are the consumers that main character Walter White supplies.Take a lifelong nerdy high school chemistry teacher, make him go off the deep end when he is given two years to live, throw every crazy unimaginable problem someone who cooks meth can have at him and you have something so suspensefull you can't tear your eyes away.Lead actor Bryan Cranston's wrinkled face and perpetually horror stricken expression supplies the backdrop to some truely gruesome yet fascinating situations. This character wallows in deception and immorality, lying continually to those he loves, never giving a moments thought to what he is actually doing to contribute to the misery of the addicts he is supplying. Any thoughts of right and wrong are strangely lacking in this man. And yet, his friends and family continue to see him as a good and decent fellow. His wife finally must accept that he is a constant liar and up to no good but gets sucked into his greed.All the acting is great in this. From Walter's wife Skylar, who starts out as naive and moral and quickly succumbs to join her husband in his persuit of money, to DEA agent Hank, who although good at his job is obnoxious consistently in his forced, crude insulting humor, to his wife Marie who has amusing episodes of kleptomania, each character is fleshed out and interesting. Sleazy shyster Saul Goodman (s'all good man) provides comic relief.Son Walt Jr. provides the one character that remains pure, in contrast to his parents.Never have I seen anything that threw at the characters so many horrific dangerous situations simultaneously. Danger comes at Walter from every possible place. His lifebecomes a juggling act of lies, violence, drug cartel murderers, and greed. While it was baffling to see this lifelong good guy turn into such a cold violent monster so easily,it was fun to see him squeek by continually as he walked the criminal tightrope between life, prison, and death.There were lots of glaring instances of ridiculous improbability at the end of the last episode which unfortunately I can't reveal here or it would spoil it for people who haven't yet seen it. These instances were disappointing to me, as up until then this show had been pretty believable, without too many loose ends. One concerns reporting to work at a drug lab in plain view of lots and lots of people and not expecting to get caught as well as leaving your car parked in front of it every day.Season Five begins next month. Hopefully you will be caught up with all the Season Four episodes by then because each episode is a continuation of the last.As for me, I can't wait to see where this picks up. Will Walter continue his drug making?How will he get it sold? What will happen to his partner?This is the best TV dramatic serial of all time in my opinion.

MGM are noted for making slushy cheesy films filled with unbelievable stories of rich man meets poor girl; falls in love; and the woman gets to live a life of luxury. Not so here - MGM have broken the mould - for what you have in a gritty 'tell life as it really is' story – the sort favoured by Warner Brothers.Here is a ‘story well told’ that is filled with twists and turns that will have you on the edge of your seat - a story that is a 'black comedy' full of pathos, juxtapositions, intrigue, murder, and much much more as it examines the ‘dark’ side of ‘the human condition’.These are not two-dimensional characters without any depth that one encounters in many many films and TV series - these characters are real and 'true to life. All of the characters are seriously flawed; all of the characters are 'two-faced'; not one of them is 'nice' - and every character has their own 'hidden agenda' - and while you find that you cannot 'warm' to any of them, these sleazy double-dealing, double-crossing characters will speak VOLUMES to you – and make you question YOUR integrity.It is a six-star production - but I am only permitted to award five.

If you've never seen this, you're really missing out. Strong language, drug & alcohol abuse, and violence from start to finish but beautifully filmed, great drama (and dark humour) and the perfect soundtrack (I'm a fan of 70's hard rock but the 21st century music chosen for specific scenes has opened my ears). Watch on BluRay with 5.1 surround sound turned up and you'll feel like you're in every scene with them. Many, many scenes (especially the cliff-hangers) take your breath away.The extras on most of the discs are great, too, although the sound and pictures of these are 2nd-rate. The menus could have been better, too, but overall, the best drama I've ever seen. Better than The Bridge and The Killing, which are excellent, too.Final tip is that when watching them, on the later discs, you can start to watch the next episode (for a second or two) and then pause it. If you then turn off your BluRay and go to bed, you can pick up there the next day without having to go through all the menus. Don't know if this is a later development and if it's now a standard but I found it very useful.Anyway, just buy the whole series now and watch it over the winter (we're now watching it now for the second time and it's still as good as the first time).

This item only took a day to arrive. Amazingly fast! Very strongly packaged and came with a nice free membership to LoveFILM :DUpon opening, the item is brand new and sealed along with the delivery note inside. I unpackage the item to find a very nice slipcase for the DVD, and the DVD box itself inside the slipcase.Overall, I highly recommend purchasing this item as it is very good and the episodes are breathtaking and have you hanging on the edge of your seat wanting to see what happens next.I must warn you, Once you start watching, it's rather hard to stop. Highly addictive!Update: 21st January 2013:Just over half way through this series, the tension between Jesse and Walt grows and skylar finds it more and more difficult to keep Walt's dark secret safe from Walt Jr.Highly recommend to all. Cannot wait to watch the last 6 episodes and pre order Season 5.

What an explosive series season four is! The build up in season three really does come to fruition here. Each episode is blindingly gripping and the story rattles along faster than any series before. The downward spiral of Jessie and Walt's fractured relationship comes to a giddy head in this series.Full of twists and turns and double crossing this is superbly written. You never quite know what is coming next and who is playing who but to watch Walt become more and more of a criminal king pin is fascinating. Jessie also steps up to his mark with his rise through the ranks but in a much different way.Season four ends with a bang and a masterful double play which will keep fans hungry for the final season. Terrific drama played to maximum effect.

While BREAKING BAD is certainly good, it's not - as some would have you believe - the greatest show on television. I could name a few I thought were better. Sopranos, perhaps?Its chief flaw is that there isn't a single character to root for. They're all just terrible human beings. And I struggle to believe some of the behaviour the screenwriters asked the actors to portray. Too often while watching this series I found myself thinking, "He's not going to that, is he? Oh, he is."BREAKING BAD is good, better than 90% of tv series. I'll leave others to argue about which series is actually the greatest ... we all have our own ideas about that.