Giancarlo Esposito In Breaking Bad's[/i] Fourth Season Premiere: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid.

Giancarlo Esposito's performance in Breaking Bad's[/i] fourth season premiere was so electrifying that, as Woody Allen once said, "All the blood went out of my face and went to my brother."

You can hold on to your seat, but that is no guarantee that you'll be able to stay in it.

We sit in Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, watching Walter White and Jesse Pinkman go up against their boss and "King-pin" Gus Fring (Esposito) in a moment that is so pivotal and gruesome that... [and suddenly the lights come up[/i]]

Everyone audibly groans, expecting it to be the usual technical difficulties. But it isn't. The commentator yells out, "Is there a doctor in the house?" And now we are afraid. Very afraid. Giancarlo Esposito's acting is so powerful that I begin to wonder if it may have killed someone in the house.

The scene was so epic, so fantastically brutal, that a woman actually had to be carried out. And honestly, who can blame her? But in the end, everyone was fine, and the premiere continued. Actually, it was only fine for those of us in the audience. For those people left onscreen with uber-villain Gus Fring? They were totally on their own.

Out of AMC's "Embarrassment of Riches" (LA Times[/i]) Breaking Bad[/i], created by the brilliant Vince Gilligan, is the 120% show. Every aspect of the show, writing, directing, acting, music, and cinematography, is given the most care, attention, and talent possible. 120%.

The premise: a brilliant chemistry teacher is forced to cook crystal meth after being given a terminal lung-cancer diagnosis to pay for his health care and to provide for his family, and slowly becomes someone even he doesn't recognize. If it sounds dark, well, it is. But there is a kernel of goodness that resonates throughout the cast, and throughout Breaking Bad[/i] itself. The show is startlingly funny, and episodes like "The Fly" are as well written as a Beckett play.

Bryan Cranston has won the Best Actor Emmy Award three years in a row now, playing a man in a complete state of metamorphosis. But what kind of energy could one put up against his Walter White, a man of ethics, intelligence and scruples, placed in the most violent and unscrupulous of territories? Enter Giancarlo Esposito playing Gustavo 'Gus' Fring.