Bryan Cranston: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

2. Hal - Malcolm In The Middle (2000-2006)

If Walter White was the performance that turned Cranston into a genuine mega-star, it was Malcolm In The Middle that opened the door to that success, and though the two roles are fundamentally streets apart, there are some genetic similarities in the characters that suggests - even if it's somewhat unlikely - that Hal informed Walter White quite markedly. Inept, loveable and utterly comical, Hal belongs in the same bad father's club as Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin and Al Bundy: it's not necessarily that he is wilfully bad, he's just woefully inept, and Cranston perfectly sells the contradiction of a man who really wants to be a good husband and father but doesn't have it in him beautifully. Hal is a grotesque - a tragic but hilarious fool of the oldest type and he is rightly considered one of the greatest comedy constructs in sitcom history. His put-upon countenance is brilliantly engagng, and like Walter White, the pleasure is in his teetering just on the edge of normalcy, with wonderful pay offs when he slips over. And of course, the show also taught him some invaluable skills that would later inform his most famous TV role, including, for some reason, the value of wandering through important scenes in a pair of inappropriately small underpants...