Breaking Bad, the TV Show
To provide for his family’s future after he is diagnosed with lung cancer, a chemistry genius turned high school teacher teams up with an ex-student to cook and sell the world’s purest crystal meth.
Breaking Bad is currently the #1 rated TV show of all time. It has a 9.6/10 rating on IMDB (with over 400,000 votes). That shit is damn impressive!
The focus of my post today is to talk about why I liked Breaking Bad, but I personally wouldn’t rate it 9.6. I might give it more like a 7.5.
Before starting the show, I had a vision for what I wanted it to be. And I suppose this vision may have contributed to my slight dissatisfaction with the show. I had expectations and high hopes! And they weren’t 100% met, which always sucks. 🙁
I imagined the “chemistry genius” (Walt) starting to cook crystal meth. Maybe he was a noob at the beginning, but I imagined him slowly building up this meth empire and becoming a crazy, scary, kickass drug lord. Like, imagine the drug cartel. I imagined him being the king of a drug empire like that. He’s a scary dude, people fear him, he has an insane distribution network..etc. And that’s where the series went wrong for me…
I’d say there was only one episode in all 5 season where I felt like that expectation was sort of met. View Spoiler »
So I guess my complaint is that Walt never reached the point I hoped he would. He spends so much time as an noob meth cooker, has a veeeeery slow climb to improve, then about 2 minutes of glory, then View Spoiler » . I wanted more time with Walt acting the “crazy, scary, successful drug lord” part. THAT’S what I was hoping for!
All that being said, I did like Breaking Bad. It’s a really interesting story and despite all the moral and legal issues of cooking meth, you can understand why Walt does it! Ultimately I was just hoping for a lot more in the series, and it never quite got to that point, which disappointed me. 🙁
But Breaking Bad is still a good show and I would recommend it! The first episode is a bit weird, so make sure you power through it and keep going (it gets better!). Maybe just try to lower your expectations.. or, better yet, don’t have any expectations at all! I think I would have enjoyed the show more if I didn’t have this idea built up in my head of what the TV show was all about.
I am about 16 episodes in and am pretty hooked. I was kind of hoping for Walt to be a badass drug lord but if that doesn’t happen no biggie. sorry that ruined it for you though.
I’m glad you’re loving it!!
I did still like it, I just wanted and expected more from it, and I’m bummed that I didn’t quite get that!
I had a little ‘meh’ feeling around season 3, but I think it ends very powerful. The whole morality question is super fascinating, but I have to agree with you. While it’s a very good series, I wouldn’t give it a 9.5 rating.
Not one that I have ever wanted to watch, just from the commercials I couldn’t why it was so popular. Not really into drug shows.
I also wouldn’t rate it a 9.6/10. Maybe an 8.5. I dunno. I really like the show, but there are shows I just like more. Personal preference, I guess. Some of the storylines in BB just seem to drag (Skylar and all her issues irritate the shit out of me – at one point, I just wanted someone to bust a cap in her. I still do ha!).
I really love the chemistry (no pun intended) between Jesse and Walt. I read somewhere that the Jesse Pinkman character was only supposed to last one season, but the chemistry between him and Bryan Cranston was so good, they wrote him in to the rest of the series.
Anyway, such a good show, and we are halfway through season 5. Like, exactly halfway, the part where Hank finds the thing in the bathroom and it all comes together. And that is exactly where Netflix US stops streaming! AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
I totally agree with you about Skylar. She started to really piss me off.
I ran into the same problem with Netflix but you can totally get around it. Just Google something like “How to watch Breaking Bad S5 part 2 on Netflix”. You can install like a Chrome extension to make Netflix think you’re in the UK or something (which is where it is already available).
I liked the show, but it was definitely time for it to end, when it did. I thought the first seasons were better then the subsequent ones, but liked it overall. My favorite character was actually Jesse. 🙂
Yeah I think you’re right. It definitely dragged a bit in the middle (I’d say that was the worst part). I got a little bored around season 3.
Everyone I know is raving about this series. I’m pretty hesistant about it, but since I’m studying Chemistry the nerd inside is dying to watch it. I’ll give it a try some day, but without the expectations.
I think the chemistry part of this series is pretty cool! Maybe you’ll like it. 🙂
Glad to know Chemistry is an actual concept and not just mentioned and then forgotten! Now I definitely want to see this 😀
It’s really hard for me to fall in love with TV shows, so I don’t know if I’d ever love this one but one of my friends was like to me “Eileen you have to watch Breaking Bad because it’s so amazing and one of the best shows out there.” I remember the finale was just recently but I think I may be a little more wary when watching it but I’m sorry your expectations for Walt’s character development weren’t met D: Fantastic review, though, Ashley! <33 I'm glad that you still liked this one.
By the end of Season 4, I was content. I was satisfied with that ending, and didn’t see the need for a whole other season. But then Season 5 happened and I ate my hat, because it accomplished SO MUCH. So many loose ends were tied up!
I never thought Walt would rise to rule over a drug empire; I always knew he was only in it for the money and the control. While ruling the empire would have given him a level of control, he would never have trusted anyone else to cook the meth to his degree of quality.
I consider Breaking Bad to be an amazing show and easily in my top 3 of all time. I thought Bryan Cranston did an amazing job of portraying the character of Walt. Maybe it’s because I watched the show when it first came out and not after all of the hype built up around it. It would be tough starting from the first episode now that it’s over and there’s such a huge amount of praise for the show.