Breaking Bad

One of the few shows or movies that did live up to all the hype. Brilliantly written and acted.

It was pretty good.

Ecch

Well written and kept up the pace of constant high quality. I just found every character except the teenage son to be irredeemable and unlikable. The subject matter is not positive

I didn't like it at all. Boring and repetitive.

Say My Name.

I watched the first two episodes and just could not get into it. A lot of visual ugliness or something.

It had some clever plot twists throughout its run and a satisfying ending.

I put it a tier below Sopranos, The Wire, and Mad Men.

Another one of these “sell me on this show” posts.

Aren’t there scores of reviews of this, the sopranos, etc?

One of the best ever, although I do think I started hating most of the characters towards the very end.

1) Breaking Bad 2) The Wire 3) The Sopranos

They glorify meth and shooting up

Thanks OP. Now I am craving Los Pollos Hermanos!

Hated the characters by the end. Not the show, exactly, although the ever-increasing reliance on gunfire to keep it moving eventually became wearying, but just the characters themselves. I didn’t want to hear any more of their lies, delusions, plots, plans, and bullshit.

I did love that one guy, though. Gale, pottering around his apartment, watering plants and singing Italian show tubes. So of course he was murdered in cold blood.

That reminds me- I've got to BREAK some BAD wind.

Sometimes it felt like a Matlock show. Oh and that Fly episode. So stupid.

I liked Jesse but he was such a pitiful character too.

I don't even like crime shows or action movies, but I got sucked into this show. Some scenes made me nearly fall out of my chair. (You'll know them when you see them.)

R18, I found Jesse so hard to watch. He had a heart, but so whiny, so petulant and impulsive.

My favorite drama of all time.

A few shows had better premises (Mad Men), a few shows had better writing (The Wire) a few shows had better acting (Sopranos), a few shows had higher peaks (Six Feet Under), but not one show had enough of each of those to be better or more satisfying than Breaking Bad.

Way overrated. It will not pass the test of time. Better crime show is The Wire. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good TV. Just don’t suck it’s cock and build pillars to it.

Excellent series. Bad ass, man!!!

Hank was my favourite character. Schraderbrau!

I love Baking Bread.

It was good but I agree with the people saying The Sopranos and The Wire were superior.

One of television’s top shows ever.

[quote] The subject matter is not positive

Not exactly an accident.

[quote] They glorify meth and shooting up

There’s always a few of you out there, aren’t you? People unable to tell the difference between DEPICTING something and ENDORSING it! ANYONE who came away thinking there’s anything ‘glorious’ about meth is someone too dumb to live.

Don’t you have a book burning to attend? We know dangerous thoughts need to be suppressed.

Have I missed much by not watching El Camino?

Eh.

The 2000s had some amazing television.

Great stuff and scientifically accurate.

Jesse Pinkman is must vomit tv. Most annoying pussy on a tv show ever.. and that is saying something with fucking Skyler White on the same show.

All the characters were unlikable and the premise was preposterous. It seemed like a wank fantasy for dweeby straight guys; telling his overbearing wife to stuff it, being more tough and cunning than the macho Mexican cartel heavies and the authorities etc. That aspect of it reminded me of the film Falling Down with Michael Douglas.

[quote] Jesse Pinkman is must vomit tv.

Jesse annoyed, but he was the true prodigal son that Walter White loved and wanted.

He always found his own handicapped son deficient -- he had no patience for his two-footed driving, and he resented how much Jr. preferred Hank. What cinched is when he accidentally called Flynn "Jesse."

[quote]It seemed like a wank fantasy for dweeby straight guys; telling his overbearing wife to stuff it, being more tough and cunning than the macho Mexican cartel heavies and the authorities etc.

This. It was a great show, but I think one of the reasons it’s hailed as THE GREATEST is because it has the straight fanboy army to constantly beat into our heads how brilliant it is. They’re very haughty about it, too—or they used to be, back when it was airing. The IMDb board was like a fucking Greek chorus. I wonder if they’ve moved on to a different show.

Loved it and then they killed the kid in the bike and melted him in acid, bike and all. That’s when I said “too much.” But the ending was indeed satisfying, especially the ultimatum that the lesbian from Friends got.

I despised Marie.

A good show that had moments of greatness. I think the talk of it being the “greatest” show is wild hyperbole, for a few reasons.

1) There were moments of unintentional silliness that, for me, are unacceptable in a drama (axe wielding twin assassins, the terrible CGI of Gus Fring’s death, etc).

2) Aaron Paul is a—let’s be generous—mediocre actor, which is a problem, since his character has the second most screen time in the series.

3) And the worst sin of all is that too often in the show the desired plot outcome is transparently driving the characters’ actions, and especially Walt’s. It’s backwards characterization. So in one episode, Walt is ruthlessly trying to cap someone in the head execution-style, but a few episodes later he’s all blubbery & distraught because Pinkman’s girlfriend (who he despised) died in front of him.

Ultimately it’s a show that’s not nearly as clever as it (or its rabid fans) think it is, but it was a good watch all the same. Hank Schrader was great; not coincidentally, he’s the only character that had a proper arc that made sense from beginning to end, truly earning his dramatic payoffs.

Is it also belle Game of Thrones or The Crown?

El Camino was fine. I can't remember anything about it. Totally not necessary.

Breaking Bad, Sopranos and Mad Men, in no particular order.

[quote] but a few episodes later he’s all blubbery & distraught because Pinkman’s girlfriend (who he despised) died in front of him.

But that’s not what happened. He deliberately chose not to assist her and let her die. I don’t recall him blubbering about it at all.

R41, with The Wire rounding out the Mt Rushmore of dramas.

The mid 00s were the absolute zenith for TV.

Even network had interesting shows: Lost, Brothers and Sisters, first season of Heroes, Gilmore Girls.

There's going to be spoilers in this OP, in case you want to avoid them.

I didn't think the show handled Hank right, there had been so much happen that Hank either had to have suspected Walt OR they had to deal with the fact that Hank was a dumbass. There's even a moment where Steve Gomez seems to start to suspect Walt, just for a second. Instead, they had Hank find out and freak out and that was it, no real examination as to why he never suspected Walt, not even a quick flashback to something he should have picked up on and and him realizing in hindsight what had been happening.

It felt like the writers just didn't want to deal with it, they couldn't decide how to handle Hank so they just didn't handle him at all.

Also I'm almost positive that trunk gun in the final episode was something I saw on MacGyver or A-Team as a kid.

R42 That whole storyline with the ensuing plane crash was stupid and even more unrealistic than the usual ones.

The actors gave me hope. Hope that i’d eventually like the show and the acting. It never happened. Both the plots and the characters lacked depth and believability, esp Bryan Cranston and Jesse Pinkman. The good news is, it spawned Better Call Saul. A much deeper show that actually has characters you want to follow on screen and make you interested/curious/concerned in their development.

Mike? MIKE? Who didn't love Mike?

My top 3:

1. The Wire

2. Breaking Bad

3. The Sopranos

Breaking Bad just wasn't funny. It didn't seem authentic; It was bland and pretentious tbh.

Season 1 was almost a comedy at times, with all of the hijinks that resulted from Jesse’s boneheadedness, and with Walter running around cooking meth in his tighty-whities.

[quote]R32 Jesse Pinkman is must vomit tv. Most annoying pussy on a tv show ever..

I couldn’t bear his scenes most of the time. Which was grating, because he’s about half the show.

[quote]R35 it has the straight fanboy army to constantly beat into our heads how brilliant it is… The IMDb board was like a fucking Greek chorus.

They loved that it had barely any female characters, too. A real sausage fest.

You can make a Breaking Bad bro fan really mad by arguing that Mad Men was better, because they consider that a “girl” show. (It was significantly better btw.)

seeing aaron paul shimmy down the side of the building with no clothes got me hooked

Where was my eye candy? I don’t watch premium TV for something I could sooner wipe my ass to get a look at. One star.

If they had added [italic]avant-garde [/italic]challenges, like on Project Runway, it would have been better.

Breaking Bad seemed like The Sopranos successor but it's Gomorrah. It has that real element that works. Not goofy plot twits just for the thrill of it.

Aaron Paul and a lot of the Latino guys were hot so there was that. I like the sexy Mexican assassins and was really bummed out when they died.

I enjoyed Jesse’s bone head friends, who played a pivotal role in the finale.

Brilliant with unexpected surprises.

Stunning and brave.

Boring. Overdramatic. Characters completely unbelievable.

R62 A methhead like Pinkman being played by Aaron Paul who has perfect pearly white teeth is the first giveaway. They didn’t even try to be realistic.

I got drawn in by the initial plot set-up. Middle class science teacher learns he has terminal cancer, and frantically grabs at making meth to support his soon-to-be-bereft family. But, after a while, as the deaths piled up, I realized he was really a murderous, power-mad psychotic, and I lost all sympathy.

Technically brilliant, but the characters all became repellent.

“Better Call Saul” is actually much better.

Better call saul is way too slow paced and boring.

Better Call Saul is less gimmicky. And at least it has a substantial female lead to add more variety and dynamics.

I liked this scene:

I enjoyed watching Breaking Bad, though it took me most of the first season to really get into it. But once I finished it, I never had a desire to watch it again. Unlike the Sopranos, which I rewatch start to finish every couple of years.

I'm surprised at the lack of Skylar hate here.

Skylar and the gimp kid made me irrationally angry at my screen on the regular.

I think Barry is brilliant as well, if you're looking for more comedy with your regular blood and guts stuff.

R68, Skyler had very annoying qualities, but she was realistic, and Anna Gunn did a tremendous job in the thankless role of a frau discovering that her husband is a stone-cold psychopath.

Anna Gunn's acting was fine, but she had a different face in every season. The producers should have told her to lay off the plastic surgery.

Skylar = also a psychopath. And she was pregnant for eleventeen months so...

Skylar was good - especially when she created and ran the car wash to launder the dad’s money.

What did she do that was sociopathic? I don’t remember.

I loved her episode with the IRS, pretending to be a dimbo. She also had a great episode on Law & Order. I liked both those much more than her character on Deadwood.

[quote] He deliberately chose not to assist her and let her die. I don’t recall him blubbering about it at all.

Good on him! I’ve rarely hated a character as much as I hated Jane, which is remarkable since there were plenty of horrid people on the show, but she grated on me.

Also, no ones mentioned the awesome Gus Fring? One of television’s greatest supervillains? Is there a consensus that he was an undercover gay? That’s a LOT of revenge to take for just a ‘friend.’

[quote] Skylar = also a psychopath. And she was pregnant for eleventeen months so...

The show didn’t run in ‘real time.’ I think it was supposed to be 18 months from start to finish.

Ta r1. Better call Saul.

Gus Fring was an amazing character! And yes gay and partnered with his restaurant partner killed by Hector Salamanca.

Parts of Season 3 felt hokey and like it was written by an entirely different set of writers.

Anna Gunn and Woody Harrelson might be the same person.

A live action cartoon but highly entertaining.

The 2000s era drama TV scenes make the show date terribly. My bff told me this and now I totally agree with him. I’ve seen very little of the Sopranos, but it is a much better production. Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul were excellent together, though. Great acting chemistry.

Were any good porn parodies made of the show? I can think of a few ideas.

I watched all of Breaking Bad and the first three seasons of the Sopranos.

It seems like Breaking Bad was created to fill the gap that was left when the Sopranos went off the air. Both shows have similar themes. A middle age man enjoys being a tough guy while pretending he's doing it for his family instead of for his own ego. Breaking Bad has a lot more action, and its violence is more creative. It makes the Sopranos seem like a soap opera.

I’ve never seen The Wire or Mad Men so I can’t say where’d they fall, but Breaking Bad, Six Feet Under and Schtisel are my top three.

[quote] The 2000s era drama TV scenes make the show date terribly.

True, but this show did some very subtle things excellently. Like Jesse still clinging to his saggy, baggy-bro fashion (very late '90s bro when he was presumably in high school) in the era of emo and skinny jeans.

R86 Because people in places like New Mexico are always way behind by years on fashion trends, but still a major mistake to not give Jesse’s busted methy teeth.