What is your opinion of AMC's 'Breaking Bad'?

I was surprised that it actually lived up to the hype. It's incredibly well written and consistently interesting and compelling. It's tough to find faults in the series.

More than adequate

One of the best shows TV has ever given us.

Mostly "meh". Felt that it had a bit of a teenager pull "Look how badass it is to kill people and sell drugs!"

I need to finish that

Love when people say this. It is like their minds were completely off while watching the show. Or else they have a very wrong idea as to what "badass" or "cool" really means.

@SaintLeonidas: Did my post sound like I found it either badass or cool? I meant that I felt that's what they were trying to pull. The show was a mess with zero emotional connection...halfway through the first season I just wanted them all dead and someone to pick up the kids.

To me a lot of the violence wasn't really glorified. It was intense, it was nuts at times (the finale of "One Minute" comes to mind) but it never really felt glorified except maybe in the last episode. IDK to me the show definitely didn't side with the violent act (they spend over half of season 4 on how fucked up Jesse is because of the end of season 3) and didn't say "this is cool!" It's just one of those stories that is about bad people but doesn't really glorify it.

And as far as drugs go, the show was hugely anti drug. I can't remember any time in the show where drug use was ever positive aside from Walt's Chemo.

My god, how boring fiction would be if only stories with characters worth liking were ever written.

2nd best show i have seen.

Exactly. Like, the show may give the impression of glorifying drugs and murder, but upon closer inspection, you see that it is much more than that. There is a depth to it's plot, underneath it's initial premise.

It's quite good but starts to drag at a point. The first two seasons were by far the best, with Gus being the saving grace of the last few seasons. Honestly I wasn't as fond of the last season because Gus wasn't in it.

There should be at least one or 2 likable characters in every show in my opinion. Thankfully I don't need to approve of the shows you watch in order for you to have fun with them or vice-versa =)

The entire thing is about how Walter's decision to cook meth ruins the lives of literally everyone around him. It does not glorify selling drugs, it just says "this is something that could happen if this situation arose." Every single bad thing in the series is because Walt decided to start cooking. It definitely does not glorify drugs.

I don't get the whole killing is cool vibe, especially with how it messed up Jesse

No, you must like them.

I am at a lost at the idea the show tried to glorify Walt

Yeah, exactly. You said it better than I, sir (or madam?)

@SaintLeonidas: But mommy...sigh...fine >_<

I mean, the show is not the worst thing I have ever watched, the acting was solid, but I didn't buy any of it.

Teacher turned drug lord that all of a sudden intimidates everyone while dropping hints about his identity left and right, everybody else gets shot while he walks into every drug lord's den, does whatever the **** he wants, explodes half a building (seriously?)...and then people say "I liked the show because this is what happens when you get involved with drugs"...seriously? That's how you think live works?

No accounting for taste, I guess...I didn't like Breaking Bad, can't even stomach 30 seconds of Arrested Development, think there's no merit to The Witcher except ProjektRed's policies, almost fell asleep during the Avengers...oh well, I'm not with the majority but luckily there's plenty to keep me entertained (although the shows I watch tend to get cancelled XD)

sir :P Anyone who actually thinks about the story will find that the show isn't saying "hey this stuff is cool!"

The first half of season 5 had me worried and was EASILY the worst part of the show (which I felt had been consistently getting better and better). Thank GOD the second half of season 5 got amazing again and ending with such a good finale.

Oh and Breaking Bad is easily the best drama around. Can't say best show as I think you always need to distinguish between dramas and comedies as they operate and succeed on such different levels.

We just don't get the whole Walt was glorified thing

Seriously? You didn't get the whole "**** everyone, I'm the only one who matters?" vibe? Must have been just me then.

I prefer SFU and TW

@korvus: like the vibe that Walt was a self serving, self centered, manipulative ass?

Pretty much. What's your point?

I liked the ending but I don't think the second half of season 5 was particularly special.

As for best drama (if we're just distinguishing comedy and drama), I very much disagree. To name a few, Twin Peaks, Sherlock, The West Wing, Battlestar Galactica are all better.

@korvus: It seemed apparent that as the show progressed that Walt wasn't really a person the show wanted us to root for.

2nd half of season five had some missteps for sure. Mostly felt rushed. Like maybe nothing major needed to change, but it needed some breathing room

@dave123321: There was nobody to root for, but to me it felt that the show was mostly about a guy who was tired of being a nobody and decided to **** everybody in his life over in exchange for power; said "**** being a teacher, if I want to be a drug lord I can, watch me...". Then they made him to be pretty much untouchable (he didn't really care about his family or Jess, he was just possessive about them), indispensable and irreplaceable (althought they pretended he wasn't every now and then so it wouldn't be too obvious), he did what he wanted during the whole show (even though they pretended to make him want to quit), in some episodes, with the shit he pulled off, he only needed a phone booth and a pair of tights, then at the end...get caught? Hell no, he goes out as some kind of saviour...that's pretty much glorified in my opinion.

And how about the other characters? Some of them were likable and then they all turned into self-absorbed asshats, meaning I stopped caring what happened to them because they all had it coming...to me, when I stop caring about the characters, there's no reason to watch a show. I understand lots of people enjoy watching shows even if they don't like any of the characters, and that's absolutely fine, but it doesn't work for me.

But seriously, I wasn't trying to convince anyone to stop liking the show or convince people not to watch. TC asked what my opinion was, I shared it. Don't think any of us needs to justify ourselves. I'm always happy when people find stuff they enjoy...if it's not my cup of tea, something else will be =)

In any case, it's 7am and I realised I forgot to go to bed. Damn it....I'll see you guys later =D

I really liked the direction they took with the second half to bring the story to a close.

As for those shows you mentioned, I have interest in Twin Peaks and what I watched of Sherlock was cool but not even close to Breaking Bad levels of awesomeness.

@korvus: your feelings about the characters is understandable and it not being your cup of tea is perfectly fine. There is also something to your criticism that Walt basically had magic on his side at points and maybe he got off too easily. It was definitely a mess at times, but overall the show didn't really seem to want us to view Walt as some sort of badass hero but rather view him basically how you felt about him. His last talk with wife showing that he was basically in it for himself taking notice that he was deluding himself that it was for his family.

Basically the whole point of the show seemed the opposite of the teenage pull of saying look at how badass and cool it is to sell drugs and kill people. Like the show or not(plenty of reasons to not like the show), but it seemed clear that the intent of the show wasn't to glorify drugs and murder. Maybe it failed at what it set out to do, but it set out to do something that was in opposition to what you said it wanted to do.

I thought it was pretty good overall, especially since it didn't try to drag on season after season. What I didn't like about the ending though is

Twin Peaks is really great but it's also a weird show. Definitely not for everyone but I very highly recommend it. It does go downhill some in the second half of the second season unfortunately, but everything up to that is amazing.

It's awesome, but I'm going to make out it sucks be hipster and get attention.

It's a good show but the fanbase is even more annoying than Game of Thrones fans.

Its good, but certainly not a 9/10 material. Man the hype with this one is staggering.

It was a bore for me. Got thru season 1 and half of season 2 before I decided it's just too slow of a plot for me to waste another hour of my life on in hopes that it'll get better (because people say it does). If I'm not hooked after season 1, I'm done.

: you should ignore the fanbase of anything. Also treat any level praise with a large grain of salt. It allows a much better level of pure enjoyment

I greatly enjoyed it. Season 6 (?) was a little off key for me, it kind of went a different direction than what I was expecting, but was nonetheless excellent.

Yup,need to re-watch it!

It's a great show but the last season really caused me to lose a lot of respect and interest in it. It's like The Wire's last season, except a much more noticeable drop in quality. Felt like the smart writing that persisted through out the show just completely fell apart once we reached the last stretch. Things started to happen for no reason, characters began to make irrational actions that didn't line up with their character, and the writing was growing flimsier than a paper boat with some of the situations Walt was getting himself into.

But, like I said, great show. Seasons 1-4 are impeccable. Season 5 not so much but it does an alright job of wrapping the series up. It could have been a lot worse, but it could've been so much more. The worst thing a show can have is a predictable ending, and anyone could've predicted the ending of the show based on a plot synopsis on the initial seasons - just felt lazy.

Very respectable post.

You presented your opinions objectively and properly, perfectly conveying criticisms in good manner. And even better, you did it in such a way that there were no spoilers, and that is valuable.

I rate your post 9/10, good sir.

I loved it. The first season was kinda rough, but they really did a great job with the series overall!

Just curious,what was your first???

I agree with this statement.

That was kind of the crux of his character, the slow devolution of Walter White, as we found out more and more how little he actually cared for anyone but himself.

It was a good show but I really disliked Walt during most of the show except up until the end, his wife and her sister were both megab*****s. Hank, Jesse, Gus, and Mike were my favorite characters and Saul and his comical metaphors/sarcasim added the comical balance the show needed. If Walt had just cooperated with Gus......on a side note there are so many ways that Breaking Bad could tie into The Walking Dead outbreak.

In my opinion, in my 52 years of life, its the best show on TV ever, edging out Game of Thrones and the original Twilight Zone.

Hard to compare it to comedies like "I Love Lucy", "The Honeymooners", "All in The Family" or "Seinfeld" though.

Breaking Bad is an example of when every element in a TV show works on all cylinders.