I’m going to hold my hands up right now and say that I was a latecomer to Breaking Bad. Series 4 was complete before I decided to sit down to see what all the fuss was over, but in many ways, I’m glad I waited. For those of you out there who watched weekly, I don’t know how you managed to stand the waiting.
It’s like a meal for the subconscious, and I guarantee if you’re a fan, you’ve lain awake well into the night more than once thinking about what you witnessed on Breaking Bad hours earlier. It’s not often that such a complex show comes along; a show that defies your expectations of what’s right and wrong, who’s good or bad.
Even Game of Thrones, whose unique selling point is its vast range of ambiguous characters, has its good guys and its bad guys, although they may not be strictly conventional. But who’s the good guy in Breaking Bad? Walter White? I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him in reality, nor Jessie Pinkman. Was Gustavo a bad guy, really? I mean he was, of course, but was he really that much worse than Walter?
It has everything; drama, humour, guns, explosives, lies and secrets, tension, intrigue, ultra-violence and tenderness. For me, Breaking Bad is probably the best show not just on T.V, but in the history of T.V.
It’s a bold claim, I know, but allow me to present you with ten arguments to back it up and to celebrate Breaking Bad Season 4′s DVD release on October 1st.
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25 Comments
What about The Wire?
Or Band of Brothers, Mad Men, Oz, The Shield, Lost, Sopranos… Breaking Bad is still awesome it’s just a little contrived for me.
personally, I don’t think Breaking Bad even cracks the top 20 TV shows of all time …
The Wire and Band of Brothers are towering achievements in television drama
Breaking Bad … not so much
Couldn’t agree more with the quality of the show, but is it the greatest TV show ever:…I’m not sure. For me a great show is something you can’t wait to watch and look forward to the next episode, which BB does, but I also gauge great TV after they’ve finished and you look back on the in fondness like The Sopranos, 24, The Shield and Carnivale and remember how immense the we’re and how the dictated your wekly routine. Until then I’ll reserve judgement. On a side note Bryan Cranston is easily the best Part of the show, I hope he does get typecast. No one else could play WW quite like him…I’m glad John Cusack and Matthew Broderick turned the role down, it wouldn’t be half the show it is today.
It’s not even in the top 10 …
1. The Wire
2. Cheers
3. Seinfeld
4. The Sopranos
5. The X-Files
6. The Office
7. Friends
8. Southpark
9. The Simpsons
10. Moonlighting
Breaking Bad has been my favourite American TV show of the last five years.
I find it criminal that it does not get the recognition that it deserves over here in the UK.
FX only showed the first season. Channel 5 buried season two late at night on one of its digital channels over Christmas.
I’d say it’s the greatest of it’s generation, The Wire being the greatest of the last generation. But between those two…it’s close but I would have to choose The Wire. People who are saying it isn’t even top 10/20 material…you’re out of your element.
The Twilight Zone > The Wire > The Sopranos > Mad Men > Breaking Bad
I would suggest that Gregory House may be a more complete character than Walter, buts its a close call.
Tough call. Between Breaking Bad, twin peaks, Malcolm in the middle, the wire, trailer park boys, king of the hill, awake, parenthood, justified, boomtown and many more its hard to say what the best tv show.
personally Booomtown (same creators as justified interestingly) takes it. Boomtown has this emotional resonance even stronger than breaking bad’s. but again, they’re both outstanding shows, so i couldnt, nor would i feel the need to argue if someone said breaking bad is better.
The last three reasons should have been one reason: the acting.
Here are two more reasons BB is the beset ever to fill in for the overlap:
1. The small set of characters. These days it seems like every show has to have tons of characters and lots of overlapping (or at least complimentary) plots. But Breaking Bad excels specifically because it deals with a much smaller set of characters. And how it runs them through a gauntlet of deeply personal struggles and emotions — truly a testament to Gilligan’s writing staff and the actors.
2. The character arcs. In the beginning, Walt was a school teacher and car wash clerk, Skyler was a stay-at-home mom who wrote “50″ with turkey bacon, Hank was a wise-cracking stereotypical cop, and Jesse was a low-level junkie.
Think of where they are now. And consider that each transformation reads true and believable. Then consider how difficult it is to do that with *one* character, let alone four of them. No show has brought four characters such a long way so quickly and kept it believable.
Top 9 all time (with 8 hours of BB to go):
1. Breaking Bad
2. Planet Earth
3. The Wire
4. The Twilight Zone
5. The Sopranos
6. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
7. 60 Minutes
8. Mad Men
9. South Park
Note: Homeland has Breaking Bad potential, but I doubt they can keep the tension alive (and the cast together) long enough to crack this list.
Sorry for the incomplete list — I was still working it through when I accidentally hit
Are you kidding? Breaking Bad is THE BEST show I’ve seen. The range that Bryan Cranston has from Walt to Heisenberg is amazing. When I watch that show I think there’s nothing his character couldnt justify doing. The incredible characters of Jessie, Skylar, Hank and omg can you be a funnier and slimier lawyer than Saul Goodman, I could name the entire cast.
I only wish I didn’t have to wait SO long for the next season. ps Check out this Saul Goodman site :): http://www.bettercallsaul.com/
Well, for a somewhat different list than those above, from someone with a scifi bent:
1. Farscape
2. Freaks and Geeks
3. Battlestar Galactica
4. Breaking Bad
5. American Gothic
Breaking Bad could take my #3 slot depending on how the final 8 play out.
And as someone who missed “The Wire” when it was on, and would love to see it, why is it not released on blu-ray??
It’s written “Jesse”.
Completely agree, it’s the best tv show of all time.
Haha such a typical first comment. “What about the Wire?”
The Wire was an excellent show – in places. But I can’t consider it one of the best shows of all time because the only seasons of the wire that are amazing are seasons 3 and 4. 1 and 2 are painful in places and 5 is a bit average.
A better opponant to Breaking Bad would be the Sopranos which remained consistantly brilliant over its six seasons.
Hmm Breaking Bad of the Sopranos. Too close to call for me. I’ll decide when Breaking Bad has finished its run.
Other shows like Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire are very good but are clearly style over substance and have no way near the talent of BB’s writers.
Homeland shows promise and if Game of Thrones can live up to the books over the next few seasons it could be amazing.
I never heard anyone else compare the show to Nietzsche.I always saw walt as his ideal superman.Transending morals and customs to achieve a will to power.Can’t say I agree with it though.Don’t know why no one else noticed it before though.
Yes, it’s the greatest TV show ever … if you ignore:
(i) 1 dimensional characters from everyone other than Walt, Jesse and maybe Saul
(ii) Some horrible performances from key supporting cast (Hank, Skyler, Gustavo et al)
(iii) Straightforward, boring, linear storytelling
(iv) Occasional complete lack of believability (even within in its own “world”)
(v) Some horrible episodes (the fly contamination one was downright lazy)
(vi) Average script writing (comparits BB’s script writing with (say) Sopranos is embarrassing for the former)
Quite honestly, I think many people are just so enamoured with the very cool concept (easily its biggest plus) that they overlook the signficant flaws it has.
Still I’ve watched the lot (so far) and it’s definitiely passable.
7/10
You’re an idiot. The Fly episode was one of its best; it was full of great symbolism (for example, the fly) and character development, a spectacular, deep exploration of humanity. Your other reasons aren’t true and unfounded. Breaking Bad IS the best tv show of all time.
Nonsense.
What a load of crap!!! Passable?!?! Just because you don’t like it that much it doesn’t make it any less great! It’s an immensely satisfying and addictive show which has a hugely deserved follow up. I can say that I watched the whole 4 and a half seasons in 4 days. Never felt so compelled to keep watching a TV show for so many straight hours. To me that was my own seal of approval and it meant more than the word of a biased and pretentious critic like yourself.
Andrew I’m sorry you’re just simply wrong about some of your criticisms. Walt and Jessie are not the only dynamic characters. Skyler and Hank changed the most as well when you think about it. Also, you are just dead wrong about Gustavo Fring’s performance. He is a brilliant actor, just take the opening of season 4. Very few big name actors can perform that kind of feat.
Its indeed one of the best Drama Series in history. (PEOPLE STOP POSTING COMEDY SHOWS, THEY EVEN HAVE THEY OWN EMMY AWARDS).
1. The X-Files.
2. Breaking Bad.
3. The rest.