Breaking Bad At 10: 8 Ways It Changed TV For Good
Happy BBirthday!
Back on January 20, 2008, a little drama starring the dad from Malcolm in the Middle aired on AMC. Watched by just over a million people in the United States and without a whisper of its existence around the world, it'd go on to run for another six episodes in a shortened first season.
Gradually its critical acclaim and viewing figures would rise, though it wasn't until around Seasons 3-4 when the world started to take notice and the show demanded that everyone say its name. It became a hit, then a phenomenon, and now is spoken about in the same revered tones as Golden Age of TV icons The Sopranos and The Wire.
Breaking Bad is considered one of the greatest TV shows of all time, and many will argue it is indeed the greatest. That's a different debate, and one it's almost impossible to win or lose, but what's not in question is that it left an indelible footprint on the TV landscape. It didn't just change the way we thought of Bryan Cranston, but how we view TV, and in turn how TV gets made.