In this segment, I will discuss a variety of topics where I believe the public’s general opinion is wrong, and I will explain why. I welcome arguments/discussions from anyone on any of these. Too many people out there instantly agree with the opinions of the masses. As my friends Another Mask once said: “We will say what they think, we will think what they say, and never dare to disobey.” Don’t get me wrong, I agree with a lot of normal popular opinions out there, but there are plenty I don’t agree with, what about you?
I have a feeling this one will infuriate a lot of people, but that is what this is all about, so come at me haters! I will start by saying that as a whole I did like Breaking Bad a lot, it is just no where close to the greatest show of all time. I would place it somewhere in the bottom of my tier two shows, pushing tier 3. Before I really dive into it, here is a list of every show I have seen that is better than Breaking Bad:
Game of Thrones
Lost
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Deathnote
Sherlock
The Walking Dead
Dexter
Westworld
Black Mirror
The 100
Person of Interest
Prison Break
24
That list is more or less in order of my favorite shows. Prison Break and 24 are debatable whether or not I like them more than Breaking Bad, and then there are a couple on the list that have just begun, such as Handmaid’s Tale and 13 Reasons Why that certainly have the potential to be better than it, I’m just not sure yet. On that note, Westworld only has one season out so far, but already I am certain it is a better show.
Anyways, so as you can see Breaking Bad comes in somewhere around my 14th favorite show, which to all die hard fans out there is an abomination, but understand that I still really like it. The reasons why it is a good show are obvious. The writing and character development is excellent. Walter White and Jesse Pinkman are a great main two characters and we are taken on a wild ride with each of them as the series goes on. Walter’s decent into darkness is awesome to watch as he is faced with tough choices throughout the show. And it is cool to see Jesse grow as a person, though he certainly struggles a lot at times. There are plenty of other great supporting characters offered in the show as well, such as Saul, Mike, Hank, and the excellent villain of Gus. But then there are a handful of terrible characters like Marie (sorry Jared), Badger, Walter Jr, and especially Skylar.
I want to take a moment and talk about two of those characters I have mentioned. Gus is truly a phenomenal villain and adds a ton to the show. He is very smart, likeable, and a badass. Things were great when Walter was working with him and everything was running smoothly. The episode when he died was absolutely magnificent, and while we got a great moment in his death, the show was just not the same without him. Season five was still good, but the lack of Gus’ presence hurt it.
The other character I want to really talk about it Skylar. I feel all of my low points of the show were anytime she was on the screen. It’s a strange thing when you really think about it. I’m not certain when I say this, but I feel like she was almost never at fault with her decisions and why she acted the way she did, but still I hated her from the very beginning. If only Walter would have just taken the money from his friend at Grey Matter. But he didn’t, and so began the deceit on his poor wife. If this were real life, I would feel so bad for Skylar and Walter Jr. Unfortunately for them though, they were just causing problems throughout the whole series for our boy Walter. Walter is a great main character, though he is extremely flawed and just gets worse as the series goes on, he is awesome, and Skylar just gets in the way in the most annoying ways possible.
Alright, on to the big reasons why I don’t like the show as much as others. My main reasoning can be summed up in one statement: the highs are very high, but the lows are very low. What I mean by that is that when the show is at its best, it is so good. It is up there with all of my other favorite moments of my favorite shows. If I made a list of best television moments ever, it would certainly have a few in the running. However, the lows, as in the worst parts of the show, were just unbearable. Every show is allowed to have some terrible or slower episodes in it. Take “The Great Divide” in Avatar. That episode sucked, but I truly enjoyed all of the other episodes in that show, at least a little. There were not just one, but so many episodes of Breaking Bad that fell into that category, and they all came in streaks. There were streaks of the series where we would get three or four episodes in a row of insufferable family drama. It would likely be the times where things were actually running fairly smoothly with the meth trading, and the conflict came with Walter’s family. I am not watching this show to see the struggles and toll it takes on an already struggling family. It is just depressing, and something 99% of viewers can not relate to. Sure people have family drama, but if you want some good family drama go watch another show like This is Us, or a comedy like Modern Family. I am watching Breaking Bad for the craziness that comes with being a meth cook. Sure there will be some family struggles with that, but the extent that they go into it in the show is way too much. During those episodes I would strongly contemplate why I was watching such a show. It just didn’t seem worth it. I would finish an episode and feel significantly sadder after watching it.
I didn’t rate every single episode of Breaking Bad, which is something I do for some shows, but I can with certainty that I would rate several of them 9s and 10s, and others I would rate 2s and 3s, with maybe even a couple 1s thrown in there. I would guess if you averaged all of my episode ratings for every episode throughout the series it would come out to be somewhere around a 6.5 or something. I looked back on my episode rankings of Game or Thrones for comparison and through five seasons, which is when I did this, the average episode rank comes out to about an 8/10. I feel like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad are the two big shows in recent years that people have been arguing over which is the greatest, and I think it is not even close. At Game of Thrones worst, I would rate it’s episodes at about a 6/10. Those are the slower ones where nothing much happens, but still there are some many interesting story lines going on, that important story building things are happening. Yes, there is plenty of drama, and plenty of hated characters such as Cersei, Ramsay, and Geoffrey, but we love to hate these characters. I don’t love to hate Skylar, I just want her off the screen.
In closing, again I do not hate Breaking Bad. If they condensed the family drama, and made some of those other characters more likeable I could see myself really liking the show. The lows are just too low though, and the fantastic highs are just not enough for me to call it the best show ever. I can see how people can really love this show though, but still I can’t get over that those people would call it their favorite. There are just so many more enjoyable shows out there.
