Who knew he'd turn out that way, I blame it on Dee Dee...
Posted on 01/20/2018 8:13:06 AM PST by Drew68
Television changed the night of January 20, 2008: Breaking Bad, a bold and singular drama about a downtrodden, dying high school teacher so desperate for cash that he starts cooking crystal meth, would come to define a golden era of television. But nobody knew that on the night the show premiered. In fact, there was every reason to assume the show, debuting on a then-nascent network with no track record in original programming, wouldn’t last past its first season.
Breaking Bad was not a ratings hit, not a household name, not a show that earned a spot in the zeitgeist for several years. Its slow-burn character writing, bleakly stunning visuals, and moral nuance made it niche; its early days brought a series of hurdles that could have killed a lesser show. But it had a passionate fanbase, a growing mass of critical support, and a network that believed in this story of a good man gone bad—or, depending on your take, a bad man finally given the chance to unmask himself.
Turning "Mr Chips into Scarface," as creator Vince Gilligan has famously dubbed Walter White’s transformation from milquetoast to ruthless drug lord, is no small feat. Through Bryan Cranston’s six-time Emmy winning performance, viewers witnessed a modern-day Greek tragedy—a man who claims to be protecting his family but ends up destroying them, along with Jesse (Aaron Paul), his protégé and greatest victim. It was a meticulous, mesmerizing character study that made it impossible to look away once you were in. As the acclaim and the awards piled up, the ratings gradually followed. By the season finale in 2013, viewership had spiked tenfold, with a record 10.3 million viewers tuning in for the final chapter.
(Excerpt) Read more at esquire.com ...
That’s true, he never tasted it. Not once. Never, never, ever. Heisenberg was stone cold sober the whole time.
Good question. Head exploding! :)
Spoiler alerts are for weak sad people. For one thing the damn show is 10 years old, people who haven’t seen it already and are hitting a thread discussing it can handle that on their own. For another anything that can be spoiled by people knowing the end can’t be watched twice, and if it can’t be watched twice it shouldn’t be watched once. EVERY post should have spoilers and people who don’t like it should grow up. The spoiler whining is just a sign of society that’s gone to crap.
“For those who liked it, do you think it may have helped to romanticize, if not even normalize Meth use in the general public?”
Absolutely not.
The exact opposite.
In this show it’s the centerpiece of the darkest world imaginable to man. And it’s only a plot device.
Walter White could have been a moonshiner in the 20’s and the story would have been as good.
On the show, everything about meth and the industry was extremely negative. The character developments of everyone, as they relate to the drug life, were interesting.
SPOILER ALERT... One of them became more evil as the show progressed, and one of them became less evil. All of the characters were excellent.
I wouldn’t say he was redeemed at all. He went down obsessed with the money and his image. It was all for his ego, he only came back because he realized he was going to die with the money in the dirt and thus a loser. So he found a way to funnel the money to his family (a completely unnecessary way, which including tormenting his former partners to punish them one last time for succeeding without him) and to kill the guys making crappy blue meth and ruining his brand. There was no redemption there, just one last stroking of his ego.
The amazing thing about the show is the fact that there are people living their lives in the same fashion as we speak.
Some of them our neighbors.
This is a subculture I am guessing 99 % of the public knows nothing about other than law enforcement.
After how long? The show has been over for several years.
Get with the program. Spoiler alerts are effective for a short time.
The fugitive finally finds the one armed man; the Korean War ends, and it was all a dream.
“Mobsters are people too.”
And, overall, they’re better than any of the “people” sitting in meetings in DC at this very moment. At least mobsters are honest about their bad-ness.
I watched the end of Breaking Bad, and I’m not saying it was a bad ending, but if you compare the two finales, Newhart’s was more satisfying and more all encompassing.
In one fell swoop, Newhart’s finale wiped out 8 years of episodes. All of it was just a dream. Breaking Bad’s finale solved only part of the problem WW created. Nothing he did would bring his brother-in-law back or restore his family. He was THE bad guy. The ones he killed were only what they were in stature as bad guys because of him really. He was responsible or partly responsible for the deaths of how many over all those years? Thousands? And he gets to free his one time friend and co-conspirator after killing allies turned enemies and creating a “trust fund” for his family built on murder and despair. And then he gets a peaceful moment where he gets to look on his equipment with a sense of accomplishment as a craftsman when in reality he was just a cooker of death.
Newhart brought two classic shows together in one finale. It collapsed 12 years of elapsed TV time into nothing. It was completely unexpected. Break Bad’s ending was largely obvious. You knew he was going for revenge. You just were not sure how successful he would be.
Frankly I never thought it anything more than a crime TV series much like “The Soprano’s”. I did not watch much of “Breaking Bad” as I just did not care for it. But I don’t think it was anymore groundbreaking than “The Soprano’s”.
Two overrated TV series, not bad, but then again nothing to rave to the moon about.
way ta go dip shit
Don’t recall which season, but the scene with the Rubbermaid tub at Home Depot... So funny!
I tried to watch “Dexter”, but could not get into making a serial killer the hero. It was a creepy show.
You must be a real joy to have around /s
Who knew he'd turn out that way, I blame it on Dee Dee...
BEST television show ever. It was a masterpiece in every sense of the word. I still think about it today.
Newhart was a sitcom ending. You can’t really do that for a drama. Though they did actually film a Newhart ending for BB, it’s an extra on the blurays. Pretty darn funny.
You might have been able to see BBs ending coming, but it still put a good bow on it. You don’t have to shock and surprise the audience with the ending. BB was always a show that played fair with the audience, truth be told you could see EVERYTHING coming because that’s how they played the show. They always put pieces in place and then used them according to the laid out rules. The few true “surprises” in the show were really just matters of timing. You always knew Hank was going to find out, it was just a question of when and how. You always knew Walt would alienate his bosses, it was just a question of when and how. You always knew Jesse would get the short end of his involvement with Walter, it was just when and how.
It was a chess match show, if you know how to watch constructed drama you could always see it coming, just like how a chess player can see he’s going to lose many moves before he does.
You’re quite charming, you know.
I, for one, HATE to know the ending of anything early. Nothing to do with whining and the evils of society. [Weird.]
I’m a very joyous person, unless you’re a whining windbag who expects all the world to not talk about something just because you haven’t caught up yet. Don’t be a millenial, if you don’t want spoilers don’t be on threads about something you haven’t watched. And stop being so lazy, watch the damn show already.
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