I realize two things:
1) I’ve already talked about Breaking Bad more than I anticipated on the blog.
2) Since I was busy talking about other stuff (letting old drafts post ’cause I was too busy with life), I’ve actually kind of missed the Breaking Bad hype. Nonetheless, if you’re someone who didn’t watch it and wondered if it was all that good, these paragraphs are for you. (No spoilers ’til I warn you.)
I was originally going to open this post with “I’m not going to tell you Breaking Bad is the greatest thing since penicillin, since everyone everywhere on the internet is telling you that.”
But the deeper into it I got, the more I understood why people felt that way.
I wasn’t someone who’d been with the show since the beginning, and I found it almost a bit hard to get into… Every show needs a little chance to find its feet. So, when I’m back on episode 1 and the world is talking about how they can’t breathe in season 5, it’s sometimes hard to go on that blind trust that you will get there.
However, I’m here to tell you that if you can stick with it, it gets pretty great. Specifically for me, the end of season 3 catapulted me into season 4. And season 5 felt like “this is what I have been waiting for!”
Now, all of you who are wondering if you should go watch the show, stop here. And go watch it. Go ahead on that blind faith, ’cause it’s worth it. Not every episode will leave you breathless, but the ones that do will blow your mind. Breaking Bad is one of the few shows that actual make me have a physical response – a pulse truly quickening, a stomachache of stress for a character. It’s a good show and it’s great when a show can make you feel that way. So, go watch.
Also, if you haven’t seen it, stop here. This is where the spoilers begin.
Okay, everyone who has seen it… What did you think? I watched it in a two-week span, and I don’t really think you were necessarily supposed to. Walt’s transformation felt so quick to me of course. But I was so thankful for some of those flashbacks they did to remind me who he used to be, and that he really had changed oh so much.
What did y’all think about Walt? I wanted to like him. I’ve liked the antihero in the past. But I just didn’t like him. I was so tired of watching him manipulate Jesse (whom I loved of course). I think Walt was probably a selfish egomaniac manipulator all along and that just came out more with the whole drug empire thing.
Can we also talk about how I accepted he was a deluded hyper-competitive drug dealer… okay, that part I get. We could all get there. I see it. But then, when his wife takes him to the storage shed, and shows him the money and was like “how much more do you need?”, he was just all of a sudden done with the drug trade? What?
I expected him to say he needed to fill the whole storage space – then the whole storage building after that. Wasn’t this whole thing about power? Power and competition and then maybe slightly about money after those things?
I mean, I guess he kind of somehow had to make his wife sort of on board, meh, but still.
Fast forward to season 5 – I was absolutely heartbroken – heartbroken when Hank died. I don’t know that I have ever felt as much relief in my life as I did when he finally put the handcuffs on Walt. It was so unbelievably satisfying. Finally! His comeuppance! But no. Of course not. Rargh, rargh, rargh.
My goodness, this show was a roller coaster. I’ve got one more post about Aaron Paul and one about the finale. Then we can move on to talk about other things.