Look there are two kinds of people with breaking bad.
Those who loved it, and those who haven't watched much or any of it.
My ex got me into it, and she's kind of.... Well, shes not brilliant. So I didn't take her recommendations too seriously most of the time (I really don't enjoy Teen Mom or 90 day fiance or 600lb life). But this? This show hooked me. It takes quite a few liberties with the sciency bits and lawyer bits, but it's fun even with a bit of knowledge cause it starts with something being "technically correct." It's well written more than anything.
You gave it a generous amount of your time. I'd say if you don't like it in the first few episodes it might not be for you. I was hooked almost immediately.
I always thought I didn't like shows with main characters I wasn't supposed to empathize with, but found I loved The Sopranos and Barry. Not sure what it was with Breaking Bad that didn't stick.
I mean... I think I know what you're trying to say, but this seems to imply that you think someone who doesn't like a show should just carry on watching it anyway
I've never managed to watch the whole series. There's great bits but I get super uncomfortable with Walters bumbling, flagrant dishonesty with his wife and family. I get the same thing with a few different shows and I just don't enjoy it. To the point where I find myself just switching the TV off mid way through a scene and going to do something else without even really thinking about it.
If I had to describe the sensation it would be "extreme toe-curling cringe".
My personal anti-suggestion is always the office. Too much cringe. I'll watch compilations of Jim pranking Dwight on YouTube, but I can't watch the show as a whole because of Michael.
For sure, the cringe of the office is unbearable, and I have no idea who you named.. other than knowing they were in the show..? I tried so hard to try to like it that sucks so hard to have people all like “no but give it time!” …bitch.. I did give it time.. I even tried the UK version and it’s the exact same thing with different people.
Same with always sunny (sans UK version, I doubt that exists.. it wouldn’t translate..).. I can’t get past the first impression, the gang gets racist… like ok, this clearly has nothing for me..?
Maybe it does, but I’ll never honestly be able to get past the start to know (other than memes, I know many of those bits)
Idk man, as a science communicator, I watched it and thought it sucked. I know enough about any science field to explain to laypeople, but not enough to properly engage experts usually. I try, but my specialty is breadth, not depth.
It’s not a bad show per se, but it’s a bad show, imho, as far as normal human motivations are concerned. Who gets their shit handled and still risks their whole family's shit? Like maybe it’s just me but that’s stupid and hard to believe.
Walter was offered to have his entire treatment paid for and turned it down in favour of selling drugs...
...he lost all my sympathy. I was increasingly curious about how things were going to go wrong for him. More fascinating train wreck, less investment in him personally.
Warning - this post doesn't contain specific spoilers, but I would recommend against reading it if you haven't watched Breaking Bad because it may color your opinions of the ahow
I feel like you missed the point of the show if you thought the point was to show Walter sympathetically or as the good guy. The whole point of the show is that it is his pride and greed are ultimately what drive him to do worse and worse things no matter how much he tries to blame his actions on external circumstances. There are multiple instances where he does things that are completely unnecessary because at his core, Walter White is a bad person. He is not truly driven by desparation or by love of his family, but by his pride. He wants to earn his own money, and he enjoys being above the law and feels that he deserves all his money and power because he is smarter and superior to everyone. As he gets deeper and deeper into crime, it becomes clearer and clearer that his moral decay is entirely his own doing and not primarily driven by circumstances, even though Walter certainly tries to act that way. I can provide specific examples but I wanted to keep this post spoiler free.
... You are saying you find the idea of someone being very reckless and engaging in very risky behavior, for the thrill of the whole thing, to feel more alive than just going through the mundane motions of an average and safe life, to feel powerful, to prove to themselves that they can do something remarkable and be exceptional...
You find this stupid and unrealistic?
Like, I'll give you that the science of the show has flaws, but like... it is at least fairly within the ballpark for most things, decently detailed with a lot of other things... like, the FCC is not going to let you air a show that provides detailed, accurate instructions on how to cook meth or make a thermite bomb/lance, lol.
But... I don't get how you find the concept of people being motivated by ... whatever in particular it is, to do dangerous things... is stupid an unrealistic. This happens tens of millions of times, every day.
The entire point of Walt breaking bad is that... yeah, he had a taste of all that violent and dangerous shit... and he liked it.
At one point, I think the last time he sees his wife, Skyler, Skyler basically asks him why he did all this insane shit... and Walt more or less says, I'm not gonna lie to you, I'm not gonna bs you... "I was good at it."
His normal life was unfullfilling to him, constantly being disrespected and belittled, not feeling fulfilled by what he had... and he found and chose a path that granted him the validation and respect he felt he never had.
Yep, that destroyed him and his family and many other people in the end.
The whole show is thus a cautionary tale, that even an otherwise meek, intelligent, and generally respectable man can repress much of his true nature, and that if this isn't consciously addressed and reconciled responsibly, in a healthy way... it can manifest as a transformation into an entirely different person, with different fundamental values and goals.
Walt is basically a midlife crisis gone nuclear, a giant episode of toxic masculinity bursting forth, a man's repressed shadow self (if you're into Jung) subsuming and transforming him into a monster.
lol yeah it says i don't like subplots that go fucking nowhere and are immediately dropped like they never happened. or that i like satisfying endings to story arcs. or that I prefer things to have meaning rather than happen randomly for no reason. or that I think you should take less than 5 seasons to tell a story that's at best one season's worth. care to admit? lmao like it has some moral value. it's just a bland ass series with mediocre and inconsistent writing carried by amazing actors.
do you even understand the words you're saying? I'm telling you they're fumbling story arcs over multiple episodes and you think that means I have bad attention span? do you know what any of that means?
the writers had bad attention span, not me. they kept forgetting and abandoning their own shit all the time. seems like you were too busy getting distracted by shit to realize that.
same with media literacy. I'm saying they kept adding random shit without any meaning or purpose and you say that's bad media literacy.
so enlighten us mr media literacy man, what was the point of the stupid fucking twins