TV: Breaking Bad

Okay, I'm giving up on Breaking Bad.

I made it through Season One and five episodes of Season Three.  The acting is excellent, production values are high, the writing is totally consistent.  But I've realized I'm not enjoying it.

Cancer, divorce, drug dealing, ugly landscapes, ugly situations, ugly people.  Everyone acts completely predictably.  It's not entertaining.  It's too real.

And in real life I wouldn't spend five minutes with these people.

Fargo and No Country For Old Men -- which are the closest analogues I can think of -- both had surprising twists.  The Sopranos -- which matches it for gloom -- had moments of sublime beauty.

Breaking Bad is just relentlessly depressing.

A couple episodes had commentaries. They were so inane I quit after ten minutes. The DVDs had deleted scenes -- but only two very minor ones each. There were some featurettes on "the making of" -- but the only factoid I found mildly interesting is that the scene where Bryan Cranston throws a pizza onto the roof was done in one take.

For all of its realism, Breaking Bad considerably overplayed a couple key plot points, I thought. Hank is still chasing the source of the blue crystal meth in Season Three, even though there were abundant clues in Season One that it was his own brother-in-law Walt. Walt's wife Skylar wants a divorce but doesn't want to upset their disabled son -- so she stays in the home? Sorry, couldn't buy that. Having been through a divorce I could not see anyone being that wishy-washy about it.

I skipped Season Two but was able to work out exactly what happened when I picked the story up in Season Three. That's not a good sign, methinks.

Very disappointed that you didn't like the program. I was hoping you would get the same enjoyment from it that I did.

It looks as though you perceive as negative some of the aspects of the program that I saw as positive.

You might want to ignore my recommendation of The Wire.

No worries.  One man's fish is another man's poison -- or poisson.  It's hard to know what somebody will like.  De gustibus non est disputantum.

I was curious about Breaking Bad already, you just pushed me to look for it.

Oh, and by the way, you owe me twenty bucks.

BTW there's a show on TV called "Lockup" about crinimals in prism which is a big hit, but I can't watch it.  Too real.  No entertainment value for me.

Mrs NoCo likes to watch the Real Housewives sometimes, and I REALLY don't understand the appeal of that.  Buncha rich grown women acting like spoiled 5th graders.

As she is fond of reminding me: everybody's different.

Oh, and one more thing.

If Walt's cancer was terminal in Season One, how the hell did they extend the series out to five seasons???

And it's entirely possible I'm all wrong:

Wikipedia wrote:

Breaking Bad is widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time. By the time the series finale aired, the series was among the most-watched cable shows on American television. The show received numerous awards, including sixteen Primetime Emmy Awards, eight Satellite Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Peabody Awards and a People's Choice Award. For his leading performance, Cranston won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times. In 2013, Breaking Bad entered the Guinness World Records as the highest rated show of all time.

Physicians don't typically use terminal to describe cancer or other diseases. I didn't recall the doctor saying it so I went back and watched that bit, and I couldn't find the doctor using that word. He apparently said it was inoperable, which is true of most cancers. He also said that Walt should have two years if he took chemo - which he did. Sometimes cancer will go into remission for a few years, if you're lucky. So this is really a non-issue. (And it was six seasons, not five.)

Here's another suggestion for you: "Hell on Wheels."

_Howard wrote:

Here's another suggestion for you: "Hell on Wheels."

Roller derby movie?

Not exactly. Building the railroad.

Now that I'm back to working my TV time is limited.

My TV time is limited by the lack of worthwhile programming.

That too. I have a half dozen movies I have bought recently that I haven't had a chance to watch yet.

I can't remember the last time I bought a movie. Used to buy them by the handful, but now it seems that all they produce are lousy remakes and kids' movies.

One of the ones I bought was Arsenic and Old Lace, 1944, might be a little too new for you but maybe you've heard of it.

While 1944 was a seminal year for me, I am not looking for old movies. I'm just looking for good ones. The offerings of late have been very disappointing.

I would guess your seminal year was about nine months earlier.