You are a horrible human being if you are not already following the lives and adventures of TV’s top meth cooks. If you mistook it as Weeds-Heavy (Weeds is Weeds-lite in its own measure.), you are missing a great opportunity to grow as a person. Breaking Bad is a triumph in long-form television storytelling.
The characters are what truly make this show great: everyone is where they are because of Walt (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse (Aaron Paul). These two, along with the other actors on the show do not act; They become. From the first episode, we quickly forget that Cranston was ever Malcolm’s goofy dad on television. Season 4’s recent finale is a great measure for just how much these characters have grown from the first season’s first meth-cooking session in the RV.
Breaking Bad is reality TV. The characters and situations may be fictional, but they are grounded in reality. The way characters react when put in a situation would seem like the way a real person would act in that situation. We hate (or adore?) Walt when he lies. We feel the mental anguish that Jesse has had to face because of the truly awful, unfair things that has happened to him. These aren’t very nice people, yet, in a way, we want to see them triumph.
The people around them are equally interesting. They add so much to the show just by being there. Their presence tells us what kind of people Walt and Jesse are. Each character is there for a reason. They bring their own motivations and ego to the table. Each character’s past tells of their future motivations.
There are also consequences: being a hero agent that shoots down cartel assassins may seem bad-ass, but it also means the character will be crippled for more than a season. Walt truly believes he’s doing the right thing — he’s in denial — but he has done awful, despicable things under that belief. The once-reluctant meth cook is now top contender for drug kingpin as a consequence of what he has had to live through during the last four seasons.
I respect continuity because continuity respects the viewer. The writers stretch out every season into one big story where everything is a seed. Characters, events and things are defined by their past. A seemingly-forgotten plot thread will pop up at an unexpected moment, in a way no one ever expects. Every nod to continuity makes the “long game” approach to the story that much more satisfying. This respect for continuity and the skill with which the writers of Breaking Bad put into each season rewards viewers every episode.
If there was a memory-mapping/erasing service a-la Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I’ll have them remove Breaking Bad from my memory, so I could experience it all again for the first time.
If you don’t want to be a horrible human being, catch up with the show. Get it. Consume it. Let it sit.
