Breaking Bad

Over the years there have been a variety of shows praised effusively by people whose judgment I trust. Most of these have been HBO shows (we don’t have a premium cable package) or are otherwise difficult to consume. So I have a mental list of “I’m Sure I’ll Enjoy That One When I Finally Get Around to It” shows, most of which are off the air (The Wire, Deadwood, The Sopranos, etc).

Breaking Bad was endorsed by the same sort of credible people, and I’d heard nothing but good things about it (although people always seemed shell-shocked by its drama). I was a little skeptical about this one, just like I was skeptical about Firefly despite the effusive praise (“If they have spaceships, why are people riding horses and using six-shooters?”). In BB’s case, it was mainly because I had been a big fan of Malcolm in the Middle and didn’t think I could get past Bryan Cranston’s lovable dope portrayal in that show. I’m also not a huge fan of shows that seem to glorify drug-related violence and depravity.

But since we have Netflix, I gave the pilot episode a shot (after the kids were in bed, fortunately). The pilot episode was one of the tightest hours of drama I’d ever seen, and despite the occasional MITM flashbacks from Cranston’s mannerisms, his acting was so powerful I got past it pretty easily. And as episodes like Peekabo make clear, the show certainly doesn’t shy away from the adverse consequences of drug abuse and addiction (and misuse of bank ATMs).

Over the summer, I made it through the first four seasons. Although there were occasional problems with seemingly out-of-character behavior (maybe attributable to an underlying brain tumor, in Walt’s case?), I haven’t been this sucked into a drama since the early days of BatGat.

I was telling someone that the series reminds me of the impulse one gets from playing SimCity: Spending a huge amount of time building and building and building this intricate, well-ordered civilization. And then sending in Godzilla to smash things up (or a plane crash, which is really where the connection between Simcity and show jumped out at me).

I look forward to Season 5: Almost makes me want to upgrade our satellite package to get AMC.