Breaking Bad- No Lie, The Best Show on TV
Patrick Edmonds
Courtesy of Blugeoner86“Lying is universal- we all do it. Therefore, the wise thing is for us diligently to train ourselves to lie thoughtfully, judiciously; to lie with a good object, and not an evil one”
-Mark Twain, On the Decay of the Art of Lying
Hence is the thinking of one Walter White (Bryan Cranston), main character of AMC’s award-winning series, Breaking Bad. In Season One, it is Stage 3 lung cancer that initiates the beginning of a series of moral compromises Walter makes, not the least of which is lying on a routine basis- to his family, to his friends, and most frequently, to himself. However, even as each season progresses, and Walter’s unscrupulous decisions continue to create ever larger, more severe consequences, he is still unwilling to abandon Twain’s satirical sentiments, believing the entire time that all of his actions are just for they are performed in the name of selflessness and family.
Here in lies the original brilliance of AMC’s Breaking Bad; its ability to capture the ordinary man’s struggle with extraordinary forms of evil and corruption. With three seasons under its belt, and Season Four to air Sunday July 17th, Breaking Bad has garnered a larger following each year. Much like HBO’s The Wire, most people did not immediately jump on the bandwagon of Breaking Bad like other successful shows such as The Sopranos or AMC’s own Mad Men. Probably on account of its peculiar, implausible storyline (Routine high school chemistry teacher gets diagnosed with cancer and decides to begin cooking crystal meth in order to pay his medical bills and provide his family financial security after his expected demise only to become a pseudo-drug kingpin), Breaking Bad did not achieve the popular appeal immediately, even if it was winning the most critical praise of any show in recent history.
Now though, with Season Four about to premiere, the hype is loud, but more importantly, completely justified. So many shows today attempt to offer its viewers worlds that are often unimaginable. Be it the world of fantasy (The Game of Thrones and True Blood); the criminal underworld (The Wire, The Sopranos, Sons of Anarchy); bygone eras (Mad Men, Deadwood); or the world of the famous and wealthy (Entourage and Sex & The City) , much of the best TV of the past ten years is predicated upon taking its fans to worlds outside their comprehension and humanizing them is such a way, through plausible moral dilemmas, that they suddenly become relevant and as a result, cathartic. However, Breaking Bad alters this model, as it started with the human aspect. The common man (public school teacher) with a relatively ordinary family placed in what is unfortunately a very common and sad reality (cancer) and then taking us on the roller coaster of dark humor, familial hardships, and inexplicable and incomprehensible tragedy and horror.
Watching Tony Soprano attempt to function in the real world of everyday society, constantly trying to suppress his sociopathic tendencies in order to survive was entertaining and creative. Yet, watching Walter White digress from the well-respected, upstanding community member, husband, and father into a manipulative, violent, selfish monster is all the more fun. Whereas Tony Soprano was immersed in a world of violence, corruption, and crime from a young age, Walter is a sincerely good man, completely unfamiliar with the criminal underbelly of society, which makes his own corruption and self-deception all the more palpable, scary, and often funny because he is far more relatable to the average viewer.
Walter’s daily interactions with family and friends and others- bickering with his drug partner and former student Jesse (Aaron Paul); lying to his wife Skler (Anna Gunn); hiding the truth from his DEA brother-in-law Hank (Dean Norris); teaching his son Walter Jr. (Rj Mitte) to drive; teaching his students about carbon emissions; and negotiating million dollar drug deals with drug kingpin Gustavo (Giancarlo Esposito)- all in a single episode makes Breaking Bad one of the more perfectly crafted shows on TV, with brilliant writing, filming, and of course, acting. The show has the uncanny ability to leap from a routine, authentic classroom scene (my favorite is the one where Walter admonishes his class when he hears a cell phone vibrating, only to realize it’s his own, secret drug cell phone he has hiding in the ceiling) to a shocking, brutally realistic meth-house for junkies or murder scene without any suspension of disbelief.
There in lies the additionally brilliant, yet equally disturbing, aspect to this show- that it seems entirely possible. What would the average person do to protect their family if faced with an entirely possible dilemma? While it is unlikely they would become a drug dealer, it is not unbelievable to think that they would lie and sacrifice their own stringent code of ethics. And it is also not unbelievable for that single lie to manifest itself into a series of lies, all worse than the last, eventually corrupting a person entirely and preventing them from ever going back. This slippery slope of moral equivocation in the name of good and family is something that occurs every day, and a show like Breaking Bad forces us to inspect our own conscience to see what questionable actions and misdeeds and lies we are willing to accept and live with, which is why I think Mark Twain would have liked it and why everyone should start watching it.
Reader Comments (5)
By far the best show I've been able to find on TV. I honestly didn't think I would like it near as much as I do. Everyone said The Wire was the best thing on television but honestly I just couldn't get into it for some reason. Not the case in Breaking Bad. If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to start at the beginning and work up. Great post, I really enjoyed it.
Agree that the people making Breaking Bad are doing something special with this series. Like you, it's my favorite drama on TV ("Louie" hails as best comedy).
If you listen to podcasts, I highly recommend the "Breaking Bad Insider" podcast, which is free and on iTunes. The creator, writers, actors, and others sit and talk about each episode for about 45 minutes. It's really cool if you're into how the writers came up with ideas, decisions the actors make, editing choices, and the like. It comes out the day after each ep, so it helps me with my BB fix until the next Sunday.
Great post on a great show.
I was late to the party on this one and I am making my way through Season 2 on DVD. A brilliant show.
Another criminally underrated show, IMO, was "The Shield" that ran in the early part of 2000 on F/X. While most shows final season and ultimately, finale leaves amny thinking the show lived past its expiration date..."The Shield" built momentum as the seasons went on and had a finale that blew me away in terms of its story telling and resolution. I have never seen any show finale that left me as satisfied with its end product like they did.
I agree with you that much of the show's brilliance is due to the premise that places a common man in situations ranging from precarious to horrific. I love how they capture this by juxtaposing scenes of unspeakable horror with ones of mundane everyday life. One example from the most recent episode in my mind is when, after mopping up the mess from a murder they witnessed, Jesse and Walt are shown seated in a diner, the camera focused on a glob of ketchup that had been a puddle of blood in the previous scene.
And finally I have to comment on Cranston's acting. Incredible. I can't believe he is the same actor who played the goofy dad on Malcolm in the Middle.
I can't wait for season five to premiere in July, and I hope you manage to get the other seasons finished before it starts. Trust me, it only gets better!
Thanks for the feedback!