Say it’s a Saturday afternoon and you’re browsing through Netflix, wondering what to watch. There are so many choices, from classic Netflix originals to movies that came to the platform after a long box-office run. And then, you come across a show you’ve heard about time and time again but never watched.
Breaking Bad.
If you dive in, you’ll give yourself the chance to watch it and enjoy what everyone else has been talking about for years. But with five seasons, you don’t want to devote yourself to a show that you’re not sure is going to be great. Should you watch it?
Yes, you very much should, and as an avid Breaking Bad fan, I’ll give you the four best reasons why.
The premise itself is incredibly interesting
The first reason to watch the show is that its premise is unique.
For those who don’t know, Breaking Bad is all about Walter White (Bryan Cranston), who is a chemistry teacher at a high school in New Mexico. He discovers that he’s been diagnosed with an extremely aggressive form of lung cancer that has very little chance of remission, and with a teacher’s salary, he has to figure out how to provide money for his family fast.
His brother-in-law, Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), is a DEA agent, and one day, while on a run to take down a meth lab run by a former student of his, Walter gets the idea—he has the smarts and the knowledge. If he created meth, he could sell it and make enough money for his family for years to come. The only issue is that he needs a partner and a place to keep this operation a secret from his family.
Enter Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), the former student of White’s who has turned to the drug trade and at least knows the basics of making meth. After starting on rocky footing, these two work together to create the purest meth imaginable—and what ultimately leads to their doom down the line.
I mean, come on. If that premise doesn’t interest you a little, I don’t know what will.
The cast is the best you’ll ever see on TV
Breaking Bad aired at a time when there were so many amazing TV shows; Game of Thrones was in its infancy. The same goes for The Walking Dead. Other television shows that have become icons in the medium—like The Office, Suits, and New Girl—all cemented their spot.
But the cast of Breaking Bad is unlike any other.
Yes, you could go over to HBO and see people fight to the death, or watch a quirky girl with roommates fumble her way through life, or see all those zombie shows like The Walking Dead, but there was no one doing it quite like Bryan Cranston.
While Cranston was known for his comedic acting skills (which, fair, he is hilarious), he changed the game with Breaking Bad. His way of acting and how he portrayed White as he slowly descended into villain territory by the end is beautifully done, and no one has come even close. The same goes for Aaron Paul as Jesse, where he begins as this punk kid and turns into an adult that you genuinely feel terrible for, even if he’s made horrible choices.
The entire cast is really all the same way. They deliver some of the best performances TV could afford and more.
The villains are legendary
Are there some great villains on TV? Of course there are. But the villains in Breaking Bad are terrifying for a different reason—they are as real as villains can get.
What I mean is that they are human in the reasons why they do what they do. Either to get money, to protect family, or for one of the most human reasons of all: vengeance. If you never watch this show, you’ll never get to meet some of the best villains that television has to offer.
I don’t want to say who they are for fear of spoilers (because you really need to go into this show blind), but they’re absolutely outstanding.
The story. Just the story
I know everyone always says this for any good TV show, but when I say the story of Breaking Bad is unlike any other, I mean it. Everything connects so well, from the title screens to the cold opens to the characters to everything else.
Even the cinematography plays a key role, highlighting characters’ moods and the feelings they convey in a scene. Creator Vince Gilligan took it to another level by creating the perfect tale, and every movement of the camera shows it.
The twists and turns that occur are things that you will never expect, and the show ends in such a way that you’ll be staring at the wall for a bit, contemplating your life and the choices these characters have made. It’s worth every second of watch time and more. It is truly one of the best crime shows ever.
You can stream all five seasons of Breaking Bad on Netflix.
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