(I'm sure THAT pun was never used before. Or at least, not used more than one million times.)
I just finished watching Breaking Bad season three. It took me a little under 48 hours to polish off the 13 episodes. The season was that good. Watching it poses three questions in my mind:
(1) Just how good is Breaking Bad?
The answer to this is rather simple. Very, very good. A more complicated answer, though, deals with question number two.
(2) Where does it rank on my list of favorite shows? What about best shows?
The best show I've ever seen is Dexter. Breaking Bad may come in second. My favorite show, conversely, is Lost. (I think.) But Lost's consistency was up and down. It was sort of the nature of the beast; not every episode was meant to be as gripping and meticulous as Breaking Bad (or Dexter) was meant to be.
Also, I think it's unfair to compare a shortened season of a cable TV show (whether it's AMC or HBO or Showtime) to a broadcast network show. They're horses of two totally different colors, with two totally different sets of rules by which to play.
To be honest, I don't watch a ton of TV. I wait to hear what catches on and give it a shot that way. I think this is a product of the overall crappiness of TV today. This isn't even worth mentioning (as Breaking Bad is probably better than 98% of what I haven't seen), but worth noting solely for the fact that there are shows I know that will compare that I have not seen yet (most notably The Wire and The Sopranos, and to a lesser extent, Six Feet Under and Battlestar Galactica.)
Regardless, Breaking Bad ranks in the top five best shows I've ever seen, and also (probably) my top five favorite shows. But that could all change, depending upon...
(3) How long can Breaking Bad sustain its greatness?
I immediately want to compare this show to Weeds. This is a simple comparison as both revolve around drug-dealing parents. Like Breaking Bad, the first three seasons of Weeds were very solid (though on a lower caliber than BB, and also with a whole other tone). However, once Weeds "jumped the shark" and changed its focus, things spiraled out of control. Now, we have Andy and Celia running around, doing wacky things just because their characters are too good to let go.
I truly hope Breaking Bad doesn't reach that point. I feel re-assured after reading an article with creator Vince Gilligan over at the A/V Club. He basically says he doesn't know how much longer it will last, but also says there's a question of how much longer can you go and how much longer should you go. That's the real question. Lost could have gone on indefinitely. I would have watched it every week. But did I want that? No, not even with it being my favorite show. There comes a point where things need to end. I hope that when Breaking Bad hits that point, that's when they end it.
Also, Gilligan makes a good point in response to a question about the possibility of Walt and Jesse going on the lam in the middle of season three: he doesn't want to leave Skyler and Walter Jr. and Hank and Marie behind. This is exactly the problem Weeds ran into; Nancy was ready to move on to a new portion, but the rest of the crew had to tag along. Walt and Jesse would need to move on, but the rest of the characters can't just be written off. You'd be left with this whole secondary storyline that the writers would try to work in, and probably fail at. I'm glad it didn't happen.
I'm glad the Breaking Bad writers are as good as they are.
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