It's a great show but it's not in the upper echelon to me. It's basically an action show with commitment to a 5 season story arc. In that end it seems novel because most shows are written with only one or two seasons in mind and then they go on brand new stories only with the same characters. Besides Walt and Jesse there isn't alot of depth to the other characters, not like shows like The Wire, the Sopranos, Mad Men which I would hold in a higher regard than Breaking Bad.
The show's greatest strength is also one its biggest weaknesses. It's a very good story and continually refers to itself and all actions and reactions are related back to events told within the tightly woven narrative. However, the world of Albuquerque in the show is very narrow and placed within a glass bubble. There's a certain pastiche to the world that it seems like we're watching a contrived greek tragedy put together by the Gods, it's mechanical and deliberate.
Except that's not how real life is, shows that I hold in higher regard are ones that accept and glorify happenstance and the organic, chaotic, fabric of our society told through characters that are deeper and less overly flawed but still more relatable and understanding.
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