Breaking Bad, Review and 5 things I Liked and Disliked about it

Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad | It's Review Time

Prologue:

When Walter Hartwell White, a chemistry teacher, gets diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer and is given a diagnosis of two years left to live, he chooses to enter a dangerous world of drugs and crime to help his family financially.

PLOT:

The story takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States of America. Walter Hartwell White is in his mid 50’s, a chemistry teacher at J. P. Wynne High School, and works at a Car Wash Station under “Bogdon” where suddenly one day he falls sick and faints and is taken to a hospital. There he discovers that he is suffering from Lung Cancer. The next day he resigns from his job at Car Wash Station because of the frustration and hassle he had with Bogdon. The next day goes up for a ride with his brother-in-law, a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent, who goes to raid a suspected house for drugs (methamphetamine) and money. There Walter finds Jesse Pinkman, his old student escaping the suspected house. Later that day, Walter reaches Jesse’s home and convinces him to make and sell drugs together as he fears his death from cancer and wants to secure his family’s future with money.
During this journey, he meets many people like Tuco Salamanca, Saul Goodman, Mike Ehrmantraut, Salamanca Twins, Hector Salamanca and Gustavo Fring.

Breaking Bad | It's Review Time

Review:

AMC being the channel that kept on bringing one of the best shows to their audience, whether it was “The Walking Dead”, “Mad Men” or many others with fantastic stories, AMC hardly ever lets their viewers down.
Breaking Bad is one of the top-rated shows currently in the world, not only for discussion but also proves itself in its rating. The creator and director of the show “Vince Gilligan” brings a wide range and perspectives of one the most dangerous and money-loaded criminal business in the world where we get to see the characters making and selling drugs. At start, it looks like a great story of a chemistry teacher having cancer, but expanding this idea to a show with 5 seasons, along with a movie and a spin-off show, and each one of them to be rated highly by the audience, shows how great the writer of the show is.
A wide world where we see many characters that get involved with the business of drugs, some because of their financial conditions, some because it is their family business, and some because they have great aspirations.

It is not a show about good or bad, or who is better than the other. This show is based on the ethics and morals of real life, where one has to choose between what is best for them and the ones they care about. The cast of the show might not have been well known back then when the show was released but when the show ended, every actor and character of the show became famous and some are now considered legends. The director brings in a great script where we see every character evolve as the time passes by. Every character has a particular purpose and not a single character seems to be a filler. We get to see many beautiful shots taken by the director in the show. The color saturation is one of the best I have seen in any show till now. The background score, the intensity the show carries is always measured. The aspect of story-telling gets better with each episode and each season. As the show progresses, the intensity keeps on rising because of the crimes the characters have done, there are always consequences to it. The aspects wherever science is involved, the director has been precise with every practical part of it as many Drug Enforcement Agents and Chemical Scientists have praised the research Breaking Bad’s research team has done for it.
The best part of the show remains to be when we are introduced to a few characters like Tuco Salamanca, Saul Goodman, Mike, and the greatest of all, Gus Fring.

5 things I liked about the show:

A show that has been in the top charts of every possible rating website and agency that has been out there, it is tough to pick just 5 things I have liked about it. Still, here are my top pick for the things that I really liked about the show-

  1. The casting of the show is spectacular. Who would have thought that Bryan Cranston, an actor who was known for sitcoms would have nailed such an intense character. Aaron Paul who was not much known before played a character who had his own share of problems but deep down was an emotional person. But not just them, but other actors as well.
  2. The story is well-scripted by the creator/director. Nothing in the show will be coming out of nowhere. Whether it is a character or a particular scenario, everything has a purpose and will lead to something big eventually.
  3. Acting performed by Bryan Cranston (Walter White), Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman), Anna Gunn (Skylar White), Dean Norris (Hank Schrader), Bob Odenkirk (Saul Goodman), Jonathan Banks (Mike), Giancarlo Esposito (Gustavo Fring), were fantastic throughout the series. You can not ever point out any mistake these actors make in the series.
  4. The cinematography is on point. The gradients used by the cinematographer have been selected precisely, whether it were the scenes where the drugs were being made, or when the characters travel to Mexico, whether it is past being shown. The camera work and visuals as well were excellent as we see many scenes that were shot pretty well and looked elegant on the screen.
  5. The way Gilligan covers the aspect of money laundering after the characters have earned their money by doing their business is really intriguing. When Saul helps Jesse and Walter purchase and form shell companies, Gus Fring owns the hamburger business, Los Pollos Hermanos, and various branches of it.
Breaking Bad | It's Review Time

5 things I disliked about the show:

Breaking Bad was not the best show when it started, and neither did it have one of the best pilot episodes and best first season when the show was released. It progressed slowly toward perfection and as the end came, it was ready to be a masterpiece. Here are my takes on the things I did not like about the show-

  1. The show starts a bit slow and takes some time to pick up its pace. We see Walter going through his chemo therapies, learning the process of forming Methapthemine and a child he has with his wife is shown.
  2. The show does not spend enough time on showing the fall out of drug abusers, what happens to them when they try to detoxify themselves and all the symptoms they go through. Dark side of abusing or using drugs should have also been shown to the audience who might have got influenced by the protagonists of the show.
  3. Though the universe of Breaking Bad progresses even further after the show ends, but the creator should have shown more about the origins of some of the characters. We got to see the origin of Saul Goodman later in his own show, but I would have preferred to know more about Gus Fring, the Salamanca Family, the Vaccum Cleaner man and many such intriguing characters who the audience loved whenever they were on screen.
  4. Sometimes we see oversaturation from the cinematographer when a few characters visit Don Eladio in Mexico. It been a stereotype now for filmmakers to have a particular gradient colour whenever there are visuals of Mexico. I expect reputed filmmakers such as Vince Gilligan and many other highly rated directors and creators to step up and keep the scenes shot in Mexico portrayed equally and accurately as in the USA.
  5. In today’s generation where we see Marvel and DC having their own universe and expanding throughout every topic there is to discover and show the audience about, the Universe of Breaking Bad is mostly restricted around drugs, crime and law. As a viewer who enjoyed watching every single thing that the makers of Breaking Bad brought out for us, I would have loved to see more from this universe.

Future of Breaking Bad:

Breaking Bad further expands itself where they narrate the origin and end story of Jimmy McGill, aka Saul Goodman, where we get to see how Jimmy became a lawyer, his journey as a lawyer and as “Slipping Jimmy”, the people he meet in his journey, his love interest and how he got to know the guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy.
And for the story of Jesse Pinkman, we get to see what happens after he escape from the imprisonment where he was used as a lab rat making drugs. We see him meeting his old friends, few of his memories and how he escapes the cops that are running after him.