You beat me to it, but I was gonna say a Pynchon novel.

Or some poorly done movie trailer: "David Smock is just your ordinary guy. A nice job, a girl who loves him and two cars in his garage. But little did he know that today would be the day that everything changed." From the producers of Meet the Fockers..

Bless you, Chichikov!

how is this even an opinion

I mentioned it before, but I watched maybe the first two episodes and kinda gave up. Like, is it funny like Dexter? What's going on here? Honestly it was probably because it was still the silly dad from Malcom in the Middle, but when I picked it back up sometime around season 4 I actually found it to be much more hilarious at times, the magnets episode in particular. Jesse and Heisenberg are still who they were in the early episodes, but now they just think that they're better than everyone else and the world is theirs', like they're just trying to recite from Scarface and other movies that they'd seen. So I kinda like those gravitas laden monologues. But then again, you're dealing with Vince Gilligan, who basically had Mulder and Scully repeat each others' names in almost every line of dialogue. Who DOES that?

My biggest problem with Breaking Bad was that it relied far too heavily on exposition. For example, ĦĦĦSPOILERS!!! Walt's poker playing was a major plot point which set into motion a lot of his family problems. Yet they never actually *showed* Walt playing poker! His poker games were left entirely off-screen; we only heard about them in dialogue, well after the fact, when he was confessing his gambling addiction to that drug-smuggling brother-in-law of his!

The least they could have done was shown us a flashback or two.

Yeah, I think people who took the later season monologues and stuff really seriously are another iteration of the kind of people who think Taxi Driver is about Travis Bickle being a bad-ass or that the "coffee is for closers" speech in Glengarry Glenn Ross is sincerely motivational.

You know, morons.

For me, it was the gradual loss of believability in favor of overly dramatic plot twists. Most of the characters changed too drastically and they were put into increasingly ridiculous situations. That first season really hit the mark, though.

The trick is to ignore the 90% of fans who genuinely believe Walter White was a downtrodden hero who became a badass and recognize that he was just a self-defeating, delusional narcissist. Of course he had these over the top monologues like he's in a shitty gangster movie.

That reminds me that I have to watch the new Better Call Saul. His is an interesting character, because if I recall from BB, he was pretty much nothing but movie quotes (or fake movie quotes, catch phrases, etc), and one of the first interactions on the show with the law firm pretty much confirms that, where he's quoting Network's "I'm mad as hell" speech and then has to explain what movie it's from. Saul was that sleazebag lawyer that you loved to hate, who would probably get you in more trouble the longer you were around him, but on BCS he's kind of a genius and putting the two shows together, probably the smartest one out of any of the main characters, with the exception of minor characters like Mike.

I totally agree with StanleyPain.

I think the whole problem was that Breaking Bad wasn't an immediate success. So a lot of the things that were supposed to evolve slowly and the slow turn from a fish-out of water comedy towards a dark, more plot driven crime drama were forced to happen quicker than expected because of financial reasons of trying to keep the series alive.

Just take any episode from season 1 or 2, then switch to any episode in season 3, and you'll see how even the cinematography changed drastically almost overnight. Walter White's house became dark and foreboding, Saul's office switched from the messy office of a small-time crook lawyer to an immaculately dark and foreboding chamber.

I still love the series, and had a lot of fun with it, but the switch happened suddenly and was a bit jarring. Also, while the series had a pretty good focused beginning and ending, the middle of the series is a muddled mess of loose ends and plot-lines that go nowhere.

I AGREE WITH STANLEY!

I loved all of Breaking Bad, but it was a much different show by the time it ended. If I had to pick, I prefer the total dad who is in way over his head of the first season.

do you people understand you are the only human beings on earth to share this string of opinions

Heh heh.

Oh those were the days!

I am absolutely in favor of this. However finding something to top Nick Bravo's demo reel is an impossible task.