The Perfection of ‘Breaking Bad’
Our Movie Life has been inactive for a month now. Why? It’s author has been rewatching ‘Breaking Bad’ every chance he gets.
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‘Breaking Bad’ was created by Vince Gilligan and stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul. The first episode of the show premiered more than 10 years ago.
Listen, I’m going to get personal with you on this article just to state my points better. No formal talk, no fancy words: just my thoughts. Here we go.
I have watched almost 1000 films in my lifetime. Also, I have finished watching more than 50 TV shows and attempted to watch 50 other. I know my visual media, trust me. And ‘Breaking Bad’ is one of the best things I’ve had the honor to watch. Ever.
It’s not like I’m seeing the show just now; no, I watched ‘Breaking Bad’ for the first time in 2013. I was fourteen then. I didn’t know much about television or storytelling then and I so could not appreciate what Vince Gilligan had done. Now, however, I am seeing ‘Breaking Bad’ for what it really is: a masterpiece. I know I use that word a lot, and I usually do mean it, but I’m especially emphasizing it now: ‘Breaking Bad’ is a masterpiece. It’s everything any creator, including myself, wants to do with their life.
And unfortunately, but realistically, most of us will fail.
To begin with, what types of stories are there?
There are three types of stories, generally speaking. They are as follows:
- You have your ‘plot stories’, as I have unimaginatively named them. Those are films and TV shows that simply tell some story. It may be good, it may not. The characters resolve around the story here, not vice versa. 90% of visual media out there falls into this category.
- You have your ‘character stories’. Generally speaking, the plot here is not as important and the story resolves around the characters, as opposed to the first example. The most recent example of this that comes to mind is ‘Phantom Thread’. Or most of Paul Thomas Anderson’s filmography, for that matter.
- And you have your ‘one-big-metaphor story’ (again, I’m extremely imaginative, I know). There are stories that have a ‘normal’ plotline, but set plotline is often representing something else entirely. Stories like this are like puzzles where the viewer is meant to figure everything out and get the ‘deeper meaning’ themselves. ‘Enemy’ is a film like that. Or ‘Arrival’. Or most of Denis Villneuve’s filmography.
Generally speaking, most films and shows fall into one of those categories. Of course, a lot of good productions are actually so good because they don’t fall into one particular story type, but rather manage to combine them: a compelling character journey with a great plot; a great plot that also has multiple layers; a metaphor-type plot with a great character in the middle of it.
What type of story is ‘Breaking Bad’?
It’s extremely rare, however, that a story manages to capture all three things and to do it well. I guess you see where this is going:
‘Breaking Bad’ does that. And it does it great.
The plot.
Needless to say, ‘Breaking Bad’ tells an absolutely compelling story. A chemistry teacher cooking methamphetamine? His former student helping? A story of deceit, change, desperation, anger, love, mystery, and so much more? Sign me up. And, of course, all the subplots: Tuco, Jane, Gus, Mike, Brock, Combo, and so on, and so on… The list can go on. Long story short: ‘Breaking Bad’ is really interesting. It tells an amazing story and does so in a structured and perfectly functional way.
The characters.
Walter White descent into Heisenberg is some of the best character development any story has ever offered. It’s slow. It’s logical. Nothing makes Walter just do hideous things. His attitude, thoughts, and motives change gradually due to the events circulating him. It’s all extremely real. Walter turns into Heisenberg because it makes sense for the character. And, of course, it’s not just him: Jesse’s road from a poor junkie to a broken, yet morally intact, man; Skyler’s descent into chaos; Hank’s emotional journey all throughout the series. ‘Breaking Bad’ is a perfect batch of beautifully built characters. From start to finish.
The deeper meaning.
The layering of ‘Breaking Bad’ is brilliant. So much is going on beneath the surface and so many things have a deeper meaning to them. There are so many Easter eggs, so many motifs, so many themes, all explored and presented perfectly. It’s really pointless to even start going in depth here. I will just give you some of my personal favorite moments that show the layering throughout the show.
- The bug motif.
- That time when Walt cuts his head and sees a brim on his hat – both foreshadowing his future chaotic spree.
- All of Walter’s names and their meaning (He’s Walter to Mike, Walt to his family, Mr. White to Jesse and Todd, Heisenberg to everyone in the meth business)
- That shot at the end of ‘Crawl Space’ telling us that Walter White died in that crawl space. All that walked out was Heisenberg.
- Hank being so into minerals when he’s crippled (minerals a.k.a. crystals a.k.a. crystal meth).
And so many more. ‘Breaking Bad’ is filled to the brim with metaphors, motifs, eater eggs, and perfectly well-thought-out moments.
All this combined makes for one truly amazing story. A story that is, in its entirety, extremely interesting. A story that also has perfectly developed and truly amazing characters. A story that is, on top of all that, so much more, presenting to us metaphor after metaphor and building itself up layer after layer after layer of pure genius.
It’s mainly the writing that provides this brilliant story. Credit must go to the directing as well because a great story can always be portrayed in an awful way if the direction is bad (which is definitely NOT the case here).
So, we’ve established that ‘Breaking Bad’ tells a brilliant story and given tribute to the writing and direction. But hey, why stop here?
Let’s get technical.
On a technical level, the show is, you guessed it, flawless once again. Here are some reasons and examples of why and how.
The sound.
All throughout the show, Vince Gillegan has used sounds and songs brilliantly. For example, different songs are played every time there is a new cook montage to represent the change of tone and emotion in Walter’s head. The first time he cooks with Jesse, generic upbeat music is playing on the background. The first time he cooks with Gale, jazz music is playing. The first time he cooks with Todd, entirely different genre of music is played once again. All music choices smartly manipulate the viewer into feeling exactly how Vince Gillegan wants them to feel. And it’s definitely not only the cook scenes: it’s all throughout the show. My personal favorite example in the famous scene below from ‘Crawl Space’ where the score on the background contributes an enormous amount to the scene.
The editing.
Montages are a big thing in ‘Breaking Bad’. Most of the time, in popular film and television, montages end up being a cheap and badly-made exposition technique that just comes of as tacky. This show generally stems away from the idea of using montages as exposition only (although when that is the case, it’s done beautifully) and uses them more as tools to set and change the tone of the setting. Editing is a huge part in montages. In ‘Breaking Bad’, it’s executed beautifully. Here is one of my favorite examples of this.
The cinematography.
For a TV show, the cinematography is astonishing. It must be kept in mind that the budget for a show like ‘Breaking Bad’ is probably significantly lower than the budget for a big Hollywood movie, so there isn’t really that much money for mind-blowing shots. Michael Slovis, the show’s cinematographer, still manages to impress. He does this mainly through providing a significant amount of meaning to a lot of shots, thus making them both a visually stunning feast and an imagery technique.
Here are some amazing examples.
Again, combining all technical bits properly is a direction achievement, so the beautiful direction must be mentioned once again. Not only have all the directors managed to get the proper story from the script and interlude it with fantastic tones and setting, but they have also included genius sounds, edits, and shots in every episode.
So? Have we covered all basis? Do we now conclusevely know why ‘Breaking Bad’ is the best show of all time?
No?
Sorry.
Of course.
The acting.
There is really no point going on and on praising Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul in this. I’ll say only one thing and I hope it sticks: this is some of the best acting that has been captured on screen. EVER. It’s flawless. It is talent, skill, and hard-work. It’s absolutely admirable and absolutely 100% unbelievably amazing. Both on them absolutely deserve every single award they got.
And not just Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul. Congratulations are in order for the whole cast, including, but not limiting to: Anna Gunn, Betsy Brandt, Dean Norris, Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, and Giancarlo Esposito.
Here are my two favorite examples of Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul acting.
In conclusion…
I’ll try and sum it all up. ‘Breaking Bad’ is a batch of:
- Amazing writing that combines three different types of stories perfectly.
- Great tones, imagery, and setting.
- Realistic and perfectly developed characters.
- Layers and layers of meaning beneath the plot.
- A profoundly interesting story.
- Fantastic score.
- Amazing editing.
- Brilliant cinematography.
- Genius acting.
- Great direction for all of this to work together.
All of this combined makes for the best TV show ever made. ‘Breaking Bad’ is the pinnacle point of the Golden Age of television. It’s a perfect show. It’s what every creator desperately wants to do and what 99.9% of us fail to do.
‘Breaking Bad’ should be respected. It should be studied. It should be appreciated. Heisenbergs’s meth may have been 99.1%, but guess what? ‘Breaking Bad’ is 100% perfection.
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Have you seen ‘Breaking Bad’? What do you think about it? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Don’t forget to LIKE and SHARE this article if you enjoyed it and also to SUBSCRIBE to Our Movie Life!
As always, thank you so much for reading,
Pouty Boy