I have obviously recommended Breaking Bad to countless people, and most take to it pretty much immediately. Others, though, are less impressed by the first two seasons, and this disappointment is kind of understandable. The first season especially, hampered and shortened by that infamous Writers’ Strike of 2008, does not on its own indicate that the series deserves the praise it went on to receive. It dials up the intensity in Season 2, but it’s really not until seasons 3 and 4 that the show really developed the renown it holds today.
It’s actually probably more apt to say it dialed up the heat a bit. To use the show’s own chemical analogy angle, the first two seasons operate on something of a slow burn, and it reaches a boiling point later than most series may have done (that sad metaphor is brought to you by my arts degree). All that’s to say is that the show takes it time and slowly builds momentum as it goes, so its beginning and eventual ending are going to be remarkably different in their pacing, without a doubt.
But it’s also a show that is specifically about change, the change in its hero who becomes an anti-hero, as well as the very nature of what it would take for a mild mannered person to change into a cold-hearted killer. That makes it perfectly understandable why it feels almost like a completely different show from Season 1 to Season 5—the tone of the show changes with its protagonist. So if you’re one of those people who is skeptical that Breaking Bad is as good as people say, give it time to heat up.
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