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10 Reasons Breaking Bad Is Still Underrated, Yes, Underrated

The main reason I would insist that Breaking Bad, which makes its glorious final return to our televisions Sunday, is perpetually underrated is that it’s virtually impossible to overstate just how good this show is. We’re in an era where there are few singular pinnacles of achievement that are universally accepted as great. There are Breaking Bad fans, but there are also Game of Thrones fans, Mad Men peeps, Walking Dead enthusiasts, all claiming their favorites are the greatest TV shows of all time. The sad passing of James Gandolfini brought out many voices reasserting that The Sopranos is the best or at least the most important TV drama of all time. The default choices for numbers two and three on that podium are Deadwood and The Wire. The debate over the best and the pluralistic nature of modern cultural opinion—generally positive aspects of the current climate—might as well fall by the wayside for the time being.

[h2]8) It has redefined the “Oh shit!” moment in TV[/h2]

Breaking Bad

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The “Rains of Castamere” episode of Game of Thrones saw perhaps the largest outpouring of grief we have ever seen in a TV moment, an unexpected (for non-readers) turn of events in a series committed to reminding its audience that no character is safe and all men (and sometimes women and unborn infants) must die. But one thing the show taught us, and it did so even more specifically through the liberties taken in its adaptations from the novel, is that these moments are far more affecting when they are preceded by stories and characters in which we have become deeply invested. The depth of investment is crucial. It’s only with these levels of depth that “oh shit” moments can reach their proper heights.

It’s the way Breaking Bad sets up its big moments that gives them their enormous punch. For a while, it revolves around our investment in Walt; we’re rooting for him. As he becomes more villainous, Jesse becomes the center of our investment, although Walt still carries sentimental value without question. So when Walt first throws down the fulminated mercury at Tuco and Co., we’re relieved and excited that he has not only escaped a tight spot, but asserted himself as a player to be reckoned with. We’re relieved when he saves Jesse from certain death in his car, and shocked when he shoots the perpetrators in the head before he tells Jesse, “Run.” And then we feel for Jesse as he points his gun at Gale, to save Walt’s life and, to him, his own. We’re more familiar with Walt and so his victory over Gus feels sweet, although we should question how sound this moral logic is.

The point is, the setup of these moments comes from terrific dramatization but also tremendous characterization, and the way it pulls off these moments is unparalleled. And what other show can say that during one of its biggest “oh shit” moments, a character is actually taking a shit?

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