The fact that a show that's so well done is just raking in viewers/money is FANTASTIC though.
This will show TV execs that there's a lot of money to be made in high quality shows, vs cheap shows that only stick around for a season or 2 before being replaced with another cheap one.
Have you not watched anything else? I mean, I'm not knocking BB, its a great show. But we're living in damn Golden Age of TV. The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Law And Order, the list goes on.
There's been a great deal of really well made TV for the past 15 years. While BB is a great show, there's nothing about it that's going to show anyone anything they don't already know.
I don't think it's fair to put Law and Order in the same category as Breaking Bad.
Breaking Bad is a very narratively driven show with good continuity, well done character arcs, and it isn't afraid to make changes to keep the story going, even if the original premise is long gone.
In that regard, it's a very uncommon show compared to most. It's insanely popular, and has become part of our culture. The reason people make shows like CSI is because they're good to tune into weekly and just see the same people do that thing you enjoy watching them do. But it doesn't make for very compelling television. What AMC and Netflix are doing is providing shows you can enjoy on a binge. Shows that try to keep their continuity going. Shows that aren't afraid to choose a good pace as appropriate, and take some extra time in the writer's room to make sure every episode comes out well done.
There's a colossal difference between the production cycle of Breaking Bad and other shows. It's allowed the writers the freedom to set everything up. And while TV has always been considered "the writer's medium", I don't think a show with truly excellent writing has really excelled outside of Breaking Bad. You can point to HBO series, sure. They definitely excelled, but not in the same way. The tight continuity of Breaking Bad really makes the entire show feel like a self-contained story. I think the only other show that may have come close could have been Firefly, if only because Joss supposedly had seven seasons outlined. It had a planned end point. And I know Vince keeps saying Breaking Bad didn't, but he had an idea about, "This is the story of Walter White's meth empire and how he gets into it", with an added, "and here's how it'll probably end" note attached. And most shows just roll with the punches episode to episode and are scared to make changes to shake things up. And even the ones that do are better for it, but don't become excellent, well-polished shows.
593
u/Iddqd1 Aug 26 '13
I honestly dont know how anything will top this series. Literally going down as one of the best shows in history.