Hot take: Most of Breaking Bad was actually boring filler

[amethal]

What am I missing here? Breaking Bad feels like a five season show that could have easily been turned into a one-season wonder or even a fantastic two and a half hour movie.

And it would have been fine if they had, but personally I prefer what we actually got, which was a very enjoyable five season show.

I enjoyed the characters and their situations, and am glad they didn't feel they had to concentrate on advancing the plot. Instead they allowed it to get where it was going in its own time.

If they'd run out of ideas, but done a 6th season anyway, then I'd agree it had outstayed its welcome,

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

And it would have been fine if they had, but personally I prefer what we actually got, which was a very enjoyable five season show.

I enjoyed the characters and their situations, and am glad they didn't feel they had to concentrate on advancing the plot. Instead they allowed it to get where it was going in its own time.

Right. A movie can do things really well. For example, Drive My Car or Titane or Crimes of the Future are all great movies. Heck, Top Gun: Maverick is also great, albeit in a different way. If you get the chance, watch EO - although it's not available for streaming right now. Movies are great!

But they can't do the same things as TV shows, because they don't have the same amount of time to spend with the characters. Station Eleven, for example, was an utterly brilliant miniseries that wouldn't work as a movie. Or Rectify (which we are talking about) - if the OP considered that Breaking Bad had too much filler because Hank was ordering rocks*, I can't imagine what he would think of Rectify which is ... pretty much all about the journey.

But hey- there's a reason that shows like Halt and Catch Fire, or The Americans, or Rectify, or The Leftovers, don't spawn massive discussions on this site** like, say, the Mandalorian does. Even Andor is being criticized for not being "Star Wars" enough.



*MINERALS! Sorry ... but the whole rock thing was a pretty pretty pretty important part of Hank's character arc and characterization on the show.

**Or get the ratings.

 

[Staffan]

I'm on the page that a show and a movie tell stories in different ways. They have different properties.

There is much more room for organic character development, nuance, ups and downs in relationships, and varied plot twists in a show. While you can definitely tell a story about someone "breaking bad" in a movie, you could not tell this story.

I do think there is a little bit of filler/a few things that didn't quite work for me in the show, but overall, nah. Not a lot of filler. Lots of character development. Lots of tense scenes and plot twists. Lots of gorgeous cinematography.

Definite agreement. Looking at Babylon 5, there's no way you could get the slow corruption and eventual redemption of Londo Mollari in a movie.

 

[payn]

Right. A movie can do things really well. For example, Drive My Car or Titane or Crimes of the Future are all great movies. Heck, Top Gun: Maverick is also great, albeit in a different way. If you get the chance, watch EO - although it's not available for streaming right now. Movies are great!

But they can't do the same things as TV shows, because they don't have the same amount of time to spend with the characters. Station Eleven, for example, was an utterly brilliant miniseries that wouldn't work as a movie. Or Rectify (which we are talking about) - if the OP considered that Breaking Bad had too much filler because Hank was ordering rocks*, I can't imagine what he would think of Rectify which is ... pretty much all about the journey.

But hey- there's a reason that shows like Halt and Catch Fire, or The Americans, or Rectify, or The Leftovers, don't spawn massive discussions on this site** like, say, the Mandalorian does. Even Andor is being criticized for not being "Star Wars" enough.



*MINERALS! Sorry ... but the whole rock thing was a pretty pretty pretty important part of Hank's character arc and characterization on the show.

**Or get the ratings.

I just watched The Banshees of Inisherin last night and it needs to be on your list.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I just watched The Banshees of Inisherin last night and it needs to be on your list.

Haven't seen it yet!

This may be a shocking admission .... I have not, yet, consumed all media. But give it time. Maybe after my Diablo 2 binge and upcoming travelpalooza is done in January.

(I'll add this to me "to-see" list)

 

[payn]

Haven't seen it yet!

This may be a shocking admission .... I have not, yet, consumed all media. But give it time. Maybe after my Diablo 2 binge and upcoming travelpalooza is done in January.

(I'll add this to me "to-see" list)

It was just appropriate to this thread discussion and well timed. I love Brenden Gleeson and (more controversially I guess) Colin Farrell but especially the two together.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

It was just appropriate to this thread discussion and well timed. I love Brenden Gleeson and (more controversially I guess) Colin Farrell but especially the two together.

 

[Mannahnin]

It was just appropriate to this thread discussion and well timed. I love Brenden Gleeson and (more controversially I guess) Colin Farrell but especially the two together.

As soon as I heard that the two of them were going to be leads again in another movie by McDonagh I knew I had to see it.

It's really good. Not as funny or broad as In Bruges. But still funny, still dark, still great.

 

[Deset Gled]

If you get the chance, watch EO - although it's not available for streaming right now.

Didn't they take that out of Disneyland, like, 30 years ago?

I think one facet that I enjoy about "long form" types of media (4 hour movies or 5 season shows like BB) is that the pacing of character change seems to feel more "real".

You can do a 2 hour movie featuring a story of a good character gone bad, but the number of steps from good to bad will be much smaller than a 5 year show with the same arc.

To put it in different terms, the two hour movie paints a character in three shades of grey whereas the 5 year show can have 50.

This longer format also allows the same slow growth to happen for side characters. In the movie version of BB most characters would exist only to change or show the change of Walter or Jesse. They would by necessity feel less like an actual person and more like a background object.

You see the shoplifting and mineral collecting as filler but I see it as world building.

For those of us that aren't huge fans of Breaking Bad (or me, at least), I can say that the change or "character development" of Walter White is one of the things that people rave about that I find to be drastically overrated. I can honestly say that I think Walter's journey would be better suited to the pace of a movie trilogy than a long, drawn out TV series. It's simply not that complicated; it's actually quite linear from start to end, and not even that long of a journey. Dragging it out actually made it seem less "real" over time, as it became clear how many of the pseudo-crisis moments were built around the TV episode and season format.

I will agree that a lot of the side characters had more potential. But the show has a clear main character and focus. If it had been an ensemble piece I might have enjoyed it more, although that would have been difficult in other ways. We get short rests from Walt, but it unfortunately always gets forced back to him.

FWIW, I had the same problem with Grimm: I could have a watched an ensemble show about Munroe and other Wesen for many seasons, but I got bored of the main character much earlier (and normally, I'm even a fan of police procedurals). And if you really want to nerd out, we can go into how the best stories in the Star Wars EU are the ones that have no Jedi.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

For those of us that aren't huge fans of Breaking Bad (or me, at least), I can say that the change or "character development" of Walter White is one of the things that people rave about that I find to be drastically overrated. I can honestly say that I think Walter's journey would be better suited to the pace of a movie trilogy than a long, drawn out TV series. It's simply not that complicated; it's actually quite linear from start to end, and not even that long of a journey. Dragging it out actually made it seem less "real" over time, as it became clear how many of the pseudo-crisis moments were built around the TV episode and season format.

Sure, you could sum up a lot of Walter White's character arc with the following:

But that doesn't fully encapsulate the depth of the character. Can you sum up Walter White's five seasons as (put very well by the OP in a subsequent post)-
a story of a man's fall from grace and letting his theoretical morals get ground away by perceived necessity until he's ultimately an evil person -- and likely was, all along

Yes! But also ... no? Because it wasn't just about Walter White- it was also about the people around him, and the choices they made (to either be complicit, to ignore it, or to refuse what was happening). It's about the questions of inevitability- did Walter White break bad, or was he always the person he was? More importantly, I think we are all forgetting something very important.

Say what you will about Walter White, but the mirrored relationship with Jesse was always the beating heart of the show.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And if you really want to nerd out, we can go into how the best stories in the Star Wars EU are the ones that have no Jedi.

Is that even a point of debate? I have to imagine even the Jedi are sick of stories about the Jedi, especially as more detail has been given to how they operate, they come off less interesting and more ineffectual as time goes on.

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Sure, you could sum up a lot of Walter White's character arc with the following:

Except that's not what he's saying.

You're being pretty dismissive of different points of view on this thread.

If I don't think a shoplifting subplot did much for Breaking Bad, then I must not like character studies.

If Gled thinks Walter White's journey doesn't merit a five-season treatment, then he must be saying that his motivations are a single, not terribly representative sentence.

Come on, man.

Walter White's journey was largely about the mask he wore -- even with himself -- being torn away and realizing that he liked being a ruthless criminal. The people around him clung to their illusions, even once they had hints that something was happening, first because the truth was hard to imagine and then because doing so was a form of self-preservation for their identities or worldviews.

I think that could be shown, including every iconic moment from the series (the body being dissolved in the bathtub, the disastrous cooking in the RV, Gus getting his face blown off, Hector banging on the little bell, Walter's betrayal of Jesse leading to Jane's overdose, "I am the one who knocks," the wild final days of Walter and Jesse's imprisonment) in less than five seasons. It would change the pacing of the series to more a rat-a-tat-tat of moral decline, so it would be inherently different, but it would definitely be possible.

That said, if you genuinely think every moment of a five-season television show was fantastic and needed no cuts, then I'm both amazed and, frankly, jealous, because I can't think of any media that I feel that way about.

 

[payn]

Sure, you could sum up a lot of Walter White's character arc with the following:

But that doesn't fully encapsulate the depth of the character. Can you sum up Walter White's five seasons as (put very well by the OP in a subsequent post)-
a story of a man's fall from grace and letting his theoretical morals get ground away by perceived necessity until he's ultimately an evil person -- and likely was, all along

Yes! But also ... no? Because it wasn't just about Walter White- it was also about the people around him, and the choices they made (to either be complicit, to ignore it, or to refuse what was happening). It's about the questions of inevitability- did Walter White break bad, or was he always the person he was? More importantly, I think we are all forgetting something very important.

Say what you will about Walter White, but the mirrored relationship with Jesse was always the beating heart of the show.

Spoiler: BCS

Which is why the scene with Walt and Saul in the basement was so great. Walt had such contempt for the way Saul has "always been".

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Walter White's journey was largely about the mask he wore -- even with himself -- being torn away and realizing that he liked being a ruthless criminal. The people around him clung to their illusions, even once they had hints that something was happening, first because the truth was hard to imagine and then because doing so was a form of self-preservation for their identities or worldviews.

Yeah, that's not what I think the show is about.

I think that could be shown, including every iconic moment from the series (the body being dissolved in the bathtub, the disastrous cooking in the RV, Gus getting his face blown off, Hector banging on the little bell, Walter's betrayal of Jesse leading to Jane's overdose, "I am the one who knocks," the wild final days of Walter and Jesse's imprisonment) in less than five seasons. It would change the pacing of the series to more a rat-a-tat-tat of moral decline, so it would be inherently different, but it would definitely be possible.

Okay! If you honestly think that a movie could just throw in "rat-a-tat-tat" Gus Fring's face being blown off (because that's cool or something?) without understanding that it was the culmination of seasons 2, 3 and 4 (and the Salamanca/Fring storyline) I just don't know what to say.

That said, if you genuinely think every moment of a five-season television show was fantastic and needed no cuts, then I'm both amazed and, frankly, jealous, because I can't think of any media that I feel that way about.

Yeah, that's the exact point I have made! You completely did not misrepresent what I said. I literally stated that every moment of all five seasons is absolute perfection and no cuts could ever have been made.

For someone who a few posts ago said, "I posted a provocative subject heading to provoke debate[,]" and just said I was being "dismissive," you sure seem eager to be ... something. But it isn't kind.

 

[Mannahnin]

That said, if you genuinely think every moment of a five-season television show was fantastic and needed no cuts, then I'm both amazed and, frankly, jealous, because I can't think of any media that I feel that way about.

I don't think it was all gold. Likely tighter writing could have kept the same quality and covered all the same good stuff in, say, four seasons?

But I don't think you could do it in one or two. There's too much really great stuff in there (where "really great" is naturally a subjective opinion).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Okay! If you honestly think that a movie could just throw in "rat-a-tat-tat" Gus Fring's face being blown off (because that's cool or something?) without understanding that it was the culmination of seasons 2, 3 and 4 (and the Salamanca/Fring storyline) I just don't know what to say.

That's not what I'm saying.

That I think the Gus story line doesn't need three seasons to tell doesn't mean it needs to be a throwaway scene. Who hurt you, man?

Yeah, that's the exact point I have made! You completely did not misrepresent what I said. I literally stated that every moment of all five seasons is absolute perfection and no cuts could ever have been made.

That's awesome for you. You are a rare and lucky individual.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't think it was all gold. Likely tighter writing could have kept the same quality and covered all the same good stuff in, say, four seasons?

I think three to four seasons would be fair.

 

[trappedslider]

Good Two Lines, No Waiting - TV Tropes

Bad Trapped by Mountain Lions - TV Tropes

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, that's the weirdest reason I can think of for someone to put me on ignore.

 

[payn]

To the OP, I had a similar reaction to some criticism I had of Better Call Saul. I felt the entire 5th season and the first half of season 6 was unnecessary. I think it even hurt the last half of S6 and finale (even though it finally felt like BCS at its prime again). Folks thought I was nuts and that BCS was a complete masterpiece. For some there is never too much of a good thing even when a good thing isn't especially good.