Breaking Bad: The Greatest Television Series Ever
Ikram Ud Doula
In the year 2008, television network AMC started airing a series called Breaking Bad with a little hope to succeed because of its earlier rejections from HBO, TNT, and FX. In this scenario, it was really a gamble for the producers and the chief creator Vince Gilligan. However, with an average of 1.23 Millions of viewers per episode, everyone involved with the show was quite happy after the first season. Little had they known, this series was going to make history.
An overqualified chemistry teacher Walter White, diagnosed with cancer goes rogue and starts manufacturing methamphetamine with his former student, a drug dealer named Jesse Pinkman. Walter White is a family man. He lives with his son and pregnant wife and earns about 40 thousand dollars per year like every other underpaid American school teachers. 
When he comes to know that he has cancer, all the equations change in a matter of seconds. He is not actually tensed about his physical condition at all, and rather worried about the survival of his family. As a responsible father and caring husband, he has to do something for his family so that they do not become homeless. One day in a field operation with his brother in law named Hank Schrader who is a Drug Enforcement Administration operative, he sees the opportunity of making a huge amount of money by producing a famous drug called methamphetamine which is widely known as crystal meth. So he pairs up with Jesse Pinkman who escaped from the earlier drug “bust” and started making this drug in a recreational vehicle. That’s season one in a nutshell. If you are still not interested to watch the series, you are definitely not to blame. It starts with an ordinary plot. It gets interesting from season two when they start to take the distributions of the drugs on their own hand.
Let me try explaining why a television series started with such a simple story base became so popular that grabbed the attention of Warren Buffet and other millions of people worldwide. There are two key points I can talk about: storyline and storytelling.
The first aspect of the storyline is well-built characters. The entire show is packed with characters who have very strong backgrounds. That is what makes a story believable. Character development was top notch in this series. Once you complete the series, it is very unlikely to forget a single character you have seen in the show. Walter White is a careful and intelligent chemistry genius. Jesse Pinkman, on the other hand, is a short-tempered, young and morally obligated drug dealer.
Skyler, Walters’s wife is an annoying woman who questions everything of the universe which does not require her attention. As someone goes through the series, these characters start to create a claustrophobic situation in his/her mind. Another aspect is the story itself. In most of the films we see, the hero fights the villain, good defeats the evil, humanity wins over cruelty. In Breaking Bad it is exactly the opposite. In this case, the protagonist becomes the antagonist, which is something we really we do not see very often. However, movies like The Godfather, Memento and The Dark Knight proved this “flipping technique” to be very successful. Excellent characters, powerful villains, intense plot twists made this series significantly enjoyable. The story is so brilliantly written that it is impossible for anyone to predict what is going to be in the next episode.
The second key point is storytelling. The whole series has a very filmy look at it which makes it different from any other productions. Throughout the whole series, we get to see a lot of symbolism. For instance, as we finish every season the color tone changes from light to dark, which stands for the transition of Walter White from good to evil. The music is also engaging and full of suspense where we anticipate for something even more furious than before. Well-crafted cinematography and shot compositions make us invest in the plot.
The show was nominated for total 262 different awards and won 110 of them. The final episode of the series was viewed by 10.28 Millions of people and rated 9.9 out of 10 on IMDb. Ratings from different critics also skyrocketed from the very first season. The series ended in 2013 when Game of Thrones became the hottest television show at the moment. Still, in its time, it made a great impact on the audience.
Breaking Bad created a revolution on television. When we watch the last season we become depressed as the characters make different decisions. “Actions have consequences.” That is the message the show wanted to deliver. Those consequences do not go well for everyone. The person you love in the first season, you start to hate at the end. We all become a part of this continuous game of making choices. Probably that’s what makes this series so unique. With stunning visuals and impressive acting, the show sticks to head long even after the final episode ends. The bittersweet ending leaves us with satisfaction, yet deep within, we ask for more. I believe that a piece of art does not get appreciated for its making. We appreciate it for the atmospheric intensity it creates in our mind. That is what makes Breaking Bad the greatest television series I have ever seen.