Before watching this incredibly terrific & thrilling show, I only had the famous “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” series in my mind, as the Best Television program ever happening on the small screen, running for several years. However post experiencing the complete seasons of this extremely well written, superbly enacted and brilliantly directed crime series called “Breaking Bad”, I can easily rate it as the ‘Best Television Series” of this new millennium unarguably and one of the “Top 3 Television Series Ever” till date since the black & white era.
In fact, the reason why “Breaking Bad” can even be rated as “The BEST TV Series ever” is, that neither it is a collection of different engaging stories told in its various episodes nor it has too many distinctive angles or characters taking the plot into diverse directions in order to give you a variety of content. The series revolves around only few fixed characters and majorly focuses on a single plot throughout, without getting confused, scattered or lost. Yet it amazingly keeps you engaged for more than 60 episodes in its 5 seasons aired in the time span of 5 years (with the ratings witnessing an increase with its each new season like a dream run). And for anyone understanding the medium, keeping you glued to the seats, working on the same storyline & few characters for more than 45 long hours till 5 years, is certainly nothing short of “An Unbelievable Magical Spell” and not an easy target to achieve by any means undoubtedly.
Based on a highly engrossing plot woven around the lead character of Walter White, a highly qualified chemistry teacher, the series begins when he is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and hasn’t got much time left to live before the final good-bye. Now instead of making a “Bucket-List’ mentioning many things to do, Walt decides to earn big amount of money for his family before he is gone and thus begins creating the purest form of drug teaming up with his former student Jesse Pinkman. Now due to the rare and superb quality of their product reaching 99% of purity, the partners-in-crime start earning loads of money in a real quick time and their journey begins in the underground world of drugs, mafia and chasing police without any visible warnings.
And from here on, you get to see a beautiful piece of art with a splendid writing, brilliant characterization, incredible acting, amazing cinematography, impressive art direction, pulsating background score and completely original story progression right till the end, never makes you realize that you are actually watching a TV series (and not a big budget movie) running for more than 60 episodes. A masterfully visualized series directed by various contributors, it basically remains the brainchild of Vince Gilligan the creator, who takes you onto a highly thrilling, energized and magnetic journey revolving around his dark, grey and brutal characters dealing with their own issues of life individually. It has an intelligently written multi-layered script dealing with every single detail around its few characters, reminding you of the works of maestros such as Quentin Tarantino, The Cohen Brothers, Guy Ritchie and more.
As it rightly deserved, BREAKING BAD received a widespread acclaim both from the viewers as well as the critics unanimously during its entire 5 series and many have also rated it as ‘The Greatest Television Drama of All Time” too repeatedly. It has a very rare 9.5 rating at its IMDBpage and that should say it all indicating towards the excellence achieved by its makers and performers in this exceptional TV epic. The series was regularly nominated for various awards from the year 2008 to 2013 and it deservingly won many of them for its different departments ranging from writing, direction, cinematography and performances. In fact such was the favourable impact of the series on the actors fraternity too that (as per IMDB) once the famous Hollywood actor Samuel L. Jackson simply walked on to the sets of BB, completely unannounced and wished to do a cameo appearance in an episode, admitting that he was a huge fan of BREAKING BAD since the beginning.
Also in its Season 5, an episode was dedicated to Kevin Cordasco, a teenager cancer patient, who was a super-fan of the show and also met the key members of the BREAKING BAD team before his death. The boy was even offered to read the final script of the series so that he gets to know about the climax before it’s too late. But Kevin declined the offer, as he didn't think that he would be able to keep the secret. The boy died in March 2013 and they respectfully dedicated an episode to his name, remembering the true fan of the series.
Coming to my personal experience, after receiving a friendly suggestion to see BB, I just began watching its very first episode of the opening series quite casually without expecting anything exceptional. But within the next 50 minutes, I was forced to accept my underestimated mistake as this was nothing less than a visual treat experienced after a long time. The execution was way beyond my assumption and I frankly couldn’t stop myself and had to watch its entire 5 seasons at a stretch in the next 20 days, postponing everything else which could be pushed ahead easily. And believe me, I had a real great time watching Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris, Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito and more constantly for more than 60 hours without feeling stressed, bored or over-served even once. Particularly Giancarlo Esposito was a real treat to watch as Gustavo ‘Gus’ Fring along with the lead pair of Bryan-Aaron and their acts together are sure going to stay in my mind for a long time.
So if you are true fan of crime-thrillers genre and love to watch new pulsating thrillers offering some mind-blowing content in a completely fresh form, then do find the five seasons of BREAKING BAD urgently and then simply dive into the world of Walter White to have a novel cinematic experience of your life right away. And I am sure a lot of mad movie lovers like myself are going to take many offs in the next weeks due to this addictive series lying unwatched in their possession titled BREAKING BAD.
Creator : Vince Gilligan
Starring : Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Jonathan Banks, Dean Norris, Anna Gunn, Giancarlo Esposito
Update - The Series can now be seen at Netflix for a subscription.
