Breaking Bad...is so good

In the last year and a half or so, I've decided to join the rest of the world by catching up on TV. The shows I previously watched consisted almost entirely of reality shows - Project Runway, America's Next Top Model, So You Think You Can Dance, and so on. In fact, I think when Glee first aired it may have been the only scripted show I watched at all.

And so, armed with the Netflix subscription that I allowed myself to re-subscribe to after finishing business school, I started powering through some of the "better" shows that I had missed.

There were shows that I hated, like Parks and Rec.

There were shows that I liked but didn't necessarily love, like How I Met Your Mother or Weeds.

Mostly, though, due to having friends with good taste in TV, I watched shows that I absolutely adored. Arrested Development, Downton Abbey, 30 Rock, Archer, Mad Men, and Friday Night Lights, just to name a few.

But nothing, and I mean NOTHING, prepared me for Breaking Bad.

If you had told me 6 months ago that I would find a TV show that I loved more than Friday Night Lights, I don't think I would have believed you. Because, as most of you know because you've probably watched it, FNL is ridiculously good. Don't even get me started.

The thing about Breaking Bad is that it took me forever to really get into it. I watched the first season and a half over the course of what was probably 2 full months. I liked it, but I just didn't have the desire to watch it ALL THE TIME.

For some reason, towards the end of season 2, I became obsessed. I started watching as many episodes as I possibly could on a given day. I'm done with season 4 and I cannot wait to get started on season 5 because seriously, WHERE WILL IT GO FROM HERE SEASON 4 WAS SO CRAZY.

Here's why I love Breaking Bad:

1) The plot, obviously. It's compelling and interesting and suspenseful and a whole host of other good things.

2) The acting. Amazeballs. The acting is so good that you realize that Aaron Paul is hot but it's like you don't even care because he's just so awesome (remember that time you watched an episode of FNL and didn't think about how hot Tim Riggins is? No, because that never happened).

3) The characters. They're good! They're evil! It's all over the place in an insanely awesome way because everyone has so much depth to them. And then people die and it's like I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF I'M HAPPY OR SAD ABOUT THIS BECAUSE EVERYONE IS SO GREAT AND ALSO SO AWFUL.

4) The complexities. This show is complex in a way that isn't confusing, much the opposite of what I imagine Lost to be like, though I've never seen it and have no interest in seeing it. Or if you watch Revenge, which is also a pretty good show, you'll know that Revenge is both complex AND confusing. Which is annoying. Breaking Bad gives you these little snippets of things that happened in the past that shed light on certain people or events or situations and you're like, "OH SHIT YO" because, oh hey, you just opened up a whole new can of crazy worms. But they're awesome. Awesome crazy worms.

How did I get on worms? This took a weird turn.

5) The gore. I don't love gore. In fact, whenever I watch fight scenes I do that thing where you turn your head but maybeeeee every so often peek at the screen, or I cover my eyes with my hands and sort of look through my fingers a little. I don't deal well with watching that kind of stuff. HOWEVER, the blood on Breaking Bad is mostly surprise blood, so I don't have time to worry about it because HOLY SHIT, that just happened. And all I'm saying is, if I'm going to watch someone's throat get slit, I'd rather not know it's coming.

Okay, and in the interest of fairness, but mostly because I spend so much time thinking about this show that I don't want to stop writing about it, here are 2 things I don't like about it:

1) You may have seen me say this on Facebook or Twitter already, but must Bryan Cranston be in his underwear so often? It's excessive.

2) If Jesse can learn to cook Walt's special blue meth without knowing anything about chemistry, why does no one realize that probably ANYONE could learn to do this? It makes no sense to me that everyone acts as though Walt and Jesse are the only 2 people on the planet who can cook meth with that high a purity level.

Okay, I'm done. Seriously, guys. Breaking Bad.