One left of Breaking Bad

Guys, there is only one episode left of Talking Bad!

But seriously, forks...


I did not initially like Breaking Bad.

Fortunately, I picked it up on DVD through Season Three and caught up just in time to start Season Four, immediately following when Jesse shoots Gale in the face.  IN THE FAAAAACE!!!!!

But I really did not like it at first.  In fact, I stopped watching after a few episodes.  But when I heard the opinions of people who I respect say it improves, I gave it another shot and actually started from the beginning again.

I'm not a fan of shows where the main character has a big secret.  To clarify, a secret the audience is aware of.  The character spends all his time and energy keeping that secret and there's little plot beyond narrowly getting caught during his latest adventure.  If the secret is also kept from the audience as well as the other characters, that is a different, more interesting story as in Mad Men.  Even after the audience discovers his secret in Nixon v Kennedy, the premise of the show is not how Don hides his secret from his family, but still focuses on life in the 1960s.  His family finding out is almost ancillary to the rest of the show.  The result of Betty finding out is that it puts Don in a new situation and also helps continue to tell the story of life in the 1960s.*
 
* It's important to say "life in the" and not simply "the 60s" because in that case you get a terrible television move like The 70s

 Walt spent a lot of time frantically hiding things from Skyler and company.  His lies started small (I buy weed from Jesse) and got bigger (the fugue state) until he spilled the beans about his second cell phone.  The "hiding a secret" schtick reached its worst when Walt was hiding in the RV from Hank, saved only by the Junk Yard Guy lawyering him to safety.

This for me is when the show finally kicked into gear.  Skyler became complict in Walt's shenanigans which was important just for the fact that he didnt have to hide things anymore.  But the organized crime aspect of the show was brought in. The additions of criminal lawyer Saul Goodman and Chicken Man Gus Fring allowed a whole new level of crime drama.  Suddenly, there was crime to be had across the border and across the ocean.  The operation was huge and Gustavo's outfit was able to introduce henchmen at will.

By this time, Walt had gone so far around the bend toward Scarface that even when the organized crime aspect was blown away in "Face Off", the power vacuum and the criminal element of Todd's extended family was more the enough to keep the show going strong or even stronger...much better than the "hope my wife doesn't find out" plotline.

Stories like that are inherently limiting.  The only way shows can survive is to re-boot the show, take it to another setting and blow the cover off the hidden identity (Alias, Homeland).  If they become like The Riches and did and focus of the gypsies past rather than how they can adapt and move forward in new surroundings, they don't stand a chance.

Breaking Bad broke free of that, both discarding the secrecy of his double life and expanding the universe and changing the setting.