Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Brooklyn
Sure. But I think Mad Men only forced a lot on its own terms. It only seemed like a lot because of how effortless it's been the previous 4 seasons. It was a lot by it's own standards. But even at that... it was pretty brilliant stuff. I don't have a problem with most of it.
The issue with Breaking Bad - and really the only issue I can find with the series - is that it's made a habit of forcing plot on it's characters.
It's sort of the same issue I have with There Will Be Blood. If you take Brian Cranston out of the show... it's a C+/B- show at best (on the whole). He elevates it to a A/A+ most of the time.
Season One of Breaking Bad is genius. Season Two starts off pretty poorly and finds its feet by midway. Season Three is great except for the super bizarre, mute Mexican brothers. Season Four is probably the strongest since the first season, except for the last two episodes. "Crawl Space" raised the bar - perhaps too highly to be overcome.
The most recent season of Mad Men was (in my opinion, pound for pound) better than the most recent season of Breaking Bad.
Maybe my problem is my own expectations. I don't fault this kinda thing in Game Of Thrones because the game is as much about what happens as it is about the people it happens too. I was expecting Breaking Bad to be more like Mad Men. That's probably my own fault.
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I kinda' feel like Mad Men and Breaking Bad keep matching each other (though I truthfully feel that Mad Men has gained a slight upperhand, but it's also going to be a longer show by two seasons - which gives it more time to be worse).
It sounds like you simply don't like the mythic/stylized aspects of Breaking Bad, the ones that embrace its Scarface influence. Which is fine, I guess. Breaking Bad is necessarily a show that combines character moments (mostly with Walt and Jessie) with bombastic/cool plot moments. And a lot of viewers love the show ONLY for those cool moments (just like lots of Mad Men's audience only loves the show for Don being sexy and Roger making racist quirps).
With Breaking Bad, for me, its big crime-film type moments don't detract from the themes of the show, of what is of value about the show (though, like you, I found Gus' last scene in s4 to be a bit much).