Breaking Bad

[CrusaderFrank]

Was the pilot episode 1.

Yes

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I think one of the underrated members of the cast was "Mike" Ehrmantraut , the Marine Corps veteran, former Philadelphia police officer, and a calm and calculating career criminal. His straight face humor and calm logical approach to crazy situations added a lot to the series.
In Better Call Saul, he was really funny and had a bigger part.

Mike is awesome.
In BCS - his portions are actually my favorite part of the show.
The storyline of Better Call Saul... my interest level..

#1 - Mike
#2 - Jimmy
#3 - Vargo
#4 - Gus
#5 - Kim

 

[multivita-man]

My opinion is that it is well worth watching if you like series like the Sopranos where the good guys are really the bad guys or maybe the bad guys or really the good guys.

That wasn't quite what I took from the Sopranos. To me it was more like, "everyone's human." That's both good and bad. Sometimes 'good' people do bad things, and sometimes 'bad' people are capable of showing some humanity and love for others. People are never all good and not all bad either. Unless it's Richie Aprile we're talkin about - that guy was pretty much all bad, lol. For me the show was part mob story but part human story.

I've been meaning to get around to watching Breaking Bad.

 

[dblack]

That wasn't quite what I took from the Sopranos. To me it was more like, "everyone's human." That's both good and bad. Sometimes 'good' people do bad things, and sometimes 'bad' people are capable of showing some humanity and love for others. People are never all good and not all bad either. Unless it's Richie Aprile we're talkin about - that guy was pretty much all bad, lol. For me the show was part mob story but part human story.

I've been meaning to get around to watching Breaking Bad.

Definitely worth the time. I sort of take issue with the "bad guys are the good guys" characterization. It's more about how good guys go bad (thus, "Breaking Bad"). And it paints a relatively plausible story of how it can happen. The key thing they nailed, in my opinion, was really laying out character motivations. Even when you are screaming "no!!" while watching a character make a really bad decision, you can see why they did it - there's an internal consistency to the situation. Which, especially when you're given plenty of reason to identify with a character, can make things a bit disconcerting. But it's not an amoral piece of fiction, not a 'dark-hero' saga. Pretty much everyone pays the price for their mistakes, moral and otherwise.

 

[multivita-man]

Definitely worth the time.

Will definitely check it out.

I sort of take issue with the "bad guys are the good guys" characterization.

I was referring to the Sopranos - the 'bad guys are the good guys' was the previous poster's take, though. My takeaway from Sopranos is that it's a nuanced take on career criminals (i.e. the mob). Tony's crew does horrible things, yet there's love and loyalty. Anyway, enough about the Sopranos lol.

 

[Flopper]

That wasn't quite what I took from the Sopranos. To me it was more like, "everyone's human." That's both good and bad. Sometimes 'good' people do bad things, and sometimes 'bad' people are capable of showing some humanity and love for others. People are never all good and not all bad either. Unless it's Richie Aprile we're talkin about - that guy was pretty much all bad, lol. For me the show was part mob story but part human story.

I've been meaning to get around to watching Breaking Bad.

Breaking Bad follows your comments a bit on Sopranos about people are never all good and not all bad either. However, a better description is turning to a life of crime for good reason but as the show goes on that reason becomes more of an excuse. I found the characters in breaking bad fascinating. When you are sure you understand a character, you are in for a surprise.