Breaking Bad

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

- "Ozymandias", Percy Bysshe Shelley

The story of Walter White, an old chemistry teacher that discovers he has cancer and decides to get into crystal methamphetamine cooking to provide for his family before he dies. One of AMC's more notable dramas.

Status

Complete.

Thoughts

Execution personified.

In the strictest of terms, nothing about the show is especially noteworthy - plot, characterization, production, etc. At least not for me. Yet for what it does have, its execution of it is virtually flawless, with almost nothing to criticize. Characterization, while not groundbreaking in any way, is given an incredible amount of attention, with a large swath of the cast being morally ambiguous characters that you can root for, deplore, maybe both. Events seem to occur at a very well-set pace, dramatic scenes given roughly exactly the appropriate amount of time (i.e. surprisingly few moments where you wish someone would shut the fuck up), and sprinkles of life outside of Walt's world to round it all out and give Albuquerque a very real feeling.

A laser beam, very good at working its magic on its focus point, and doing virtually nothing outside of that. Not a show for everyone, I think, but if it is for you, I'd consider yourself quite lucky.