What show are you watching right now?

[heydaralon]

This is an extreme minority opinion, but I consider Breaking Bad to be the most overrated show of all time. The ending was bad, and it was very cartoonish. In fact, the entire show was cartoonish. The show was boring when it needed to be interesting, and unnecessarily convuluted. Ooh look Walt is using some weird chemistry science stuff to commit crimes! You had to suspend too much disbelief too often. From the nitroglycerine tuco scene, to those autistic mexican axe brothers. Just comic book crap. The villains etc. I can never imagine anyone from a drug cartel, to a meth head actually speaking that way. None of the villains seemed remotely plausible to me. And they made stuff weird and longwinded just for the sake of being weird and longwinded. The cartoonish nature and corny writing sucked me out of the show. Like, I was very aware I was watching a show that wanted to be considered deep, but the world the guy built always seemed very boring and unrealistic to me. The writing for the secondary characters was lousy too, like Jessie's friends. A lot of the build up did not pay off either. I did not care about Walt's annoying wife or retard son either. Don't get me wrong there were some great scenes in the show, but I do not feel that the acclaim it gets is remotely warranted. Reasonable people can disagree, but to me BB is not great.

If you don't think Breaking Bad is great, then how many shows have you watched that would qualify as great? There are not many shows that you could realistically argue are better than Breaking Bad, so something tells me you are setting the "great" bar way too high and looking down your nose at way too many shows if you honestly believe that.

Reasonable people actually can't disagree about this, if you don't think Breaking Bad is great, then you aren't reasonable, it's a top 3 TV drama, bare minimum.

It might be in the top 3 AMC shows, but BB is not HBO tier, and there are many network shows that I think are better. I am not a huge fan of Vince Gilligan's writing. With the Wire, even if it wasn't realistic, it usually felt like you were in the world. You could tell the writers took the time to understand the city and its inhabitants. For Gilligan, its like he read a wikipedia article about drug cartels and that was what he modeled it on. As an aside, Hank always felt like a poor man's Vic Mackey. Another sign of the bad writing is how the characters always come up with these convoluted schemes. They all do. Whether its Walt using magnets or hiding the ricin cigarette, to Mike filling shoes with meth and then creating an elaborate distraction to shoot them over the truck, to Saul filling bingo balls with metal, to Skyler using Bill Burr to EPA the gas station, to Nacho switching out Hector's pills, to Gus putting a gps in Mike's gas cap, to chuck tricking saul into stealing the tape etc. That is not how people do things irl. It would be fine if only one character in this universe thought this way, but every single one does. Every one in that show is an autistic Mcgyver instead of tackling their problems head on like people do in the real world, they always come up with these elaborate tricks and gadgets that fill up a 3 episode arc for some reason. Completely gimmicky and unbelievable. That is the only character Gilligan can think up. His characters are either too stupid and one dimensional like Jessie's friends, or they are a drug cartel who speaks like an English major. Its just so forced. Better Call Saul is really bad about this. Or they will do these boring ass montages that show Kim showering and brushing her teeth for ten minutes Everyone eats this shit up too. The reason they do this is simply for filler. And lol I very reasonably think Breaking Bad is overrated as fuck. To each his own.

[StCapps]

It might be in the top 3 AMC shows, but BB is not HBO tier, and there are many network shows that I think are better.

There is no such thing as HBO tier, HBO is not the only cable channel capable of producing quality television, that is a myth perpetuated by HBO nuthuggers. Name the network TV shows you think are better, so I can laugh in your face, that should be some funny shit.

I am not a huge fan of Vince Gilligan's writing. With the Wire, even if it wasn't realistic, it usually felt like you were in the world. You could tell the writers took the time to understand the city and its inhabitants. For Gilligan, its like he read a wikipedia article about drug cartels and that was what he modeled it on.

Saying that Breaking Bad isn't as realistic as The Wire and doesn't understand the inhabitants of Albuquerque on the same level as The Wire understood the inhabitants of Balitmore, that is making an argument that helps back up the point that Breaking Bad isn't as good as The Wire, that is not an argument that Breaking Bad isn't great. Comparing a show to The Wire is a complement, not an insult.

As an aside, Hank always felt like a poor man's Vic Mackey.

Vic Mackey is awesome and so is Hank Schrader, neither one of them is a poor man to the other. Hank was a supporting character in Breaking Bad, Vic was the main character of The Shield, so also an apples and oranges comparison.

Another sign of the bad writing is how the characters always come up with these convoluted schemes. They all do. Whether its Walt using magnets or hiding the ricin cigarette, to Mike filling shoes with meth and then creating an elaborate distraction to shoot them over the truck, to Saul filling bingo balls with metal, to Skyler using Bill Burr to EPA the gas station, to Nacho switching out Hector's pills, to Gus putting a gps in Mike's gas cap, to chuck tricking saul into stealing the tape etc. That is not how people do things irl. It would be fine if only one character in this universe thought this way, but every single one does. Every one in that show is an autistic Mcgyver instead of tackling their problems head on like people do in the real world, they always come up with these elaborate tricks and gadgets that fill up a 3 episode arc for some reason. Completely gimmicky and unbelievable.

The EPA trick was awesome and completely believable, and Chekov's ricin made for some real good television at the start of the second season, and at the end of the fourth season, in particular, these are far from signs of bad writing. The magnets episode is probably the worst episode of Breaking Bad, and even still it's not a bad episode of TV, how many TV shows can you say don't really have any bad episodes? It's not many, and shows that don't have bad episodes are by default great television. Even The Sopranos has some lame episodes here and there, but not Breaking Bad, yet The Sopranos is still easily one of the greatest tv shows of all time, yet Breaking Bad is overrated? What planet do you live on?

When it comes to consistency, Breaking Bad and The Wire are on another level compared to any other TV show, including The Sopranos.

That is the only character Gilligan can think up. His characters are either too stupid and one dimensional like Jessie's friends, or they are a drug cartel who speaks like an English major.

Badger and Skinny Pete are suppose to be one dimensional idiots that mainly serve to help Jesse's character development, calling them out for not being super depthy characters is a really lame point. Gus Fring is the greatest TV villian of all time, why you would bring Gus to make a point about Breaking Bad not being great, I have no earthly idea.

Its just so forced. Better Call Saul is really bad about this. Or they will do these boring ass montages that show Kim showering and brushing her teeth for ten minutes Everyone eats this shit up too. The reason they do this is simply for filler. And lol I very reasonably think Breaking Bad is overrated as fuck. To each his own.

Everyone eats those montages up because they appreciate cinematography, clearly you don't. They are not only for filler, especially in Breaking Bad.

Based on the arguments you have presented thus far, you do not reasonably believe that Breaking Bad isn't great. You could reasonably make the argument that you prefer The Wire to Breaking Bad, but you can't reasonably make the argument that there are so many shows that are better than Breaking Bad. If you could, you'd list these shows to prove your point, but if you tried to list your favorite shows and ranked Breaking Bad among them, then you would realize it's not as overrated as you seem to believe, or you'd be stubborn and rank it way too low and make a fool out yourself for pretending like shows that aren't that good are somehow better than Breaking Bad.

If you can't list the shows that you think are better than Breaking Bad, then you obviously don't actually think Breaking Bad isn't great, you just want an edgy opinion to troll people with. The Wire is not the only great TV show ever made, people need to stop pretending that anything that isn't The Wire or anything that isn't HBO, is somehow crap, what a retarded argument. AMC makes some great TV show too, as does FX, so get real.

[heydaralon]

It might be in the top 3 AMC shows, but BB is not HBO tier, and there are many network shows that I think are better.

There is no such thing as HBO tier, HBO is not the only cable channel capable of producing quality television, that is a myth perpetuated by HBO nuthuggers. Name the network TV shows you think are better, so I can laugh in your face, that should be some funny shit.

I am not a huge fan of Vince Gilligan's writing. With the Wire, even if it wasn't realistic, it usually felt like you were in the world. You could tell the writers took the time to understand the city and its inhabitants. For Gilligan, its like he read a wikipedia article about drug cartels and that was what he modeled it on.

Saying that Breaking Bad isn't as realistic as The Wire and doesn't understand the inhabitants of Albuquerque on the same level as The Wire understood the inhabitants of Balitmore, that is making an argument that helps back up the point that Breaking Bad isn't as good as The Wire, that is not an argument that Breaking Bad isn't great. Comparing a show to The Wire is a complement, not an insult.

As an aside, Hank always felt like a poor man's Vic Mackey.

Vic Mackey is awesome and so is Hank Schrader, neither one of them is a poor man to the other. Hank was a supporting character in Breaking Bad, Vic was the main character of The Shield, so also an apples and oranges comparison.

Another sign of the bad writing is how the characters always come up with these convoluted schemes. They all do. Whether its Walt using magnets or hiding the ricin cigarette, to Mike filling shoes with meth and then creating an elaborate distraction to shoot them over the truck, to Saul filling bingo balls with metal, to Skyler using Bill Burr to EPA the gas station, to Nacho switching out Hector's pills, to Gus putting a gps in Mike's gas cap, to chuck tricking saul into stealing the tape etc. That is not how people do things irl. It would be fine if only one character in this universe thought this way, but every single one does. Every one in that show is an autistic Mcgyver instead of tackling their problems head on like people do in the real world, they always come up with these elaborate tricks and gadgets that fill up a 3 episode arc for some reason. Completely gimmicky and unbelievable.

The EPA trick was awesome and completely believable, and Chekov's ricin made for some real good television at the start of the second season, and at the end of the fourth season, in particular, these are far from signs of bad writing. The magnets episode is probably the worst episode of Breaking Bad, and even still it's not a bad episode of TV, how many TV shows can you say don't really have any bad episodes? It's not many, and shows that don't have bad episodes are by default great television. Even The Sopranos has some lame episodes here and there, but not Breaking Bad, yet The Sopranos is still easily one of the greatest tv shows of all time, yet Breaking Bad is overrated? What planet do you live on?

When it comes to consistency, Breaking Bad and The Wire are on another level compared to any other TV show, including The Sopranos.

That is the only character Gilligan can think up. His characters are either too stupid and one dimensional like Jessie's friends, or they are a drug cartel who speaks like an English major.

Badger and Skinny Pete are suppose to be one dimensional idiots that mainly serve to help Jesse's character development, calling them out for not being super depthy characters is a really lame point. Gus Fring is the greatest TV villian of all time, why you would bring Gus to make a point about Breaking Bad not being great, I have no earthly idea.

Its just so forced. Better Call Saul is really bad about this. Or they will do these boring ass montages that show Kim showering and brushing her teeth for ten minutes Everyone eats this shit up too. The reason they do this is simply for filler. And lol I very reasonably think Breaking Bad is overrated as fuck. To each his own.

Everyone eats those montages up because they appreciate cinematography, clearly you don't. They are not only for filler, especially in Breaking Bad.

Based on the arguments you have presented thus far, you do not reasonably believe that Breaking Bad isn't great. You could reasonably make the argument that you prefer The Wire to Breaking Bad, but you can't reasonably make the argument that there are so many shows that are better than Breaking Bad. If you could, you'd list these shows to prove your point, but if you tried to list your favorite shows and ranked Breaking Bad among them, then you would realize it's not as overrated as you seem to believe, or you'd be stubborn and rank it way too low and make a fool out yourself for pretending like shows that aren't that good are somehow better than Breaking Bad.

If you can't list the shows that you think are better than Breaking Bad, then you obviously don't actually think Breaking Bad isn't great, you just want an edgy opinion to troll people with. The Wire is not the only great TV show ever made, people need to stop pretending that anything that isn't The Wire or anything that isn't HBO, is somehow crap, what a retarded argument. AMC makes some great TV show too, as does FX, so get real.

Shows that I consider better than BB:

The Wire
The Sopranos (saying BB is better is fighting words)
True Detective S1
First four seasons of GoT
Mad Men
Deadwood
WestWorld
The Deuce
Boardwalk Empire
Rome

These are just off the top of my head. Every show I listed has problems, but I think they are all better than BB. Capps, I like you and usually we see eye to eye on things, but if you keep this up I am not inviting you to my Downton Abbey viewing party. This is not an idle threat. Its the christmas special one so its one of the better eps.

[heydaralon]

Havent seen leftovers yet but still prolly better than BB. I just do not like the gimmicky elaborate schemes to solve problems. Thats seems to be the only trick Gilligan has in his hat. The only reason Im being so hard on the show is that everyone insists its the greatest thing ever so I gotta set em straight.

[StCapps]

[Shows that I consider better than BB:

The Wire
The Sopranos (saying BB is better is fighting words)
True Detective S1
First four seasons of GoT
Mad Men
Deadwood
WestWorld
The Deuce
Boardwalk Empire
Rome

These are just off the top of my head. Every show I listed has problems, but I think they are all better than BB. Capps, I like you and usually we see eye to eye on things, but if you keep this up I am not inviting you to my Downton Abbey viewing party. This is not an idle threat. Its the christmas special one so its one of the better eps.

You didn't name a single Network TV show, and only named a single non-HBO show, so clearly Breaking Bad is much better than you initially thought. I'll give you The Wire and The Sopranos, because as I said, that is actually debatable, however:

- You can't say The Deuce, the sample size is too small, five episodes in. You are just trying to pad the list by including it.

- Boardwalk Empire is way too inconsistent during the middle stretches of it's seasons and it's peak moments are inferior to the peak moments of Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad has better acting, cinematography, and writing. Breaking Bad is easily a full tier above the likes of a Boardwalk Empire.

- Game of Thrones first four seasons were nowhere near as good as any four season stretch of Breaking Bad that you want to cherry pick. A lot of the arguments I just made against Boardwalk apply here as well.

- True Detective's first season might be better than Breaking Bad's first season, every other season of Breaking Bad is better than True Detective's first season. It's not as consistent and it's peak moments aren't as good, the acting, writing and cinematography, also not on Breaking Bad's level.

- Westworld's first season wasn't even that high on my top 10 TV drama's of last year. It's good, not great, and could easily fall apart going forward. CPAWC all go to Breaking Bad by wide margins.

- Rome isn't even in my top 20 TV drama's, and the second season was notably rushed. At least two tiers below Breaking Bad.

So that leaves Mad Men and Deadwood, and I'm willing to listen to your case, but I bet your "Mad Men and Deadwood are better than Breaking Bad" argument actually isn't as well thought out as you think it is, if the list you just presented is any indication.

Your problem is you enjoy HBO shows with ensemble casts too much, and that alone seems to make a show better than Breaking Bad in your eyes, that pattern is fairly obvious based on your list, you're an HBO ensemble cast fan boy if ever there was one.

If you can't even reasonably knock Breaking Bad out of a top 5 spot, then the "it's not great" argument falls flat on it's face. Even if you made a good case for Mad Men and/or Deadwood over Breaking Bad, that sure as hell doesn't do anything to prove your point that Breaking Bad "isn't great and so overrated", because comparing a TV show to Mad Men and/or Deadwood is obviously a complement, not an insult.

[StCapps]

Havent seen leftovers yet but still prolly better than BB. I just do not like the gimmicky elaborate schemes to solve problems. Thats seems to be the only trick Gilligan has in his hat. The only reason Im being so hard on the show is that everyone insists its the greatest thing ever so I gotta set em straight.

So you are overcompensating for Breaking Bad fanboys? You don't see me overcompensating in this thread because fanboys of The Wire like The Wire way too much, just to set them straight, do you? They are more annoying on "this show is better than every other show on TV by far" schtick, yet I don't need to reach to attack their argument, so why do you?

Ranking Breaking Bad #1 should not piss you off, that should be on your list of acceptable answers, when it comes to the question of "what is the greatest TV drama of all time?", just like The Wire and The Sopranos should be acceptable answers. Going with Mad Men or Deadwood would be a little bit of reach, especially in the case of the latter, due to cancellation issues, but I guess those would at least qualify as a semi-acceptable answer. Everything else on your list is an unacceptable answer to that question, and just to overcompensate for Breaking Bad fanboys that aren't even posting in this thread.

Why so triggered?
/shrugs

PS - Watch The Leftovers, it's fucking awesome, gets notably better every season too and finishes real strong. It's an HBO ensemble cast, and you sure love you some of that.

[SuburbanFarmer]

PS - Watch The Leftovers, it's fucking awesome, gets notably better every season too and finishes real strong. It's an HBO ensemble cast, and you sure love you some of that.

Fucking boring show. We dropped out in Season 1.

[StCapps]

PS - Watch The Leftovers, it's fucking awesome, gets notably better every season too and finishes real strong. It's an HBO ensemble cast, and you sure love you some of that.

Fucking boring show. We dropped out in Season 1.

The show doesn't hit it's stride until after the first season, the show gets lighter as it goes along and finds a much better balance between light and dark moments. You still should enjoy that first season more, but your taste in TV is highly suspect anyway.

The only people who shit on the show as if it isn't worth watching are people who quit after the first season, or people who have never seen the show. Best drama on television this year, straight up. Don't listen to the haters daralon, and even if they were right, it would be worth getting through a "boring" first season to get the most out of that third season. So a bunch of them should stop acting like their decision to bail after one season was the right call, because it most definitely was not, it will in fact be one of the dumbest decisions they ever make, in all of there time watching television, especially if they never come back to it.

[SuburbanFarmer]

[StCapps]

Keep not watching the last two seasons of The Leftovers, it will be the worst TV watching decision you ever make, in all likelihood. My brother didn't like the first season either and I had to pretty much force him to watch Season 2, and then he didn't even enjoy the second season nearly as much as he should have, but by Season 3 he was like "fuck, when did this show get so damn good? this shit is amazing!"

When I say it gets better as it goes, I'm not playing dude. I'm not trying to trick you, I'm trying to save you from the worst TV watching instinct that you've ever had. If you want to punish yourself because you think there is no way your instinct could be that off, then I can't stop you, but you are only hurting yourself.