Where Is This?

[footfootfoot]

Ahh, I just googled it.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

Ahh, I just googled it.

We are similarly out of touch, must be the cozy caves. The ladies here started to watch the series even going back to the beginning to try to get me on board. It didn't take. If I want to see drug ruined lives, I'll just teach special ed...

[orthodoc]

Originally Posted by Griff

If I want to see drug ruined lives, I'll just teach special ed...

You could also work in the ER, or live in western PA, or have a child with a drug addiction.

I haven't had any desire to watch that series.

[Griff]

Yeah, it just isn't entertaining. I'm glad someone else gets it.

[Gravdigr]

It ain't about the drugs. They're there, yeah, but that ain't what the show's about.

[orthodoc]

Yes, but isn't about his choices in the face of a terminal illness, about his rejection of any caring or responsibility toward anyone not in his family? He produces meth to finance his treatment so that his family doesn't suffer. What about the people he harms? Am I missing something?

[Gravdigr]

I'm just saying there's a lot more to the show. If someone's decided they're not gonna like it, they're not gonna like it.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by orthodoc

Yes, but isn't about his choices in the face of a terminal illness, about his rejection of any caring or responsibility toward anyone not in his family? He produces meth to finance his treatment so that his family doesn't suffer. What about the people he harms? Am I missing something?

There are overarching themes about accomplishment, about doing something that no one else could have achieved, about wanting to leave a legacy that's more than just money. The show doesn't glorify these, rather it shows the downfall that can come from such hubris. It's about how we all make bad choices when confronted with our most dire fears. Walt doesn't start cooking to finance his cancer treatment, he reluctantly does it so his children--a special needs son, and a newborn baby--won't be homeless and destitute when he dies. At first, he doesn't even want treatment; the money he plans for is just enough to care for them after he's gone. He doesn't try to get people hooked on meth, he just figures the meth heads are going to buy it from someone anyway, it might as well be him for a couple months. You start out thinking Walt is a weak but fundamentally caring guy, but slowly over the course of the series, pride transforms him into a total bad guy. Other characters start out being bad guys, and you realize that they're more good guys, in the end.

It's about how none of us are perfect, and we all have the potential in us to be a bad guy, given the right circumstances. It's about how evil isn't born; it's made. It's a cautionary tale.

I can still understand not wanting to watch the base storyline, it's pretty intense. But it's definitely about more than a jerk who gets people hooked on meth.

[Undertoad]

Yeah: Breaking Bad is about meth, like There Will Be Blood is about oil, Apocalypse Now is about Vietnam, Leaving Las Vegas is about alcohol, The Shining is about a resort hotel, ... you get the idea. It's just the context for a character slowly descending into madness/destruction in a world where he often seems like the sanest of all.

[Gravdigr]

It's one of the most well-written shows ever broadcast.

Imho, 'Breaking Bad' is the second best thing ever shown on television. The best being 'Lonesome Dove'.

[Griff]

I get that its "good." It's the sort of thing I'd watch on the big screen, one time. It isn't the sort of thing I'd allow space to inhabit my mind week after week. The real world can be a dark enough place without help from Hollywood.

[fargon]

It is shows like this, and others is the major reason I watch PBS, and got rid of cable. I can find no entertainment value in a show about a cooker and gratuitous violence. There are other shows that I find objectionable and refuse to watch, like Modern Family glorifying faggotry and portraying men as idiots. Needless to say I don't watch a lot of TV. Turn off the boob tube and read a book.

[glatt]

Yeah, well even PBS is not immune.

I'm not sure what you're watching, but Shelock has a lot of violence, and even Downton Abbey has taken a dark turn in the most recent season with brutal violence as well.

Edit: And I think it's great Modern Family has a gay couple on it as main characters instead of just as wacky neighbors. The men being idiots thing is only part of the show. The women are idiots too. It's a sitcom. They all act like clowns so you laugh at them.

[Undertoad]

Best to stick with PBS

[fargon]

I have friends and family members that are gay, and I don't hate them. My feeling is that when somebody's bedroom antics become a political statement I get tired of hearing it. When my nephews came home from school with pamphlets glorifying the gay life style. I went to school the next day to complain that kindergartners and first graders do not need to even know that there is such a thing as the gay life style. When I voiced my concerns to the Principle I was told that I was just uninformed and needed to become enlightened. I moved the boys to their Grandfather's place in Texas.
Gay people are a fact of life in Laguna Beach Ca. I had no problem with gays and had several gay employees, they were hard working and honest. My biggest problem with the gay agenda is that they seem to have a sense of entitlement.
I choose not to watch shows that glorify the gay life style, and I do not support gay marriage for religious reasons (but that is a topic for another time.)
I know that I am a bigot, and will probably be hated I'm sorry but I will not change my mind.