Ten years ago, Breaking Bad aired its first episode on AMC. No one perceived that such a far-out plot would flip the television industry on its head. On the first episode, we were introduced to Walter White, a mild-mannered high school teacher who is indisputably dying from lung cancer. Desperate to leave his pregnant wife and son money in the event of his death, he resorts to manufacturing crystal meth with a student from his past.
Looking back, no one believed the show would last past its first season. We were given seven episodes and if they'd known how monumental the show would become, they would've given plenty more. But unsurprisingly, those seven episodes was enough to generate buzz and views for additional seasons. It took a while before Breaking Bad truly got a breakthrough. It wasn't a household favorite, but its raw potential was destined to be discovered by the world. Television shows back then still lacked in diversity, but Breaking Bad's writing and characters gave unrepresented people a voice: feminism, handicap, cancer, addiction/drug relapse.
The show passed boundaries and explored the uncharted territory of life without morals. It produced a cloud of unpredictableness for everyone watching and it was one of my favorite aspects of the show. Soon a passionate fanbase spawned and grew a substantial amount of support for the series. And I believe it came at the right time when people weren't looking for a story with an underdog good guy. There was a need to see a story where a person's humanity was stripped away and their true nature unveiled.
I never saw Walt becoming the antagonist or antihero in the story, but that certainly wasn't the case. In the beginning, his intentions were pure, but the deeper he went in the world of drugs and crime the more he became this menacing version of himself. Bryan Cranston and creator Vince Gillian poured their blood, sweat, and coughs into Walter White's iconic transformation from a meek ordinary husbandman to a minacious drug lord.
You can tell the actors and actresses were picked with extreme care. They all were beyond phenomenal, each character's personal life and it gave so much depth to the plot. It took a while, but even I grew to like Skylar even more than Walter and that was because she was given her own voice in the show. She was one fierce hell of a woman and sometimes the only match to "Heisenberg". Let's not forget all the genius ideas she came up with. It was almost like both of them were hiding this alter-personality within themselves that fit hand in hand.
Jesse Pinkman was the icing on the cake. He drove the story whether he was willing to do something or not, it always had an effect on Walter. His style of communications was a unique attribute that made Breaking Bad its own. By the fourth season, I could hear Jesse call someone a bitch and know exactly what the context of this one word meant. And trust me, there are an infinite amount of ways he uses the word. It was memorable and showed how astounding the writer and Aaron Paul understood the character.
Vince Gillian would've never imagined what the potential of an idea could become. Breaking Bad was formed out of a conversation between himself and his friend, Thomas Schnauz, who became the writer for the show. Schnauz had read an interesting story about a man cooking crystal meth in an apartment building, which sickened kids in the apartments above. Somehow Saddam Hussein's alleged chemical-weapon lab on wheels came into the equation and eventually the master plan was being formed.
In 2007, Gillian pitched his spontaneous idea to executives at AMC. At the time, the network was looking for a second original series that went alongside "Mad Men," which debuted that year. They had a goal to find something relevant to the present, so AMC wasn't labeled as the home of 1900's television. Management also wanted an egotistical antihero which would align with the network's columns of antihero action movies. Charlie Collier, president of AMC, describes his first encounter with the script when his development team placed the pilot script on his desk and told him to read it.
At this time in his life, Gillian only desired to a show up to par with his level because he wanted it to be worth doing. He wasn't looking for the oddest or even the most normal show. He wanted a cast of characters that would not only change over the series' timeline but also be susceptible to suffer crushing bad luck and unpredictable life changes that would have monumental impacts. And that's exactly what Breaking Bad gave him. The best thing about the show was TV had never seen characters like Walter White, Skyler White, Jesse Pinkman, and etc.
Fans could pick and choose favorites because their storylines were weighed equally and done with just as much exposure to the other. My favorite characters being Skyler and Jesse, but the relationship between Walt and Jessie being my favorite part of the show.
You'd never expect the relationship between two meth cooks as the one Walt and Jessie had. It was a beautiful transformation to see them be the teacher and his student to a father and his son. Even though Jessie didn't acknowledge their close bond throughout the story, he knew nothing could come between them. No matter how terrible it becomes. Many times, they saved each other from death and even killed to keep each other alive. Walt would say he did it as a business endeavor, but the truth is he did it because he loved him like a son: the same went for Jessie. (Spoiler Alert) On the last episodes of the final season, Walt finally told Jesse that he watched Jane, his girlfriend, choke to death at his side. And brutally revealed he had the choice to save her, but he didn't.
At that point, you'd except Jessie to kill Walt on the spot if he weren't constrained, but on the final episode, Walt gives Jessie the gun and begs him to take his life. Any person would gladly pull the trigger after they let one of their loved ones die, but he didn't. Jessie basically told Walter he'd rather him bleed out from his gun wound and decided not to shoot him. You could say Jessie wanted him to suffer, but the truth is his love for Walter was still there. Through death and betrayal, they still couldn't manage to weasel the love out of their hearts. It's powerful when you get to see people's limits and how far they can actually go.
Skyler White was my number one favorite character, right there beside Jessie. She was fierce and more intelligent than Walter at many things. She was like a chameleon, adaptable to any type of situation she's thrown into. There are so many strong scenes and most of them are when she's slowly transforming from a good guy into a bad guy. She was on the road to a very dark place, but on the way she found herself again. It's amazing to see how innocent and blind she was in the first season. A testimony that anyone can evolve and that the person you marry may not be the person you know.
Her best scene was when Marie came over after she found out the truth about Walter. She was broken inside. Walt had really destroyed the essence of her life. When her sisters slapped her and left the room, my heart never pounded faster. I felt the fear and raging fire inside of me like Skylar as her sister picked up the baby and was about to leave. It was beyond devastating and I've never been so into a show like that before. And Breaking Bad was great with doing that. People can relate to actual home issues like this in their life. Out of all the characters, she was one strongest inside. There were times when she tried to give up, but she always came back.
The finale was definitely one of the best episodes out of the entire series. Walter institutes his master plan to free Jessie and kill the thief who stole his money while understanding he'll die during the attempt. To me, it was like a message saying that Walter White resembles some type of god in their universe. He decides who dies, who lives, and that includes himself. He had a chance to live in the end, but he chose death. Until that moment, you don't realize just how divine Walter White actually was.
If you haven't watched Breaking Bad, then you should. It's the best show on Netflix and you are missing out on life by not experiencing a story unlike any in the universe!
