I don’t think I know anyone that would argue with Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and maybe The Wire (I don’t know any of you contrarians) but the rest of the list just doesn’t have nearly the writing quality. Which is really weird to think about. 3 shows (really 2, Better Call Saul is really Breaking Bad) that are exponentially better than the rest.
Edit: I mean White Lotus is on there. I couldn’t finish the first season. It wasn’t dark or witty. It was just rich people being rich people.
I loved BB and BCS but it feels like you’re putting them on pedestal. They’re obviously examples of great writing but they aren’t in a class of their own, certainly not to an “exponential” degree. I’d put Chernobyl or Band of Brothers, just to start, on the same level. Possibly season 1 of True Detective as well, as a self-contained story. And I haven’t seen every show on this list.
I’ll also say that Black Mirror has some of the best psychological horror I’ve ever seen. It might not be an epic serial like BB but not much media has scared me to the core like Black Mirror. Not every show needs to try to do what BB did.
I’ve tried to watch BB 3 separate times and just could not get into it. I recognize I’m in the minority here and that taste is subjective. But I genuinely did not like it without just being contrary for the sake of it.
One thing that I’ve realized upon rewatching Breaking Bad is that the Breaking Bad I know and love, the one that I rave about, is really just Seasons 4 & 5.
I don’t know a single Breaking Bad fan that watched through the whole show at once. In fact, I would say most people put it down around the middle of the show’s run.
Yeah, Season 2 is boring as fuck. Season 3 doesn’t pick up until halfway through. It’s not exactly the killer drama that the first season and the fans advertised it to be. But the overall story is what keeps me coming back. Walter is our protagonist in almost every season. But in Season 5, he is undoubtedly the villain. I guess the draw of the show is the turn, which you don’t get to without finishing it.
I would say you believe this for two main reasons. One, those are some of the shows that you watched and are familiar with, and you’ve seen spectacularly little of what is actually on that list.
And two, your own subjective experience is dictating what you feel is better versus what is worse, which is ultimately a completely useless way to estimate how good something actually is.
Furthermore, lists like this are intentionally inflammatory. They’ll put several genuinely good entries way too low on the list specifically so people will argue about it and drive engagement.
I mean, Westworld didn’t even make the cut but Scandal did.
I strongly disagree on White Lotus. The topic of a piece of writing doesn’t neccessarily affect its quality. Most of Samuel Becketts work is about nothing happening, Harold Pinter about people saying things are more mundane than they are and James Joyce about everyday Irish lives.
The story of the first season is more about confronting internalized homophobia vis a vis latent bisexuality and how imposter syndrome and patriarchal power structures can be used by misogynists to control women’s romantic/sexual/marriage autonomy than it is just about people being rich. I also enjoy the meta-textual element that the structure of White Lotus is very much a pistal-petal-structure.
I mean you said you only watched a few episodes and I’m sympathetic to that- I’ve quit watching shows that just aren’t my cup of tea, but it’s very much a whole-show-arc kinda deal for every character.
I’d argue that The Wire had to exist for Breaking Bad to happen like it did.
In the season where Jesse and White try to sell on their own, rewatch the scene where Combo gets got. The entire cinematography drops Breaking Bad’s blues and swapps to the Wire’s shades of Grey and long lense shots. It was definitely BB’s production team tipping their caps to the wire…Hell the scene they chose was even (plotwise) The Wire
Breaking Bad (which Better Call Saul beautifully expanded on) was amazing but The Wire is the OG
I don’t think I know anyone that would argue with Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and maybe The Wire (I don’t know any of you contrarians) but the rest of the list just doesn’t have nearly the writing quality. Which is really weird to think about. 3 shows (really 2, Better Call Saul is really Breaking Bad) that are exponentially better than the rest.
Edit: I mean White Lotus is on there. I couldn’t finish the first season. It wasn’t dark or witty. It was just rich people being rich people.
I loved BB and BCS but it feels like you’re putting them on pedestal. They’re obviously examples of great writing but they aren’t in a class of their own, certainly not to an “exponential” degree. I’d put Chernobyl or Band of Brothers, just to start, on the same level. Possibly season 1 of True Detective as well, as a self-contained story. And I haven’t seen every show on this list.
I’ll also say that Black Mirror has some of the best psychological horror I’ve ever seen. It might not be an epic serial like BB but not much media has scared me to the core like Black Mirror. Not every show needs to try to do what BB did.
I’ve tried to watch BB 3 separate times and just could not get into it. I recognize I’m in the minority here and that taste is subjective. But I genuinely did not like it without just being contrary for the sake of it.
One thing that I’ve realized upon rewatching Breaking Bad is that the Breaking Bad I know and love, the one that I rave about, is really just Seasons 4 & 5.
I don’t know a single Breaking Bad fan that watched through the whole show at once. In fact, I would say most people put it down around the middle of the show’s run.
Yeah, Season 2 is boring as fuck. Season 3 doesn’t pick up until halfway through. It’s not exactly the killer drama that the first season and the fans advertised it to be. But the overall story is what keeps me coming back. Walter is our protagonist in almost every season. But in Season 5, he is undoubtedly the villain. I guess the draw of the show is the turn, which you don’t get to without finishing it.
Slow-burn as fuck. Worth finishing.
I followed it for couple of seasons before realizing that I didn’t care about anything happening in it. It happens!
I would say you believe this for two main reasons. One, those are some of the shows that you watched and are familiar with, and you’ve seen spectacularly little of what is actually on that list.
And two, your own subjective experience is dictating what you feel is better versus what is worse, which is ultimately a completely useless way to estimate how good something actually is.
Furthermore, lists like this are intentionally inflammatory. They’ll put several genuinely good entries way too low on the list specifically so people will argue about it and drive engagement.
I mean, Westworld didn’t even make the cut but Scandal did.
I strongly disagree on White Lotus. The topic of a piece of writing doesn’t neccessarily affect its quality. Most of Samuel Becketts work is about nothing happening, Harold Pinter about people saying things are more mundane than they are and James Joyce about everyday Irish lives.
The story of the first season is more about confronting internalized homophobia vis a vis latent bisexuality and how imposter syndrome and patriarchal power structures can be used by misogynists to control women’s romantic/sexual/marriage autonomy than it is just about people being rich. I also enjoy the meta-textual element that the structure of White Lotus is very much a pistal-petal-structure.
I… did not get that out of white lotus at all
I mean you said you only watched a few episodes and I’m sympathetic to that- I’ve quit watching shows that just aren’t my cup of tea, but it’s very much a whole-show-arc kinda deal for every character.
I’d argue that The Wire had to exist for Breaking Bad to happen like it did.
In the season where Jesse and White try to sell on their own, rewatch the scene where Combo gets got. The entire cinematography drops Breaking Bad’s blues and swapps to the Wire’s shades of Grey and long lense shots. It was definitely BB’s production team tipping their caps to the wire…Hell the scene they chose was even (plotwise) The Wire
Breaking Bad (which Better Call Saul beautifully expanded on) was amazing but The Wire is the OG
Except the Duck season
I might need to re-watch The Wire sometime. Ive seen that opinion a lot, and but its been a LONG time.
If that’s all you got out of the White Lotus then you went in trying to dislike it for being a show about rich people.