I think Walking Dead is terrible, yet I still watch it. Ditto for Dexter and True Blood. I need to get out more.
Contrary to pretty much every other show ever, which either get progressively worse or peak in the middle, Breaking Bad has gotten better and better with every season. It started out as mediocre and now it is very good. True Blood was pretty decent at first but it has turned to absolute garbage. I felt sorry for the time I've wasted on the last three or four seasons after I watched the last episode of S06. I'm not watching S07 even though I know it is the last.
I'd say the same applies to The Shield. But I'd also say that this blows away The Shield, and that's no small feat.
I want to make a thread about the walking dead but will just rather discuss it here. I watched like an episode or two. Just the whole feel of that show feels sleezy especially having a ton of characters and the biggest turn off is the fact that it is so fictional.
Ok, update : I decided to watch more, and I'm on the season finale for Season 1. The story has really picked up its pace, and I actually think its a pretty interesting show. Will more than likely finish the entire series in a few weeks.
Yeah, it gets better. First season was really contracted as there was never any guarantee for a second season. Once they got the guarantee (starting with the 2nd season on), story and show really picks up.
I thought The Wire had amazing writing, but Breaking Bad not so much. Especially in those first episodes, I found myself comparing a show where literally every character is fascinating and sympathetic to a show where no character was either fascinating or sympathetic. I have heard B.B. got a lot better but I stopped at season 1. Everyone tells me if I had made it to season 2 I would love it. I dunno. I just sympathize with the O.P., and I don't think he/she is a rube for not liking the almighty meth show. Meh.
From somebody who really wasn't on board at all until the middle to end of Season 2, I really recommend you give it another go. I said the same thing.
once you get far enough into the show this is what makes it great, the fact that you don't really have to have a rooting interest in any of them, your just watching their world fall apart around them because of their actions. and I do think Walts character is very fascinating, he says is doing everything for his family but he is really just trying to live for himself for once.
I decided to start watching it to see what all the fuss was about. I liked season 1 and 2. I liked the "oh my god, what's going to happen next" suspense type feeling. But season 3 has been just blah through the first 4 episodes, in my opinion.
I think what makes Walt's character most interesting is that he's just your average male of the late 20th/21st century. You can see it in the first episode, he feels emasculated compared to his brother-in-law (who his own son idolizes), he's underutilized in a dead-end job, his house is falling apart and the 'American Dream' seems to be less and less possible as it gets more and more expensive. So he slowly evolves into what every guy wants to be- a bad ass. For the first time in his life, he feels alive. He's breaking out of his role as the boring nerd. He's a criminal, but he's not a thug. He's vicious, but at the same time he's a professional. He's like the gangster/mobster kids grow up wanting to be, except that he's not as over the top. He's not seducing tons of women and living it up at clubs; he's strictly about turning a profit and chasing the thrill. Walt recaptures his masculinity.
Spoiler <iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Bu_PGYK7WaU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>