Breaking Bad, did it ever almost "jump the shark"?

Jump ?
NO !!!!!

 

I was sort of in the similar boat but lost interest after Season 4. Once Gus was dealt with I just lost interest and Season 5 seemed pointless to me despite many claiming it as the greatest season of a tv show of all time.

 

Lost interest in The Walking Dead -Fear tbe Walking Dead, same thing I guess. Breaking Bad ? Nope!!!!

 

Are you kidding? The train robbery was the best episode out of them all. So slick... Pulled off so well.. until a price had to be paid.

 

Yes. I'd say the biggest problem was the ease with which Aaron Paul's character seemed to drop into really heavy drug use and then back out without seeming to go through withdrawals or addiction issues. Struck me as very implausible.

 

One...

That would be more a consideration of specific character development, not a "jump the shark" moment, which typically defines a specific point where a series loses its relevance or lack of narrative interest. I'd argue that Breaking Bad never reached that point.

Two...

Jesse certainly struggled with his drug issues, but he was never portrayed as an out & out addict, which allowed for his varying level of drug abuse. Still, it's a work of fiction. You can't demand that a certain character follow some kind of clinical definition of behaviour. That's just silly.

 

Definitely could see a BB Pinkman spinoff. There's a few amusing fanmade YouTube ones out there.

 

Great points.

While Jesse did drugs quite often at times, he never struck me as an addict.

And to answer the question posed in the thread, hell no. Breaking Bad was amazing from start to finish.

 

I agree it never jumped the shark. In fact IMO Seasons 4 and 5 were the best of the bunch. My only gripes (and this is for the series as a whole) are there were too many scenes with Jesse acting depressed, drugged, and insane, throughout the series. Those scenes were always real drags. I also found Marie and Walt, Jr. (Flynn) to usually be very annoying people and usually did not like their scenes. But I think it was just the opposite of jumping the shark - it improved.

 

There were just as many scenes after the Jesse 180 brought on by Gus where he acted proactive, managerial and strategic, and Walt acted depressed, drugged and insane. My big complaint about the show was the lazy writing led them into constant areas of cliches with regard to the dynamics between Jesse and Walt and Walt and his family. They would shake it up each season and the dynamics would shift, but it would settle right back into excessive, heavy-handed acting around those dynamics to the point where it quickly became overbearing.

They were all annoying people because the writing was annoying. This is why Sopranos is such a superior show. Even the most annoying people like Little Carmine were written in a way to be hilariously compelling every time they opened their mouths.

 

This is a criticism more suited to a show like “Succession”. I’m not sure the writing of “Breaking Bad” could be described as “annoying” and certainly couldn’t be honestly described as “lazy”.

 

I thought Tony's Sister was so annoying that I was hoping she would get whacked. The same for his Mother, but at least she did not last long in the series. Oh, and the Son of Tony was also annoying. The scenes with his Psychiatrist was also annoying and since watching with another person, that eventually with future scenes of his therapy sessions, if I had to hit the bathroom, I would do it during those scenes, as I said that there was no reason to pause the show for me during those scenes(despite how much I loved the acting by James Gandolfini).

I wish the show would have reduced screen time with his Family and focused more time with all of the Organized Crime activity and FBI Undercover Operations. The acting of James Gandolfini(RIP) is what kept me interested in the Series from Start to Finish.

 

I agree to an extent but those scenes with Melfi allowed you get inside Tony's head, and allowed Melfi to inform Tony's leadership decisions. You walk out to take a whiz and you miss all that. Janice, Livia and TJ were annoying by design so you could relate and identify more strongly with Tony in a way that would have otherwise been impossible purely due to the clever writing. I couldn't relate to anyone in BB, even after multiple seasons of viewing. That's just bad writing. And by the way, Janice's annoying personality set up some of the most powerful scenes in the show, e.g., when Janice shoots Ritchie and hilariously when when Ralph finally breaks up with Rosalie and shows up at Janice's house, whereupon she can't be bothered to have a rational conversation to reject him so she shoves him down the stairs.

His acting was masterful as was the rest of the cast's, but the point is that they had much more to work with than the cast of BB due to the writing. HBO shows are just a cut above--or HBO would reject them.

 

I can say without reservation that Breaking Bad is the single greatest television series of our age, and easily one of the Top 3 of all time... not only did it never jump the proverbial shark, if only all shows knew when and how to end their run so flawlessly.

 

Top 3.
What are your other two ?

 

I thought the Jesse being bummed out scenes were kind of boring as well, but they were necessary to show what he was going through, like this 2-3 episode depression after killing Gale. It also showed the difference him and Walt. Walt shrugged off terrible things like they were a means to an end, while Jesse was genuinely bothered/shattered by them (Jane's death, killing Gale, Todd killing the kid, etc.).

 

Good character writing, complimentary acting chops.

 

I hear you, and I do realize that was a loose interpretation of "jumping the shark," especially since Pinkman was established so early. Nonetheless, I think it's the clearest weakness of the show. As deep as Pinkman got in a couple of times, and given his history with drugs, the ease with which he would seemingly go straight was not at all realistic, especially for meth and heroin. That's a weakness of the storytelling, I think, but they probably felt they had to keep him at least somewhat likable. They seemed to try to make up for it by showing other characters as being "too far gone" tweakers.

But I mentioned all that because I think it was really the only major weakness of the show. Really enjoyed watching the whole thing.

 

“I don’t jump the shark, I AM the shark.”

 

Pinkman teeth were too clean, my only observation.

 

Just realized I've watched the complete series 4 times now.

 

That's an entirely subjective matter, depending on whom you ask... I wouldn't dare make a declarative statement on that.

Even declaring Breaking Bad as Top 3 is a subjective opinion on my part... but I stand by that one... it wasn't just a good show or even a great one, it was simply extraordinary and nigh-on flawless from beginning to end... and how many shows can you say that about?

 

How many "?
The other two that's in your top 3 perhaps.

 

BB never jumped.