Breaking Bad

Vince Gilligan's series managed to knock "Six Feet Under" out of my top spot for favorite television show of all time. I was hooked on "Breaking Bad" from the beginning. Intrigued by the premise and blown away by its execution, my inner hipster takes immense pleasure in the fact that I have been watching the show on AMC since it first aired.

Walter White's journey has been a fascinating one and "Breaking Bad" has served, for me at least, as a great example of how Brigham Young described the theatre (and, by extension, film and television): "Upon the stage of a theatre can be represented in character, evil and its consequences, good and its happy results and rewards; the weakness and the follies of man, the magnanimity of virtue and the greatness of truth. The stage can be made to aid the pulpit in impressing upon the minds of a community an enlightened sense of a virtuous life, also a proper horror of the enormity of sin and a just dread of its consequences. The path of sin with its thorns and pitfalls, its gins and snares can be revealed, and how to shun it."

We watched Walter give in to evil and how it had consequences. We saw his weakness (pride) and his follies. The greatness of truth in his redemptive act of finally admitting to Skylar his selfish motivations for what he did. And I have always felt impressed with a proper horror of the enormity of sin and a just dread of its consequences by the actions of multiple characters in the series. While there are a fair share innocent bystanders in the series, most of the guilty parties do get what was coming to them. As someone with an overdeveloped sense of justice, it's what I needed to see in order to have closure with this journey and yet I was at first a little torn by seeing Walt come back from the brink, at least a little bit in the end. Then I was glad to see that even though he did embrace the Heisenberg persona in the end, it was to some degree a facade and that Walter still managed to come clean about some things with Skylar and find a way to help his family before going out in the inevitable hale of gunfire.

I'm very grateful for the opportunity to have experienced "Breaking Bad" and to bond with family and friends over the shared journey. I wish to express to the creator, cast and crew of the series a great deal of thanks for their work and wish them all continued success in their careers.