This show will owe your soul and it's the only show I ever bought seasons for it's that good

Anyone know if this shit is on Netflix?

Season 1 through 3 im pretty sure is

Most of it is. Start watching ASAP. It's the best show on tv IMO. It's comparable to a toothless bj...****ing amazing.

Start watching Breaking Bad, now, it and perhaps Mad Men are the only two shows on that match the quality of Game of Thrones.

It's the best show I've ever seen.

Caveat: I have not seen "The Wire." Which I will, soon.

Breaking Bad is significantly better than Game of Thrones.

Disagree.

I'm going to go ahead and disagree with you here, both are masterpieces of modern television.

Finally all caught up.

The season four finale was decent. Loved a lot of it. Especially Cranston's performance. But the episode tried as hard as it could to jump the shark. I literally laughed out loud at a certain death scene.

Breaking Bad is a great show. But it's no where near the quality of Mad Men. I'd say it's the 3rd best show on tv right now - behind Mad Men and Game of Thrones. But GoT and BB are a close 2nd/3rd.

I feel pretty similarly to the BB s4 finale.

I presume you're ranking is based on your previously-stated belief that BB forces plot points to happen much of the time instead of letting things happen through natural character action.

If so, I need only point you to Mad Men's recently-completed (and excellent) fifth season, which forced and strained a whole lot of plot movement.

Sure. But I think Mad Men only forced a lot on its own terms. It only seemed like a lot because of how effortless it's been the previous 4 seasons. It was a lot by it's own standards. But even at that... it was pretty brilliant stuff. I don't have a problem with most of it.

The issue with Breaking Bad - and really the only issue I can find with the series - is that it's made a habit of forcing plot on it's characters.

It's sort of the same issue I have with There Will Be Blood. If you take Brian Cranston out of the show... it's a C+/B- show at best (on the whole). He elevates it to a A/A+ most of the time.

Season One of Breaking Bad is genius. Season Two starts off pretty poorly and finds its feet by midway. Season Three is great except for the super bizarre, mute Mexican brothers. Season Four is probably the strongest since the first season, except for the last two episodes. "Crawl Space" raised the bar - perhaps too highly to be overcome.

The most recent season of Mad Men was (in my opinion, pound for pound) better than the most recent season of Breaking Bad.

Maybe my problem is my own expectations. I don't fault this kinda thing in Game Of Thrones because the game is as much about what happens as it is about the people it happens too. I was expecting Breaking Bad to be more like Mad Men. That's probably my own fault.

Tio Salamanca was my favorite character, even though he never spoke a word. Mark Margolis had a great performance last season in Breaking Bad. But he's a memorable character in everything he does:

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I kinda' feel like Mad Men and Breaking Bad keep matching each other (though I truthfully feel that Mad Men has gained a slight upperhand, but it's also going to be a longer show by two seasons - which gives it more time to be worse).

It sounds like you simply don't like the mythic/stylized aspects of Breaking Bad, the ones that embrace its Scarface influence. Which is fine, I guess. Breaking Bad is necessarily a show that combines character moments (mostly with Walt and Jessie) with bombastic/cool plot moments. And a lot of viewers love the show ONLY for those cool moments (just like lots of Mad Men's audience only loves the show for Don being sexy and Roger making racist quirps).

With Breaking Bad, for me, its big crime-film type moments don't detract from the themes of the show, of what is of value about the show (though, like you, I found Gus' last scene in s4 to be a bit much).

I can see that. And you're probably right. I don't want to fault Breaking Bad for being what it is. I think I just went into it with different expectations, so it's taken me a while to let the show be what it is and not what I want it to be. Because that isn't fair to show.

It's true that the crime genre doesn't do much for me on the whole. I don't really enjoy things like Heat the way others do. So, yeah, I think I crave the character moments and really look forward to those.

But I think Breaking Bad is also expert at tension. And I think it does that best when it isn't also being over the top. It doesn't need the explosions, the mute Mexicans, the forced shoot-outs in the desert. To me the opening of the series was the best the show has ever been at what I'm talking about. There's nothing more gripping and tense than that opening.

And you (and others) have mentioned before how great Mad Men is at being true to its themes. While I agree that the crime-film moments don't necessarily detract from the themes of Breaking Bad, I would argue that it is partly because Breaking Bad isn't as sure about its themes nor as true to them throughout. Breaking Bad feels more like a show trying to figure itself out as it goes. Mad Men feels like a perfectly crafted and executed show about characters trying to figure it out as they go.