How "Breaking Bad" Changed Shows

Instilled a love for antiheroes

By the middle of the 2000s, American television was gradually shifting its focus to antiheroes. Kind characters, saving the world and calming the viewer, have become boring. The first attempts were largely compromise. For example, the writers of The Sopranos (1999-2007) introduced the mafia as the main character, but he was quite human and sympathetic to the audience. Something similar was done in Dexter (2006–2013). Real evil has always been on the sidelines.

The Breaking Bad series stood at the head of the avant-garde and showed that the story that unfolds around the criminal could be much more interesting. Walter White is kind and good for the first 30 minutes. In the future, he, and Jesse Pinkman, and secondary characters are antiheroes. The projects of the tenth actively picked up this trend, as a result, there are not so many positive characters now in general.

Showed changing characters

For TV series nineties and zero, understandable and stable images were considered the norm. If the viewer fell in love with the main character in the first season, then he sympathized in the tenth - no one planned big changes. You can recall The X-Files (1993-2002), Friends (1994-2004), House M.D. (2004-2012) and any other cult project of that time to be convinced of this.

The Breaking Bad show did exactly the opposite. Boring family man Walter White turned into a monster by the end of the series, while petty criminal Jesse Pinkman deserved more and more sympathy. Changing the hero is a common technique for cinema, but it was almost never used in serial projects. "Breaking Bad" broke through this wall.

Revised the attitude to the visual series

From the first episodes of Breaking Bad, it didn't look like a typical show. Gradually, with an increase in the budget, Vince Gilligan and his team began to create uniform disgrace with the camera, which was almost never used on television. The device was attached to a shovel, they depicted a fly. The operators have practically abandoned the boring "eights" - a technique when two talking people filmed in turn with the same angle, turning the camera 180 degrees. The heroes were shown from below, above, behind, from a distance, enlivening rather simple scenes.

The series that came out after the advent of the Breaking Bad project began to pay more attention to the aesthetics of the frame. With a limited budget (they have become expensive only recently), the picture is often farmed out to operators who are allowed to create. As a result, we got dozens of TV shows where the visuals are much more interesting than the content, like “Mr Robot(2015–2019) and Homecoming (2018–2020).

Changed the pace

Breaking Bad was considered too slow compared to its competitors. It is worth noting that it was released in the old format - an episode per week. At the same time, the project was too interesting to lose viewers because of its slowness. The end of the show coincided with a change in the structure of Netflix - a streaming service has emerged that is ready to release full seasons. As a result, the writers had the opportunity to experiment with the format, ditch the obligatory cliffhangers at the end of each episode, and vary the overall pace. It is not surprising that it was "Breaking Bad" that turned into a standard and an object to follow.

If you look at the Netflix hits that have been released in the last 10 years, then you can see in them everything that people like the story about Walter White. Slow and viscous changes in characters, unhurried development of the plot, absolute freedom in switching storylines.

It’s safe to say that the “Fly” episode is simply impossible in the series of the 2000s. For those who don't know, it has Walter White trying to catch an insect flying around the lab for 40 minutes. The viewer simply could not wait for such a week, this is nonsense. However, "Breaking Bad" ignored the unwritten rules, eventually making one of the brightest episodes of all seasons. By the way, it was directed by Rian Johnson - now he is known as the author of the franchise "Get the knives».

For any modern series, such a decision no longer seems something strange. We can see a separate episode in Atlanta (2016-2022) that does not fit into the overall concept, the slowest episodes of Love (2016-2018) and so on.

attracted the stars

In the 2000s, serials starred either little-known actors or those who had lost their former glory. It was a shame to shine in television projects, as well as to create them. "Breaking Bad" demonstrated that with a high-quality film crew and a good script, the artist is able to express himself to the fullest. Past TV hits ("Twin Peaks" - 1990-1991, "The Wire" - 2002-2008, "The Sopranos") rarely changed careers. Breaking Bad promoted Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Bob Odenkirk, Giancarlo Esposito, helped Jesse Plemons and Krysten Ritter.

Launched in 2011, Game of Thrones continued this trend by helping actors restart their careers. Released in 2014, "True Detective" and "Fargo" trumped superstars in the lead roles.