Featured Work of the Week: Breaking Bad

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Every once in awhile there's a Breaking Bad marathon on these days.

I still watch.

And of all the things in recent memory I am captured by the series and the acting and the suspense. It's been over a year since I viewed the final episode and there's still a part of me that wishes:

There was more.

Vince Gilligan, the show's creator is putting out a new show in February featuring Saul Goodman, but can he repeat it all?

I'm not sure, but I'll be watching.

I also have a couple of sons who run around here telling me that Breaking Bad wasn't as good as Dexter, but try as I might, I can't get on the side of a guy who's butchering people.

Maybe someday we will give it a chance.

But I'm featuring works that strike me, and there were a lot of reasons why Breaking Bad has stuck in my brain.

First off, Walter White.

A man who worked hard and did things the right way and then was hit with the grim reality of it all ending one day, before he wanted it to, and well before he set up his family in the way he envisioned.

His choices were made for him, and while he trudged through daily life, feeling worn out, he needed to take a last stand.

His intentions were honorable, and I believe that was hooked me from day one. Now cooking and selling meth isn't the way out of such a pickle, but I understand it.

And the friendship with Jessie.

There was so much there as you watched the story unfold and as a viewer you began to hope that somehow they'd get out of each and every situation whether it meant killing someone, or lying through their teeth.

There was the moment when Walt plowed his car through the guys ready to kill Jessie.

It was repaid by Jessie confronting Gayle.

As a guy sitting on the couch watching you find yourself saying:

"Gayle has to go!"

You're rooting for things that you'd never do yourself!

There were choices of morality.

Is Skyler a good woman or a bad woman?

How about Hank?

He was dead set against Walter for much of the series, but in a way, you wanted Hank to find the way.

There was so much there.

A year later and I still think about it.

Bryan Cranston was on Howard Stern recently and he spoke in Walter's voice and it sent shivers down my spine.

Was Breaking Bad better than the Soprano's?" Sam asked me as I battled him on the Breaking Bad-Dexter debate.

I thought of Uncle June and Tony and Meadow and the unbelievable acting that was front and center each week.

I considered Cranston versus Gandolfini.

"Breaking Bad is in the conversation," I said. "I remember how I'd wait all week for the Soprano's though. The two best shows ever done."

"You know what I was thinking of the other day?" Sam asked.

"What's that?"

"When Jessie and Walter were trapped in the RV and Hank was right outside the door. I was so nervous. I can't believe that it just popped into my head."

And there you have it, folks.

A great work of art.

Breaking Bad.

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