Breaking Bad

Again I am late arriving to an epic tv show.  People had been telling me that I would love Breaking Bad due to the multiple story lines that all peak my interest.  I just could never get into my mind that "Tim Whately" from Seinfeld, could be the most compelling character I have ever watched in a drama tv series.  But when you listen to Howard Stern and he gives the show the sign of approval, I have to give it a shot.  I have always been a Sopranos fan and Tony Soprano is arguably the greatest tv character ever created.  Week in and out Tony would have you on the edge of your seat, make you love him and than make you hate yourself for loving him, a true antisocial personality on display ever week.  Maybe its because I have been playing catch-up and watching Bryan Cranston as Walter White at an almost obsessive pace and it is fresh in my mind of how this character is unlike any I have ever watched, but Walter White is the best character I think I have ever watched.  The main difference being that Tony Soprano is an antisocial personality, always has been, always will be.  On the flip side Walter White could be any of us.  That is what wins the title for me.  Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher that develops lung cancer that he and his family cannot afford to pay for so he decides to cook methamphetamine to help his family to make ends meet.  That sentence enough describes why I love this show as much as I do.  Drugs, teaching, broken healthcare system, family, tough choices, addiction, and watching exactly what the title says, watching people Break Bad.  I often ask myself this very question day in and day out in my job and when talking with colleagues.  If I was in similar situations, who is to say I wouldn't make the same poor choices, and are those choices really bad when given the situation.  Morally, what is bad? There are many factors that would make it very difficult to evaluate this.  What would you do? I always think that any politician, before they can be elected, should live in a poor neighborhood, among disenfranchised people, for at least years with no economic support and then they can run for politics.  It's funny that most politicians that have a background in working with the less fortunate don't stand for the same stuff that some of these old rich white white folks that don't even know how much milk costs.  Walter White is someone you root for, a modern day hero until it breaks to where it might have crossed a line of what some of us believe is being "bad".  I have never watched anything like it and have never felt emotions shift with different characters as fast as they do.  Besides Walter, the acting in the show is the tops there is.  Walter Jr. is a kid with cerebral palsy who plays a kid with cerebral palsy and is mind blowing every week on how great he can be.  I have only just started season 3 and season 5 coming on air this summer will be the last (another reason to like the show, not about the money, about the story).  Human nature is mostly about survival and this show puts it on front street.  If you have not watched it, make sure you do.  As far a drama tv series go, cant top it.  Here is a great link for those of you who watch the show: http://www.savewalterwhite.com/