The Real Side of Breaking Bad - James Paul

The Real Side of Breaking Bad by James Paul

Congratulations Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, and the rest of the wonderful cast of the hit television drama Breaking Bad. After all your hard work and dedication, you helped create one of the most watched and critically acclaimed programs of all time and won award after award for your talents. Seriously, way to go. 

Your show delves into a lot of subjects. Some are generally good: family, love, respect. Some are criminal: death, murder, drugs, gangs. However, with this show, even the good subjects are twisted and represent nothing of what they should. Families are broken up, love is used as a crutch and betrayed and respect is only desired on a drug lord related standard. Everything good about Breaking Bad when it started, (a chemistry teacher with cancer decides to sell meth as the only way to support his family because he loves them), turns completely upside down when that same teacher takes over the drug game in New Mexico and only desires money and an empire at all costs. 

Now, when I say this show was and is popular, I’m not joking. Thanks to online streaming websites and applications like Netflix and recording appliance likes DVR and TiVo, Breaking Bad was in just about every home in America that has a television, at least one time through its lifetime. That’s an insane fact. Perhaps one of the most compelling reasons to watch Breaking Bad was how utterly realistic the show depicted the world of drugs, gangs, and murders. While the plot itself might not have been the most possible storyline on television for the past five years, no there program went into as much depth as Breaking Bad, which repeatedly showed a large part of the process to cook and produce meth.

Now you might say that this is what makes good television and is what made Breaking Bad one of the most watched television shows in history, and you'd probably be right. This isn't the only show to have a striking amount of realism incorporated into it's filming but this realism is only increasing. The Dangerous thing about unfiltered realism is the effect it can have on those who are exposed it. Many people, whether they want to admit it or not, are quite impressionable and being shown this images and scenes with no holds barred and this realism can have a huge influence on them. Not to mention the children who are to immature to be able to take in the material and realize it is just a television show and fiction. 

The great thing about television is, without it going too far, one person or a group of writers can portray a product of their imagination and become successful to all of America. These talented people are what makes television the great source of entertainment. The fact that the realism of these TV shows affects so many people is not on the writers or the actors. They should be able to portray their ideals and imagination to the best of their ability. The responsibility to for society to be able to watch these shows without taking them to heart lies with the television stations, the producers, and the audiences themselves.

The producers of Breaking Bad, including creator Vince Gilligan, never shied away from bragging about the incredibly successful show they created. After one episode in the final season called Ozymandias, Gillian and the other producers of the show called the 60 minute episode the "best hour in television history" and this is actually vey agreed on by multiple high profile TV review outlets. You can not fault these men for feeling proud and boasting about their creation and accomplishments. However, their creation is also ultra realistic and very violent. These producers, who are continuously praised and in the television spotlight, need to do more in the way of expressing that viewers need to be careful when viewing a show with this kind of subject matter. That is not to say they should censor their imaginations, but should have multiple statements to their audiences every season or so to be mindful about what they are watching and how they should react to it.

The television stations that are the medium through which writers make their dreams come true and allow others to see their vision. However, with a show with the graphic violence and drug related material like Breaking Bad, the only thing the station offers in regards to a warning of the nature of the show is a brief three or four second slide before the show starts stating "Parental Discretion Advised." There has to be more in terms of warning and coverage when it comes to a show that goes far beyond the laughter of a sitcom. These shows, like Breaking Bad, portray something sinister and evil. Whether or not the parents know the child is watching something like Breaking Bad is one thing, whether or not they care or feel a need to control what their children watch is another. Without a concrete warning or heads up that is unique and hits home for each individual show, this pushover of an attempt to cover the stations own liability is worthless and accomplishes nothing. 

Ultimately, no matter what television stations could come up with in regards to warning viewers about what they are about to see, it's up to the audience to not let it affect them. It's up to parents to not let their children watch shows like this and if they do allow them, to let them know that it is all just fiction. The sad reality is that this can't be counted upon. The American pubic is generally one of overreactions and is influenced very easily by what we see and what is popular at the time. 

We have a hard time separating what is real and what isn't. Until the American population can regain control ourselves and become mature and intelligent, shows with striking reality like Breaking Bad and other programs will continue to influence and shock American culture and even trickle down to affect our youth and won't stop this pattern. 

Breaking Bad is my favorite television show of all time. I absolutely loved it. But it is impossible to ignore what Breaking Bad and shows like it can do to America. These shows are so real and violent that without being able to stop the influence of shows like this, society will continue to fall into a false reality that can be controlled by what they see on television.