It’s time to debunk the biggest lie about Breaking Bad season 1. Vince Gilligan’s crime saga, about a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher becoming a meth cook after being diagnosed with lung cancer, is one of the greatest TV shows ever made, so people tend to recommend it to all their friends. But those recommendations usually come with a caveat.
Breaking Bad fans will tell their friends that Bryan Cranston gives the performance of a generation, the writers perfectly blend action, drama, and pitch-black humor, and the story of this man’s downfall is a modern-day Greek tragedy. But they’ll also warn their friends that the show gets off to a slow start in season 1, so they need to stick with it.
And honestly, it’s time to bench that caveat. There are certain shows that take a little while to find their feet — Seinfeld, Parks and Recreation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and the U.S. version of The Office all got off to a rough start before figuring out their voice — but Breaking Bad isn’t one of them.
No, Breaking Bad Didn’t Start Off Slow
Contrary to popular belief, Breaking Bad did not start off slow. The pilot episode kicks off in media res with Walter White crashing an RV full of spilled chemicals and unconscious drug dealers in the desert. He stumbles out of the vehicle, records a farewell message for his family, and prepares to face an inbound police convoy with a handgun.
Sure, it slows down a bit after that to catch us up. But even as we watch Walt work out on his stairmaster, deliver a lecture on the power of change, and take his son pants shopping, we’re gripped, because we know it’ll all somehow lead him into that ditch in that RV with that gun — it’s Hitchcock’s bomb-under-the-table technique in action.
At the beginning of Breaking Bad season 1, Walt physically attacks his son’s bully in the middle of a store. At the end of it, Walt and Jesse are horrified to witness a drug lord beating a man to death over nothing.
Along the way, Walt blows up an arrogant stockbroker’s car, disposes of a corpse, destroys a drug dealer’s headquarters, and chokes a man to death — and that’s all in just seven episodes. If that’s slow, I don’t know what fast is.
Why Breaking Bad Season 1 Is Often Described As Slow
While I don’t agree that Breaking Bad season 1 is slow, I do understand why people say it is. The premise of the series necessitated Gilligan to ease Walt into a life of crime. When The Sopranos begins, Tony is already a mob boss desensitized to killing. But when Breaking Bad begins, Walt is a science teacher and part-time car wash employee.
It’s slow in that it takes a few episodes to fully set up its premise. But it gets a jump on all that setup in the pilot episode. Within just one episode, Walt is diagnosed with lung cancer, goes on a ride-along with his DEA agent brother-in-law, teams up with his old student to cook crystal meth to pay his medical bills, and even kills a man in self-defense.
After that, it takes a couple of episodes to set up the cover story that Walt tells his family to hide his crimes, his working relationship with Jesse, and a business model for them to make money out of their rolling meth lab. But that’s all fascinating stuff, and it’s important to take in all the setups early in the series so that the payoffs have the right impact later on.
Breaking Bad Kept Getting Bigger – But The Show Was Never Small
Breaking Bad is a rare show that got better and better with each successive season, and that’s partly due to the writers constantly raising the stakes and expanding the world. The more villains they introduced, the more danger Walt was in. The more money Walt was making, the bigger the target on his back.
But just because each season of Breaking Bad was bigger than the last, it doesn’t mean it was ever small. It started big and only got bigger. The series undeniably got more exciting as Walt’s secret second life started to bleed into his first. In season 1, Walt has to keep up appearances with the family, which isn’t very exciting to watch.
In subsequent seasons, Hank started investigating Heisenberg and Skyler found out about Walt’s crimes, and even became an accomplice to them. It’s much more intense to watch a family barbecue where the host has a stack of evidence of his guest’s crimes than a typical family barbecue where the attendees are just exchanging pleasantries without any subtext.
Better Call Saul Was Much More Of A Slow Burn Than Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad wasn’t a slow burn in its first season, but its spinoff was. Better Call Saul starts off with Jimmy McGill — the man who would be Saul Goodman — trying to forge a legitimate law career. A lot of airtime is dedicated to his case against retirement home Sandpiper Crossing. It didn’t become a Breaking Bad-tier thrill-ride until Lalo Salamanca showed up.
