After watching this past Sunday’s episode of Breaking Bad (for the second time — I have the first seven episodes as screeners), I was about to write up my usual weekly post about the episode. Then I took a look at the traffic we get for posts about the show and my heart sank. This show is not getting the attention it deserves!
Then I remembered the good news I read the other day, that Breaking Bad was renewed for a third season. Wait a minute — if this show got post-sophomore season renewal already, then people must be watching it. So why aren’t people coming online to read about it? Do fans just not care to read about the episodes? Maybe my posts just stink?
The answer, I believe, is that Breaking Bad suffers from a phenomenon I dub CSI Syndrome.
For years, CSI has (or at least definitely was) a number one show for CBS; it was top of the ratings, week after week. The viewership was staggering. However, although television blogs would post reviews for each episode, not only were comments to those posts near nothing, but traffic to them was sub-par. It got to the point that reviews for the show were a waste of time, since nobody cared to read about them after the fact.
Is this why people aren’t reading or talking about Breaking Bad? It’s a brilliantly produced and acted show, and one that I’m definitely happy to hear will be continuing on for at least another season beyond the current one. Could it be that the show isn’t formatted in a way that calls for discussion beyond what’s delivered in each episode? Or is it that the typical viewership doesn’t spend time online and therefore doesn’t visit the web for places to discuss it?
If people stop writing about it, will people stop thinking about catching up on DVD and jumping in? I certainly hope not. The show may be on the relatively obscure AMC channel, but remember, that same channel brought us the award winning Mad Men. Oh, and Breaking Bad has won an Emmy itself, via Bryan Cranston!
If you’re not watching Breaking Bad, then why not? And if you are, do you want a place to talk about it?
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Apr 07, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
The novelty of a cancer-ridden chem-ed teacher cooking meth has worn off after Tuco got killed.
Now he’s just hanging around the house trying to get his life (wife) back. It’s boring at the moment.
I disagree with Sebastian. While I’m a little sad to see the character of Tuco go, I think they’ve done all they could do with him, at least all that was interesting and fresh. I also have faith that the writers will bring us even more exciting/stressful situations and characters.
I wish I could give an answer as to why I don’t leave comments for Breaking Bad, Keith. I read every article, I agree with them, so I guess I just don’t have a lot to add.
To be honest, I’ve often worried about Breaking Bad based on the lack of comments in your articles. I’ve even thought about leaving a quickie comment just so the count isn’t zero. Maybe you should be less comprehensive in your writings about it, or just come up with some controversial ideas to spark debate! Or you could offer prizes to the first 10 commenters on each article. Just a thought. :-)
Disagree in what way?
I didn’t say that killing Tuco was wrong. I said the show got boring after that and you didn’t give any reason why it currently is interesting for you.
To me, this show suffers from “Weeds” syndrome. It’s interesting for about 20 episodes and then it’s just the same over and over again.
Or at least it feels that way. I mean what really happened on sunday’s episode? I’m really having a hard time remembering right now…
Wouldn’t this be called JAG Syndrome? That show was on the air 10+ seasons on two different networks and I have never met a single person who ever watched that show.
It’s kind of odd. I watched the first season in two days in order to be ready to begin the second season when it started. Now I have the last two weeks on my DVR unwatched. I still really like Breaking Bad but I am having a hard time getting excited about watching it the way I did during the first season. While I’m at it the same goes for Damages, I watched the first season over a weekend in preparation for season two and now I have the last three episodes unwatched on my DVR and I’m having a hard time getting the motivation to watch them. Maybe during the summer?
To answer your question, if I haven’t seen the episode and am behind a week or two on my DVR I won’t read the review. After I watch it (if I think about it) I come on Cliqueclack and go back a few weeks to read the review. Would it help if I click on the “read the rest of this entry” tab but just not read it? What constitutes as traffic?
P.S. I just re read what I wrote and it sounds sarcastic but I honestly am curious. Thanks
I tell people at work about Breaking Bad every Monday but no one seems to watch. And these are people who are generally into “good television” (Lost, Mad Men, The Wire, Deadwood, etc.) Maybe the description I give turns them off….”It’s kinda dark, somber, but interesting”
Anyway, it’s a great show, sure there’s stuff to talk about beyond episode recaps but right now they’ve tied up most of the “questions” out there with Tuco’s death. It would have been cool to leave a few lingering questions, now it’s just, how are we gonna get back to “slinging” ?
For some reason I can’t get AMC and the cable company doesn’t know why so I always have to watch it on demand later. By then I just forget about the review. Now I’m busy trying to clear out my dvrs right now so I can switch to U-Verse and get rid of Crapcast.
Hah, I’ve seen some episodes of JAG, because I was at my parents’s house.
Back on topic, I haven’t seen this show yet because I don’t have cable and will eventually get around to getting the DVD’s from Netflix. I would just presume that maybe the show doesn’t prompt as much thought after the fact in the way that say, the sci-fi shows do. Maybe it’s not something that leads to much analysis of what might happen next, or if there’s hidden clues. The shows that seem to have the most discussion to me either have arc discussion going on, are sci-fi, or someone died last night (a la House).
Uh Jennifer – parents’ and DVDs. Sorry for being so anal about apostrophes but that’s just horribly wrong what you did there ^^;
(I’m german, our rules for apostrophes are even more strict and my countrymen are already having a hard time not using them the english way ;-) )
This is the most stressful show to follow. Good show. Well written, well acted/cast, filmed phenomenally. You really feel that everyone involved in this production is willing to do anything in service of the story. Love it.
it’s the DVR. i don’t watch anything when it actually airs anymore. A show like Breaking Bad is not something that I can have on in the background, half watching. I need to make sure that I have the time to focus on it. Those sections of time don’t come around all that often. Plus, my wife doesn’t care for the show, so I have to find time when she’s busy doing other things. i don’t read the posts until after I’ve watched, and by then i’m not sure if posting does any good, as most people are several episodes ahead of me. So the posts do get read, just not right away.
You know, Jim Kosmicki has an interesting idea there. Maybe we should call it the DVR syndrome. There are a lot of shows that people don’t have an urgency to watch. They record them and watch them later; believe me my DVR whines at me about its heavy workload every time I turn it on.
The problem is that these shows we don’t watch right away get reviewed right away. Well, we’re not going to read that review if we’ve not seen the show and by the time we do watch it how many of us are really going to go back into the archives to read it.
I need a government grant to study this possible new phenomenon: heavily DVR’d shows leading to less trafficked online reviews of that show.
I loved the seventh episode of season 2, it has more or less, literally came back with a bang on this one. The brother-in-law gets his comeuppance with the Mexican DEA, but it all balanced out again when his co-workers get blown up. What a brilliant idea, a severed head on top of a turtle, with a bomb in its shell to be triggered when the head was removed.
The first six episodes were ok, but not as good as season 1, but the seventh one has returned to that originality that was the magic of season 1. I love the show.