# Did Breaking Bad get off to a slow start? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 3, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289 "2013-10-03T18:38:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/41 "2013-10-04T03:26:44Z")
No, breaking bad did not get off to a slow start. Overall the show is very well paced. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/42 "2013-10-04T03:39:23Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > No, Lydia said they aren’t buying the stuff that isn’t blue and Jack or Kenny said they could use food coloring. I don’t think they ever did that though. Hmm, I recall it differently. See if I can confirm my memory or if I’m wrong. Season 5 ep 9, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/43 "2013-10-04T03:50:06Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Hmm, I recall it differently. See if I can confirm my memory or if I’m wrong. Season 5 ep 9, I think. I don’t feel like going back through all the episodes to find it, but from [here](http://breakingbad.wikia.com/wiki/Kenny): > [@](#): > > Kenny is present when Todd makes his first solo cook and is nonplussed by Lydia’s claims that the purity and blue need to be present in the meth. He agrees with Jack that it would be easiest to simply use blue food colouring on the meth. But I don’t think they ever actually did it, but I could be wrong. For the first five and have seasons we moved forward about 18 months and then in the last half season there was, what a full year almost. So a lot of things happened that weren’t on camera. It’s entirely possible that they did do it and I missed it. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/44 "2013-10-04T03:52:40Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Either way, since this thread is for people who haven’t seen the show we probably shouldn’t be discussing everything from literally the first episode right up to almost the end (in fact I just edited what I wrote above to remove a spoiler which I see I got very close to saying in a previous post as well. > > I think I/we should probably drop this before we end up spoiling it for people that are just jumping in. You’re right. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/45 "2013-10-04T14:24:54Z")
Jack & crew did not dye the meth, but Declan and crew did. In Heisenberg’s “world without Coke” speech, he brings up the point that Declan is already aping his product with food coloring, so why not sell the real thing? ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/46 "2013-10-04T14:46:29Z")
Didn’t anybody think the first episode was really funny, and get rather the wrong idea about what the series would be like? I thought that first episode was sort of bizarre humour, but pretty hilarious. Him standing there in his tighty whiteys, in the desert… And then the tone changed dramatically, but I was hooked by then. Sorry **Shakes** , the tighty whiteys are pretty much a motif! Learn to love 'em 🙂 It’s actually visually quite strong, I find, the way that look is so disarming, so vulnerable, so silly. It gives a great contrast to his character. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/47 "2013-10-04T14:52:56Z")
My experience is very much like the OP’s. We started watching when the rest of the world was already on Season 3 or 4. Watched the first episode (Netflix)…ok. A few weeks later, watched the 2nd. Ok…no big rush to get to the 3rd. But we did – and by the middle of Season 1 we were absolutely hooked and watching them 2 or 3 at a time. For me, very much like reading Lord of the Rings – if you can stick with it until the hobbits get to Bree, you’re sucked in and along for the ride to the end. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/48 "2013-10-04T15:26:21Z")
If you look at the season reviews on Metacritic you’ll see that season 1 only got a 74% rating. Positive but not overwhelming. Unlike most other shows, Breaking Bad gets higher and higher ratings until season 5 which got a 99% - the highest for any show. Personally I remember enjoying season 1 but not thinking it was anything special. It was around season 3 that the story really kicked into high gear for me. Now I go back and watch those early episodes and I love them but it does take time to really build up. ---
**Author:** ![UTejas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UTejas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UTejas)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/49 "2013-10-04T16:06:22Z")
I can understand not being in love with the pilot. I love this show and recommend it all the time. I tell people that if they’re not hooked by the end of the third episode then they never will be. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/50 "2013-10-04T16:09:10Z")
I think it’s the best pilot I’ve ever seen. The first scene is brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/51 "2013-10-04T16:10:29Z")
The early episodes are: man with cancer, learning how to cook meth in an RV, getting into dangerous and gory scrapes. Interesting, but not compelling. But when Walt meets Tuco and gets into the “empire building” business…that’s when it really takes off. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/52 "2013-10-04T18:26:14Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > If you look at the season reviews on Metacritic you’ll see that season 1 only got a 74% rating. Positive but not overwhelming. Unlike most other shows, Breaking Bad gets higher and higher ratings until season 5 which got a 99% - the highest for any show. Personally I remember enjoying season 1 but not thinking it was anything special. It was around season 3 that the story really kicked into high gear for me. Now I go back and watch those early episodes and I love them but it does take time to really build up. I would like to stress that this in no way means that it’s possible to skip the first couple of seasons and jump in at season 3. Everything that happens on the show is predicated by what has come before, and even the pilot echoes through the series all the way through to the end. In a way, you can think of that 99% rating for season 5 as retroactive for the entire show, because of the way the show always carries it history with it. It’s really only one long story, and the final season means nothing without the context of what came before. ---
**Author:** ![Nuveena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a587f6/32.png) [@Nuveena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nuveena)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/53 "2013-10-04T21:19:47Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > My experience is very much like the OP’s. We started watching when the rest of the world was already on Season 3 or 4. Watched the first episode (Netflix)…ok. A few weeks later, watched the 2nd. Ok…no big rush to get to the 3rd. But we did – and by the middle of Season 1 we were absolutely hooked and watching them 2 or 3 at a time. This was pretty much our experience as we’ll. I think after episode 6 (penultimate episode of the season) is when I got hooked. > [@UTejas](#): > > I can understand not being in love with the pilot. I love this show and recommend it all the time. I tell people that if they’re not hooked by the end of the third episode then they never will be. I’m glad no one told me this. I thought the first five episodes were pretty slow. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/54 "2013-10-04T21:47:48Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > The early episodes are: man with cancer, learning how to cook meth in an RV, getting into dangerous and gory scrapes. Interesting, but not compelling. > > But when Walt meets Tuco and gets into the “empire building” business…that’s when it really takes off. Yep it is the point where Walt basically buys the hat and creates Heisenberg. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/55 "2013-10-04T23:09:11Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > Yep it is the point where Walt basically buys the hat and creates Heisenberg. Walt never explains the name, but I assume he (and Vince Gilligan) were thinking of physicist Werner Heisenberg, famous for his Uncertainty Principle. Has that ever been confirmed? ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/56 "2013-10-04T23:43:38Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > It’s definitely a conceit of the show that Walter is a genius-level chemist. We see a plaque at one point indicating he helped out with research that led to a Nobel Prize. I guess I don’t know enough about chemistry geniuses to know whether one could, with minimal research, immediately improvise a way to manufacture incredibly pure crystal meth. But that didn’t ping my implausibility radar (as opposed to, say, the very memorable scene in Tuco’s office). I’m reminded of [this cartoon](http://www.art.com/products/p15063051534-sa-i6840038/emily-flake-for-the-hundredth-time%E2%80%94i-have-no-idea-how-to-make-crystal-meth-new-yorker-cartoon.htm), which appeared in _The New Yorker_: ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/57 "2013-10-05T01:57:53Z")
The one that really hooked me was when Walt had to kill Crazy 8 in the basement which was, what, episode 3? Saw a rerun of that one during the pre-finale whole series marathon, so good. I’m pretty sure that’s when Heisenberg was truly “born” when Walt realized a shard of plate was missing even if he didn’t have the distinctive look yet. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/58 "2013-10-05T16:13:59Z")
TVTropes considers the 2nd season when it [Grew](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/GrowingTheBeard/LiveActionTV) [The Beard](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GrowingTheBeard). ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/59 "2013-10-05T16:51:20Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I think we’re supposed to be under the assumption the he learned the recipe from Jesse (Can’n Cook) and then transformed it into the blue, but IIRC it took them a couple of tries to get the purity up. If you remember Walt threw out the first few batches in the RV. No. Walt did not copy Jesse’s recipe. Jesse brewed crap that he intentionally adulterated with chili powder; “chili-P” was his brand. Walt was a PhD level chemist; someone who knows how to manufacture pharmaceutical grade molecules. His very first batch in the desert was perfect. Jesse was in awe at the purity and size of the crystals and it was 90+ percent pure. The batches thrown out in the desert were later. Jesse and Badger were trying to cook without Walter and Jesse was throwing out less than perfect (but still salable) batches in frustration, much to the anger and bewilderment of Badger. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289/60 "2013-10-05T17:28:02Z")
I was hooked at the very first episode, way back when it started (I ran into it channel surfing). I did not think “epically good, groundbreaking show” at the time, but it definitely caught my interest and kept me coming back for more. And count me as one more who doesn’t understand the hatred for “The Fly”. The interplay between Walt and Jesse was one of the biggest treats of this show, and that’s what this episode consisted of. Plus, it showed us very clearly the difference in the mindsets of the two men. Jesse was well aware of who their customers were and of the damage they were doing to them. Walt remained in denial by obsessing over the purity of the “product”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-breaking-bad-get-off-to-a-slow-start/670289.md?page=4)