Breaking Bad - Now this is quality tv, y'all. 

Photo/graphic credits to  AMC Network Entertainment LLC

I'm no expert but when it comes to this show, I like to pretend like I am.  I'm only through the 4th season and am currently working on the 5th.  But.. ME LIKEY.  Here's my take on the show, what I have seen so far, from a stylistic standpoint.  AMC, I like what you're doing. I like it a lot..

Mapping Quality Style - Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad, one of AMC’s hit dramas since 2008, is an island in the “vast wasteland” of contemporary American television today.  This single-camera drama stands out not only in its creative writing, but in numerous stylistic choices as well.  Breaking Bad establishes itself as a quality production in its use of flashbacks, montages, high contrast lighting, bold and intense colors, and music.

            The chronology of the narrative in Breaking Bad is truly the most effective stylistic choice of its production.  As viewers begin each episode they are shown a segment that is often a later result revealed in that episode or a reaction from a prior episode.  Walter White, an aging chemist and teacher turned methamphetamine cook, is often shown before the title sequence as stuck in a rough situation with threatening parties to intrigue the viewer and retain interest.  Other characters as well as small but crucial details to the storyline make appearances in this successful and repeated hook strategy at the beginning of each episode.  Flashbacks and montages, also in this realm of time management, are employed frequently.  Jesse Pinkman and Walter White are shown “cooking” meth over in montages many times, often set to music, to emphasize the passage of time to the viewer.  Their tasks assumedly take hours as they don yellow protective suits and masks, pour chemicals into vats, weigh the product, and scrub the equipment.  Similar to this, flashbacks of past events are shown occasionally as appropriate to the storyline.

            The visual appearance of the shots used also has a dramatic affect on compelled viewers of the series as well.  The lighting and coloring are always key to the shot as the setting ranges from the bright and washed out sunny New Mexico desert day to the dark and cold scene of Jesse’s house or an artificially lit laboratory.  As the show includes violence, blood is shed and shown numerous instances.  In one scene the boss of the operation, Gustavo Freng, slits a man’s throat in the lab.  As he dies his plentiful, dark, deep red blood is shown running to the drains on the floor of the laboratory.  This is a juxtaposition of the coloration shown in Jesse Pinkman’s dull and dingy stoner abodes, apartment and house later on, where colors are of low saturation as curtains and blinds block natural light from the scene.  A drastic change in lighting occurs when Walter is kidnapped, bagged (very dark lighting), and then unbagged in the middle of the desert (very bright and washed out lighting). The broad variance of bright and dark lighting as well as bold and dull coloring make this series visually appealing to viewers as the narrative unfolds.

            The last element that truly distinguishes Breaking Bad as a high-quality one-camera production is the music used.  Throughout most of the show, the dialogue and sounds of the scene carry the narrative enough as music is unnecessary.  However, in key points of the show where the narrative takes a drastic change, music is employed to assist in establishing tone in scene.  In season four, Walter frantically searches for money at his family’s home to the sound of fast-paced music similar to tracks in action movies.  In the same season’s finale, calmer music is used as Walter delivers the news to his wife over the phone that the battle with Gus Freng is over as he simply states,“I won.”  In addition, the same blues/outlaw guitar track is used in the title sequence to establish continuity and familiarity with the audience.

Emmy-nominated Breaking Bad is by far one of the prime productions on television today.  Overall the single-camera drama is extremely cinematographic in nature with interrupting videographic elements in regards to the flashbacks, montages, and title sequence.  The use of varying lighting and coloration, flashbacks and montages, and situational and title music combine with the writing and narrative to make this series a work of art.