The Proper Way To Watch Breaking Bad
We must not fall prey to enforcing creation dates upon the proper order to ingest small-screen drama. Considering the Breaking Bad Saga, we mustn’t fall into the trap of watching them in the order they were created, because we will lose the maximum narrative impact of the tragedy. We might even mistake who the main character of this saga is (hint: it’s not Walter White).
Walter White’s downward spiral is the explosive side effect of Jimmy McGill's decisions in the years before the Breaking Bad timeline. If Saul Goodman were not set up to run a criminal defense machine from a mini-mall, Jesse Pinkman would not have had the idea to use a “Criminal” Lawyer in the middle of the second season of Breaking Bad.
No Saul Goodman means that Walter White never enters the gravitational orbit of Gus Fring.
The Breaking Bad Saga is not about the tragic downfall of Walter White. It is about how stepping over the Law's line has consequences for those who have sworn oaths to uphold it. Enter Saul Goodman, a good man who has enabled horrible people to do wrong.
If you accept that Jimmy McGill is the protagonist of The Breaking Bad Saga, not Walter White, please consider using this viewing order during your next screening.
ACT 1
Breaking Bad episodes 1-15
The explosive beginning of Breaking Bad becomes an inciting incident for what’s to come, but chopping this section off becomes even more impactful when viewed as a burning fuse heading towards the powder keg of the birth of Saul Goodman from Jimmy McGill.
ACT 2
Better Call Saul episodes 1-61
This is where we get the backstory that truly defines the tragedy about to unfold as Walter White's hubris infects all of Albuquerque and ends the lives and fortunes of more than a few people.
This is the knife.
ACT 3
Breaking Bad episodes 16-62
This is the blood that comes after using the knife, an explosive, tragic, and utterly unnecessary disaster all springing from trauma, hubris, and power.
Saul, Jesse, Kim, and Marie are among the few people alive to tell their version of the story.
Coda One
El Camino
This is how Jesse Pinkman finds closure and, if possible, redemption.
Coda Two
Better Call Saul episodes 62 & 63
This is how Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler (and Marie, to an extent) find closure and redemption, if possible, for each of them.
