Why Breaking Bad is Better than Most Movies - Part 4

--DISCLAIMER--

Please Be Advised: While I will do my best not to reveal any spoilers within this series of posts, I cannot 100% guarantee that it will not happen.

--READ AT YOUR OWN RISK--

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"You're the smartest guy I ever met, and you're too stupid to see he made up his mind 10 minutes ago." – Hank Schrader

5. A Limited Budget Can Be Extremely Freeing

The average Hollywood budget for a 2 hour feature film is $80 million (and this is somewhat low, considering that most big budget blockbusters -- or potential blockbusters, I might emphasize -- are closer to $150 million or higher). With a show like Breaking Bad, you get more show, more character development, more New Mexico desert, and a more compelling story (over 720 minutes, just for season 5) for considerably less.

The writers of Breaking Bad were limited in budgetary sense, but what they may not tell you is that hearing the words "no, we don't have it in the budget" can be extremely freeing. It forces them to write themselves around or out of a problem, rather than having the easy out. They can't focus on special effects. They have to use their imagination to get their characters out of a situation. And they allow Walt to use science. That's always a plus.

The average price tag of a 45 minute episode of your favorite dramatic series usually runs between $1.6 and $1.8 million. This is not the standard, but an average (because I have a hard time believing that an episode of Game of Thrones only costs $1.8 million to produce). However, compared to a $3 million per episode budget of a broadcast network show, that's still a 46% difference. Smaller audience, smaller budget.

But... the budget for Breaking Bad, at least in its final season, was approximately $3.5 million per episode. The reason for the higher price -- at least compared to the cable average -- most likely has to due with the show shooting the entire series on 35mm film. It's a costly process, but as I expressed earlier in Part 3, the visual eye candy is absolutely worth it. Nevertheless, when you compare the cost per minute on screen that Breaking Bad gives its viewers over the cost per minute of a major motion picture, the value is unsurpassable.

The Runner-Up List

Ending the Series

While they could have milked out another 13 or 16 episode season, instead they chose to have an end point in place. It left before it became formulaic. By doing this alone, the show never worn out its welcome. That takes guts and I respect Gilligan for making that call. Plagiarizing Thomas Schnauz would be in bad taste, so I'll just paste his closing comments below:

Yes, I’m sad it’s over. Really sad. I’m probably miserable to be around. Great crew, amazing cast, best and most fun writers’ room ever. Our genius cinematographer/director Michael Slovis gave us all wrap gifts with a well-known quote from Dr. Seuss attached: “Don’t be sad because it’s over. Smile because it happened, bitch.” (O.K., it didn’t say “bitch.” I added that. I’m a writer — that’s what I do.) So, I’m trying really hard to heed those words and be happy. But unfortunately, like Walt’s, our true natures eventually come through.

Listed below are a few other things or reasons as to why I love this show:

• The Humor

• Brilliant & Brief Moments Like This:

• And This:

• And Lastly, This:  The Many Faces of Walter White. I discovered this while scouring the internet for images and found it quite amusing (or at least the gamer in me did). Spoiler Alert -- images may reveal plot points you have not seen yet, depending on where you are with watching the series.