Don’t get me wrong, Breaking Bad is a great series. I’m not saying it’s bad or undeserving of praise. I just don’t think it’s anywhere near as unquestionably incredible as its reputation suggests.
A huge part of what people overlook is when Breaking Bad happened. It was one of the first major shows that could be binge-watched by new viewers and then followed live. Netflix added the earlier seasons around 2011, right before Season 4, and Vince Gilligan has talked about how Netflix helped save the show by bringing a massive surge of viewers to its later seasons.
I think that changed the trajectory of the show’s reputation.
People could suddenly binge multiple seasons, catch up, join the weekly conversation, and contribute to an already growing cultural phenomenon. More viewers created more buzz, more buzz brought more viewers, and the cycle kept feeding itself.
Eventually, people started treating the popularity of Breaking Bad as evidence of its quality rather than considering how much the binge-watching boom contributed to its cultural explosion.
And that’s where I think the bandwagon effect comes in.
A 20-year-old who’s barely watched a handful of great TV shows can confidently call Breaking Bad the “best show ever” because they’ve spent years hearing everyone else call it the best show ever.
I’m not saying binge-watching created the show’s quality. I’m saying it may have massively amplified its reputation, and I rarely see that factor discussed when people talk about why Breaking Bad supposedly deserves its status.
And if you disagree and think it’s truly the “best show ever,” make the argument based on the actual show itself. Don’t point me toward IMDb, critics, Reddit, rankings, or what everyone else thinks.
Because “everyone says it’s the greatest” isn’t an argument for why it’s the greatest.
Sometimes something is genuinely great.
And sometimes being in the right place at exactly the right cultural moment makes something much bigger than it otherwise would’ve been.