This ought to do it:
I have watched two episodes of Breaking Bad: the pilot, and the one from last week that had everybody rending their teeth and gnashing their garments. All I saw was a bleak, depressing show that made me feel bad about things, but hey, that’s just me. No, what really gets my goat is the undertone of nearly everything said about this show of late, that it is so good that if you don’t watch it, you are literally — and not “figuratively” literally, not the new OED literally, but really actually literally — deficient in some key aspect of your life. I’ve read tweets, more than once, that said: “I feel sorry for people aren’t watching Breaking Bad.”
And now comes Kelly Oxford with this. And I love Kelly Oxford. There are fewer funnier people on Twitter, and I loved her recent book, too.
It seems to me that there’s an awful lot of commentary that suggests, either through tone or just states it outright, a moral or other kind of failing on the part of those who might have a different view. I know I’ve been guilty of that, myself. But I’m going to try and stop.
And for the record, I don’t watch Breaking Bad, I am not going to watch Breaking Bad, and I am not a f***ing idiot.
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Kelly, one of these days I'm going to write my own rant on this topic…except mine will focus on Game of Thrones, because I do watch Breaking Bad.
(I don't, however, think it's as great as the rest of the world thinks it is, and I almost quit several times.)
My husband used to say he would watch it with me at some point, but then after hearing more realized it is just too bleak. In fact he feels that way about many popular contemporary shows. I have only seen the first episode, a few years back and it was pretty intense and I would have probably kept watching if he had watched with me, but I don't feel I am missing out. I got enough entertainment out of a graphic I saw a few months ago that suggested BB would end with Walter White being placed in witness protection and that is the beginning of Malcolm in the Middle. Really anything that happens in the show cannot be topped after that thought.
What I really don't like is that comments like the ones you describe here–"If you don't like x thing, YOU'RE WRONG"–are so prevalent on the internet now. I spend too much time on Tumblr, and I see it constantly there. A lot of it is "the way people talk now," and I really hate it.
(Another related thing I hate: escalating superlatives. Everything was "awesome," then it was "phenomenal," now it's "flawless.")
It's all part of the thing I keep talking about, which is that we have this culture right now where people can't stand being disagreed with and have a weird tendency to take not only criticism but disinterest in something personally. I don't get this idea that being a fan of something says so much about a person's identity that they feel attacked at the mere idea of someone not being interested in something they love.
I'm a huge fan of Breaking Bad, as you know, but it's no skin off my nose if someone doesn't like it or doesn't want to see it. It doesn't invalidate how I feel. I would never tell someone "Oh, you're wrong," and I would never go on a whole rant motivated on the assumption that CLEARLY you just haven't been told enough about it.
I don't understand why people need other people to like x thing in order to justify their own like of it. You're allowed to just disagree with people and not have it affect anything in your life. It's just a TV show.
I watched about the first ten or so episodes of season one then realized it wasn't going to get any happier and bailed. I liked Ray Donovan which just ended it's first season. I also don't watch Game of Thrones but I watch Nurse Jackie which is a more interesting program to me anyways. What about Broadchurch – 8 episodes. I never seen an episode of Dexter either. I hated Lost after spending months watching it daily to catch up to it's supposed ending that cheated me….as Under the Dome cheated me. I both hate and love TV as you can tell. Boardwalk Empire is still great. Love me some of that Chalky White.
I've had the exact same experience with fans of a whole slew of shows that have just failed to grab me for one reason or another — Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Games of Thrones, Mad Men, Battlestar Galactica. I'm sure there are probably others if I really thought about it. It seems to be one of the uglier aspects of modern fandom that one cannot be enthusiastic about something that works for you without being a dick towards those for whom that thing does not work…
I share your view, but on a wider scale. Some Joss Whedon fans are at least as elitist.
I've yet to see a single episode of Game of Thrones (and probably never will after the last season finale – yikes), or Breaking Bad or even Mad Men. And I will, or I won't. I guess I've been lucky I'm not on Tumblr, Frog, 'cause I've managed to miss most of THOSE people. But I know they're out there.