Lament: What to Watch Tonight?

I spent last Sunday night with my old pal, Satan, watching the Series Finale of Breaking Bad. It was the eighth straight Sunday I had spent up until all hours of the night rethinking Walter White's choices, trying to predict what was going to happen to the characters next.  I still vividly remember the night I decided to watch the first episode on Netflix Instant and was so drawn in I watched the entire first season in one sitting. Now the show is finally over. Sunday night is one of the few nights during the week I find myself wanting to watch prime-time TV. Unfortunately The Walking Dead does not premiere until next Sunday, and I am definitely not going to watch Low Winter Sun tonight. So instead I am probably going to end up watching football. First world problems, eh.

There were many things that made Breaking Bad special. When describing the show to friends, I have always said that one episode has more character development than most other shows will go through in an entire season. The show constantly raised the stakes and while Bryan Cranston's Walter White may have been a genius, it always seemed like he was in over his head. Nothing is more attractive to audiences than watching a character overcome insurmountable odds, even if that character is doing terrible and unforgivable things. That might be what really made the show unique. It gave the audience an even more awkward moral dilemma: "Do I still like this person?" It had all of the elements I enjoy in the best graphic novels. Over six years, the show never had a dip in quality and it ended in a way that answered every question. Some may say that it tied too neat a bow, but I can guarantee you that true fans of the show would not have it any other way.

Unfortunately AMC did not have the same luck with Low Winter Sun.  It seemed like a no-brainer. You had Mark Strong (the bald bad guy from every other action movie of the last few years) and Lennie James (Snatch, The Walking Dead) playing Detroit cops trying to cover up the murder of a crooked cop. There's intrigue and deception. What more could you want? Well, for starters a joke or two might have helped. I'm not saying this should have been a sitcom, but the show is bone-crushingly depressing and takes itself way too seriously. I know Detroit is a rough place to live. I have heard it described as Beirut without the palm trees. However, there was never a moment where we got to see these characters relax. There was no reason for us to relate to them. So in the end we just stopped caring and stopped watching. Even the most serious episodes of Breaking Bad had at least one moment that had me laugh out loud. That comparison may seem unfair, but AMC should not have had Low Winter Sun follow Breaking Bad if they did not want us to compare the two.

Next week I have the season premiere of The Walking Dead to look forward to. This show also has a very different feel. Instead of piling on action and tension every episode, it really takes its time. The premiere will allow the audience to get its bearings and see how the group has changed since last season. Then something exciting will happen and the next few episodes will be spent showing how everyone in the group reacts to those events and fights with each other to decide what to do next. Then the group finally reacts, everything hits the fan again, and the cycle starts over. It is predictable but people keep watching because they identify with these characters and struggle to figure out if they would react in the same way. Can Rick stop Carl from becoming too cold-hearted? Will Glenn and Maggie be able to start a family? Was Andrea really that stupid?

I guess I'll have to wait another week to answer those questions. In the meantime, go 49ers!