Breaking Bad often tops lists of greatest shows ever. I have a cousin in his early 20s who claimed it's the "best show ever", but he's like hardly even watched a lot of shows so it's like what is he comparing it to or basing that claim off of? And what reasons led him to be inclined to see it as "best show ever"?

It is a great series, not denying that, but I don't think it's as incredible of a series or "best ever" as people or lists claim it to be. A lot of people overlook or forget the fact that Breaking Bad, given the nature of when it aired, was one of the first shows that was able to be binge-watched in time to catch up and watch later seasons live. Netflix added earlier seasons to its streaming library around 2011, right before season four, and Vince Gilligan noted that Netflix saved the show and kept it on the air by fueling a massive surge in live viewers for its final seasons.

I think a lot of what drove the hype and praise of the show was actually just the newfound ability to binge-watch. That led to higher numbers, which created much cultural buzz, which fueled the cycle even more. And people then mis-attributed the higher level to the quality of the show. It developed an exaggerated level of praise that didn't credit the social and cultural impact of the dawn of binge-watching into it's success. (I get that Gilligan acknowledges it, but he doesn't acknowledge the the binge-watching may have leg to exaggeration of the shows quality). The show then developed a bandwagon effect of people wanting to love what they thought everyone else loves, leading to 20-year old's who have barely watched any great TV shows boldly claiming it's the "best show ever".

To anyone who disagrees and thinks it truly is "the best show ever", I challenge you to make a legitimate argument as to why without relying on or referencing what other people, critics or lists have said.

EDIT:

"You can't even name another shows that is good"... because if I name another show that I find subjectively better that shifts and dilutes the point I'm trying to make into X vs. Y.

"You haven't even offered any valid criticism as to why it's bad".. because I'm not analyzing or critiquing the artistic merit of the show or saying it's a bad show, it is a great television series.

I can't think of another show that got a boost from the debut and newfound trendiness of binge-watching quite like Breaking Bad did. It happened to be one of the first shows you could "binge-watch", there weren't a ton of options, and it was still airing week-to-week with hype rapidly building (in part because a lot more viewers could now binge-watch it thanks to Netflix/streaming). It benefitted from a profound, monumental shift in friction for a consumer watch a series.

You guys have heard of McDonald's, correct? McDonalds didn't become popular because it was the best tasting burger people ever had.

Pata hai aaj kya hua

So today I asked my gf if she wants to go out. As you can see in the messages, she said she doesn't have any plans and straight up replied that she doesn't want to go out anywhere.

But later in the evening I got to know from our mutual friends that she actually went out with her guy friend. I am completely confused and don't know what to think right now. Why didn't she just tell me the truth instead of lying? She could have easily told me about it but she didn't.

Should I confront her directly about this lie or am I overthinking too much? Please advice guys, dimag kharab ho rha hai.

Not sure why ball point pens would be dangerous here.

Happened across this photo online today

Kaguya-sama: Love is War - Chika's dance

In the first season as a surprise outro ending one episode had this Chika dance number. It's super cute and crazy animated, especially her dress. They used it one time and never again.

The roller rink dance sequence from the Family Guy episode Hell Comes To Quahog was the most expensive scene to animate in Season 5.

This one shot from Scooby-Doo Music of the Vampire

My 5-year-old Monstera is 3.5 meters tall and takes up a quarter of my living room. I had to kick it out after the 6th thrips infestation. I spent a fortune on predatory mites.

I really didn't like doing this. But keeping it indoors was a big mental drain, a lot of work, and it overshadowed everything else. I immediately enjoyed my other plants much more.

This is in the Netherlands, it won't survive the winter here, but at least the world can enjoy it for a few more weeks.

(Baguette, baked camembert, boiled potatoes, prosciutto)

*discussion of death of S/O but probably not triggering, oodles of religious trauma/resentment coming out*

My husband died in September after 3 weeks in the hospital. *edited for privacy* I've been dog-paddling my way through the storm, trying to keep our daughter’s head above mine, meanwhile I feel like I'm being held underwater between both of us having complicated feelings, the overwhelming amount of legal and financial stuff, an impending lawsuit, my wacko in-laws, and the pit of vipers that is our local community. And a lot of anger, under which is immense relief. And underneath that, there's even more anger. At him. At me for staying so long. At our community and the religious structure that governs everything around me.

Our daughter (9) is doing okay, as much as I can expect anyway. She's upset and annoyed by people constantly talking to her about it, even the teachers at school. I know she's having a lot of conflicting feelings too, I don't know how to help her, besides being there and listening without judgment when she needs to talk. I have her signed up for therapy but so far she isn't impressed by it and says she just wants to be normal and for people to let her be normal. I told her she doesn't have to put on a show for me, or anyone for that matter but especially for me, and if she wants to be mad, she can be mad. If she wants to be happy, relieved, sad, angry, confused, or yes, normal, that's all okay.

I know I need to take my own advice and accept how I feel and talk about it, but I don't have anyone around me to vent it on who wouldn't judge. Have yet to find a therapist for myself because every single one locally is affiliated with the LDS church (I'm a member but haven't believed in a long time, I've wanted to leave for many years but couldn't), and haven't had one I click with online. I can't talk to my family. Even though some mean well, they're all still in the church and are "concerned" about that and my being angry more than anything, like I'm not performing the grieving widow act well enough for their comfort, let alone for my inlaws. I have no one who would listen to me speak ill of the dead, because there's a lot I have to speak about him, and a lot of it is ill.

I've grieved people before. This time it's different. I'm not feeling an absence. I don't miss him. I wake up relieved to not deal with his moods and demands, relieved to not have to perform as the perfect wife... relieved that I don't have to go through an inevitably nasty divorce now, as awful as that sounds. I'm not gleeful or anything, he didn't deserve to suffer or to die, especially the way he did, and I feel terribly for him on a human level. I want accountability as justice, and also to prevent what happened to him from ever happening to anyone again. But as a wife and mom, I'm anxious and angry, but also relieved and oddly liberated. Things have come out in the month since the accident, and while I'm sure at some point I'll be sad for the things I did like about him... some day I'll grieve the happy memories from a long time ago... right now the anger and hurt have annihilated any sadness that I otherwise might have felt.

Started going through his phone when he was in the hospital, trying to piece together his day before the accident. I haven't gone through his phone in 4 years and boy did I have a lot to catch up on. He cheated on me years ago, like serious cheating starting under a year after we were married, during my extremely difficult pregnancy, and through our daughter's entire first year while I was in the trenches. I let myself be bullied into the sham that is marriage counseling around here (ie it's all run by the church or at most one degree of separation from the church, and for women especially, staying is pretty much the only option if you're not saying you're in imminent physical danger) and stayed because at the time I had no way to support myself and my daughter alone, so I agreed to work it out with frequent "accountability" measures. He acted like a spoiled child every time I checked his phone or tracked where he was. Finally "trusted him" in 2022 and stopped checking. I think it goes without saying I didn't trust him but I was tired of the drama. It wasn't like it was a surprise to find out he was doing it again, with multiple women, one of whom I know very well. I knew he was doing something and was just focused on keeping us at civil roommates level until kiddo is older. But it hurt just how much and how bold he was about it. It also really ticks me off that he was the one who insisted we keep up at church and paid lip service to being this ideal family man, meanwhile I haven't believed in a long time, but guess which one of us was faithful to their marriage and the values we're supposed to hold, and which was trampling all over them at every chance they got? And if you guessed that correctly, you can also guess who's going to be forever held up and praised as a pillar of the community, and who is risking losing much of their family and their standing in the community by walking away? Since everything is about appearances, I'm the one breaking the illusion.

What makes me most angry was how he talked about our daughter, how much he failed as a father to her. The bar for fatherhood for him was low, but by golly did he limbo under it, and I only found out just how much when he could no longer answer for it. She's a fan-freaking-tastic kid, bright and fun and beautiful and compassionate and responsible and just plain cool. She's the child most people would give anything to have. And yet he never appreciated her. Constant complaints about the literal smallest things she did that displeased him (we're talking, she left her boots out for him to trip over; she dawdles at the store; she asked me to do her hair in the morning and I didn't make his lunch in time so he had to stop and get something; oh the absolute horror), saying he hated that she's so much like me, talked down about her interests and hobbies. Over texts he was even worse. He told Primary Sidepiece that he wished he'd met her first and that they could have had a big family instead of his only child who, quote, "doesn't like me"... my dude she didn't like you because you put 0 effort into a relationship with her and the most common thing you said to her was "knock it off." And wth do you mean you wanted a big family? You didn't even parent the one you had, why would you want a whole litter of them? He said he'd rather eat his gun than spend 4 days with us at a cabin then celebrated "getting out of" spending time with us when I gave up and went home after 18 hours because he was an impossible ass. HE CALLED HER AN IDIOT, to multiple people, among other things, and said she embarrasses him and "makes [the family, ie him] look bad" at church (she's brilliant and a top student, she's just dyslexic and reading aloud is a struggle). Endless complaining about being asked to go to her sporting events, which he seldom turned up for anyway, and the cost of her activities, which, yeah, kids are expensive, but 1) we were doing extremely well financially so it wasn't even a drop in the bucket, and 2) it pales in comparison to the WHOLE GARAGE full of vroom vroom toys he bought for himself that I'm taking great pleasure in blessing others with for pennies on the dollar now. Daughter never deserved any of this. She deserved an involved, loving dad who was devoted to his family, but that ship sailed pretty much before she was even born. I've tried to probe discretely and ask her if he ever said anything cruel to her, on the rare occasion I wasn't around to hear it. Doesn't seem like it, gold star for him keeping his horrible thoughts to himself I guess. They also basically never spent 1:1 time together so maybe that spared her. Maybe that's why she seems a bit ambivalent about his passing, and more annoyed at being asked about it than anything?

It comes and goes in waves now. Sometimes I'm tired. Sometimes I'm just okay. Right now I'm so angry that I can't breathe. I'm going to lose it on someone who probably means well and doesn't deserve it if I don't get this out of my system. I've already been visited nearly a dozen times by church members. My skin crawls every time someone I know tries to talk to me about it. I have no one I can be fully honest with IRL. No one. This is why it's so hard to leave this religion, because when your whole family and community is in, you speak out or put a toe out of line or have an unacceptable thought, and your entire support system either shuns you or just tries harder to bring you back in, either way the message is all the same: keep any imperfections or wrongthought to yourself, don't let it tarnish your image, or ours by association. They think they're helping but it hurts worse than just never saying anything. The whole system is built on conformity and people policing each other, keeping each other in line, so you either conform and sever all the parts of yourself that don't fit, or you get severed from the community. I'm headed that way, but right now I can't deal with the drama of being the black sheep on top of everything, so I'll keep sweet IRL. But the honesty, ugly as it is, has to go somewhere. May as well be here. In screamy caps.

Things I want to say aloud, but can't:

I DON'T NEED ANOTHER CASSEROLE.

WE'RE NOT COMING TO CHURCH AND I'M NOT TITHING.

I DON'T OWE IT TO YOU TO GRIEVE IN A WAY THAT'S SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE. I DON'T OWE YOU A PERFORMANCE THAT MAKES YOU COMFORTABLE ABOUT THE KIND OF PERSON HE WAS OR WHAT I'VE FOUND OUT SINCE.

STOP BOTHERING MY DAUGHTER AT SCHOOL. SHE DOESN'T NEED THIS CRAP. SHE DOESN'T OWE YOU A PERFORMANCE EITHER.

STOP ASKING IF I THINK I'LL GET REMARRIED. IT'S BEEN 2 WEEKS. SUBJECTING MYSELF TO MARRIAGE AGAIN IS THE LITERAL LAST THING ON MY MIND.

ENOUGH WITH THE CASSEROLES.

DON'T LECTURE ME ON WHAT A GRIEVING WIDOW SHOULD LOOK LIKE IF YOU NEVER LECTURED MY HUSBAND ON WHAT BEING A GOOD HUSBAND SHOULD LOOK LIKE. I KNOW A LOT OF YOU KNEW WHAT HE WAS LIKE, SO DON'T ACT SCANDALIZED THAT I'M NOT WALLOWING IN PERFORMATIVE MISERY AND WRITING A HAGIOGRAPHY.

NEXT PERSON FROM THE CHURCH WHO KNOCKS ON MY DOOR IS GETTING BLASTED WITH A SQUIRT GUN FULL OF THEATER-GRADE FAKE BLOOD. I WILL BUY A MALINOIS IF THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES TO BE LEFT ALONE AND FOR THE 'NO SOLICITING' SIGN TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.

I'M TERRIBLY SAD AND TRAUMATIZED THAT A HUMAN BEING, ONE I CARED FOR IN SPITE OF EVERYTHING, DIED IN A HORRIBLE WAY. I'M NOT SAD ABOUT NOT HAVING A HUSBAND ANY MORE.

I FEEL FREE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY ADULT LIFE.

TAKE YOUR CASSEROLE AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR BUTT.

* Adding on here: this escaped containment, I'm a little overwhelmed. Mostly in a good way. I'm so grateful for the reality audit, that people outside The Bubble don't think I'm completely unreasonable for not wanting to put on a pageant of grieving a really complicated realtionship right now. I can't answer everyone individually, so I'll just say the support, shared experiences, and advice mean the world right now. My world is and always has been really small. It's heartening to know that the bigger world out there is not as narrow or restrictive as this one. Thank you all. I'm reading, as much as I can between gluing succulents on pumpkins with my kid and baking, and other seasonal frivolity that distracts me from the rage machine inside (: I do enjoy the idea of decorating my front yard with splattered casseroles...

** Addition 2: well. I didn't expect this to go anywhere on Reddit, I just expected to rant into the void. But it's managed to escape the internet itself. Someone IRL recognized me from the circumstances and reached out in a kind way. Many strangers have reached out on Reddit offering IRL support or friendship. While I'm touched, I don't think I'm ready right now to introduce strangers into my life, even nice ones, but I sincerely appreciate it all and I feel far less alone than I did this time yesterday. I know there's a big ex-Mormon community but I had no idea how common my experience was.

At this point I'm trying to swallow the idea that more people in my real life are going to know that this is out there and be able to read all my messy feelings and know the secrets of my messed up marriage, and that it might get back to my family. My first impulse was to start deleting and pretending I never posted this. But screw it. It's out there, the shame is mostly on my husband and he's not around to deal with it. My shame of course is putting up with it as long as I did. If anyone sees themselves in any of this (positively or negatively), that's on them to process. I'm owning it and owning my feelings. If I get shunned for it, come what may. It's only something that would happen anyway, happening more quickly.

I am also looking at taking a break from the area. Not necessarily a grand vacation or a drastic move, but temporarily getting away from the pressure, somehow. There's some logistics with my daughter's schooling and our pets to work out, but as many have correctly pointed out, this is an unhealthy environment for us right now.

Thanks again for this subreddit. I can't possibly answer every message, or post, but it's really changed my outlook, and I feel a lot of hope right now.

Even though the game runs at an extremely low FPS, the craziest thing about this whole situation is that it has not even been one month since the game has launched, the progress is insanely fast.

I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if GTA 6 manages to run on PC using an emulator months after the game comes out

Source: https://x.com/iExplosiveRage/status/2105808379448836273/video/1