I just started watching Breaking Bad on Netflix in the past few months. I started primarily because it is filmed in Albuquerque and elsewhere in New Mexico. I’ve loved the vistas and the sky more than any of the other details I’ve recognized, and I’ve wondered if someone who has never been here is as delighted with the beauty as we who live here are.

I almost stopped watching because the occasional violence is very strong. People die. Few are shot, too many are beaten to death. There is too much screaming and mad-dogging. It can be hard to watch. That’s the asterisk on this 5-star rating.

That said, I am more often stunned by the writing and the acting. I can’t do either justice. Some scenes are heart-wrenching and one can read thoughts on faces to a degree I can’t remember from another TV show. The two principals, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, are phenomenal; both have shown such depth. Almost everyone around them is great. Even the characters I hate.

Although making and dealing methamphetamines drive the plot, this show in no way glamorizes drugs. The desperate skeletal junkies should scare anyone away from meth (or heroin).

My comments come at the end of Season 2. The first season had only 7 episodes; Season 2 has 13. Twenty episodes aren’t very many. I’ve heard things get weirder or worse (very hard to imagine) in Season 4 (not yet on Netflix). Can good writing and acting compel one to watch the unwatchable? I’ll let you know.