Unpopular Opinions: 10 Wildly Popular Things in 2013 That Everyone Liked But I Didn’t Understand
Orange Is the New Black: So perhaps my opinion on Breaking Bad doesn’t really count because I didn’t watch all of it. But I watched all of OItNB and so I can speak with some real authority when I say that I just don’t get it. Actually, no. I get it. I get why it’s so popular, and I admit that I devoured the whole season. But I was left feeling pretty empty at the end of it. I haven’t read Piper Kerman’s book (upon which the television series is based), and so I have to hope that Kerman did a better job portraying the many facets of the prisoners than show-runner Jenji Kohan has done, but who knows? Because what I saw on the screen was just a facile portrait of a population subset that deserves to be recognized and portrayed in an intelligent way. The quality (or lack thereof) of OItNB is deceptive because much of the acting is stellar (Natasha Lyonne and Uzo Aduba stand out in particular), but the writing just doesn’t measure up. And yet the show is adored by so many intelligent people who would demand more nuance if the medium was something different than television. I just don’t get it.