Donna said this elsewhere in these comments, but let’s create a specific space: if there’s a show you’d like to see Donna review for Episodic Medium in the future, brainstorming starts now.
We're the luckiest TV viewers on the face of the earth to get not one but TWO of the greatest series of all time accompanied by some of the greatest recaps/analysis of all time. You've enriched these journeys for us with your cleverness and insight. I'm happy to have been a small part of doing the same for you.
Thank you for this wonderful post. Like many on here BB, BCS and your recaps have been with me through many milestones in my life. Your recaps in particular helped me understand these shows and their episodes in all of their complexity, often bringing nuance to scenes and interactions that had escaped me or flown over my head bc the experience of watching the shows was so intense. On several occasions after watching BB I vomited-there was just so much emotion/intensity that I literally could not stomach. Then I would open the AV club find your writing and calm down-theres no other way to explain it other than that you framed for me what I could not think about bc the experience of BB was so visceral. It saddens me to write this but in my own little comfortable consumerist universe, I assumed that you and your writing would always be there. I think knowing you are/were an academic made your presence in criticism seem inevitably permanent-you write for a living, how could it go away? And the writing itself was so clear and funny that it seemed effortless. Of course anyone who writes knows that getting one’s writing to have that quality takes an enormous amount of work. And yet I often forgot. I’m ashamed to admit, in other words, that it never occurred to me that writing recaps for these two series could have taken a toll on you, esp the immensity of the commentariat in the A.V. club-I think I just assumed that your writing and thoughts were so smart that the comments didn’t affect you, especially the more pedantic and petty ones that you describe in this post. So I want to thank you too for this post-for drawing back the curtain on your process and showing us that writing criticism of a beloved universe is fraught, with joys and aggravations in equal measure. And for doing it anyway.
I started watching Breaking Bad with my dad. It was his idea, I'd never heard of the show when it premiered 14 years ago. We watched the whole first season together. Eventually I went to college and got caught up on the show watching reruns on AMC, and then I'd call my dad every Sunday to talk about it.
Once Better Call Saul was on, I was living at home again, and I've watched virtually every single episode with the old man. This show has always been something shared, for me, and I got super into the supplementary material in the BCS era -- Sepinwall, the official podcast, and of course, Donna's wonderful recaps, which were something I would eagerly await after each episode. And I'd read the comments and just try to absorb every bit of info I could. Often, I'd read the recaps again throughout the week!
I'm still watching with my dad, and it's hard to believe the finale is really here. The show is fantastic and the company has been even better.
Much love to you all and to Donna and Myles for making this last season such a treasure.
Those early days of the TV Club section were a valuable guide to a would-be viewer. Just knowing that Breaking Bad was being covered put the show on my radar, while getting a general sense of positive buzz without reading those reviews convinced me to pick up the first season on DVD.
As I watched that season, I caught up on the reviews and loved them. It was prime TV Club writing, framing the show in certain angles that I hadn’t considered, highlighting thematic choices, and offering a space to share our enthusiasm for the show.
Those reviews made me even more excited to see where the story would go from there. The reviews and comment sections have been a companion piece for every episode to follow, so I was very happy to see that tradition come to a proper conclusion here. Thanks for the ride.
thank you, Donna. your Breaking Bad coverage is what brought me to the AV Club in the first place.
i boarded the BB train just before season 3 started airing. i started out renting the s1+2 blurays via netflix. it was actually the "Better Call Saul" episode of s2 that inspired me to run to the store and shell out the cash for the full season bluray set, so that i could binge the rest of the season without having to wait for the next disc in the mail.
i was caught up by s3e2 and watched the rest of the season live week-to-week. the night that "One Minute" aired, after watching the episode i felt like i NEEDED to discuss this show with somebody. this is what led me to discover Donna's AV Club reviews. and if it weren't for them, i probably would've been much later to the TV Club party, maybe missing out on its "golden era" entirely.
anyways, this has been a long-winded way of saying that these reviews, and these shows, meant a lot to me. i'm gonna miss having this fictional universe and these discussion spaces. quite a ride, indeed.
I have to say, Donna, that your episodic writing for this series and all the comments within are a large part of why I (someone who didn't watch Breaking Bad) was able to call it my favorite show.
How else to understand all the references and Easter eggs? Or nuances that flew over my head? I'd watch an episode and fly to your review to find out everything I hadn't even known to think about.
I couldn't be more grateful to you and Myles for creating that environment once again that I thought had been lost forever. Also, as a woman, I was so happy just to find other women just as engaged in this show.
Thanks for everything, Donna! Your reviews have been a significant part of my own experience with these outstanding shows, though I'm sorry to hear that the high readership at times marred your own engagement with them. Glad to have found my way here for this final season, and I agree that the commenting community here has been a wonderful place to discuss and analyze this show we all love.
Oh Donna, you made me tear up. I was an avid AV Club Reader, and although I was not one of the well known commenters, I was always eager to give my input. You were my favorite writer in the AVClub hey days, and I was one of the many people to sign up for a subscription to Episodic Medium as soon as I heard you were on board. Please be sure to let us commenters know where you are going next.
And one more thing, there were people who thought BB was a hyper masculine show? Geez, I think they were missing the point!
your writing on Breaking Bad was foundational for me as a teen, genuinely changing the way i watched and thought about TV. i'd sit at the breakfast table every day before school and read your recaps on my iPod touch(!) and it felt like the world would crack open with discovery every time. i still return to favorite entries ("Ozymandias", "4 Days Out", "Face Off") from time to time, whether i've been watching the show or not. it's a comfort, like talking with an old friend, but it's transformative, too. i always leave your analyses looking at the shows differently, finding new things everywhere i look. your work expands and enlivens its subject matter, and it's been an honor and a pleasure to have watched along with you all these years. i'll be there wherever you go next, whether it's in ABQ or not. thank you for everything, Donna.
Aug 15, 2022·edited Aug 15, 2022Liked by Donna Bowman
Thank you for everything, Donna. I'm relatively new to your commentary(I think I began really reading AV Club circa BCS season 3 or 4), and only upon following you here did I learn that you had also covered all of Breaking Bad. Regardless, I've always looked forward to your recaps almost as much as the episodes themselves.
I've been feeling a huge mix of things today leading up to this final send-off, and I'm sure we'll all be feeling many more before we go to sleep tonight. Good day and good night, Albuqueque. <3
Hi Donna I've been there since the beginning with your recaps/reviews and followed it all in real time. I still remember your recap of the Breaking Bad pilot. The show seemed like such an odd swerve for AMC at the time right on the heels of Mad Men and I didn't know what to make of it. (And in truth I believe it was originally sold to FX which would've been a much better fit) But there were just so much fewer scripted shows back then in the pre-streaming pre "Peak TV" era it was worth checking out. And then of course the first season got completely screwed over by the writer's strike. So in that environment your reviews didn't really start standing out to me until sometime around the second or third season. But after that I'd say your "Breaking Bad" reviews were the best combo of show and recapper ever and the "Better Call Saul" ones have continued in that tradition. Long term the two shows together I'd say this is probably the single best sustained criticism of one television show in thie form ever
I am here because of you--thanks for all your work over ALL these years. I am so excited for tonight, and afterward, to come here and read your recap and the commenters' takes too.
Not to echo a majority of the other comments, but I was a steadfast and loyal AV Clubber back in the mid-2000's up until the sands of talent slipped through that hour glass and the VC Ownership pissed it into the wind. Your coverage as well as TV Club as a whole (Thank you Noel, Myles, et al) was prime internet in those halcyon days at my new out of college big boy job, stealing away on lunch breaks and between calls, and the memories from that time will forever have all your fingerprints on them. After reading this post I just realized that I didn't get into BrBa until S3 started, binging S1 and 2 with Netflix mail DVDs; all that to say, I think a rewatch is in order because I probably didn't read your reviews of those first couple seasons. I feel like I just discovered a brick of gold in my backyard. Eternally grateful to all of you AVC Alumni and beyond thrilled to have some small piece of that space back here at Episodic Medium. The same applies to all the wonderful people in the comments as well, of course. A comments section that doesn't make me want to fill my pockets with wrenches and walk into the sea is rare and refreshing in this day and age.
Thank you so much Donna for all your wonderful reviews over the years. I honestly could not have envisioned this final season of Better Call Saul without reading your reviews. So I'm grateful for Myles to bringing you on board. When it was announced that pushed me off the fence to becoming a yearly subscriber, which was great choice.
Also, appreciate your comment about how people have found the reviews years later. I actually have yet to rewatch the full BB/BCS universe, though probably will do so at some point in the future. But I did recently complete a rewatch of HIMYM, even that terrible final season, and your reviews of that show were also really helpful during the rewatch.
Hope to read more of your writing in the future, whether it's set in Albuquerque or not!
Donna said this elsewhere in these comments, but let’s create a specific space: if there’s a show you’d like to see Donna review for Episodic Medium in the future, brainstorming starts now.
We're the luckiest TV viewers on the face of the earth to get not one but TWO of the greatest series of all time accompanied by some of the greatest recaps/analysis of all time. You've enriched these journeys for us with your cleverness and insight. I'm happy to have been a small part of doing the same for you.
Thank you for this wonderful post. Like many on here BB, BCS and your recaps have been with me through many milestones in my life. Your recaps in particular helped me understand these shows and their episodes in all of their complexity, often bringing nuance to scenes and interactions that had escaped me or flown over my head bc the experience of watching the shows was so intense. On several occasions after watching BB I vomited-there was just so much emotion/intensity that I literally could not stomach. Then I would open the AV club find your writing and calm down-theres no other way to explain it other than that you framed for me what I could not think about bc the experience of BB was so visceral. It saddens me to write this but in my own little comfortable consumerist universe, I assumed that you and your writing would always be there. I think knowing you are/were an academic made your presence in criticism seem inevitably permanent-you write for a living, how could it go away? And the writing itself was so clear and funny that it seemed effortless. Of course anyone who writes knows that getting one’s writing to have that quality takes an enormous amount of work. And yet I often forgot. I’m ashamed to admit, in other words, that it never occurred to me that writing recaps for these two series could have taken a toll on you, esp the immensity of the commentariat in the A.V. club-I think I just assumed that your writing and thoughts were so smart that the comments didn’t affect you, especially the more pedantic and petty ones that you describe in this post. So I want to thank you too for this post-for drawing back the curtain on your process and showing us that writing criticism of a beloved universe is fraught, with joys and aggravations in equal measure. And for doing it anyway.
I started watching Breaking Bad with my dad. It was his idea, I'd never heard of the show when it premiered 14 years ago. We watched the whole first season together. Eventually I went to college and got caught up on the show watching reruns on AMC, and then I'd call my dad every Sunday to talk about it.
Once Better Call Saul was on, I was living at home again, and I've watched virtually every single episode with the old man. This show has always been something shared, for me, and I got super into the supplementary material in the BCS era -- Sepinwall, the official podcast, and of course, Donna's wonderful recaps, which were something I would eagerly await after each episode. And I'd read the comments and just try to absorb every bit of info I could. Often, I'd read the recaps again throughout the week!
I'm still watching with my dad, and it's hard to believe the finale is really here. The show is fantastic and the company has been even better.
Much love to you all and to Donna and Myles for making this last season such a treasure.
Those early days of the TV Club section were a valuable guide to a would-be viewer. Just knowing that Breaking Bad was being covered put the show on my radar, while getting a general sense of positive buzz without reading those reviews convinced me to pick up the first season on DVD.
As I watched that season, I caught up on the reviews and loved them. It was prime TV Club writing, framing the show in certain angles that I hadn’t considered, highlighting thematic choices, and offering a space to share our enthusiasm for the show.
Those reviews made me even more excited to see where the story would go from there. The reviews and comment sections have been a companion piece for every episode to follow, so I was very happy to see that tradition come to a proper conclusion here. Thanks for the ride.
thank you, Donna. your Breaking Bad coverage is what brought me to the AV Club in the first place.
i boarded the BB train just before season 3 started airing. i started out renting the s1+2 blurays via netflix. it was actually the "Better Call Saul" episode of s2 that inspired me to run to the store and shell out the cash for the full season bluray set, so that i could binge the rest of the season without having to wait for the next disc in the mail.
i was caught up by s3e2 and watched the rest of the season live week-to-week. the night that "One Minute" aired, after watching the episode i felt like i NEEDED to discuss this show with somebody. this is what led me to discover Donna's AV Club reviews. and if it weren't for them, i probably would've been much later to the TV Club party, maybe missing out on its "golden era" entirely.
anyways, this has been a long-winded way of saying that these reviews, and these shows, meant a lot to me. i'm gonna miss having this fictional universe and these discussion spaces. quite a ride, indeed.
I have to say, Donna, that your episodic writing for this series and all the comments within are a large part of why I (someone who didn't watch Breaking Bad) was able to call it my favorite show.
How else to understand all the references and Easter eggs? Or nuances that flew over my head? I'd watch an episode and fly to your review to find out everything I hadn't even known to think about.
I couldn't be more grateful to you and Myles for creating that environment once again that I thought had been lost forever. Also, as a woman, I was so happy just to find other women just as engaged in this show.
Thanks for everything, Donna! Your reviews have been a significant part of my own experience with these outstanding shows, though I'm sorry to hear that the high readership at times marred your own engagement with them. Glad to have found my way here for this final season, and I agree that the commenting community here has been a wonderful place to discuss and analyze this show we all love.
Oh Donna, you made me tear up. I was an avid AV Club Reader, and although I was not one of the well known commenters, I was always eager to give my input. You were my favorite writer in the AVClub hey days, and I was one of the many people to sign up for a subscription to Episodic Medium as soon as I heard you were on board. Please be sure to let us commenters know where you are going next.
And one more thing, there were people who thought BB was a hyper masculine show? Geez, I think they were missing the point!
Thank you for everything Donna. Going down as the Lou Gehrig of tv reviewers seems about right (except for those three missed episodes). :)
your writing on Breaking Bad was foundational for me as a teen, genuinely changing the way i watched and thought about TV. i'd sit at the breakfast table every day before school and read your recaps on my iPod touch(!) and it felt like the world would crack open with discovery every time. i still return to favorite entries ("Ozymandias", "4 Days Out", "Face Off") from time to time, whether i've been watching the show or not. it's a comfort, like talking with an old friend, but it's transformative, too. i always leave your analyses looking at the shows differently, finding new things everywhere i look. your work expands and enlivens its subject matter, and it's been an honor and a pleasure to have watched along with you all these years. i'll be there wherever you go next, whether it's in ABQ or not. thank you for everything, Donna.
Thank you for everything, Donna. I'm relatively new to your commentary(I think I began really reading AV Club circa BCS season 3 or 4), and only upon following you here did I learn that you had also covered all of Breaking Bad. Regardless, I've always looked forward to your recaps almost as much as the episodes themselves.
I've been feeling a huge mix of things today leading up to this final send-off, and I'm sure we'll all be feeling many more before we go to sleep tonight. Good day and good night, Albuqueque. <3
Hi Donna I've been there since the beginning with your recaps/reviews and followed it all in real time. I still remember your recap of the Breaking Bad pilot. The show seemed like such an odd swerve for AMC at the time right on the heels of Mad Men and I didn't know what to make of it. (And in truth I believe it was originally sold to FX which would've been a much better fit) But there were just so much fewer scripted shows back then in the pre-streaming pre "Peak TV" era it was worth checking out. And then of course the first season got completely screwed over by the writer's strike. So in that environment your reviews didn't really start standing out to me until sometime around the second or third season. But after that I'd say your "Breaking Bad" reviews were the best combo of show and recapper ever and the "Better Call Saul" ones have continued in that tradition. Long term the two shows together I'd say this is probably the single best sustained criticism of one television show in thie form ever
I am here because of you--thanks for all your work over ALL these years. I am so excited for tonight, and afterward, to come here and read your recap and the commenters' takes too.
Not to echo a majority of the other comments, but I was a steadfast and loyal AV Clubber back in the mid-2000's up until the sands of talent slipped through that hour glass and the VC Ownership pissed it into the wind. Your coverage as well as TV Club as a whole (Thank you Noel, Myles, et al) was prime internet in those halcyon days at my new out of college big boy job, stealing away on lunch breaks and between calls, and the memories from that time will forever have all your fingerprints on them. After reading this post I just realized that I didn't get into BrBa until S3 started, binging S1 and 2 with Netflix mail DVDs; all that to say, I think a rewatch is in order because I probably didn't read your reviews of those first couple seasons. I feel like I just discovered a brick of gold in my backyard. Eternally grateful to all of you AVC Alumni and beyond thrilled to have some small piece of that space back here at Episodic Medium. The same applies to all the wonderful people in the comments as well, of course. A comments section that doesn't make me want to fill my pockets with wrenches and walk into the sea is rare and refreshing in this day and age.
Thank you so much Donna for all your wonderful reviews over the years. I honestly could not have envisioned this final season of Better Call Saul without reading your reviews. So I'm grateful for Myles to bringing you on board. When it was announced that pushed me off the fence to becoming a yearly subscriber, which was great choice.
Also, appreciate your comment about how people have found the reviews years later. I actually have yet to rewatch the full BB/BCS universe, though probably will do so at some point in the future. But I did recently complete a rewatch of HIMYM, even that terrible final season, and your reviews of that show were also really helpful during the rewatch.
Hope to read more of your writing in the future, whether it's set in Albuquerque or not!