You gave it a generous amount of your time. I'd say if you don't like it in the first few episodes it might not be for you. I was hooked almost immediately.

I made it like 3 episides of season 1 before I threw in the towel lol

I am baffled by your opinion here, can I ask... what was another show, or season of a show that, in your opinion, did 'get good'?

Sometimes that's true. Not all times. But many shows have a weak season 1 but then get amazing. And you can't really skip it without losing context.

I've never managed to watch the whole series. There's great bits but I get super uncomfortable with Walters bumbling, flagrant dishonesty with his wife and family. I get the same thing with a few different shows and I just don't enjoy it. To the point where I find myself just switching the TV off mid way through a scene and going to do something else without even really thinking about it.

If I had to describe the sensation it would be "extreme toe-curling cringe".

That was my second watch so not a huge deal to me

I had to double take, I read that as 'second wife' the first time

Honestly from the point where

::: spoiler spoiler Walter was offered to have his entire treatment paid for and turned it down in favour of selling drugs... :::

...he lost all my sympathy. I was increasingly curious about how things were going to go wrong for him. More fascinating train wreck, less investment in him personally.

... You are saying you find the idea of someone being very reckless and engaging in very risky behavior, for the thrill of the whole thing, to feel more alive than just going through the mundane motions of an average and safe life, to feel powerful, to prove to themselves that they can do something remarkable and be exceptional...

You find this stupid and unrealistic?

Like, I'll give you that the science of the show has flaws, but like... it is at least fairly within the ballpark for most things, decently detailed with a lot of other things... like, the FCC is not going to let you air a show that provides detailed, accurate instructions on how to cook meth or make a thermite bomb/lance, lol.

But... I don't get how you find the concept of people being motivated by ... whatever in particular it is, to do dangerous things... is stupid an unrealistic. This happens tens of millions of times, every day.

The entire point of Walt breaking bad is that... yeah, he had a taste of all that violent and dangerous shit... and he liked it.

At one point, I think the last time he sees his wife, Skyler, Skyler basically asks him why he did all this insane shit... and Walt more or less says, I'm not gonna lie to you, I'm not gonna bs you... "I was good at it."

His normal life was unfullfilling to him, constantly being disrespected and belittled, not feeling fulfilled by what he had... and he found and chose a path that granted him the validation and respect he felt he never had.

Yep, that destroyed him and his family and many other people in the end.

The whole show is thus a cautionary tale, that even an otherwise meek, intelligent, and generally respectable man can repress much of his true nature, and that if this isn't consciously addressed and reconciled responsibly, in a healthy way... it can manifest as a transformation into an entirely different person, with different fundamental values and goals.

Walt is basically a midlife crisis gone nuclear, a giant episode of toxic masculinity bursting forth, a man's repressed shadow self (if you're into Jung) subsuming and transforming him into a monster.