In the grand scheme of television history, 2008 is not that long ago, but in terms of how we watch and talk about TV today, it’s a completely different era. Two years before Netflix would commit to a streaming-first model in the U.S., back when we were still asking “What’s a Hulu?” and complaining about not being able to tweet photos, the weekly broadcast model was still king, binge-viewing still happened via physical media or these things called reruns, and memes from your favorite show could take days, if not weeks, to circulate.
It was also a completely different era for Vulture’s TV recaps section, then still in its nascent stages. Yes, it’s hard to believe based on the thriving section you see before you today, but Vulture’s recaps operation wouldn’t come into its own until later in the 2010s, which means that some seasons of the defining shows of TV’s early-aughts golden age are missing from our back catalogue. Among the most glaring omissions? The premiere season of a show that helped define that age: Breaking Bad.
Well, that changes today! With the recent conclusion of Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul — which we definitely recapped all of! — Saul recapper Scott Tobias is returning to where the Heisenberg saga began and giving season one of the mother-ship series the in-depth episodic analysis it always deserved. So fire up those season-one DVDs pull up the streaming option of your choice and follow along with Walter White’s bumbling first steps toward notoriety and Breaking Bad’s confident opening strides toward becoming one of the best series of its era.
