3 Reasons Why 'Low Winter Sun' Will Never Replace 'Breaking Bad'

With only 8 episodes of their groundbreaking, genre-bending mega-hit Breaking Bad left in the series, AMC must have realized that they would soon need to fill a very big, genre-bending hole in their TV lineup. Enter Low Winter Sun: a dark, brooding crime drama centered around two Detroit cops who, in the opening of the pilot, kill another cop. Sub-plots and moody lighting abound, and the guy who played Gale on Breaking Bad even pops up every now and then. I'll be the first to admit that the show piqued my interest: AMC has a fairly good track record with its TV shows, and anything that might break me out of my post Breaking Bad depression seemed like a good deal to me. However, I'll also be the first to admit that Low Winter Sun totally lost my interest after the first episode. Here's three reasons why the show (despite its best efforts) will never be able to replace its predecessor.

1. It's too dark. Yes, I'm aware that Breaking Bad is a show about making crystal meth, where little kids are shot or poisoned (spoilers?) and where the main character is slowly imploding on himself. But something about Low Winter Sun is just...too dark. Breaking Bad has it's laughs, whether coming from Saul Goodman's antics or Jesse filling up his hazard suit with air and dancing around an empty meth lab. It's dark, but there's always some sort of silver lining. So far, I haven't seen anything like that in LWS. By taking itself too seriously, it almost guarantees that audiences won't take it seriously enough. Granted, Detroit is a pretty bleak backdrop, but a little light humor could really take things a long way.

2. It seems like just another cop drama. I may well be judging a book by it's cover, but I've seen the first few chapters of this one and it seems like the cover is pretty reflective of the book as a whole. I almost want to say that if the writers toned down the four letter expletives and made it a bit more network friendly, the show would be more at home on CBS or Fox. After something as creative and imaginative as a high school chemistry teacher getting cancer and turning to meth-making to procure money for his family, a cop drama just seems a little bland. All of the actors say that the show really picks up after its sixth episode (and maybe it does) but until then, it seems like it's doing nothing to grab the attention of veiwers. 

3. It's coming at a bad time. I totally understand the thought process for this one: "let's sandwich our new show between Breaking Bad and the Breaking Bad talk show to see how many viewers will stick around." Lots of networks do this to promote new shows, and sometimes it works. But for me personally, when an episode of Breaking Bad ends, I'm not mentally prepared to leave that universe, let alone jump headfirst into a totally new one. I would probably be more satisfied with watching a blank screen for an hour and going over what just happened on BB than with wrapping my head around the (somewhat dense) plot of this new show. If AMC had aired Low Winter Sun at a different time (maybe during the winter break they typically have in the middle of the new season of the Walking Dead) the show would be getting a better reception. 

I want to like you, Low Winter Sun. I really do. The timing just isn't in our favor. Maybe, in another time, a different place (a Netflix binge, perhaps) I'll learn to love you. Until then, I'm just going to buckle down and wait for Sunday nights at 9pm to get my final 4 doses of Walter White, Jesse Pinkman, and the rest of Albuquerque's finest.