Quote :

"NEW YORK (AP) — AMC says Sunday's "Breaking Bad" finale seized a record-breaking number of viewers for the series. The concluding episode was seen by 10.3 million viewers. That was three times the audience for the midseason finale airing a year ago. The network says an expanded one-hour version of its "Talking Bad" discussion after-show delivered 4.4 million viewers. The drama's popularity has soared during its five-season run, while it reaped acclaim and awards. At last week's Emmy Awards it collected a best-drama-series trophy and a supporting-actress statuette for Anna Gunn, who played the wife of teacher-turned-drug-lord Walter White opposite series star Bryan Cranston. The series' previous record was set last Sunday, when 6.6 million viewers tuned at the same time as the Emmys."

9/30/2013 3:02:47 PM

Anyone else feel that the conclusion really didn’t match the show? For any other program, this would have been a fitting finale, with the protagonist going out in a literal blaze of glory. But with this show…I wanted more despair. I wanted Uncle Jack to win. I wanted Walt and Jesse to end up dead in a ditch, lost and forgotten. The ending seemed just a little too neat and tidy.

9/30/2013 3:25:28 PM

^maybe if the villain was more badass (say that was Gus instead of Uncle Jack), yes I would consider it.





[Edited on September 30, 2013 at 3:31 PM. Reason : ]

9/30/2013 3:28:36 PM

You were supposed to hate Todd and UJ, thus their triumph would have left you feeling empty inside, which is how I felt a show such as this should end, rather than (relatively) warm and fuzzy.

[Edited on September 30, 2013 at 3:32 PM. Reason : x]

9/30/2013 3:32:38 PM

i feel like they had already won; for a solid year and a half. they killed Hank, stole Walt's 80 million, and had the reigns to the Heisenberg empire.

9/30/2013 3:38:04 PM

while I'm still a fan of the finale, I, too, was expecting a much darker ending

also

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/88369/breaking-bad-in-memoriam-a-moving-video-tribute-to-the-fallen

9/30/2013 3:38:48 PM

Quote :

"Anyone else feel that the conclusion really didn’t match the show? For any other program, this would have been a fitting finale, with the protagonist going out in a literal blaze of glory. But with this show…I wanted more despair. I wanted Uncle Jack to win. I wanted Walt and Jesse to end up dead in a ditch, lost and forgotten. The ending seemed just a little too neat and tidy."

This was my immediate reaction.

Walt was as dark as we've seen him two episodes ago. In the finale he wanders around like the Ghost of Christmas Past and everything turns out A-OK. Jessie deserved to win, but Walt shouldn't have gotten any victories, no matter what he went through to get them.

9/30/2013 3:56:10 PM

Is everything really that okay? Skyler and Marie's lives are both ruined. Walt Jr. is going to be scarred for a while that's for sure, and if he does get that money he's going to have to wonder where it really came from I would suspect. Jesse is free now but can he really just go back to having a normal life after all of that?

Walt is of course dead, and the only reason things ended so pleasant and tidy for him was because he finally admitted both to himself and others that none of it was ever really about helping his family (or Jesse) but a psychopathic ego trip that ruined or outright destroyed countless lives including his own family.

I can see why a lot of people don't like how neatly wrapped up everything was at the end, but by no means do I see anything about the ending as particularly "happy" other than the fact that Jesse survived (if being alive is in fact preferable to him than death at this point).

9/30/2013 4:05:34 PM

also, of course walt is going to change from 2 episodes ago. since then the only people he had left denounced him, lost his empire, and he lived in isolation for x amount of months.

9/30/2013 4:09:36 PM

^^^I dunno. The whole series has basically been Mr. White getting into a series jams and then plotting his way out of them. Of course, he always prevails, but he gets more and more twisted each time. So I think it does fit with the series that he would be able to follow through on one last plan...he just had to lose everything to make it happen, his money, his family, and his life.

I guess what I'm saying is...he's been enjoying bizarre, improbable victories for the whole show...why would they stop now?

9/30/2013 4:11:35 PM

If anything, Walt's seeming satisfaction in his dying moments is just the final mark of how absolutely twisted he has become, because he sees the way everything turned out as a success in spite of the obvious trail of utter destruction and horror that he left behind.

9/30/2013 4:13:28 PM

Walt's trunk gun >> The Jackal's van gun

9/30/2013 4:17:14 PM

^^ Good point, hadn't considered that angle yet. But Walt did indeed seem pleased with himself at the very end despite the carnage.

9/30/2013 4:27:02 PM

Quote :

"Is everything really that okay?"

Of course not, but from Walt's perspective:

1. He gave Skyler something to trade to the DEA
2. He gave Marie & Senora Gomez resolution
3. He terrorized the Schwartzes
4. He got some of his money to his family
5. He got revenge on the Nazis
6. He killed Lydia
7. He may have furthered the at-large belief that he was still cooking
8. He saved Jesse
9. He got to die on his own terms, by his own bullet

I liked the finale and thought it was a pretty good way to wrap up the story. I would have like to see it go somewhere else, though, and I'm probably just disappointed that the avalanche of Oh Shit moments ended early.

9/30/2013 4:38:09 PM

I rewound it and watched it probably 3 times and still couldn't see Walt clearly put the ricin in the Stevia, or replace Lydia's bag of Stevia with his ricin-laced bag. Maybe it was when he was coughing and stuff?

9/30/2013 5:03:33 PM

^He knew she'd be at that table at 10AM on Tuesday - as they've always met in the past. So I'm assuming he did it beforehand.

9/30/2013 5:18:05 PM

^that. there wasn't a slight of hand magic trick here. Plus the long shot of the lone Stevia bag should have given you all the clue you needed.

9/30/2013 5:20:00 PM

^Yeah I thought that close up of the single bag was an indication that he had already put it in there.

He didn't slip it to her, it was in the bag she used.

9/30/2013 5:21:36 PM

^^sleight of hand

Just tryna get that out there.

9/30/2013 5:31:24 PM

I was on the edge of my seat when Jesse was getting ready to kill Walt. I really didn't want him to go that way. It was intense! I would've cried

9/30/2013 8:17:01 PM

^^i'll show you sleight of hand!

10/1/2013 7:56:44 AM

Quote :

"1. He gave Skyler something to trade to the DEA 2. He gave Marie & Senora Gomez resolution 3. He terrorized the Schwartzes 4. He got some of his money to his family 5. He got revenge on the Nazis 6. He killed Lydia 7. He may have furthered the at-large belief that he was still cooking 8. He saved Jesse 9. He got to die on his own terms, by his own bullet"

He also destroyed his meth recipe, assuming Jesse never makes it again.

I was hoping that they might go in a darker direction and really drive home the victims of his criminal adventure and have his son or wife end up addicted to meth. For a show being about drugs there was surprisingly little shown of the damage that these drugs cause.

10/1/2013 8:12:04 AM

Quote :

"Did Sepinwall tell you to consider it this way?"

Ahahaha - so I googled "Sepinwall breaking bad" and saw it immediately - weird. Though not that weird.

10/1/2013 9:19:20 AM

^^
did we watch the same show

10/1/2013 9:34:00 AM

Actually, before Baby Blue started up (and even a few seconds after it started), I really thought Walt was about to try his product, knowing he'd be gone within minutes anyway.

10/1/2013 9:39:05 AM

^i'm honestly surprised we didn't see Jesse's final batch of Heisenberg blue. Kind of a final "well at least i taught him something" moment. but the lab itself was a nice enough.

10/1/2013 10:04:40 AM

^we kind of got the gist of that in the car scene with badger and skinny pete

10/1/2013 1:08:30 PM

yeah, but that was angry "nobody outdoes Heisenberg" Heisenberg and not post-redemption Walt. alls i's was sayings.

10/1/2013 1:22:33 PM

I was kind of hoping that it would end up with White getting caught or turning himself in after his plan was done and then confessing to everything thinking he was going to die from the cancer and wouldn't have to spend much time if any in jail. Then as the detectives walk out of the room with Walt looking smug and happy thinking he's planned it all out perfectly. One of them was going to turn to him and say "oh we've got some good news your medical report came back, looks like your in remission the doctors say you should be cancer free in a few weeks". Then we just see a shocked sad expression on his face as it cuts to black.

10/1/2013 10:00:14 PM

and with the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme song too? :/

10/1/2013 10:07:49 PM

so, so glad that some of you had no connection to the writers of this show

because holy fuck

10/2/2013 12:11:13 AM

some theories being floated that Walt died in the car in the snow, and that the rest of the finale was his fantasy, as it all went exactly to plan (and nothing ever did).

not saying I necessarily agree, but interesting nonetheless.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/09/breaking-bad-finale-reviewed.html

10/2/2013 11:49:20 AM

interesting, but walt wouldn't have known jesse was still alive and enslaved

10/2/2013 12:46:37 PM

I feel like season 5 got incrementally better with each episode. Still, one of the most memorable scenes in the whole show for me (and apparently a big turning point for a lot of the 'pro-Walt' people) is the one where he kills Mike at the end of Season 5a. Just the way they shot the whole sequence, the dialogue, Mike's final words. I'm not one to usually "notice" great moments in TV shows, but that one keeps coming back to me.

Mike was such an awesome character, I have to think the writers were giving a nod to him with Walt's "If we're gonna go that way you're gonna need a bigger knife" line in the finale. It was exactly like something Mike would say.

10/2/2013 12:51:31 PM

is breaking bad better than the wire?

10/2/2013 1:16:52 PM

I think it's tough to compare them. The Wire is more socially relevant and important and a bit more subtle. Breaking Bad is more edge of your seat entertainment. It's storytelling at its highest level.

You can't really go wrong with either, though. I think they might be the two best shows I've ever seen (though I'll always claim Twin Peaks as my favorite).

10/2/2013 1:23:22 PM

Quote :

"is breaking bad better than the wire?"

no it's not. dont let anyone trick you into telling you it is.

10/2/2013 3:37:14 PM

Quote :

"is breaking bad better than the wire?"

no it's not. dont let anyone trick you into telling you it is.

10/2/2013 3:54:47 PM

I still think The Shield is better than The Wire.

Breaking Bad went from good to great to OMGBBQ over the course of the series.

The Wire kinda did the opposite. That last season was painful to sit through (maybe because I marathoned it).

10/2/2013 3:54:53 PM

Yeah The Wire really was just mediocre across a lot of it, especially the last season. I can't say the same about Breaking Bad.

Its a silly comparison though. Its allowable to like both. I feel the question was pretty hardcore troll bait.

10/2/2013 6:04:04 PM

The Wire was a lot more realistic, fwiw

10/2/2013 6:07:00 PM

Quote :

"I wanted more despair. I wanted Uncle Jack to win."

the problem with that is the Todd Squad is super fucking lame.

10/2/2013 6:38:18 PM

this is an interesting article that ranks the strength of each individual season (along with the sopranos):

http://smokingsection.uproxx.com/TSS/2013/09/breaking-bad-best-tv-drama-series

1. The Wire - Season 4
2. Breaking Bad - Season 5
3. The Wire - Season 3
4. Breaking Bad - Season 4
5. The Sopranos - Season 4
...

10/2/2013 6:39:34 PM

http://huff.to/1bEpJmV

10/5/2013 8:48:44 AM

but he died in the car so that is wrong

also

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/88949/but-i-want-to-believe-turning-to-vince-gilligans-own-words-to-debunk-the-breaking-bad-finale-dream-theory

10/5/2013 5:22:44 PM

^Walt had no way to know that Jesse was being held hostage. As far as he knew, Jesse was dead. Dream theory debunked.

10/5/2013 9:12:43 PM

He figured out he wasn't dead when Badger and Skinny Pete mentioned the blue meth was back on the streets...but of course that also happened after the car scene, so either way, it wasn't a dream, imo

10/5/2013 11:03:38 PM

you guys are forgetting that Gretchen and Elliot mention that the blue meth supply has continued in "Granite State" while he's in the bar, before getting in the car

I like to think that final episode is how it all went down, but it could be the other way pretty easily

10/5/2013 11:07:55 PM

^

10/5/2013 11:30:02 PM

I think that jessie was actually just a figment of his imagination the whole time. kind of like tyler durden was a figment of brad pitt's imagination on fight club.

10/6/2013 12:25:01 AM