Breaking Bad Final Half Season

[Ryan8bit]

I will definitely be making that ASAP.

Me too... Of course, we like tourists to come to ABQ and buy it here..

The Candy Lady

She also has a section in the story where she sells "naughty candy" suitable for, well, more adult candy fans..

We made that at our BB party that we had, as well as cupcakes with blue stuff on them. Also, we had fried chicken with a Los Pollos Hermanos label made on it (it was actually KFC), and Green beans. It was pretty fun to do all that themed stuff.

I have pretty much all the same thoughts on the finale as everyone else and not much new to say. Except for that it's fun to see the people who were so adamant about certain predictions be wrong. Such as those who insisted that the ricin was for Walt (that just never really made any sense at all), or that Gretchen and Elliot wouldn't be any kind of target for Walt. Even though some things in this episode were a lot more predictable than usual, it just goes to show that it was still very nice to have a show that wasn't as predictable as all that.

As far as the Damon Lindelof thing, that is a shitty thing to do, whatever your opinions of him. I actually said to my wife while watching Talking Bad that he was once on Talking Dead, and that it would have been interesting if he were on this last finale because I didn't think Lost was wrapped up well. But that's a far cry from going on to his twitter to harass him for it. He doesn't deserve that.

It's true that Lost was a different kind of show that deserves a different kind of ending than Breaking Bad, just like Vince Gilligan said about the Sopranos. But I don't think the last season of Lost was wrapped up suitably for what it was or what the show set out to be. Breaking Bad absolutely did that in spades, and that's great. I think the first thing that I remember feeling gratified by in watching it was that things were paid off soon and that you weren't left hanging just to keep you tuning in. You kept tuning in because the characters and stories were actually engaging and sensible.

 

[ALF]

I give up on civility on the net years ago.
Any-hoos, there's some interesting discussion a bit before the finale aired, in this thread, about how television will be difficult to enjoy now. Compared to what BB became, what's to come will pale by comparison.

I think the opposite will happen. For years this show will be studied for its creation and cultural impact. There was a great reference to the story in BB sticking perfectly together like Lego bricks and I love that analogy... there was never any wasted time in BB, no characters fluffed up for no reason, it was a lean and chemically addictive bit of storytelling that should, if anything, help people get it right in the future with time-wasting character development for characters that have no business being in the story.

It is also kind of an irony... meth is highly addictive, Breaking Bad is also highly addictive. Coincidence, or brilliant planning?

 

[Mojochi]

Thought it was a great ending, and yet.....

Part of me was kinda hoping for something a bit more messy and chaotic for the final episode. As cool as it was seeing Walter orchestrate his plan and out-think everybody one last time, it almost seemed like he was TOO much in control (the only time he had to scramble at all was when his keys got taken away).

I think I would have preferred to see him be more of the desperate and frazzled Walt at the end, and a bit less of the calm and confident Heisenberg.

Isn't that the point though? "Chemistry is the study of transformation!"
Witnessing the change from him being a man at the beginning in his underwear, spinning out of control in his life of chaos, to the end, being a man who for his finale has mastered a life of chaos & can include anyone in it he wants, even Elliot & Gretchen

 

[Jaron]

I was a fan of LOST and thought the finale, and the finale season was complete shit.

So what's the problem with people pointing out their POVs? I don't get it, most were actually more funny than mean.

If I bake you a cake and it tastes awful, it's perfectly fine for you say "Man, this cake tastes awful." You could be a bit more tactful, but it's a legitimate criticism. Calling me up years later out of the blue and saying "I just had the best cake ever. It's so much better than that shitty cake you made."? That's always going to make you look like a jerk, no matter how terrible my cake was.

 

[doubleohfive]

Dear Internet,

You are full of idiots and assholes.

Love, 005

I don't see a problem with that. Most of them weren't that bad just pointing out how you can end a show well and not like LOST.

I was a fan of LOST and thought the finale, and the finale season was complete shit.

So what's the problem with people pointing out their POVs? I don't get it, most were actually more funny than mean.

Yes, how careless of me not to think about the egregious and hurtful blight the LOST finale visited upon your life, so heinous and terrible that you are reeling from it three years later.

These must be truly terrifying times for you. How do you manage?

 

[doubleohfive]

Dear Internet,

You are full of idiots and assholes.

Love, 005

Oy vey, it's really time that the internet had an enema, as I am so sick of its overwhelming hateful, rude population.

Me as well.

 

[Admiral2]

Anybody else feel sorry for Bryan Cranston now?

Cause he's NEVER getting a role this good again. Just never.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I thought the Lost ending was ok, like a C. People over-hate it because they wanted somebody to step aside and expound on exactly what the island was and answer every single question the series ever had explicitly instead of answering it through implication and metaphor like they did. I liked the ending on the island, I just hated the resolution to the flash-sideways. It was by no means a bad ending, just...not entirely satisfying.

One thing that's interesting about the ending is that Walt got to protect the legend of Heisenberg. Heisenberg went out in a blaze of glory, and now he's a criminal legend. In the BB universe, movies will be made about Heisenberg for decades that win Oscars.

 

[doubleohfive]

The Lost finale was perfect for the series that Lost was and always had been. That the finale was not perfect for everyone who watched it is not the fault of the writers of the show.

I myself was perfectly satisfied by it, the same way I was for the finale of Battlestar and with last night's finale for Breaking Bad.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I agree the island side of the ending was good but the flash-sideways resolution was stupid.

But it is really stupid how vitriolic people get about TV shows. "Oh NOES, the hours of entertainment I got for free didn't end exactly the way I wanted to. The person who provided all that free entertainment is EVIL for basing his creative decisions on his own vision instead of granting all my personal wishes! I HAVE BEEN PERSONALLY SLIGHTED!"

The producer of Lost should go to the workplaces of all the people who are making those comments on Twitter and say "UGH, what an awful burger, you're a TERRIBLE fry cook!" Or, go to their parents' basements and say "My god you suck at Halo." Like the end of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

 

[sidious618]

Bashing the writer of a show that ended three years ago because you liked the ending to another show is the very definition of pathetic.

 

[davejames]

Isn't that the point though? "Chemistry is the study of transformation!"
Witnessing the change from him being a man at the beginning in his underwear, spinning out of control in his life of chaos, to the end, being a man who for his finale has mastered a life of chaos & can include anyone in it he wants, even Elliot & Gretchen

Maybe, but we've also seen at several points in this last season-- mostly notably in Ozymandias-- that he wasn't nearly as powerful and in control as he liked to think he was, and that the tough, badass Heisenberg act was always a bit of a charade.

I just would have liked to have seen that acknowledged a bit more in the final episode as well. To have all of his plans go off without a hitch, and to have everyone suffer the fate he intended, just seemed a bit too easy and ideal to me.

 

[Ryan8bit]

The Lost finale was perfect for the series that Lost was and always had been. That the finale was not perfect for everyone who watched it is not the fault of the writers of the show.

I don't get it, whose fault is it? The people watching it?

I disagree, I think the Lost finale was only good for wrapping up the last season of Lost, which wasn't really that good. If you watched the first and last episode back to back, it would be a lot more confusing than watching Breaking Bad's back to back.

And it was the kind of cop out ending like that of Voyager. One where they say that it wasn't about reaching Earth, it was about the journey. In the case of Voyager, it seems to me like it was about both, but the writers couldn't come up with something satisfactory enough to explain that, so they just rely on the other. The same goes with Lost. They built up so much hype and mystery that there's no way they could live up to that, so it was better for them to just focus on what they did. I don't blame them for doing that, and I certainly wouldn't call Lindelof out on it, but I don't think that is by any means any kind of satisfactory ending to what they set up, and certainly is not on any kind of par to Breaking Bad.

 

[gblews]

This is the way to end a show. After multiple seasons where your audience does what you want them to do, invest in your characters and their stories, at the end you don't start experimenting and trying stuff you always wanted to try. No, you present your fans with what the they usually want in the end, some sense of credible, meaningful ending. That is what I felt we were given.

Every little loose end was tied up or at least dealt with (except Huell), from Skylar and Marie's fractured relationship, to Walt telling Skylar that he wasn't the one who actually shot Hank (and Gomez). But whan he admitted to Skylar that it was his love of power that created Hisenberg, I was shocked. I just knew he was going to once again envoke his family as his excuse.

As someone posted, the amount of sadness in the episode was unexpected. When Walt held Holly, with the knowledge that this would be the last time he saw her, I was touched. I loved Walt and Jesse's silent little nod, a final goodbye.

I don't see how Walt's finally being able to take care of his family goes against "karma". His family should continue to suffer because of karma? Lest the episode be seen as too redemptive for him, we do get one last Hisenbergian moment from Walt as he kills Lidia for no reason other than her infringing on his perceived meth "copywrite".

Yes, I don't see how Jesse won't be in federal custody before long.

This show has come so far. In it's first couple of seasons it seemed like no one was watching, now it seems to be everywhere. Goodbye to one of television's great dramas.

 

[Caligula]

Even some people don't like "Citizen Kane", but is it worth bad-mouthing Orson Welles over it?

Definitely not. I don't much care for that movie, but I don't blame Welles for it. In any case, it's not worth blaming a TV show's/movie's creator when they're not always catering to your own personal tastes, and certainly not by calling them a f**khead.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't think Citizen Kane is necessarily a fair comparison. Citizen Kane isn't everyone's bag because they prefer action-oriented cinema to slow paced cinematography oriented cinema. Lost's ending is disliked by its own fans, the people who like that sort of thing.

And I really think the hate for the ending is just because people wanted some villain to come out stroking his cat saying "BWA HA HA this was my plan all along and for these reasons, and this is exactly what the island is!"

 

[Galileo7]

Anybody else feel sorry for Bryan Cranston now?

Cause he's NEVER getting a role this good again. Just never.

True.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

For me, this was as perfect as a series finale Breaking Bad could hope for and receive. I don't think another highly intense, emotional episode. We got that with "Ozymandias" and the subsequent fallout in "Granite State." Instead, we got nicely tied-up closure (maybe too much, but Huell and Brock are kind of still hanging) that stayed true to the core of Walt's and Jesse's characters and the journey they've traveled for five very long seasons.

Unlike many in this thread it seems, I would rank this amongst the greatest series finales such as "Goodnight, Farewell and Amen," "-30-," "Sleeping in Light," and "Blake."

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I also think, though revenge was Walt's primary motive for killing Lydia, it was not his sole motive. Lydia might have murdered Skyler.

 

[doubleohfive]

The Lost finale was perfect for the series that Lost was and always had been. That the finale was not perfect for everyone who watched it is not the fault of the writers of the show.

I don't get it, whose fault is it? The people watching it?

In one sense, yes.

Everything in that finale (for LOST) is there and can be used to tell you everything you need to know about just about every mystery on the show that wasn't already explained.

Hell, by the time you get to the first episode of season six, you have everything you need to know to figure out what's going on. It's just a matter of context and knowing what to look for. That so many people "didn't get it" or just outright refuse to actually think about what they saw and form explanations on their own is their own choice. Lost was never a show that spoonfed us answers or made them easy to come by. Why would the finale be any different?