Breaking Bad Final Half Season

[stj]

I don't think the ending was true to the characters. For one thing, Jack's sudden desire to display Jesse in chains was absurd. For another, a mjor one, Walt's whole career was because he couldn't face dying, so he had to control as much as possible. The whole last episode climaxed with Walt serenely giving up control to Jesse. We could accept this because we could believe Jesse's actions, but that shouldn't make up overlook how far-fetched Walt's action was.


Nor did it flow somehow from the characters. The idea that the outcome of a story is the inevitable expression of character is more of an ideological precept that only individuals are responsible. The actual final ending of Breaking Bad was actually quite illogical and can only be reasonably viewed as an imposition by the writers, who wanted Walt to win. It takes a script to shoot all the Nazis but Todd. I think Vince Gilligan deceived himself into thinking Walt didn't win big.

PS These are not just dead issues about a series that has been finished. The antihero craze is still with us. The Blacklist, for instance, is very much influenced by the popularity of Walter White and Gus Fring.

 

[gblews]

I don't think the ending was true to the characters. For one thing, Jack's sudden desire to display Jesse in chains was absurd.

Initially I thought this was a bit weird too, but in subsequent viewings it seemed to fit with Jack's general contempt for Jesse. In particular, recall the scene where Jack and his boys view Jesse's confession and become so incensed by Jesse's perceived "cowardice" (and mentioning Todd's name), that Jack decides to kill Jesse because of it. By Felina, it is easy for me to see that calling Jesse "Jack's partner", would have been a major insult -- one that, I think, justified Jack's extreme response.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

Face it. We all want to run a meth lab in our basement. We can make beer there why not Meth.*



* I do not condone the practise of making meth.

 

[TheGodBen]

I stumbled across this lengthy interview between Charlie Brooker and Vince Gilligan the other day. It's from August so there's no finale talk, but I thought the Charlie Brooker/Breaking Bad fans out there might like to see it.

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[ThunderAeroI]

Let us play a game. Walt isn't dead. They bring him back to life in the ambulance. What happens next....

 

[Jonas Grumby]

^ He goes to prison...where Mike's niece uses her late uncle's old connections to have him shanked.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

^ He goes to prison...where Mike's niece uses her late uncle's old connections to have him shanked.

SO the name of the show will be Breaking Out?

 

[Sephiroth]

Walt dies 3 weeks later from stage 4 cancer

 

[Jonas Grumby]

The ambulance crashes at a railroad crossing. After saving the two unconscious ambulance attendants from an oncoming train, Walt escapes. Then, using his chemistry expertise and a set of college medical textbooks, he develops a cure for cancer.

Changing his name to "Whitey Walters," he makes his new cancer cure public and becomes a beloved international hero. He then develops a cure for cerebral palsy.

Unfortunately, while on his way to give the good news to Flynn (who, impressed by his father's earlier cancer cure, now calls himself "Whitey, Jr.") and Skyler, he is tragically and ironically killed by Skinny Pete in a random, meth-induced street robbery.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

I think you mean one of the worlds finest assassins

 

[Jonas Grumby]

^ Oh, jeez, you're right! Now that I've dissed him, he'll probably be after me next!!

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

I couldn't really get into this show, I liked Weeds, Rome, Deadwood, the Wire but Breaking Bad seemed to just drag on, some ridiculous moments, and I didn't find the writing very original. I know the series prides itself on being gritty and black and realistic but I never found characters in it believable and thought the writing went a bit downhill and I was never a big fan of the actors, I wonder if it will stand the test of time like other classics now that all the fanboy breaking bad crap is dying away

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I couldn't really get into this show, I liked Weeds, Rome, Deadwood, the Wire but Breaking Bad seemed to just drag on, some ridiculous moments, and I didn't find the writing very original. I know the series prides itself on being gritty and black and realistic but I never found characters in it believable and thought the writing went a bit downhill and I was never a big fan of the actors, I wonder if it will stand the test of time like other classics now that all the fanboy breaking bad crap is dying away

Breaking Bad's legacy is safe, don't worry.

Gotta love the ever so typical "this didn't appeal to me so it must be crap" attitude.

 

[DalekJim]

I don't think this will be a case like Lost, Heroes or Battlestar Galactica, where after the excitement dies down, people realise the shows were messes. Breaking Bad will be ranked alongside The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood and Six Feet Under as one of the best modern TV shows.

I also don't think the show ever tried to be realistic. It was frequently absurd, over the top, and comic book. It's part of the charm.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

I couldn't get into Weeds. Everything from the title song to the actors on the show. Just not interesting to me at all. I loved Breaking Bad.

 

[gblews]

and I was never a big fan of the actors,

I have heard some criticism of the show, but never this. I know it's your opinion, one I vehemently disagree with, but you are SO in the minority on this particular issue. The show got recognition for it's actors from season 1.

Cranston picked up his first Best Actor in a Drama Emmy after a strike shortened 8 episode season. He then won two more. Aaron Paul won two Best Supporting, and Anna Gunn finally got a much deserved Best Supporting. This doesn't even count the SAG and Golden Globe acting awards.

The Emmy voters weren't too sure about the writing in prior seasons either apparentely, but they knew the acting was beyond superb from the start.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I don't think the ending was true to the characters. For one thing, Jack's sudden desire to display Jesse in chains was absurd.

Seemed perfectly in keeping with the character to me. Despite being a murdering neo-Nazi meth dealer, Jack has been shown to have an "honor among thieves" type mentality, with his dislike of the greed his partners displayed, his decision to leave $11 million of Walt's money behind for Walt to keep, and his need to make sure that he and Walt were "square" after the killing of Hank. Given that, I could easily see him taking the suggestion that he was partnering with a "rat" like Jesse as a personal affront from Walter and wanting to prove it wasn't true, and bringing Jesse in in shackles was a key part of that proof. Of course, Walt had read Jack like a book and knew that appealing to his vanity and sense of "honor" would provoke that response when his initial plan to get them on his side by offering methylamine failed and they were just going to kill him.

 

[bigdaddy]

I couldn't really get into this show, I liked Weeds, Rome, Deadwood, the Wire but Breaking Bad seemed to just drag on, some ridiculous moments

Whoa..... let me stop you right there!

Your a fan of Weeds, the show that made the phrase "jump the shark" jump the shark with it's stupid, over the top, drag it until there is nothing left plots most insanely stupid, not even ridiculous, just stupid story lines possible?

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't think this will be a case like Lost, Heroes or Battlestar Galactica, where after the excitement dies down, people realise the shows were messes. Breaking Bad will be ranked alongside The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood and Six Feet Under as one of the best modern TV shows.

I also don't think the show ever tried to be realistic. It was frequently absurd, over the top, and comic book. It's part of the charm.

I would definitely not include Deadwood and Six Feet Under on a 'Best shows ever' list. Six Feet Under had a great first season and great last episode, and otherwise was a cyclical predictable mess of directionless sex and death. And I think most of the anger at Lost and BSG were from the entitled 'Any ending that isn't the one I wanted retroactively ruins the entire show' Comic-Book-Guy-criticize-alike crowd.

But yeah, even the entitled whiners were happy with Breaking Bad, I think its legacy is safe.

 

[CaptainCanada]

From a Vince Gilligan event, images of the penultimate and final script pages of the Breaking Bad finale.

The script confirms that Walt dies at the end (not that that wasn't fairly obvious), and I really like the final description of Jesse:

CLOSE ANGLE -- JESSE. Grimly determined, fearing nothing, he speeds through the darkness. From here on, it's up to us to say where he's headed. I like to call it "something better," and leave it at that.