Shall we anticipate the FIFTH SEASON of the AMC series "Breaking Bad"? I think I may.

That gif needs a James Brown knee-drop.

opening scene was such a great "remember the good old days" bit

I'm not saying it's a better show than either, but Breaking Bad really is doing something more interesting and engaging with its final season, and the whole idea of how to close off a TV series, than either the Sopranos or The Wire did. Or am I just feeling BB right now cause we're in the thick of it?

haven't seen sopranos, but this is hella better than s5 of The Wire (which lands easily in the "shows that died worrying about new characters we didn't worry about" box)

bb def has a more cohesive season spanning narrative than either the wire or the sopranos

you can see the progressive relaization of whats possible in the tv on dvd form from sopranos to wire to breaking bad

bb def has a more cohesive season spanning narrative than either the wire or the sopranos

this is probably true, and BB benefits from having those two as a precursor in terms of paving the way for dramatic series' with multi-season spanning arcs. Sopranos and the Wire both lived season-to-season, they were not planned out ahead of time as having discrete arcs. at the same time, Sopranos and the Wire are both way, way wider in scope than BB.

I don't think any show ending will ever top Sopranos tho tbh, just in terms of audaciousness and effectiveness and just being totally right for the series and the main character

BB is DEFINITELY doing a better job closing out than those shows, so far. but we've got two episodes to go, so let's hold off final judgment

it just seems unfair to hold it against either the Wire or the Sopranos, network politics totally different

yeah - just talking about the endings, really - all 3 did different things better than each other, and cohesive narrative + plotting virtuosity is BB's strength

but sopranos "you decide" ending - which I never much minded before - seems like more of a cop-out now with Gilligan promising a definitive closed ending to BB... then again it made sense for the Sopranos in a way it totally wouldn't for BB

the Wire was cancelled, Sopranos had to split their last season into two etc

but there's never been any question with BB that AMC was gonna bankroll it all the way

remember when the bozos writing Lost said that they had a multi-season arc with a planned ending to wrap it all up?

yeah BSG too

the wire wasnt cancelled

is there any show that avoided both introducing newer, weaker characters AND completely bungingly a series long payoff?

lol, completely bungling, i mean.

though BB could still end with everybody having breakfast in heaven

i thought the final ep of the sopranos was great but the last couple seasons not so much

the wire wasnt cancelled

I thought there was some forced hiatus between the 4th and 5th seasons...? (I never bothered watching the 5th season fwiw)

xposts

has any other show actually done that? really been built to wrap up in the way BB seems to be heading toward?

I see shakey's point that it's not entirely fair to compare BB to shows that never tried to do what BB is doing now... also fair point that BB probably benefits from coming after those shows.

Poor Mad Men writer's room is probably watching BB this season and shitting bricks. Has Weiner ever promised that he had a grand plan?

Season Five "Wire" is a creator reading the Sunday think pieces about What It All Means.

maybe don draper should... break bad B-)

I see shakey's point that it's not entirely fair to compare BB to shows that never tried to do what BB is doing now... also fair point that BB probably benefits from coming after those shows.

wouldn't be surprised if the ghost of the x-files doesn't keep Vince on the straight and narrow when it comes to keeping focus AND a tight resolution

yeah - I think he even did one of the last episodes of X Files too - a bottle episode that went nowhere

BB's last season got split/truncated as well, let's not forget, there was behind the scenes turmoil for the last season

the other shows deserve credit for building a new Golden Age of TV Era where this show is even possible, no doubt

the last few episodes of Sopranos were perfect. maybe not as exhilarating as BB so far but it was never that kind of show

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Days

Has Weiner ever promised that he had a grand plan?

iirc Wiener's said from early on that he wanted the show to end with 1970, and that he had a definite ending in mind. could all be bullshit of course. MM's not really about tightly plotted forward motion though, it's a sprawling character study.

I hope that future showrunners have learned from Lindelof/Cuse vs. Gilligan in reducing the hype

The Wire was great, but Breaking Bad will be a classic. BB is like the greatest '70s crime movie ever and the Wire is like some decent movie that won an oscar in the '70s and everybody forgot about it 10 years later. Like the Conversation vs. the Godfather or something.

BREAKING BAD vs MAD MEN

Is this a question that would even get asked today? Mad Men lost a lot of buzz when people got tired of dressing up like old misogynists.

The Sopranos didn't have to split their last season in two. Chase was offered more episodes and he decided that it was a good idea to waste the back half of an otherwise taut final season on episodes about relatively peripheral characters.

The Wire ended badly but watching the first episodes, it was even less like traditional tv than BB.

the Wire is like some decent movie that won an oscar in the '70s and everybody forgot about it 10 years later

really? because the Wire premiered 11 years ago and people have been talking about it pretty much the entire time

I think Mad Men has been consistently great but I'm sure I'm in the minority. next to BB it has a broader range of more interesting characters, esp the women

Season 5 of The Wire is massively underrated in this thread. It started poorly but redeemed itself in spades by the end of the season, I thought.

I'm actually curious how dramatically satisfying the last two episodes of BB will be considering the fact that the stakes are actually kind of low? The only thing left is to let Walt Jr. and Holly and Marie (and maybe Skyler and Jesse) have some measure of peace in the end, but I feel like the meat of the ending was in this episode.

it was even less like traditional tv than BB

"in every cop show ever" thread to thread

BB's a tighter ship but it achieves that through a relative lack of ambition compared to some of these shows

but I feel like the meat of the ending was in this episode

agree w this. not sure what surprises they could really pull out in the last two that would be both a) genuinely surprising and b) true to the characters/plot

BB's a tighter ship but it achieves that through a relative lack of ambition compared to some of these shows

^^^otm

The Wire was great, but Breaking Bad will be a classic. BB is like the greatest '70s crime movie ever and the Wire is like some decent movie that won an oscar in the '70s and everybody forgot about it 10 years later. Like the Conversation vs. the Godfather or something.

Pretty sure they're both going to retain classic status. Season 4 of the Wire is all-time great t.v. drama, and can go toe-to-toe with anything before or since.

Also, dude, The Conversation was awesome!

The Conversation is a better film than The Godfather.

and those seventies Oscar winners get a lot of cable time!

Sopranos, the Wire and Mad Men all went pretty big with their subtextual themes

BB isn't about anything beyond Walt's Mr. Chips-to-Scarface bit

xp

i'd almost love to see Walter White's story slipped into The Wire as a subplot. Where we see this meek schoolteacher in season 1 and then in season 2 we see him again in full Heisenberg mode and season 3 he goes missing and eventually gets body-bagged with a cigarette and an assault rifle

Remember in The Wire when the kids were watching Dexter? lol

BB gets me because the construction is just dead on - it's the best version it could be of what it wants to be.

Which makes it the Conversation, which is better than The Godfather.

S3 of the Wire is the greatest season ever (of any TV show).

I'm actually curious how dramatically satisfying the last two episodes of BB will be considering the fact that the stakes are actually kind of low? The only thing left is to let Walt Jr. and Holly and Marie (and maybe Skyler and Jesse) have some measure of peace in the end, but I feel like the meat of the ending was in this episode.

The stakes are still pretty high. We know approximately where Walt's going to be on step 8/10 from the flash forward. He's a few steps ahead of that, but how/why he gets to that what will end up to be purely interstitial step with a (phlegm?sweat?) stained shirt, Warby Parker frames and a big fucking gun in his trunk from where he is now? There is SO much that needs to be resolved, and needs to be with only a few more steps. They have put too much time and effort in creating this show to think they're going to victory lap the last two.

Kind of addressed here, but from a different point of view.

Richi Aprile, Marlo, and Snoop & Chris way real-life scarier than BB's Nazis & cartels. the external bad guys, other than Gus, were always a bit cartoony.