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

Tuomas, it's devastating that Walt left his wife a chain smoker who will likely develop cancer herself.

admittedly if you go into shows about crime and drugs with the need that they make thunderously clear that drugs are bad and crime is bad, then yeah, this show wasn't as good as the wire.

And it would've made viewer remember there used to be other interesting characters in the series too

not really. Walt was always the most interesting. Marie was terribly drawn, Skyler pretty one-note for much of the series

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xxpost I mean sure, there's probably a few meatheaded cockfarmers who left their Breaking Bad parties going "YES! GO WALT! BOOMSHACKALACKA!" but who gives a fuck

i was p stoked that walt killed all the nazis

yeah it was awesome

oh def, but I was also happy that it killed him indirectly as well

while we didn't get one last "BITCH!" I'm glad we got one last "WAIT! WAIT! BEFORE YOU KILL ME...*Walt pulls lethal rabbit out of hat*"

feel like Skyler got some depth towards the end as she was sort of whiplashed between being confidante/co-conspirator/victim. don't think she got the shaft in this episode at all, her scene was really great.

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i mean i'm glad this shit got dark towards the end but it was only truly dark for like 7 episodes, there were 4.5 seasons of pulpy mayhem and the finale did what it should have and respected that.

xxpost I was also glad that it was one of the first "WAIT, BEFORE YOU KILL ME" exchanges that wasn't followed by the gun-wielder stopping, and going "go on...."

yeah, I couldn't have dealt with two more Ozymandias, although really the episode after arguably did more to depress me at times. particularly the ring bit.

though i don't think any other ending sounds nearly as good, I will admit that if you find walt super-repugnant, and enjoyed stories about lying to real estate agents, jesse's love-life and dreamy business owners with money problems, the relatively tight focus of the ending would be a bummer. But the show was always about Walt's choice and i think this was the best way to resolve that.

i mean, my wife gave up on the show early into season 2 cuz she just didn't need to see what the Worst Dad Ever would do next, and that's totally fair. But that's a different complaint than that the episode was too easy on Walt, and too tidy a resolution.

LOST was the first show of the DVR era, hiding little clues etc

Arrested Development

Tuomas, what you wish you'd seen would have made for such shitty television and shitty storytelling.

just saw it. brilliant. liked the "we all had some fucking fun tho didn't we guys?" feel of the final minute. sort of wonder years-esque.

What would you do
If I sold all this blue

scary to think that jesse is as close as there is to someone who's life wasn't made considerably worse by Walt.

(well, badger and skinny pete probably had more cash in the long run)

better to have loved twice and lost twice then to have never loved twice at all

xpost yeah even the damn janitor's life he ruined

thought cranston was amazing in this last ep, like he found some new depth to the character.

I feel like they could have had exactly the same ending but actually executed it better. For example, Walt giving Lydia the Stevia was fine but the way the scene played out was pretty weird and over the top. Especially considering how subtle they were with, like, Huell stealing the cigarette.

putting this on again right now. One thing that pissed me off is that the video feed from Bright House corrupted, leaving me momentarily scared that I'd miss the final ep.

Tuomas, what you wish you'd seen would have made for such shitty television and shitty storytelling.

How is acknowledging that the show had other characters too, and giving them some sort of ending of their own (not necessary closure, but at least some ending) bad storytelling?

You can't fit everything into one episode and the show spent a lot of time on the other characters in the prev two

its trite as hell for one

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cos we didn't need the entire cast of Breaking Bad on screen at the same time singing Goodnight, Saigon

Elliott and Gretchen convo so delightfully otm banal

I don't think constantly strawmanning my points makes for a good argument, but whatever.

I wish one of the flash forward scenes would have been Walt handing laser pens to Badger & Skinny Pete, that would have been a headfuck for theorists.

What I'm wondering is why he wanted them back?!

That was pretty satisfying all round - no major leftfield turns, but I don't think the story really needed any at this point. I reckon 5X14 was the real climax of the story, and the last two episodes were a kind of extended epilogue.

Everything in the Nazi compound was incredibly well done, and had a weirdly elegiac tone for all the ultraviolence. Loved Walt looking on calmly and almost paternally as Jesse strangled Todd.

And what happened to the pointers afterwards? were they left in the car? Did they find good homes with a family with a good backstory?!

You can't fit everything into one episode and the show spent a lot of time on the other characters in the prev two

Did it really? Like I said before, we don't really get too anything of what happens to Skyler or Marie and Jr. after Walt runs off. In fact, Marie and Skyler barely appear in Granite State... After Saul's scene in the beginning, it's pretty much just Walt and the new identity guy, with one scene of Jr. at the end.

Elliott totally has ears for days

we don't really get too anything of what happens to Skyler or Marie and Jr. after Walt runs off.

We know enough. They're all having a horrible time.

lol at how unsteadily they hold the laser pointers

I think you get a pretty solid idea of what the rest of Skylar's life is going to be like.

yeah exactly - this bizarre need for some kind of fair share storytelling hasn't got anything to do with entertainment.

Like I said before, we don't really get too anything of what happens to Skyler or Marie and Jr. after Walt runs off.

The show is centered around two years in the life of Walt, and what happens to Skyler, Marie, and Jr. after Walt runs off still hasn't really happened yet. They're still paying for Walt's choices, bogged down in the police investigation and the court system, and will still be paying for it for some time. Resolving their characters doesn't fit into the timeline unless you want Animal House-style "Walt Jr. is a US Senator and still loves breakfast" chyrons.

"I wanted to know more about what happened to supporting characters" is a pretty good complaint to inspire, as opposed to "then what was the deal with..." complaints most drama finales raise.

enjoyed this - how could anyone not - but agree with nussbaum ultimately

false binary between high ideas and low pulp upthread does a terrible disservice to both

could have used one of those protracted EPILOGUE scenes with stock white text telling what happened to everybody in the future

"oooh I could have two more seasons of a Jesse spin-off!" vs "wait, did they ever explain the bees"

didn't feel the need for anything to be spelled out at all - there was plenty there about how completely fucked they all were in this episode and the five seasons that led up to it

God the look on Walt's face after his flashback in the old house is so morose.

ahhhh, Lydia's legs

If anything I thought it was almost too "let's get one last scene with everyone" to involve the Schwartzes and Skinny Pete/Badger, although I have no problem w/ how they were involved in the story.