A way more interesting thread, true feelings on Breaking Bad final episode

[choc_cardigan]

@obarth

I see a couple people have some opinions about this. I feel as excellent a show breaking bad was they took the total safe route with the ending.


That show hooked me in by building this very layered universe where everything Walt did had some type of negative consequence. To be straight to the point the whole villain arc for walt begins because Skyler gets pregnant. I always assumed this show was a modern Shakespearean tragedy and just knew something would happen to the child. That's my 2 cents

 

[Tical]

They chickened out. Way too fanservicey.

 

[obarth]

@obarth

I see a couple people have some opinions about this. I feel as excellent a show breaking bad was they took the total safe route with the ending.


That show hooked me in by building this very layered universe where everything Walt did had some type of negative consequence. To be straight to the point the whole villain arc for walt begins because Skyler gets pregnant. I always assumed this show was a modern Shakespearean tragedy and just knew something would happen to the child. That's my 2 cents

I always felt the theme of Breaking Bad was hubris, morality, and choices. Walt achieved his goal of setting his family up to be comfortable after his death. But his pride and hubris couldn't give up the power that he finally had attained after a life of mediocrity and untapped potential. That part was executed perfectly. But the whole series I was waiting for the breaking bad part. By the time this show came around, the anti-hero/villain main character was beyond established. Audiences had already fallen in love with bad guys like Tony Soprano and Vic Mackey. So Walt doing bad things wasn't necessarily something that would make the audience dislike him.

I personally felt he didn't break bad until the moment he pointed out Jesse hiding under the car. That was a wholly selfish, petty, vindictive act perpetrated upon the character the audience had grown to link to Walt through thick and thin. So to finally get to that point and have him free Jesse at the end just undermined the whole breaking bad thing. Walt dies with a smile on his face. He sets his family up to receive millions and does so at the detriment of the people who screwed him over back in the day. Walt wins. Yeah, other characters suffered as a result of his actions, but at the end of the day, the repercussions of his actions ring hollow when we've been rooting for him as those consequences happened anyway.

When you take into account sillier things like a man dying of cancer and on the wanted list driving from New Hampshire to Albuquerque in the span of a commercial break, sneaking into a compound to extort his former rivals, sneaking into a restaurant and hiding poison in a sugar caddie which just so happens to be the one his enemy uses, rigging up a machine gun in the back seat of his car which just so happens to kill all of his enemies...the shyt is about as safe and by the book as can be.

I understand why they did it that way, though. LOST showed us what happens when you don't stick the landing. It showed that people need their hands held and every minute question and plot line needs to be resolved. I had said my perfect ending would have been if the whole episode was a fever dream Walt had as he slowly died in the cabin. The last shot is the fixer coming in and taking his money. End scene. He ruined all of these people's lives, and the one thing he did it all for, the money, is taken and he dies there forgotten and powerless. Jesse is still in that dungeon. His family is suffering. A$AC Schrader is still decomposing God knows where. But I realize modern audiences would lose their shyt at something like that

 

[2CT]

Walt didn’t even do anything wrong, it was Jesse who was constantly fukking up the entire series

he fukked up from day one by blowing all of Walt’s RV money at the strip club and he inadvertently collapsed the whole empire when he fukked up by not going to Alaska in the end

i understand he was mad about the kid getting poisoned but at least he still lived Jesse reacting to situations like an emotional druggie with no self control was the cause of 99% of Walt’s problems

 

[re'up]

To keep it short, I felt the show that was written deserved a much bleaker, and darker ending, I think when the show became so popular, and Walt became a cult figure they pulled back, because the show's writing was so dark and grim, for teh ending to be essentially the happiest it could have been. Walt went out on his own terms, made peace with himself and family, and Jesse lost the girl, but essentially has everything he wanted.

I envisioned when where Walt basically has to plead guilty in federal court, and do 25 years, while his families assets are stripped, and he has those years to regret, and tell his stories of bravado and legends of Heisenberg Gus.

It was a fun ending, but thematically, they missed the landing for the ground work that built the bulk of the series.

 

[re'up]

I always felt the theme of Breaking Bad was hubris, morality, and choices. Walt achieved his goal of setting his family up to be comfortable after his death. But his pride and hubris couldn't give up the power that he finally had attained after a life of mediocrity and untapped potential. That part was executed perfectly. But the whole series I was waiting for the breaking bad part. By the time this show came around, the anti-hero/villain main character was beyond established. Audiences had already fallen in love with bad guys like Tony Soprano and Vic Mackey. So Walt doing bad things wasn't necessarily something that would make the audience dislike him.

I personally felt he didn't break bad until the moment he pointed out Jesse hiding under the car. That was a wholly selfish, petty, vindictive act perpetrated upon the character the audience had grown to link to Walt through thick and thin. So to finally get to that point and have him free Jesse at the end just undermined the whole breaking bad thing. Walt dies with a smile on his face. He sets his family up to receive millions and does so at the detriment of the people who screwed him over back in the day. Walt wins. Yeah, other characters suffered as a result of his actions, but at the end of the day, the repercussions of his actions ring hollow when we've been rooting for him as those consequences happened anyway.

When you take into account sillier things like a man dying of cancer and on the wanted list driving from New Hampshire to Albuquerque in the span of a commercial break, sneaking into a compound to extort his former rivals, sneaking into a restaurant and hiding poison in a sugar caddie which just so happens to be the one his enemy uses, rigging up a machine gun in the back seat of his car which just so happens to kill all of his enemies...the shyt is about as safe and by the book as can be.

I understand why they did it that way, though. LOST showed us what happens when you don't stick the landing. It showed that people need their hands held and every minute question and plot line needs to be resolved. I had said my perfect ending would have been if the whole episode was a fever dream Walt had as he slowly died in the cabin. The last shot is the fixer coming in and taking his money. End scene. He ruined all of these people's lives, and the one thing he did it all for, the money, is taken and he dies there forgotten and powerless. Jesse is still in that dungeon. His family is suffering. A$AC Schrader is still decomposing God knows where. But I realize modern audiences would lose their shyt at something like that

You fleshed out this much more in depth, I remember writing a long post when the finale ended back in 2013, this is exactly how I felt.

 

[choc_cardigan]

I thought I was in the minority with this thinking. The show that gave us half measures can't give us a half measures ending. After crawlspace I thought the ending would be way more darker. But as @obarth said Americans have to have happy endings. I also felt walt broke bad when he was laughing at the end of the crawlspace episode. It reminded me of the comic panel when the joker snapped in the killing joke

 

[Torrential]

I always felt the theme of Breaking Bad was hubris, morality, and choices. Walt achieved his goal of setting his family up to be comfortable after his death. But his pride and hubris couldn't give up the power that he finally had attained after a life of mediocrity and untapped potential. That part was executed perfectly. But the whole series I was waiting for the breaking bad part. By the time this show came around, the anti-hero/villain main character was beyond established. Audiences had already fallen in love with bad guys like Tony Soprano and Vic Mackey. So Walt doing bad things wasn't necessarily something that would make the audience dislike him.

I personally felt he didn't break bad until the moment he pointed out Jesse hiding under the car. That was a wholly selfish, petty, vindictive act perpetrated upon the character the audience had grown to link to Walt through thick and thin. So to finally get to that point and have him free Jesse at the end just undermined the whole breaking bad thing. Walt dies with a smile on his face. He sets his family up to receive millions and does so at the detriment of the people who screwed him over back in the day. Walt wins. Yeah, other characters suffered as a result of his actions, but at the end of the day, the repercussions of his actions ring hollow when we've been rooting for him as those consequences happened anyway.

When you take into account sillier things like a man dying of cancer and on the wanted list driving from New Hampshire to Albuquerque in the span of a commercial break, sneaking into a compound to extort his former rivals, sneaking into a restaurant and hiding poison in a sugar caddie which just so happens to be the one his enemy uses, rigging up a machine gun in the back seat of his car which just so happens to kill all of his enemies...the shyt is about as safe and by the book as can be.

I understand why they did it that way, though. LOST showed us what happens when you don't stick the landing. It showed that people need their hands held and every minute question and plot line needs to be resolved. I had said my perfect ending would have been if the whole episode was a fever dream Walt had as he slowly died in the cabin. The last shot is the fixer coming in and taking his money. End scene. He ruined all of these people's lives, and the one thing he did it all for, the money, is taken and he dies there forgotten and powerless. Jesse is still in that dungeon. His family is suffering. A$AC Schrader is still decomposing God knows where. But I realize modern audiences would lose their shyt at something like that

they would call it nihilistic

 

[Lootpack]

I'll admit it did get a bit fan-servicey with Jesse near the end, but ultimately BB still stuck the landing in the finale.

 

[GoddamnyamanProf]

Ending was perfect

"It was all a dream" is a HORRIBLE suggestion what the fukk

The show would not have been any better if they decided to kill Walt's baby or wife or whoever just to be edgy and "dark." Mostly just weirdos wanting to see Skyler get murdered.

 

[Lootpack]

Ending was perfect

"It was all a dream" is a HORRIBLE suggestion what the fukk

The show would not have been any better if they decided to kill Walt's baby or wife or whoever just to be edgy and "dark." Mostly just weirdos wanting to see Skyler get murdered.

I don't even know how you could execute a darker ending without coming across as too grim. Empire falling apart, in-laws getting murdered, and a once happy family in shambles.....the fukk more did y'all want?

Ozymandias was the show at its apex when it came to that anyways.

 

[obarth]

Ending was perfect

"It was all a dream" is a HORRIBLE suggestion what the fukk

The show would not have been any better if they decided to kill Walt's baby or wife or whoever just to be edgy and "dark." Mostly just weirdos wanting to see Skyler get murdered.

No one cares about Walt's baby or his wife. That's the point. All we cared about was Walt and Walt died happy, winning in the end. A prideful murderer and drug dealer ultimately had his cake and ate it too. You're supposed to think it ended perfect because it did everything audiences are groomed to like. God forbid this person who the show's creator claimed we would hate by the end of the show actually lose and the repercussions of his actions be substantial. Jesse's free, his family will be millionaires, he screwed over the people who screwed him over back in the day, and he killed some Nazis. Prime storytelling, right chea
Him dying in that cabin, something that's actually realistic, pales in comparison to his geriatric, cancer-riddled ass pulling a Jason Bourne all episode

 

[GoddamnyamanProf]

I don't even know how you could execute a darker ending without coming across as too grim.

Yeah short of some Shakespearean thing where everyone is dead at the end, which itself is almost predictable now and can easily come off as corny for a series finale.

 

[Paper Boi]

it was fine.

the best episodes happened before it obviously.


the shield has the best finale of all time still, i think.

 

[choc_cardigan]

Yeah short of some Shakespearean thing where everyone is dead at the end, which itself is almost predictable now and can easily come off as corny for a series finale.

Agree to disagree. That ending is corny. Btw this whole series is twisted and dark, nothing to do with weirdos. More of a realistic ending. Skyler and could have went into witness protection. Cartel could have had the final say in all of this. None of those would have been predictable.