Breaking Bad

[Bruce Malone]

Going over those colbert gifs gave me a thought, what would be your idea for the worst possible way the show could have ended?

I think his point there about it all being a fantasy walt had while he went to his first doctor check-up would probably be up-there.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

http://whatculture.com/tv/breaking-bad-10-reasons-the-ending-satisfies.php

 

[TheNextNolan22]

For what time I have left, I want to live in my own house, I want to sleep in my own bed. I don’t want to choke down 40 or 50 pills every single day, and lose my hair, lie around, too tired to get up, and so nauseated that I can’t even move my head. You cleaning up after me. Me, some dead man, some artificially alive, just marking time… no. And that’s how you would remember me.

 

[StarLord]

Long one, but I LOL'd.

Spoiler

 

[Sawyer]

For what time I have left, I want to live in my own house, I want to sleep in my own bed. I don’t want to choke down 40 or 50 pills every single day, and lose my hair, lie around, to tired to get up, and so nauseated that I can’t even move my head. You cleaning up after me. Me, some dead man, some artificially alive, just marking time… no. And that’s how you would remember me.

 

[Donnie Darko]

Going over those colbert gifs gave me a thought, what would be your idea for the worst possible way the show could have ended?

I think his point there about it all being a fantasy walt had while he went to his first doctor check-up would probably be up-there.

For me, Sopranos-style blackout would've been the worst.

 

[Piper Maru]

Long one, but I LOL'd.

Spoiler

LMAO. Now that would have made for the perfect twist ending.

 

[slimshady247]

Been listening to Baby Blue on repeat.

What a show.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

I used to associate Baby Blue with The Departed. Now I associate it with the closing of my favorite TV show ever.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

But that's not fitting, because it's a lie. He admitted he didn't do it for his family. He did it for himself. And that last shot of him smiling, clutching meth equipment confirms it.

 

[Bruce Malone]

For me, Sopranos-style blackout would've been the worst.

You know I don't get the criticisms that ending receives? It actually annoyed me when Chris Hardwick said pretty much the same and insinuated it was a bad ending, luckily vince Gilligan defended the ending.

I agree it wouldn't work for this series per se but i see nothing wrong with ambiguous endings. The public wants to be force fed every little detail too much now.

I've even seen some complaints we didn't have an epilogue to see how Jesse and Skyler and flynn, huell etc are doing after walt dies.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Sopranos had a good ending, which fit Sopranos's style.

BB had a good ending, which fit BB's style.

If you have an ambiguous, more interpretive ending like Sopranos, you get blasted by critics for not having a pay-off or toying with audience expectations.

If you have a more definitive, climatic ending like BB, you get blasted by critics for "pandering to the audience" and tying things up in a too-pat way.

You literally can't win no matter what you do.

Sure, there are endings that stink like Dexter's, but that's a quality issue. There's different styles you can approach an ending with and Sopranos and BB just chose differently.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

What still irks me about Soprano's ending is it had that perfect set-up of Tony about to get whacked. But I still thought it was a good ending nonetheless.

 

[Bruce Malone]

What still irks me about Soprano's ending is it had that perfect set-up of Tony about to get whacked. But I still thought it was a good ending nonetheless.

Here's where there are some parallels with walt though. According to david chase he was very turned off by what he considered the audiences "bloodlust", whereby they would only be happy to actually see tony die on screen or just have him die for his sins. He didn't want to pander to that.

It was a little similar with walt whereby there were tons of people arguing he should die at the end and that maybe jesse should kill him. The difference was BB was always set-up from the premise to have a definite ending for walt he sort of was supposed to die and this was him living before that moment came. For the sopranos it was more we the audience were just watching a mobster go about his life and there didn't have to be a definite end point for him.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'm really impressed with how they managed to make Cranston look like **** in the finale.

A lot of that was Cranston himself. I mean, his posture in the house with Skyler was very much a worn, beaten-down man who sees his own end coming up fast.

 

[BatLobster]

I hate to open a can of worms in this thread, but Tony is so very dead.

The brilliance of the final scene in The Sopranos is still unmatched IMO. "Felina" overall was a better episode than "Made in America", but the genius of the final scene is grossly under-appreciated and under-observed...except by this guy:

http://masterofsopranos.wordpress.com/the-sopranos-definitive-explanation-of-the-end/

All I ask is for nobody shoot me down until you've read that article front to back (and it's quite the read).

 

[TheBat812]

I really need to spend time watching the Sopranos. Just got into Mad Men, so that will be my next show after that. Then still got the Wire, Shield, Sons of Anarchy, etc... So much good tv out there.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Sopranos had a good ending, which fit Sopranos's style.

BB had a good ending, which fit BB's style.

If you have an ambiguous, more interpretive ending like Sopranos, you get blasted by critics for not having a pay-off or toying with audience expectations.

If you have a more definitive, climatic ending like BB, you get blasted by critics for "pandering to the audience" and tying things up in a too-pat way.

You literally can't win no matter what you do.

Sure, there are endings that stink like Dexter's, but that's a quality issue. There's different styles you can approach an ending with and Sopranos and BB just chose differently.

I agree. There is no objectively superior way to end a show; the narrative itself informs the perfect ending. I haven't seen The Sopranos yet (don't worry, the ending was spoiled for my long ago), so I'll go with another example of a perfect ending: Angel's "Not Fade Away." The overarching theme of the entire show was that redemption is not an endpoint, it's a constant struggle, complete with setbacks, failures, recoveries, etc. So the show ending with Angel and co. charging into the breach once again, regardless of the friends they'd lost and the horrors they'd been through, reinforced that message that their fight never ends.

For Breaking Bad, which was very much the story of Walter White's rise and fall (or fall and rise, depending on your perspective), it had to--had to--end when that scenario ended, which was appropriately (given all the crap he'd done) with Walt's death. There was no redemption for him beyond finally taking responsibility and closing the circle, effectively recognizing the blight he'd unleashed on his little corner of the world and ending it. Would I have liked to see Gretchen and Elliott bicker over the money until they ended up in a messy, months-long divorce? Sure. Would I have liked to see Jesse visit Brock at whatever orphanage or foster home he ended up in one last time before riding off into the sunset? Absolutely. But those things are all secondary concerns, out of the purview of Walt's--and, by extension, our--concerns. The ending was perfect.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

What still irks me about Soprano's ending is it had that perfect set-up of Tony about to get whacked. But I still thought it was a good ending nonetheless.

Who's to say he wasn't whacked? Do you need that explicitly shown? We saw the show from Tony's eyes and his and our view went black just as the shady Members Only guy came out of the bathroom behind him. Seems pretty definitive to me. Guess it was a great finale because people still debate it six years later. (Hard to believe it ended before BB even began.... what will be the next show that we don't see coming?)

 

[Bruce Malone]

It's all up for interpretation tony's fate. It's hinted greatly that he's probably dead but Chase made it ambiguous for a reason he didn't want the last scene to be necessarily about tony's death more so everything that came before it.

 

[BatLobster]

Who's to say he wasn't whacked? Do you need that explicitly shown? We saw the show from Tony's eyes and his and our view went black just as the shady Members Only guy came out of the bathroom behind him. Seems pretty definitive to me. Guess it was a great finale because people still debate it six years later. (Hard to believe it ended before BB even began.... what will be the next show that we don't see coming?)

SO refreshing to hear this. All I've been hearing the past couple of days is people comparing the BB's clearcut ending to more "ambiguous" endings, always citing The Sopranos as an example. Only it's not ambiguous to some of us. And if anyone cares to read the article I posted, they'll find that Chase himself seemed to have had a pretty definitive and specific intention with the scene.

To me, the main point of the scene is that we are literally put into Tony's POV throughout the scene. There's a pattern. Someone walks in the restaurant, we hear the bell ring, we see Tony look up, then we see what he sees: first Carmella, then AJ, then...nothing. Didn't even hear it when it happened.

As to your other point...BB only started up a year after The Sopranos ended, so hopefully it won't be too long before another show can come along and take the torch. t:

 

[Brother Jack]

"Felina" wasn't ambiguous in terms of plot but character wise I felt like it was open to interpretation, boiling down to whether or not Walt receives justice or gets away with it. After thinking about it heavily over the last few days I feel like both scenarios and the duel nature of Walt's success are true simultaneously.

The predominant question over the course of the series was if Walt was inherently good or evil and the show, right from the beginning, portrayed a multi-faceted man who (like everyone) was both. That's why he could be a man who loved his family and a selfish prick who only loved himself. A man who provided for his family and destroyed it all at once. A man who could abuse Jesse and a man who could set him free. That dichotomous nature was true not only of him but virtually every character in the show; the decent ones had obvious caveats and the bad ones had moments of benevolence.

So Walt's death ends up being a victory and a defeat. He was able to give his money to his family, always his main goal, but to do it he had to do the thing he never wanted to and turn to the charity of the Schwartz's, ensuring his children will never know it came from him. They'll get the glory. He also ensures the family's safety by dispatching Lydia and the Nazis but he's irreparably ruined their lives regardless. He gives Jesse a chance to live but what kind of fulfilling life can someone so scarred actually have?

Walt appears to be at peace when he dies but to me it's coming from a pretty destitute place. He finally acknowledges his own evil but makes no true apologies for it and dies surrounded by what he loves most: the meth lab. If he feels victory it's a hollow one, even if he did dispense a measure of justice and settle the score before he left.

 

[Maximus One]

Yea I used to absolutely HATE not only the ending of The Sopranos but the entire last season but after I read that article a couple months ago I totally changed my tune. That **** is a work of art. Period.

 

[Maximus One]

If it wasn't for Gilligan specifically stating Walt died I'd still be so ****ing mad right now. I didn't get to watch it until about midnight the other night and I avoided the Internet like crazy but when I finally watched it I was instantly infuriated because I thought Walt's death was ambiguous. He's just laying there with his eyes open. Luckily, Gilligan states openly on Talking Bad that Walt died, otherwise I would've been really upset. I love his death scene but at first I was worried about how ambiguous it seemed. He could've very well still been alive and just laying there waiting for them to take him away.

 

[Sawyer]

Wut?