On Sunday night, 10.3 million viewers and I had the privilege of watching the series finale of “Breaking Bad.” And the series finale was everything I could have ever wanted it to be: it had guns, revenge, justice and even humor. It was the perfect denouement to one of the greatest examples of storytelling of our time.
It’s rare that a television show can affect as many people as “Breaking Bad” has. Millions of viewers have tuned in every Sunday for years, and it’s consistently received high ratings since the first episode. As of Sunday night, “Breaking Bad” is joining the ranks of the best TV dramas ever created, including “The Wire” and “The Sopranos.” And it deserves to be there.
When “Breaking Bad” first aired in 2008, I knew nothing about it. And it is one of my deepest regrets that I remained ignorant of its existence until Thanksgiving break 2012. Like most teenagers during the break, I was bored out of mind and surfing Netflix. I skimmed over every icon the site presented me with and quickly dismissed most of my options. “Mad Men?” Seen it. “Gossip Girl?” Been there. “Arrested Development?” So 2005. Finally, my eyes rested upon an emerald green background, featuring the chemical symbols for Bromine and Barium and two men wearing bright yellow hazard suits. The icon intrigued me, so I clicked “play.”
What happened after I watched the first episode can only be described as a downward spiral; I spent hours upon hours watching “Breaking Bad,” neglecting both homework and my social life to watch the next episode. This went on for weeks, until I reached the end of the first half of season five. The whole series was perfection. I laughed, I cried and I fell in love.
I haven’t been with “Breaking Bad” since the beginning, and I sincerely envy every viewer who has been. But my journey with Walt and Jesse, even if it only lasted for 10 months, was amazing. Everything about the show is fantastic: the writing is superb, the characters are wonderfully developed and I never felt bored. Not even once.
No matter what the future of storytelling is, whether it is solely on the internet or on our phones, “Breaking Bad” is a feat in storytelling on television. Every plot twist that unravelled, every character that broke your heart. The show evolved, and within it so did the characters. It all seemed real.
In the beginning you have Walt, a mousy chemistry teacher, who transforms into a tyrannical meth king. And by the end, you can’t even be certain whether that’s even the same person. You’re rooting for Jesse, his meth partner, and hating on Walt’s wife, Skyler, who used to be a practical housewife and then began laundering his meth money. “Breaking Bad” could change what you think about people and why you think it, and it made you question what makes a good person “good,” or a bad person “bad.” And that is truly remarkable.
So I commend you, Vince Gilligan. Every episode was fantastic, and unsurprisingly so. In the years to come, as we see the ends of “Mad Men” and “Game of Thrones,” it will be extremely difficult to replicate the kind of perfect ending “Breaking Bad” had. The end of “Breaking Bad” is the end of an era, and one that I will greatly miss. Farewell, Walt and Jesse.
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