A funny thing happened after Breaking Bad finished its final episode at about 10:15 EST, September 29th. I felt nothing. Nothing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing mind you, as this was perhaps the only feeling Breaking Bad was destined to leave one with. The final half of Season 5 solidified the show as perhaps the finest example of 99.1% pure plot-driven storytelling ever developed for the medium. Every piece found its place, every character their fate. There was no ambiguity, just closure. The reaction was complete: reactants and products cancelled each other out. Nothing beside remains.
But I come to praise Walter White, not bury him. Like Walt, Breaking Bad’s legacy was set in stone long before the final farewell -of course it went out as one of the greatest television series of all time. Perhaps because of that inevitability, I haven’t really thought much about Breaking Bad since it left us. The truth is, I wanted something else from the finale: I wanted it to leave me shouting out “oh shit,” the way I did when Walt gave Hank a little advice on treading lightly back in the premiere; I wanted it to break my heart the way Aaron Paul did nearly every episode of the season, up until that last wild smile; I wanted it to leave me harrowed and gasping for air the way “Ozymandias” did for 60 straight minutes.
But I didn’t get that, and that’s okay. Breaking Bad is still my pick for the best show of the year, just as it was last year, because like the other selections on this list, it made me feel. Not only that, it made me feel deeply about one of the most fascinating, and profoundly flawed characters ever created for television. I felt fear every time Walt backed himself into a corner, glee each time he managed to wriggle his way out, and intensifying guilt the more his survival destroyed everything and everyone around him.
Well before the series took its bow with “Felina,” I had grown to hate Walt, and wanted him dead. But once all was said and done, the joy, tension, laughter, excitement, panic and devastation Breaking Bad had filled me with for so long just faded to black. All I was left with was a Badfinger tune echoing in my ears, like a ball bearing rattling around in an empty spray can. In the end, both Walt and I got what we deserved: him, for being perhaps TV’s greatest monster, and me, for wanting to follow him. It might not have been my preferred ending, but it was the right one. And on the topic of saying goodbye to Breaking Bad, if you haven’t done so already, check out JoBlo’s excellent tribute video to the show below.
