1. Breaking Bad
What else? What else could have been the best show this year? It had to be Breaking Bad.
There’s been a lot of negativity about how simple and straightforward the finale was, as if that’s a bad thing, but it’s par for the course when your finale is one of the most anticipated in TV history. Sure, it didn’t have the explosive violence of Gus’s death in the finale of season 4, or the stunning paradigm shift of Jesse shooting Gale at the end of season 3, but it still honoured the show. It provided the only ending that there could possibly be, in the most satisfying way possible. The haters complain about feeling nothing after the final fade out, but that’s only because we’d gotten so used to being completely astounded and devastated at every single episode that a clean ending, with no twists or threat, seemed alien.
The entire season was a masterpiece in long-form storytelling, from start to finish. I used to think that season 4 of The Wire was the most perfect season of TV, until season 5 of Breaking Bad came along. Nobody could have predicted the twists and turns the show would take, and the emotional highs and lows we’d be taken on by Walter, Jesse and the like. The news that Better Call Saul is coming soon, and will feature cameos of characters from the show, should satiate the audience that Breaking Bad accumulated across those five perfect seasons, but then what? Whatever Vince Gilligan does next, it has the legacy of Breaking Bad to contend with.
So, that’s my list! Any problems? Comment below and let me know. Thanks for reading.