“All Bad things must come to an end.”
AMC’s hit drama series, “Breaking Bad,” is coming to an end after five seasons as one of the most popular shows on cable television. The final eight episodes began airing August 11th, nearly a year after the conclusion of the season’s first half. The series, which first aired in 2008, is set to end with the series finale on September 29th.
“I am very proud of the ending,” series creator Vince Gilligan told nydailynews.com. “I can’t wait for everyone to see it. I hope I’m not wildly wrong in my estimation that I think most people are going to dig it.”
An estimated 5.9 million viewers tuned into the second-half premier, four times more than the number who watched the series premier, and nearly double the 3 million who watched the finale of the first half of season five.
Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Bad is centered around Walter White, a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher and family man, portrayed by Malcolm in the Middle star Bryan Cranston. After losing consciousness one day at a car wash, White is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and is given two months to live.
Dying and desperate to secure his family’s financial future, White turns to a former student, Jesse Pinkman, portrayed by Aaron Paul, to help him enter the crystal meth business. Over time, with the help of his background in chemistry, White goes from a quiet man to a ruthless drug kingpin, going by the name “Heisenberg” and doing away with anyone he sees as a threat to him, his family or business, a transformation Gilligan refers to as “Mr. Chips to Scarface.”
In addition, White must hide his second life from his family, in particular, his wife and Drug Enforcement Administration agent brother-in-law. Slowly but surely, things begin to unravel for White and all those around him, causing a dramatic turn of events at almost every corner.
“I can’t imagine a protagonist darker than Walter White,” stated John Landgraf, CEO of FX Networks, in an interview.
Cranston has won three Primetime Emmy awards for his portrayal of the meth maker.
“It’s the role of my life,” Cranston said in an interview with DigitalSpy.com. “I’ll never have a better role than that.”
As with the end of any TV series, fans are left wondering what fate many of the main characters will face.
In an interview with ScreenRant.com, Gilligan described the finale as “polarizing.” Gilligan admitted to many sources that he cried while writing the final episode of the series. He also added that there would not be an ambiguous ending to the series.
“As the movie title goes, there will be blood,” Gilligan hinted about the series finale to RawStory.com.
With the fifth season quickly coming to a close, disappointed fans wonder why Gilligan decided to end the series after five seasons rather than drawing out the show’s success with more episodes.
“As much as anything it was realizing that Walter White had reached a high point and how long can anyone stay at the top?” asked Gilligan in an interview with RawStory.com. “That is always a good question, in fiction and in real life.”
