***This was an article I started back in August and just put the finishing touches on. Better late than never :) ***
I will try and keep this one short as I'm probably about the millionth person to write about how good the finale of Breaking Bad was. That hyperbole is not far from the truth and that truth should tell you that the end of Breaking Bad really was that good.
A similar situation just happened with the film Gravity. It built an audience through fantastic word of mouth and impressing almost everyone who saw it to the point where they lobbied other people to go see it.
This shared opinion and communal experience is found in film/TV and few other media. I believe that's why when it does happen, it becomes like a fever, spreading from one person to the next. A veritable wave of desire to be included in this special thing that everyone seems to know about, washes over people and they cannot help but try and find out what is so special about this experience.
Breaking Bad fit this mold because the last 2 episodes before the finale really contained some watershed moments in the saga that has been going on for years. These were giant crescendos of storytelling that wallowed the viewer in the "all is lost" moment and the show did an amazing job of burying (sometimes literally) almost all of its main characters in the same misery. Nothing is going good for anyone. This setup perfectly for the final episode to deliver what everyone invested in a story desires: Resolution and Catharsis.
The resolution is stacked into every scene of the final episode. There is hardly a wasted second of screen time, as each storyline and character begins heading to a final endpoint. The catharsis is realized in the final scene (as it should be) and based on the events of the previous two episodes, it is a sweet, sweet release of pent up emotion.
As with all great TV shows, the audience is heavily invested in the main characters. No matter what these characters have done negatively, the audience wants them to have a satisfying resolution. This is especially true with the new crop of anti-hero supermen that began with Tony Soprano and just climaxed with Walter White. Other examples would be Vic Mackey on the Shield, Jack Bauer on 24, Don Draper on Mad Men, and Dexter on Dexter to name a few.
Breaking Bad will live on as one of the greatest TV shows of all time, not only for it's incredible storytelling, acting, writing and nuance but also because when it came time to deliver an ending, it stayed true to its characters. The audience got what they wanted out of the show and the people behind the show knew exactly what to give them. Bravo.
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