[Spoilers] Breaking Bad - The whole thing felt kinda shady, y'know, morality-wise?

[The Monkey]

I fully agree, the Shield-ending is still the best I've ever seen, nothing compares to it, and not only because I was much more invested in the characters. The Breaking Bad finale is very good, but the Shield is brilliance.

How can we not mention Six Feet Under when talking about great series finales? Shame how that show seems to become more and more forgotten for every year that passes.

[Relic]

How can we know mention Six Feet Under when talking about great series finales? Shame how that show seems to become more and more forgotten for every year that passes.

I showed it to a friend of mine last night before Breaking Bad to show her how a proper finale ends. She laughed at it. I frowned at her for many minutes afterwards.

[Reposado]

This reviewer says it all. I also like her alternate ending much better than the real one:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/09/breaking-bad-finale-reviewed.html

i really hate that ending. we need no mor edream or partial dream reveals

great endings? the us office is definitely up there. as is extras. cheers.

the ending sequence of friday night lights if not the final episode.

[red snow]

what if shows had encore like concerts. if you cheered long enough, they would come back out with one more episode. \

for breaking bad what would that consist of? walters funeral. a eulogy from walt jr in which he forgets all of walters faults. followed by badger coming up and making his pitch for a tv show based on walt?

If the 10.3 million in ratings is true then that's the crowd stamping, clapping and cheering in unison.

A weird Walt's funeral could work - maybe not a full hour though. Unless it has Badger selling Flynn some weed before pitching a show based on the mastermind jesse and his old sidekick Walt.

I've had the full boxset of the Shield sitting on my shelf for a year now - maybe now's the time to give it a go? I know many said it would have been the best cop show ever if not for the fact "the wire" aired at the same time.

[Goodbye World]

This reviewer says it all. I also like her alternate ending much better than the real one:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/09/breaking-bad-finale-reviewed.html

Nope, terrible ending, and everything that came after the alternate ending in that review is just whining. Based on those complaints I have to wonder how this reviewer got this far into the series anyway.

[The Monkey]

I showed it to a friend of mine last night before Breaking Bad to show her how a proper finale ends. She laughed at it. I frowned at her for many minutes afterwards.

Disown her.

A funny thing about finales is that the perception of them certainly changes with time. For instance, The Sopranos finale was torn apart by critics and audiences alike upon first airing. People felt cheated and disappointed by the open ending. Now it's considered a television classic and a stroke of genius. On the contrary, Lost's finale was met with generally positive acclaim back in 2010 (doesn't it feel like Lost ended much longer ago, BTW?), but now it's used as an example of sloppy endings. Breaking Bad's finale was obviously a smash hit (9.9 on IMDb speaks for itself), but I wonder what legacy it will have five or ten years down the road.

[Azzanadra]

Disown her.

A funny thing about finales is that the perception of them certainly changes with time. For instance, The Sopranos finale was torn apart by critics and audiences alike upon first airing. People felt cheated and disappointed by the open ending. Now it's considered a television classic and a stroke of genius. On the contrary, Lost's finale was met with generally positive acclaim back in 2010 (doesn't it feel like Lost ended much longer ago, BTW?), but now it's used as an example of sloppy endings. Breaking Bad's finale was obviously a smash hit (9.9 on IMDb speaks for itself), but I wonder what legacy it will have five or ten years down the road.

To me it seems like the type of ending that will be seen as the textbook definition of "ending", all loose ends tied up, conclusive and everything that had been foreshadowed or hinted at finally coming into the light.

[Jabronius Maximus]

Disown her.

A funny thing about finales is that the perception of them certainly changes with time. For instance, The Sopranos finale was torn apart by critics and audiences alike upon first airing. People felt cheated and disappointed by the open ending. Now it's considered a television classic and a stroke of genius. On the contrary, Lost's finale was met with generally positive acclaim back in 2010 (doesn't it feel like Lost ended much longer ago, BTW?), but now it's used as an example of sloppy endings. Breaking Bad's finale was obviously a smash hit (9.9 on IMDb speaks for itself), but I wonder what legacy it will have five or ten years down the road.

Down the road, Ozymandias will be the one that sticks, and it will be viewed as the best episode and actual finale of the show (Felina would be more of a spiritual finale). I already view Ozymandias as the finale, with the last 2 episodes as an epilogue where Walt succeeds in making the best of his terrible circumstances.

In the context of his circumstances, this was a clean sweep victory for Walt, but it pales in comparison to what he lost throughout the show (especially in Ozymandias).

[DaveSumm]

for breaking bad what would that consist of? walters funeral. a eulogy from walt jr in which he forgets all of walters faults. followed by badger coming up and making his pitch for a tv show based on walt?

...and then that's the start of Malcolm in the Middle.

[Littlefingers In The Air]

The ending will overcome any scrutiny and be remembered as an all time great ending. It's apparently going to have to overcome the "nice and tidy" stigma some people place on it.

[Relic]

Nope, terrible ending, and everything that came after the alternate ending in that review is just whining. Based on those complaints I have to wonder how this reviewer got this far into the series anyway.

Riiiight. It disagrees with your view so it's got to be whining. I've been watching this show from the first episode of season 1 and felt much like the reviewer in that particular article. Contrary opinions arent invalid simply for being contrary. There is room(and dare i say a NEED) for many different interpretations and views on the way this show ended.

[Mad Queen]

To me the actual ending will be Walt dying alone in the middle of nowhere, paying some guy 10,000 to spend an hour with him. I don't know what happened yesterday.

I didn't mention the ending of SFU, because I did not see that show unfortunately. And now would be a good time to start watching The Shield, which was actually more to my taste than The Wire, which I also liked. BB was better on average, but The Shield ended better. You will never forget that...

[Commander Jon Snow]

More I think about it, the more I love this ending. It was what I would call a legit "ending" to a series. Wrapped it up as if it was a book and everything fit together

[Mad Queen]

I've been watching since season 1, episode 1 as well and that would have been a BETTER ending for me. Not the best ending ever perhaps, but better than we actually got.

[7V3N]

Riiiight. It disagrees with your view so it's got to be whining. I've been watching this show from the first episode of season 1 and felt much like the reviewer in that particular article. Contrary opinions arent invalid simply for being contrary. There is room(and dare i say a NEED) for many different interpretations and views on the way this show ended.

One thing the review ignored is that Walt made it hard to track him down by using the smokescreen of calls. Marie mentions it when she calls Skyler.

[Commander Jon Snow]

Another thing is that I was rooting for Walt yesterday. I've sorta subconsciously rooting for him this entire (half) season. But it all came through yesterday. Felt nice to just say fuck it and root for the devil

[straits]

Riiiight. It disagrees with your view so it's got to be whining. I've been watching this show from the first episode of season 1 and felt much like the reviewer in that particular article. Contrary opinions arent invalid simply for being contrary. There is room(and dare i say a NEED) for many different interpretations and views on the way this show ended.

It disagrees with what happened. Not just [the viewer's] opinion. That's a stronger qualification for general whining.

I do agree that there is a need for different interpretation, though arguing that someone's contrived alternative would be superior to the one intended by the writers is not really productive.

[Jabronius Maximus]

Hell even VG himself repeatedly said the ending would be polarizing. Not every ending will be universally accepted, it just doesn't work like that. There are definitely valid reasons to hate the ending, but I thought it was perfect for this show.

[Francis Buck]

Yeah, I don't see why the ending has to absolutely be one of the all time greats of eternity and that anything less than that is somehow insulting and unworthy of acknowledgment. It seems like 90% of the people who weren't totally satisfied with the ending (myself included) still admit that it was a perfectly adequate finale with moments of brilliance, but overall wasn't quite as mind-blowing as one would have hoped. My biggest issue with it, really, wasn't even the predictability so much as the fact that I really just didn't "feel" much throughout most of it (although I've kinda had that issue for a lot of this season, Granite State and Ozymandias aside, perhaps). Everything just played out so mechanically, with such "perfection", that it had a kind of sterility to it, or hollowness. I don't know, its hard to describe, but I definitely agree with everything reviewers like Sepinwall and Greenwald said. It just...lacked something. I got more goosebumps during the last ten minutes of Faceoff then I did in the entirety of Felina.

ETA: I mean seriously, two days ago if you had told me that I wouldn't get goosebumps a single time throughout the entire final episode, I would have thought you were crazy. But, yeah, I didn't. Like I said, there was a hollowness to it for me. It's a feeling I didn't have at all with either The Wire or The Sopranos -- both of those felt like inevitable, perfect endings to their respective series and I wouldn't have wanted a single thing different. Unfortunately I can't say the same about Felina.

[Eponine]

It seems like 90% of the people who weren't totally satisfied with the ending (myself included) still admit that it was a perfectly adequate finale with moments of brilliance, but overall wasn't quite as mind-blowing as one would have hoped.

I'll sign on to that. Ultimately for me though, the show was never as good after Walt and Jesse stopped making meth together. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it went to shit or anything close, it was still really good. Just not as good. Everything past that point was epilogue.