I have to say, I am just continually impressed by how far Breaking Bad can go to prove that it is the best show on television, and I feel pretty dumb for not keeping up after the first season. It's awesome. Season three ended with a huge bang that gave season four a pretty clear direction to take, as meth cook Walter White and his assistant Jesse arrive at a bit of a stalemate with drug kingpin Gustavo Fring- both sides want the other dead, but neither can find a way to successfully pull it off for various reasons. As Walt resorts to more desperate measures, we're left wondering how much he is actually protecting his family when he's actually done everything possible to make their lives shitty. Jesse's arc at the start of the season was just fantastic- he has to make a huge move in the season three finale, something that would break most people, and we see him as a broken man trying anything and everything to take his mind off of his actions. We also get much more backstory on Gus, including a standout mid-season episode that explains his feud with the Mexican drug cartel, explaining why he needs to gear up for war. My one gripe is that the season four finale felt very close to an appropriate series finale- unless I'm missing something, many storylines seemed to neatly tie themselves off in the last fifteen minutes or so, until a last second twist that I'm sure will come up in season five but doesn't seem like something to build a season out of. But hey, this is Breaking Bad, and the reviews for season 5 are just as great as always, so I'm sure I'll be pleasantly surprised.
You're right in saying that a number of conflicts and plot lines were resolved in Season 4, and I can see why you think it'd have been an appropriate series finale. However, I'll remind you of some ongoing plot lines left dangling in the interim (which isn't to say that any or all of them specifically will be addressed). SPOILERS ABOUND, those of you who haven't caught up yet. SPOILERS ABOUND.
ReplyDelete-Hank's investigation. His prime suspect (Gus) was killed within minutes of the laundromat he was suspicious of going up in flames. Hank will pursue this. How far will he get?
-Mike's fate. Dude was last seen bleeding out in a Mexican makeshift hospital. It was never implied that he wasn't going to live, but still, where will he fit into this post-Fring drug landscape?
-Ted's fate, and that of the money Skylar lent him.
-The FBI guys wondering how and why Jessie suggested it was ricin poisoning.
-The ever-present threat of Walt's cancer.
-Skylar and Walt's relationship. Strained as it was, Skylar seemed to jump back on board as a partner of sorts when she realized how much money Walt was making. Now that she's seen him blow up a nursing home room and burn down a laundromat, is she having second thoughts?
-Walt and Jessie's relationship. The former has stopped at nothing to manipulate the latter, passively allowing his addict girlfriend to choke on her own vomit and die, and now actively poisoning his new love interest's son. Jessie almost killed Walt twice this season. What would he do if he knew what Walt had put him through?
-Drug wars. Gus wasn't the first guy to pose a threat to Walt's life because of his meth-cooking abilities. Will he really be the last?
-And, most importantly, the ongoing theme of Walt's moral decay from "bad luck loser trying to provide for his family" to "ruthless drug kingpin and murderer." It hasn't happened yet, but if the series doesn't end with Walt putting himself before the very family he originally tried to protect and provide for, I'd be surprised and disappointed.
So yeah. Plenty of story left to tell, and plenty of thematic territory to dig deeper into. I'm glad the show has a finale date set - hate to see something good linger on too long and pitter out - but I can happily say it hasn't outstayed its welcome at this point in time.