I don't understand why people disliked the final season(s) of Breaking Bad...

I don't understand why people disliked the final season(s) of Breaking Bad. It rolled off nicely and the characters got an ending to their arcs in a satisfying manner, if a bit gloomy. Though I don't think why anyone would expect something different from a series that put a death timer on its main character in the very first episode

After Gus Fring, there wasn't much you could throw against Walt to create tension. They obviously couldn't up the ante even higher with another mastermind so they went with some dumb neo-nazi thugs. Hank was a good antagonist, all things considered, but it's also not plausible that he would outsmart Walt, and indeed he doesn't.

In retrospect, I think they should have put Hank on more even footing against Walt by letting him retain his one advantage: the element of surprise. If he hadn't revealed to Walt that he knew right away and played some mind games and tried to get concrete proof or catch him red handed, that would have been plausible and a real threat to Walt without needing to conjure some supersmart villain.

With popularity come the haters. I'm happy no one cares about Halt and Catch Fire for this reason.

The only reason Hank wasn't the final boss was he had another shittier but better paying show on the side.

Because the plot became increasingly cartoony, favouring style over substance.

The flash forward really limited what you could do, and made the show easier to predict. Vince admitted this himself

It's not necessarily bad but it didn't have the same atmostphere that made the rest of the seasons great. It tried to be too polished and "epic". It lost it's rawness.

I honestly felt that the Neo-nazis were "tacked on" bad guys, it felt like they wrote that scene in season 5 using them, and just decided to use them as the final conflict in the show because there wasn't really anything else for them to do it. As such, Walt killing them felt really inconsequential and insignificant, unlike him killing Gus who had two full seasons of build up and development, as well as an adequate backstory and motivations into his character that these Neo nazi guys didn't have.

I liked it though regardless, it has become a contrarian opinion to hate on Breaking Bad, but the finale was excellent, as was most of the final season. I still have no desire to re-watch it though, unlike other tv shows at least.

Originally the big bads were supposed to be Germans but the female actor who was supposed to act as a connection didn't actually speak german because she lied on her resume.

a better ending than most shows.

I never looked at Gus as that much of an antagonist but rather a tool to further develop Walt. Rising to the top and coming crashing down and realizing what he has put everyone through out of his own selfishness was the end game, and I don't think having Walt pull season 5 on Gus instead of the neo nazi group would've been better. Walt was the protagonist and antagonist. He had to take down the top dog and become the emperor himself, otherwise his arc wouldn't have been as perfect. Of course what direction a series should go is completely subjective, and I see why many would consider season 5 as a bit of a "well.. now what?" season

Also I too though Hank blew his stuff a bit too quickly but really, it was true to his character and didn't really feel off at all. He was a hothead

I don't think it's just hate to be cool. We all create our expectations and often find stories unsatisfying if they don't end on the note we want. But we can objectively judge the quality of writing, the acting, and cinematography though, which I think all held really strong from start to finish

I don't understand why they had to bring in Neo-Nazis. Walt vs. Hank and the DEA could have been incredible.

I know "Reddit" is an overused insult, but Breaking Bad really started pandering to that audience when it became popular with that crowd. You know, the type of people who wear Heisenberg shirts and have BrBa pins and bumper stickers with quotes on them. Same thing is happening with Game of Thrones now.

The ending pandered to that crowd in what was literally "Walt defeats le nazis with EPIC science and engineering! XD" then a heavy-handed ending/final shot that plebs think was the most profound thing ever committed to television.

Still a good show, though.

I personally don't like it because I felt the Nazis were a weak 'villain' for the show to end on. The show should've continued, but with him using the events of season 5 to make him realize just how resilient he was and to spur him to face off with some big Mexican cartel. Have Walt test himself because he's got nothing to lose now that he got exposed and lost all of those people he cared about.

Wow guys this is the most civil and well thought out thread i've ever seen on this board. well done

doesn't fighting a weak villain just add to his character though? He was way over his head throughout the series and thought so much of himself despite being just a weak old fool, and in the end a group of redneck retards who swing guns around were his final enemy. So much for a meth-lord

I don't know, I just felt like it was fitting in a way

What are you talking about? The final season is probably the most widely-loved.

>HEIB

?

He
Entirely
Is
Bad

BRAVO, GILLIGAN

He died in the car and his success at the very end was a pseudo-believable neuron hallucination.

At least thats what I want to believe since the whole Aryan drug dealer thing was fucking gay.

I see hardly anyone bring this up, but the real reason the show feels so off in (especially latter) season 5 is simple:

They completely change the structure of the show and eliminate Jesse as a central character.

Throughout all the other seasons it was a show with a split focus on Walt AND Jesse. Yes, yes, it might have been their intention to kill him at first, but that changed almost instantly and we got a show not about one man but about two. Whether together or apart we always followed Jesse, even when he was doing nothing except sitting on his ass being depressed and having PTSD for seasons on end. He was a real character.

Throughout the final season this is more and more not the case. Jesse is dropped as a character and instead becomes a plot device. He shows up when the plot needs to move forward, or to give Walt motivation, etc. He is the maguffin of the show in season 5, and gone is any progression or character for him. He's just there to help wrap shit up as it relates to Walt. THIS is why the show feels off. The Nazis were a mistake and a far more satisfying end would have been a proper Walt v Jesse season, instead of kind of sort of an episode and a half of him backing up Hank and otherwise being in the backseat for the season.

It had a fairly clean ending. I'm not sure if it was planned to end at that point, but they didn't draw it out until it was no longer profitable like most of the trash, especially anime, out these days.

reminder there are numbnuts who defend S5

reminder there are numbnuts who defend the machine gun robot

reminder there are numbnuts who think the ending is le deep

>machine gun robot
Literally nothing wrong with it.

wtf i hate season 5 now

>breaking bad ended over 3 years ago
Where has the time gone, lads?

>start of the final season shows him playing with his food
>Spelling out his age with bacon
>Didnt kill Skylar

I was kinda mad about that.

This is pretty good, much easier than swapping in a better villian or keeping gus alive longer. Makes sense, builds on relationships... shit user, where were you 5 years ago to guide the ship?

show had a buildup that made it seem like it was going somewhere sublime

instead it ended in a shootout no different from all the other shootouts, except that this was determined to be the last one

Yes!!!