Good news and bad news for fans of TV’s most intense show: AMC and “Breaking Bad” have finally concluded their drawn-out negotiations, and the critically acclaimed series has been renewed for a plus-sized fifth season of 16 episodes. The catch? It will be “Breaking Bad’s” final season, fulfilling showrunner Vince Gilligan’s desire to conclude the series.
There’s still no word on when the fifth season will air or how AMC will package it — rumors suggest the possibility of two eight-episode mini-seasons — but Gilligan sounded enthusiastic in this statement:
“It’s a funny irony — I’d hate to know the date of my own last day on earth, but I’m delighted to know what Walter White’s will be (episodically speaking). This is a great gift to me and to my wonderful writers. It’s knowledge which will allow us to properly build our story to a satisfying conclusion. Now, if we don’t manage to pull that off, we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves.” [via HitFix]
Frankly, I’m kind of surprised that some people are bummed that the series is ending. We’re getting five seasons of a complex, intense show about a chemistry teacher turned meth dealer that will end because the showrunner wants it to have a fulfilling conclusion. That’s a good thing. Shows are SUPPOSED to end. TV series tell stories, and stories need endings. If you want to watch non-stories that don’t end, Bravo has like eight different shows about housewives that will still be filming after a nuclear holocaust. Those women are cockroaches.
