The Impact Of Breaking Bad

It’s hard to deny the impact a show like Breaking Bad had on TV Culture and the millions of fans that enjoyed watching it every Sunday night.

That’s 10.3 million people who sat down to watch the heart pumping finale, to be exact. An amazing feat because the viewership had previously never gone above 6.6 million.

Its hard to understand just how crazy that is until it is put into context. Two years ago during the season finale, when Walt “Faced Off” with Gus Fring, the enemy of that season, it only had 1.9 million viewers. This was actually considered a good thing because it was more than 20 percent higher from the previous season.

This didn’t only affect the fans, but AMC as well who was able to make quite a bit more money from their ads. AMC charged as high as $400,000 for 30-second ads during the finale, competing with a similar price for shows like Modern Family and even American Idol.

One of the biggest issues fans have with some of their favorite shoes is that they don’t quite know when to quit. Shows such as The Office and Dexter ran dry after awhile, and affect the viewers’ view of the show as a whole.

However the writers and Vince Gilligan, the creator, are happy with the way it ended and were grateful enough to have those five seasons to keep viewers on their seat.

 “I can’t even believe that the ratings have increased with each episode — I just think it’s wonderful. People have asked me, ‘Does it make you want to go on and do a bunch more episodes now?’ Just the opposite. It makes me think; through quite a bit of good luck being involved, we really did pick the right moment to exit the stage,” said Vince Gilligan.

Vince credited Netflix for the success of the show at the Emmys recently, because it allowed people to watch the show at their own pace, and catch up quick enough to be able to watch the finale with everyone else.

Breaking Bad withstood the test of time, and commuted from the Internet age, to the social media age, and did so gracefully.

Upon its premier in 2008, Facebook was social media, and in 2013 things have progressed so rapidly and people are so uses to getting information at an instant with Twitter.

This has produced a generation that is lacking patience, as they are used to getting what they want, when they want it. Many TV shoes can be blamed for that, with conflict resolutions appearing within the 30 minute span of the show, and quips that are easy to understand.

A show like Breaking Bad didn’t offer that, but was still able to tie up all loose ends in the season finale. One thing that contributed to Breaking Bad being such a success was its character progression within the show. They seemed natural, and coincided with the happenings of the show, like a chemical reaction if you will.

During the show, Walt was the only one who actually broke bad, and Jessie did the opposite.

As the show goes on, Jesse becomes a nicer, better guy. He becomes more humane, responsible, etc.  He ends up taking care of his work area which touches Walt in the final episode when he goes into the lab, a complete opposite to how he was during the first season. He grows to almost resent Walter for doing exactly what Jesse originally started off doing himself. Jesse ends up literally breaking away from his bad.

He even finds himself in rehab, in an effort to better himself. Even the way he kills people changes. When he kills Gale, you can see the sorrow in eyes as his handshakes when he pulls the trigger.

Even in the finale when he kills Todd, it is done out of total anger and despair, not out of greed and revenge.  In the final episode he finally gets free off that ball and chain that has been holding him; there’s no loose end to chase him after he hears Walt has dealt with Lydia. And him crashing through the fence or breaking through it, literally shoes him breaking away from the business. He's free.

This is in contrast to Walt who ends up growing to love the whole process behind meth (all the chemistry etc.) so he chooses to die in that environment. In doing so it shows that he is the #1 meth cook, and his legacy will live on. He even has an ego after death. A true transformation from the wimp of a man he was in season 1.

During this final episode, Walt said to Skylar that he felt 'alive' while he was on top and making meth.  Ironically that it’s the meth trade that kills him, as well as the bullet that came from his own gun.

The only time he looked genuinely happy was at the end when he touched metal vats in the cook room, which he eerily had the same look when he said goodbye to his daughter.

The entire show displays 2 people Breaking Bad at the same pace, same time and similar settings, but in two opposite ways. Sort of like chemistry.