LONG LIVE HEISENBERG!

In my lifetime, I have had the privilege of watching some amazing television shows, and for that I am blessed. With all the horrible shows on TV, every now and then comes a show that just gets it right, from start to finish. Last night one of those shows ended; Breaking Bad. It was sad to see such phenomenal programming leave the air, but creator Vince Gilligan came, saw, and conquered with Breaking Bad. If you can make a show about two guys from New Mexico, making methamphetamine, into an all-time great show, then you should walk around all day patting yourself on the back. The characters were so flawed but so real, it made you believe this was actually happening every week; and you didn’t want to turn away. The main protagonist of the show, Walter White, was every boring chemistry or biology teacher all of us had growing up. A nice older gentleman, who was the ultimate nerd and took his science class a little too seriously, but was still a nice teacher. I know I went to school with a few Jesse Pinkman’s growing up. The kid you knew was going to get arrested right after high school for doing something stupid, and spending life in and out of prison. We knew these characters; we grew up with their counterparts from our respective childhood’s, we could relate. Then came Heisenberg.

Heisenberg was something different; he was the ultimate anti-hero, and the underdog we were all rooting for. I know on multiple occasions I found myself yelling at the screen saying, “The man is only doing this for his damn kids!!!” I was just as delusional as Walt, because now I had become a Heisenberg apologist. That was the beauty of this show, us rooting for the bad guy to win. Why was Skylar always on his damn back when he was just trying to make sure if he died of cancer his family would be taken care of? Why was Jesse always giving him a rough time when all Mr. White was doing was making sure Jesse was always going to be taken care of? Why did Hank have to be that over zealous DEA agent after finding out Heisenberg was his brother in law, and knowing Walt had retired from the meth business?? It wasn’t Walt’s fault; you people all drove him to this!!! Here in lies the inner-delusion most fans like myself faced week in and week out. We all knew Walt was “the Devil” as Jesse called him in one of the final episodes. Walt, rather yet, Heisenberg was a killer. Heisenberg was a brilliant, cold, calculating drug kingpin who would kill anyone and everyone in his way. I knew it, you knew it, but it didn’t matter because we were rooting for the right guy. Again, Walt was doing this for his kids. He was the ultimate father, and we were the ultimate psychopaths who rooted for him to get away with everything in the end.

The greatest show I’ve ever watched was The Wire, and I believe Breaking Bad will be the closest anyone will ever come to making a show that rivals it. Both shows involved flawed characters, family, loyalty, and drugs; never forget the drugs. The narcotics were the catalyst for both shows, and it was the power that comes from being the kings of those drugs that made the characters who they were. The ending of Breaking Bad got it right. Jesse lives to tweak on another day, Walt’s kids will always be taken care of, the white supremacist and Lydia got what was coming to them, and Walt died knowing he had left his imprint on everyone who had come in contact with him on his meth journey. He died knowing he tied up all the loose ends, and he didn’t go out cause of cancer, he went out on Heisenberg’s terms. So again, Vince Gilligan, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, thank you gentlemen for making our Sunday nights worth a damn for 5 amazing seasons. LONG LIVE HEISENBERG!!!!!!!!!!