I enjoyed Breaking Bad. It's not a show I would watch regularly, since it's such an emotional slog. And I don't know if the writers had the ending we got in mind from the beginning. Jessie was supposed to die at the end of season one, but wound up being such a compelling character he was basically the other star of the show and worth continuing his story. I wasn't a Skyler hater but I got why people hated her. I think I hated Marie more, and Hank becoming the ultimate bad guy for Walt and dying in the end made for really amazing tension in the final season. Even with its below average episodes and weaker story lines, it was still a solid show.
But is it a solid show that needs a movie? I don't think so.
Jessie riding off into the sunset as Walt lays dying was a perfect ending. Do we need to see Jessie's life now? Maybe he's gone nuts. He's been tortured and he's lost everything but the freedom he has at the end is exhilarating. Walt kind of smiling up at us from the floor of the lab with the house full of bullet riddled bodies close by, perfect. He's free in his own way. He's going to die from cancer anyway. Do we need to see him in jail? Maybe you do. Maybe some people needed him to face the consequences beyond losing his family. And do we need to see his family now living in witness protection? I think that'd be boring. I'd make a show about the daughter Holly growing up to find out about her dad and going off the rails, and maybe she tracks Jessie down to learn the truth and he goes mental.
I love seeing Mike in Better Call Saul, and I thought I'd hate the show. The pilot felt fan servicey AF, but the development of Jimmy and Kim, and watching Kim persistently surprising you with how she reacts to Jimmy's schemes, how she's so strong and compelling but so human in her love for Jimmy which we often don't believe due to her moments of coldness - it's a fucking joy to see. Throw all the awards at this woman, honestly she's become one of my favourite actresses. She's perfectly nuanced, wanting to do shit by the book but getting a rush from breaking the rules for the greater good, hoping it's what she and Jimmy will do in the long run. Her inner conflict over how they take down Howard is conveyed so perfectly in her subtle mannerisms whenever she watches Howard spiraling. She never gives herself away to anyone. And you know she disappears, but she's not like Skyler, which I imagine people were expecting. You see Jimmy's lack of personal confidence making him paranoid about her never believing in him and surpassing him professionally until she walks out on him. He's trashing the best thing in his life and now we can see it truly coming undone. Playing this out over a series is perfect. I wouldn't want to see a movie of this.
And I don't think a Breaking Bad movie is totally necessary. I love how it ended. There was a conclusion, it wasn't a cliffhanger and it wasn't all that ambiguous. I was satisfied. Apparently, not everyone was.
Cut to October 2019
I'm going to add my massive addendum here and say I take just about all of this back after having seen El Camino, that just dropped on Netflix without a lot of fanfare which is great. I saw an Instagram post thinking this was coming out in a month. Nope. It's here. And it's pretty great. Jesse was deserving of a proper ending and I think taking a strange kind of haphazard Kill Bill narrative with Jesse inadvertently getting revenge on the other men involved directly or indirectly in his captivity was a great move. We get to hang with Badger and Skinny Pete but we're not overloaded with their contribution, they kind of get their own redemption of sorts. And the "flashbacks" of scenes we weren't privy to but that shaped Jesse's character and motivations were handled so well, I didn't feel like Walt or Jane or Mike were forced into the script in any way. It felt very natural to have a kind of flashback/forward narrative. Aaron Paul really is masterful here showing Jesse's transformation as reformed criminal while still effortlessly giving us the Jesse we all came to love. The major problem I noticed was his teeth were way too white for someone who'd been in a cage in the ground for months but that's literally the biggest and most pointless gripe I had. And I wasn't even really watching it attentively I was slipping in and out but still captivated enough, however I will watch it again, perhaps after giving the series another run through. In fact, it might be more fun to watch now. I think I've forgotten a lot more than I thought since I had to be jogged about certain characters. Otherwise it was a good way to give justice to a character that did really need a better ending. Admittedly I spoiled a moment for myself seeing someone in the cast list. And the instagram post also spoiled the ending for me but fuck it, I didn't really mind. I want to think between this and Better Call Saul we'll see a fitting send off for the three unlikely amigos, I think Jimmy really deserves to have his own moment of glory after hitting rock bottom but I feel like it'll end with Jimmy just accepting his new life in some capacity. Or falling on his sword. It'd be really beautiful if we cut ahead and find Kim stumbling across him but I think the implication is she's well and truly gone and he doesn't deserve to have her back. Even if it ended with bygones that'd be nice.
But the Breaking Bad saga is over for me and I think trying to do any kind of other spin off or rehash would actually be a mistake. It's just nice to know this movie wasn't. It's more like a cinematic extended episode you're not following any other characters and you hear the fate of people like Lydia through radio and television news. Bringing Jesse's parents back in was also a nice touch. I think it's sweeter to imagine Jesse at forty in the same white knit sweater, on a fishing boat off the coast of Alaska, smiling off into the distance, than it is to see him stark raving mad on the run. I like they didn't bring Skyler and the kids back into it. A street sign ends up being the only real nod I saw to them. (I just finished reading a very stupid ABC article on it that had to remind people of shit they should already know and didn't feature many "easter eggs" and I think that street sign was one of them and they missed it so.... There's another article making really tenuous links as well in that classic "this coulda been a reference to X episode in Y season but we're fuckin' reaching and need to fill our clickbait quota for the day- though they picked up the street sign reference too.) Whatever. It worked. Vince is a champ, it was cute he got to have a little standoff put in as well. I enjoyed it. Nothing I said above back in January turned out right and I'm glad.
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