You can get so much wrong or so much right when you have either too few or too many resources.
There are not many people who, if told to paint the ceiling, would create the paintings in the Sistine Chapel. There are not many people who, if told they had 10 minutes for a silent short expository scene in the Pixar movie "Up," could convey as much emotion about love and loss through the audience than some individual full-length films.
This is a problem for our favorite television shows that break bad, shows that abuse the amount of screen time they need to flesh out their convoluted storylines but have bitten off too much to chew. These shows then fizzle out before they reach the end known as “jumping the shark."
This is why people should consider "Breaking Bad" as one of the top television shows or any form of entertainment ever: The showrunners realized it was time to end the series at its peak, before it was too late.
While everything has fallen apart for the protagonist, Walter White, nothing fell apart for the fan base in terms of interest in the series. We were left to emotionally ride out this gut-wrenching epic final season.
Compare this final season to other TV shows that have ended this year, such as "The Office" or "Dexter."
How would you remember them as a whole? Most would say "The Office" ended a couple of seasons too late, while "Dexter" did its best to alienate and betray its fans. Both can still be considered great shows with great moments, but it requires selective memory so that we can forget certain things that diminish their legacies.
This final season of "Breaking Bad" provides a social commentary for shows that try too much and stay on air for too long.
The tagline of the final season, “Remember My Name,” served as a preview of Walter White’s legacy.
At the end of the finale, we see that nobody will really remember White's legacy as he might have hoped. He wanted to be a great father and husband to his family, and he ended up as neither. Would we all trade the extra seasons of "Dexter" or "The Office" for a much more satisfying send-off to remember it better?
Many fans may want a sixth season of "Breaking Bad," as much as fans of Harry Potter might want an eighth entry to the series.
However, TV shows need to remember that more seasons doesn’t automatically make it become grand.
It’s better to accept and enjoy the feeling of when you reach the ending credits of your favorite show or movie and realizing “It’s over,” rather than the feeling of watching the deteriorating quality of a seventh or eighth season and saying to yourself, “It’s over.”
Reach the columnist at vqnguey1@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @taequangdoh.
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