Just a small announcement regarding Breaking Bad.

[Magus]

If you have not been watching Breaking Bad you have been completely wasting the hour and five minutes between 10 p.m. and 11:05 p.m. EST every Sunday night for the past 13 weeks, unless by happenstance you are someone involved in creating the show and so are already privy to its plot developments, or were having really, really hot sex each Sunday during that time and when finished turned on Breaking Bad for its encore showing to view while entwined in your lover's arms.

Because I am here to say forget The Wire HOLY SHIT THAT WAS THE BEST THING I EVER WATCHED ON TELEVISION.

Thank you for your time.

EDIT: Re: The Wire, it is not that I don't think The Wire wasn't really really really really really really really really really phenomenal, it's that I think Breaking Bad is really really really really really really really really really REALLY phenomenal.

[Betty Elms]

Yes, everybody really does need to be watching this.

Spoilers for the finale. The only thing I particularly objected to was the closeness of the zoom in the final shot. Way to be as completely obvious as possible to the extent of abandoning even visual artistry, let alone subtlety. It made a moment of creeping dread into "oh wow what a twist!"

Everything else was oh shit fuckin awesome. Stance on Gus's death: Not ridiculous or unbelievable. Blackly comic in a way that evokes like twenty different emotions in a span of ten seconds.

[Magus]

Another testament to the greatness of Betty Elms!

EDIT: People complaining about the unrealisticness of Gus being able to walk out of the room before dying seem to have forgotten the myriad other unrealistic events and situations throughout the series. I mean this is a series where a large part of an episode revolved around two meth heads trying to break into an ATM machine they stole and tying up Jesse, and then it fortuitously falling and crushing the one's head and popping open so Jesse can scrape up the cash.

[Betty Elms]

People complaining about the unrealisticness of Gus being able to walk out of the room before dying seem to have forgotten the myriad other unrealistic events and situations throughout the series.

Exactly. Breaking Bad isn't an extraordinarily realistic show, it functions in the same flexible sort of pop universe as a lot of other shows. It just happens to be rather bleak and really good. It has strong elements of dark comedy, and comedy usually revolves around events transpiring in not quite the most expected manner. It's like how some people said Ted dying by tripping on a carpet was a deus ex machina. It's not as though the writers had no idea how to get rid of an unintelligent character who kept putting himself in greater danger, they just felt like going about it in an amusing and unpredictable manner.

Although I'm gonna disagree with your prioritization of it over The Wire. That a single show told one of the most well crafted stories in the history of the medium while also making THE most powerful political statement in the history of the medium is nothing short of miraculous.

[POS Industries]

This serendipitous near-simultaneous creation of Breaking Bad threads has been unified into one glorious thread, much like Bizarro Moses and the Bizarro Red Sea.

Let us all celebrate Bryan Cranston's ability to have survived Malcolm in the Middle and go on to have a respectable and celebrated career in acting.

[Flarecobra]

Never heard of this show.

[Magus]

Never heard of this show.

Something something under a rock something something Mars. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad)

Breaking Bad is an American television drama series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Breaking Bad is the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series. He turns to a life of crime, producing and selling methamphetamine with a former student, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), with the aim of securing his family's financial future before he dies.[1]

Breaking Bad has received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for its writing and cinematography, in addition to the acting ability of its cast. It has won six Emmy Awards—including three consecutive wins for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Cranston—in addition to numerous other awards and nominations.

The series is broadcast in the United States and Canada on the cable channel AMC, and is a production of Sony Pictures Television. It premiered on January 20, 2008. The fourth season premiered on July 17, 2011.[2][3][4] On August 14, 2011, AMC announced that Breaking Bad had been renewed for a fifth and final season consisting of 16 episodes that may be split over two seasons.[5]

[Flarecobra]

Well, I'm usually watching Iron Chef America at that time... Plus I don't know if she even GETS AMC here.

[Magus]

Well, I'm usually watching Iron Chef America at that time... Plus I don't know if she even GETS AMC here.

Walter White >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Bobby Flay

[Carade]

Whoa whoa. Breaking Bad is great/fantastic and all, but "Forget The Wire?" That's some crazy talk boy.

[TDK]

So I only just got to watch the season finale because I don't have cable and WOW.

I don't even have words for how fucking awesome that was. Best show.

Also, I kind of thought this was the last season, but now I am super excited that there is going to be another season because Breaking Bad is the best show.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

What if I didn't like The Wire? Will I like breaking bad.
Will it teach me how to run drugs.

[TDK]

Well the first thing that will happen when you're a man of science and watch Breaking Bad is that you're going to want to make meth.

Its very important that you resist this urge.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

But I have access to all the equipment and the chemicals I need! I even have an empty lab nobody is using.

[TDK]

VERY important!