“Breaking Bad” Comes to an End Sunday Night
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Frank Ockenfels 3/AMC(LOS ANGELES) — On Sunday night, fans will say goodbye to AMC’s Breaking Bad, as it ends its fifth and final season with an episode that begins at 9 p.m. Eastern time.
The series, which premiered in 2008 and won this year’s Emmy for outstanding drama series, has followed the evolution of Bryan Cranston’s character, Walter White, as a cancer-stricken chemistry teacher who became a meth dealer to support his family. Along the way, White has maintained a contentious relationship with his partner in crime, Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul.
Cranston, Paul, and Cranston’s onscreen wife, Anna Gunn, have all won Emmys for their roles on the show.
Series creator Vince Gilligan recently said he had felt “really nervous” about putting together the finale for “six years straight,” because he wanted it to have a satisfying conclusion. However, he said, he “realized along the way the best hope we had to come up with something that hopefully most people will like was to satisfy ourselves — the seven of us in the writers’ room, and hopefully these actors as well, and the crew.”
Jonathan Banks, who was nominated for an Emmy for playing fixer Mike Ehrmantraut on Breaking Bad, can offer no insight into the finale, since his character was killed off earlier in the season. He tells ABC News Radio he’s made sure to avoid any spoilers because he wants to watch the finale as it unfolds.
Banks is just happy that he was involved in a show that will live on for many years to come. He says, “You have that feeling that unless many people are wrong that this is something that people are going to be aware of 50 years from now.”
Jon Hamm, the star of another Emmy-winning AMC drama, Mad Men, and a friend of Cranston, jokes that he’s hoping “everyone dies” in the last episode and that “it’s a bloodbath.” In all seriousness, he believes it will be “compelling, thrilling, terrifying and finished.”
Variety TV critic Brian Lowry tells ABC News Radio he will be satisfied with the ending as long as it provides closure. He says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s something a little cryptic about it, something a little open-ended, but I don’t expect them to leave you staring into a white space wondering…what happened next.”
What will Breaking Bad‘s legacy be after it signs off? Lowry certainly gives it high praise: “I’m not sure I’d say it’s the best show ever. I think it certainly is in the conversation.”
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio