Most of us curse the saying, “All good things come to an end,” and it was the same for many across the world as the popular television (TV) series Breaking Bad came to end on Monday (in India). Airing for a successful five seasons, Vince Gilligan’s show has joined the ranks of David Simon’s The Wire and David Chase’s The Sopranos, some arguing that Walter White/Heisenberg may even be better. With TV series becoming a larger part of our lives than just recreation, for many the end of a series is a heart-breaker; what will they fill the vacuum with now?
Hyderabadis were also among this population who even put up Facebook statuses biding adieu to the chemistry professor-turned-meth lord. Anuraag Mokkarala, an MBBS graduate says, “I cannot imagine my life without Breaking Bad. I have been watching it for five years now. I can’t believe it’s over. I feel like a part of me has died along with the show,” he exclaimed.
Echoing a similar sentiment, Priyanka Kumbhat, an event planner, had a different take though. “While I’m absolutely gutted to see the end, I would rather have it this way than to see shows get painfully dragged on until viewers lose interest. I think Breaking Bad has ended at just the right time, when the interest was it’s peak,” remarked the 21 year old.
While Breaking Bad, currently the highest rated TV show on air, wound up this week, good Samaritan serial killer Dexter also recently aired its series finale, after a run of eight seasons over eight years. And the problem with long running series is that they don’t just occupy a few hours a week of your time, many live with the characters for years together, leaving them with higher expectations. “I was a bit disappointed with Dexter’s finale actually. They could have done so much more,” says Priyanka.
Sneha Kollaparthi, a student of Mass Communication in Hyderabad adds that the gap left by these shows are sometimes too big to fill. “I know that this is not the end of the world and new shows are going to come, but I personally think that Breaking Bad is one of the best shows to have come for a long time and it would be almost impossible to replace,” she said.
But a true TV series addict never has just the one show to keep them going and so with new seasons of other series like Homeland, Revenge, Castle, 2 Broke Girls, How I Met Your Mother hitting televisions and some others like Supernatural beginning later this week, there’s plenty out there to sink into.
Agreeing, Priyanka says, “Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy and The Big Bang Theory is out so I’m happy with that. So Dexter may have gone, but there’s always something else to look forward to.”