Ozymandias (Breaking Bad) is the best piece of television ever produced
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Bobby Roberts
Banned
I think it's the best series finale ever made, personally. Especially considering what that show was, and what it was trying to do. The way people judge series finales as needing to be some sort of big fat sum up/thesis statement on what came before (and that outlook tends to leave a LOT of shows' last episodes lacking - maybe only Next Gen passes the test as nicely as Six Feet does in that regard) - Six Feet Under's final episode fucking PERFECTLY encapsulates the that show, while being probably its best episode, period. They actually saved the best for last. That almost never happens.
A decent summation of most of its run, yeah.
If you're talking number of viewers not quality, I think AMC still wins.
In your first sentence, yeah. "Their stuff has made more waves than HBO" sounds pretty ambiguous.
Aight though, I get where you're coming from. Don't know if I agree though when it comes to quality, and Breaking Bad is the only show on AMC to really make waves when it comes to viewership. Mad Men doesn't do that well regarding that.
Tesseract
Banned
i got no words for b5 haters. you have no soul.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sopranos
Season average is at 6 million by season 2. Breaking Bad Reached that in its final season.
The Walking Dead is averaging 14 million this season. Again, we're talking viewers not quality.
CrunchyFrog
Member
Ozymandias as a whole episode is awesome, but I really love the Walt/Hank confrontation from Blood Money and of the course the video tape from Confessions. Whole back half of season 5 was just spectacular though.
teruterubozu
Member
Plus those Sopranos DVDs sold like crazy.
DOWN
Banned
Okay, I thought my first sentence kinda made it clear that AMC wasn't really a competitor of HBO before these recent series.
AMC has quite the hit on their hands with The Walking Dead, though it is not a critical darling. And HBO has had a number of shows that are critical buzzers with lower viewership similar to Mad Men. I'd say they are pretty aligned, with AMC getting more talk for the Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Walking Dead trifecta than HBO ever since those shows came around. Game of Thrones is the only big HBO show now, isn't it?
Bobby Roberts
Banned
teruterubozu
Member
True Detective
Everyone likes to talk about Girls, despite nobody ever watching it.
e: and True Detective is a hit as mentioned above
I genuinely forgot that show existed. I'll take the L for not knowing that. Didn't need the reminder of what we talking about though.
Tesseract
Banned
no. soul. most rewarding show ever, planned out to near perfection from start to finish.
I was trying to make sure you couldn't wiggle away with something like "but that's not a good show"
sixteen-bit
Member
Mutha. Fuckin. SUITCASE.
And those fuckers were expensive. They were around $60-$90 per season for a while.
TheExhaustedWalrus
Member
I wouldn't argue against it. In every way it is perfect. But there are some episodes of The Sopranos that are up there.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
I like all your picks, although I think if you're gonna pick any single episode of Battlestar, it's either 33 or Pegasus.
(or maybe Unfinished Business)
I really like that Twilight Zone episode where the kid sends people into the cornfields. Or the one where the neighbourhood power starts getting weird and people start to mob over who's to blame. Or the one where an alien lands in mexico or something and he accidentally kills a couple of cops and the town turns into an angry mob looking for him, but he turns out
I really like Twilight Zone I guess - I put a lot of it up there as "best TV ever." Especially considering the time of release and that the episodes are always self-contained.
Ozymandias is really fantastic, but it also has the benefit of 5 seasons worth of build. Still, incredible no less.
to have brought with him the cure for disease.
Ozymandias is really fantastic, but it also has the benefit of 5 seasons worth of build. Still, incredible no less.
BKatastrophe
Member
I mean, for a television series you would usually spend a lot more time with a character than in a movie. So I would say it's easier in that sense to create a singular episode that might be better than a movie, simply because you get to see the character and arcs develop in a fairly real way. Compare that to a movie, where everything gets crunched down to about 3 hours, usually a lot less and lord help us if it's more than that.
As for really good episodes of television, I guess it may not compare to the apparent greatness of other shows that have been mentioned, but I've always found The Gift from Season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to be pretty amazing, and Your Welcome from Season 5 of Angel. And Swan Song from Season 5 of Supernatural. Hmm, something about fifth seasons...
That's just my two cents.
shadyspace
Banned
DS9 was better.
BKatastrophe
Member
Man that is a good damn episode.
It certainly was.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Given the topic title, you could point to any number of Band of Brothers episodes that also tower above Ozy.
"Why We Fight" for one.
I feel like Ozymandias really lived up to being able to hit all the notes that the audience predicted with perfection. The episode wasn't mindblowing nor were there any major changes in the way Walt's decent was going down. We all knew that Hank and Gomez were going down, the Nazis were going to be enemy #1, the family would finally break (baby Holly being taken was cool, but even then she was returned).
I don't know how else to describe the episode that isn't "predictable, but exhilarating". A lot of what we wanted, or knew was going to happen, happened and it nailed the landing like no other. It's one of my favorite episodes of the show.
I don't know how else to describe the episode that isn't "predictable, but exhilarating". A lot of what we wanted, or knew was going to happen, happened and it nailed the landing like no other. It's one of my favorite episodes of the show.
bobawesome
Member
I certainly wasn't expecting things to end that way.
T
Transhuman
Unconfirmed Member
Not sure if this is an unpopular opinion, but the only shit thing Rian Johnson ever directed was Looper. Brick, The Brothers Bloom, and the Terriers/ Breaking Bad episodes he's directed have been nothing short of amazing.
I really tried to watch The West WIng, but it felt really forced and holier than thou. Same with The Newsroom. Some of the shit Sorkin does is incredibly cheesy.
the_firewithin
Member
The Constant gets my vote
MarauderShields
Member
Did you watch The Newsroom first? If so you probably went in expecting it to be shit. The West Wing is 10000000000000000000000000000000000000x better.
Vulcano's assistant
Banned
HeisenbergLannister
Member
Still have not watched it since it first aired.
The ending of it made me feel sick to my stomach as five seasons of storylines finally exploded, in the true ending before the final two episodes were an "epilogue" of sorts.
The ending of it made me feel sick to my stomach as five seasons of storylines finally exploded, in the true ending before the final two episodes were an "epilogue" of sorts.
darkiguana
Member
That was as devastating episode. My favorite single episode of any single show. The whole show was leading up to that and the writers nailed it.
I dunno there's something more going on than just length. TV is in some kind of phase where more risks are being taken, and movies are in a phase where far fewer risks are being taken. I can feel the focus-grouping of movie plots, filing away divisive characters and moral ambiguity that are usually the most compelling parts of great TV shows with anti-heroes and villain protagonists like Sopranos and Breaking Bad.
I think the shift away from network broadcasting and into cable and premium cable channels has allowed for a major renaissance in TV shows. Less risk is also taken in on NBC, ABC, and CBS, and their content is all the duller for it.
Night Hunter
Banned
Well, personally I'd say that there are actually a lot of episodes that I personally think are better than Ozymandias.
*Band of Brothers' Bastogne (01x06), The Breaking Point (01x07) and Why We Fight (01x09) for one
*I have always been very fond of Generation Kill's Bomb in the Garden (01x07), although I have long come to terms with the fact that this series will never be accepted as one of the absolute greats.
*Bad Dreams (02x11) and Final Grades (04x13) from The Wire
*The Suitcase (04x07) from Mad Men
*Gomorrah - Gelsomina Verde (01x09)
And a few others. Funnily enough I can't think of a single Sopranos episode. Don't get me wrong, I love(d) Breaking Bad, I really do, it's just one of those constructed purely character driven TV shows that get worse every time you watch them. The episode is constructed perfectly, it's just all the things around it that hold it down if you watch it more than maybe twice.
*Band of Brothers' Bastogne (01x06), The Breaking Point (01x07) and Why We Fight (01x09) for one
*I have always been very fond of Generation Kill's Bomb in the Garden (01x07), although I have long come to terms with the fact that this series will never be accepted as one of the absolute greats.
*Bad Dreams (02x11) and Final Grades (04x13) from The Wire
*The Suitcase (04x07) from Mad Men
*Gomorrah - Gelsomina Verde (01x09)
And a few others. Funnily enough I can't think of a single Sopranos episode. Don't get me wrong, I love(d) Breaking Bad, I really do, it's just one of those constructed purely character driven TV shows that get worse every time you watch them. The episode is constructed perfectly, it's just all the things around it that hold it down if you watch it more than maybe twice.
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