By Ashley Paul
BU News Service

BOSTON—On Sunday nights around 10 p.m., social media is flooded with comments about “Breaking Bad”—especially this season, which is the show’s fifth and final season. Last Sunday, when up against the Emmy Awards, NFL Football games, and the series finale of “Dexter,” the show still managed to reel in 6.6 million viewers.

The Emmy-award winning show—about Walt, a high school chemistry teacher who turns to dealing meth when he is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer—has  fans are in a frenzy about the series finale set to air tomorrow. Even those who don’t watch the show have likely heard friends, family members, or even just strangers talking about it. It’s seemingly impossible to escape. 

“I heard everyone talking about it, so I started watching it on Netflix while the show was in its third season. I quickly caught up and I’ve been hooked ever since,” says Hillary Weiss, a student at Boston University. This is one thing that the show’s viewers all seem to have in common: once they start watching it, it’s like a bad drug—they simply cannot stop. “Every single episode ends with a cliffhanger,” Weiss says.

The recipe to a hit television show is a difficult one to perfect—just look at the dozens of new shows canceled every season. Sam Kauffman, a film professor at Boston University, explains why he thinks this show found such success. “I think it is a hit because the characters are so believable, yet so deranged,” he says.

It may may seem odd to root for a couple of drug-dealing protagonists battling their enemies and raking in illegal money, but the fans have developed strong emotions, both positive and negative, toward these characters.

“I like Jesse [Walt’s former student and partner-in-crime] because he goes from bad in the beginning to good, and you really learn to like him at the same time that you learn to hate Walt,” Weiss says.

Fans who have followed this pair’s journey are sad to see it end, but many agree that the show has run its course.

“The makers of the show have done what they set out to do. In the beginning of the show, Walt talks about how chemistry means change, and this show has definitely changed as much as it could throughout the seasons,” Kauffman said.