Obvious News: 'Breaking Bad', TV's darkest comedy, gets picked up for a fourth season

  AMC will announce Breaking Bad's fourth season today...now how 'bout that finale?

It's kind of hard to imagine that this should come as shocking to anyone, but here we go: AMC will announce today that they're picking up their flagship show, Breaking Bad, for a fourth season.  Last night, they aired the third season finale-- which was jaw-droppingly awesome, by the way-- and today they plan to reassure everyone that the trials and tribulations of one Walter Hill and one Jessie Pinkman will continue...I dunno, sometime next year.  For fans of the show, it means taking a looong break before we get some resolution for last night's cliffhanger (then again, with the sheer amount of Sopranos fans that are now Breaking Bad fans, are we not already used to long delays between seasons?).  Keep on reading for the details (there will be spoilers, in case you haven't seen last night's finale, so you've been warned), my gentle Examiner readers...

I'll confess to being a recent convert to the charms of Breaking Bad, a show that people have been trying to get me to watch for years now.  I bought the first season on DVD awhile back, only to never actually sit down and watch the series.  About a month ago, one thing led to another and I ended up watching both seasons (and every available episode OnDemand) back-to-back over a several day period.  In other words, I'm more than hooked on what Breaking Bad's selling, which is why I'm so happy to report that AMC will announce the show's fourth season this afternoon:

AMC has closed a deal to renew Vince Gilligan's dark drama Breaking Bad for a fourth season. The network is expected to make the announcement tomorrow, following tonight's third season finale. The deal had been in the works for almost two months, after the network first notified the auspices on the Sony TV-produced series of the pickup in April.

Thus spake Deadline Hollywood, who's generally on-the-nose about these kinda things.  There was never really any doubt that the show wasn't going to return for a fourth season-- you think they woulda left us on that big of a cliffhanger if they didn't know they were coming back?-- but it's still nice to know that we can look forward to new episodes...well, sometime in the future.  Apparently, the holdup came down to the cost of production: the team wanted $3.3m per episode, the network wanted to pay $3.1m. 

According to Deadline, the network and the show's creative forces came to an agreement-- they split the difference-- so the deal's done.  There is, however, a sad note in all this excitement (you are excited, aren't you?):  the show's creator, Vince Gilligan, is saying that he has every intention of running the series for two more seasons and then wrapping it up.  With AMC's abbreviated number of episodes per season, that means that-- at best-- we're looking at less than 30 new epiodes of Breaking Bad before it takes its leave from our TVs.  As a recent fan of the show, allow me to express how badly that sucks: that really, really sucks.  How about three more seasons, Vince Gilligan?  Come on, you know you can keep this train rolling for three more; throw us a bone here, there's barely anything worth watching on TV anymore.  Let's hear him out:

In my mind's eye I originally saw the show going maybe three seasons, and now I definitely see beyond three seasons. At least four, and possibly five. But it is a very tricky question to answer and it’s one of those things where it’s better to leave the party too soon than too late. You’d rather leave the people wanting more rather than leave them thinking, “Jesus, that guy overstayed his welcome.” I don’t know exactly how long that is, though, which worries me and also excites me. You have this opportunity to keep going for as long as you choose, but you’d better choose right.

By the way, there seems to be some question online whether or not Jessie actually shot Gale during last night's season finale (spoiler).  I thought that the show did seem to make it to where we weren't sure whether or not Gale had been shot, and-- from a cursory glance at a few other Breaking Bad-related blogs out there-- it seems that I wasn't alone.  Let's allow Vince Gilligan to settle the matter for us, thanks to the amazing interview he's done with The Onion's AV Club:

The A.V. Club: Last season ended with an episode that was reasonably conclusive, whereas this season ends with a cliffhanger. Why’d you choose to end on an ambiguous note?

Vince Gilligan: Well first let me ask you: When you say “ambiguous” do you mean ambiguous in the sense of did Jesse shoot Gale or not?

AVC: Among other things, yes. 

VG: Gotcha. That’s interesting, because I’m hearing that from some folks, that question. To me, for what it’s worth, it’s not actually meant to be ambiguous. It’s meant to be, “Oh my god, Jesse shot poor Gale.” But I’m realizing now that when people see the camera come dollying around so it’s looking down the barrel of the gun, some are reading that as maybe he’s changing his point of aim. But that’s not what we intended. Apparently it’s not as clear as I thought it would be. [Laughs.]

So, there you have it, guys: Jessie really did shoot Gale.  Guess that means Gus will have to keep Walt around for at least another month or two, huh?  Well, at least until he's trained some other new assistant to take over their massive operation.  Seems a bit like a band-aid covering a gaping head wound to me, but Gilligan's proven-- time and time again-- that he's thinking about nine steps ahead of the rest of us with his show, so I'm content to believe Walt's safe and that there'll be a sensible conclusion to all this.

Stay tuned for more news on the upcoming season(s) of Breaking Bad as it becomes available, my precious snowflakes, plus much more from the Comedy Examiner's Office in the near future.  In a few days, Examiner.com will have me operating a second, brand-new title: "Film Geek Examiner".  You might wanna hit the "Subscribe" button up top to get all future Comedy Examiner articles delivered straight to your email, free of charge, the moment they're published, just so you don't miss anything.  As if that's not enough, we've also got some other recent Comedy Examiner articles for ya while you're here:

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(photos: amc.com)