Breaking Bad’s almost over. It’s hard to believe and sad to think about, but it’s true! The final eight episodes start August 11, and we’ll be counting down to that momentous occasion with a special BB treat every day for a whole month. (It’s like our Les Misérables advent calendar, except not at Christmastime. And with less singing.) Nothing will ever truly prepare us to say farewell to one of the best dramas of all time, but we can start the long mourning process, at least. Today, one last piece of Breaking Bad ephemera. We made it!
Walter White has certainly had his fair share of medical maladies, starting with the series-defining lung cancer and moving on up through the several beatings and a stabbing or two. Unfortunately, there's still no medical treatment for brutality or cold-bloodedness.
Not everything about Breaking Bad has to be cruel, harsh, or violent. Sometimes it can be sweet and adorable! The Walt cookies are charming, but the pink bear really puts it over the top.
One of the most striking aspects of Breaking Bad is how relentlessly tense it is. Every episode of the show wrings anxiety from each — tick, tick, tick — moment, and season three's "One Minute" is pretty much perfect in every regard. BB is big on reflections, and the Salamanca cousins embody that: Almost but not quite identical, they're violent distortions of one another.
Reenact all your favorite Jesse and Walt scenes with these disconcertingly cute plush dolls. "Yeah, bitch!" you can whisper to yourself, as you drift off to sleep, clutching your BB babies.
[Mezco]
He's one of the best minor characters on Breaking Bad, a show that goes out of its way to have silly and fascinating weirdos in ever scene. (Miss you, "Franch" guy.) Sure, Saul's the one who's maybe getting a spinoff, but we'd watch a whole Badger show, too. Just look at those sick dance moves.
It seems like someone gets a star on the Walk of Fame every two days, but the powers that be finally got around to giving one to Bryan Cranston. Aaron Paul and Jane Kaczmarek were on hand to fete the actor, but the highlight of the ceremony is definitely Cranston breaking in to song. Our kingdom for a Walter White musical number!
There are only 54 episodes of Breaking Bad, so you could catch up just by binge-watching them. Or you could watch this video. Good god, this show is intense.
Not all BB fandom has to be frantic Tumblr posts and elaborate crackpot theories. Delicate decorative pieces have their place, too. And that place is on your earlobes.
Just when we thought we'd seen every possible mash-up, here comes the Breaking Bad and Beavis and Butt-Head. On a van, no less. C'est magnifique.
Dibs on being the wheelchair.
Bob Odenkirk is on the cover of the new issue of TNR, not that he thinks Saul would be a reader, really. "He definitely does not read The New Republic," Odenkirk tells the magazine. I think Saul reads GQ. I think he reads—is there a magazine that alerts you about when there are new strippers in town? He would read that. A stripper alert magazine. He would read USA Today if he were in the airport and were bored."
AMC still hasn't released any new footage from the final few episodes, but this highlight reel is enough to keep us going for a little while longer.
Walter White's transformation into Heisenberg is mostly spiritual and psychological. But…the hat helps. You too can proudly (well, sort of proudly?) own the same exact porkpie hat that gives Mr. White his ominous presence. Just don't leave it in the back of your car.
[Goorin]
Whatever happened to the bike lock? Is that teddy bear's eyeball still kicking around somewhere? And hey — does anyone have a coupon for a pizza to toss on the roof? Behold Walter White's sometimes deadly debris.
Here's is but one number from Walter White and the Amazing Blue Crystal Meth: A Breaking Bad Rock Opera, a full-on musical tribute that returns to the UCBLA stage in August. Warning: You're gonna be singing "I'm Hank!" all day.
BB writer and director Peter Gould tweeted this image of some of the storyboards from season four's "Problem Dog," and even in those sparse line drawings, the show retains its tension and urgency.
Get it? Lab? Awww.
They're murderers and drug lords, sure. But Walt and Jesse are also secret BFFs, with the googgly eyes to prove it.
Here's Bryan Cranston (or is it Walter White?) reciting Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias." (It's okay if you mostly recognize it from Watchmen.)
In 1999, Weird Al released a rambling 11-minute song. In 2008, Breaking Bad began. And now in 2013, their inevitable combination. Bizarre yet brilliant.
A mustache on a cat is one thing. But rubber gloves, too? Oh, it makes one's heart sing. For a show that's so bleak and vicious, there sure are a lot of adorable versions of Breaking Bad's characters.
Usually the lovey-dovey collage treatment is reserved for pop stars and hunks. But some people love Saul. (Or Bob Odenkirk. Or both!) And just because he's a scummy lawyer with the world's tackiest office doesn't mean he's not worthy of devotional artwork.
It's like if She & Him wrote tribute songs. Charming! So very charming.
The best part is the Etch A Sketched Heisenberg.
Of course Rhett and Link made a Breaking Bad video, and of course it's a musical, and of course it stars tweens.
Download, print, and fold your very own papercraft Heisenberg. His head moves side-to-side! And his spirit moves from light to darkness.
[Rob Ives]
Man, remember season one? Where Krazy-8's imprisonment in Jesse's basement was shockingly violent? Oh, for those days of innocence.
Not everything is super-serious all the time in the world of Breaking Bad. From the looks of these clips, things get pretty goofy on set.
Remember, just because your coworker is blessed to share a name with one of TV's most lovable junkies doesn't mean you should shout "bitch" constantly. Or make mean references to Monsters, Inc.
BB's affection for the periodic table has been an iconic element of the show since the beginning — hell, it's right in the opening credits. But keep your hydrogens and berylliums; this table has Spooge and tight whiteys.
Hang 'em on your Christmas tree, drape them on your festivus pole, or just hook them on your rearview mirror.
