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@abqotd / @gilligould presents…

BREAKING BRACKETS: an interactive tourney!

in the spirit of march madness, breaking brackets offers a tournament of all 126 installments in our breaking bad + better call saul cinematic universe, including 125 episodes and 1 feature film.

in this tourney, participants (you guys!) will have the opportunity to vote for their favorites over seven rounds and determine which is the “best” episode, our collective favorite!

every day, several polls will be posted right here to @abqotd. polls will remain open for exactly 24 hours and determine which episodes advance to the next round. of course, you can come and go as you please, it’s not required that you vote in every poll or participate in every round. but your support is always appreciated!

the first round of voting will begin fri, march 24. in the meantime—spread the word and check out our brackets available for download, links below.

BREAKING BAD BRACKET.

BETTER CALL SAUL BRACKET.

wrapping up…

BREAKING BRACKETS: top directors.

with the conclusion of our tournament, i’d like to share some of the insight and results that came from your participation.

the full results can be viewed here!

listed below are the directors whose episodes accumulated the most votes over the duration.

Breaking Bad:

Michelle MacLaren — 1,800 votes

Rian Johnson — 1,280 votes

Adam Bernstein — 1,060 votes

Better Call Saul:

Vince Gilligan — 1,964 votes

Thomas Schnauz — 1,351 votes

wrapping up…

BREAKING BRACKETS: top writers.

with the conclusion of our tournament, i’d like to share some of the insight and results that came of your participation.

the full results can be viewed here!

listed below are the writers whose episodes accumulated the most votes over the duration.

Breaking Bad:

Vince Gilligan — 1,737 votes

Sam Catlin — 1,684 votes

Moira Walley-Beckett — 1,628 votes

Peter Gould — 1,592 votes

George Mastras — 1,105 votes

Better Call Saul:

Gordon Smith — 2,806 votes

Thomas Schnauz — 2,103 votes

Peter Gould — 1,348 votes

Gennifer Hutchison — 751 votes

wrapping up…

BREAKING BRACKETS: top seasons.

with the conclusion of our tournament, i’d like to share some of the insight and results that came from your participation.

the full results can be viewed here!

listed below are the seasons that accumulated the most votes over the duration.

Breaking Bad:

Season 5 — 2,562 votes

Season 4 — 2,187 votes

Season 3 — 1,312 votes

Better Call Saul:

Season 6 — 3,146 votes

Season 5 — 2,039 votes

wrapping up…

BREAKING BRACKETS: top episodes.

with the conclusion of our tournament, i’d like to share some of the insight and results that came from your participation.

the full results can be viewed here!

listed below are the episodes that accumulated the most votes over the duration.

Breaking Bad:

5.14 “Ozymandias” — 734 votes

4.10 “Salud” — 676 votes

5.16 “Felina” — 472 votes

3.10 “Fly” — 466 votes

4.01 “Box Cutter” — 423 votes

Better Call Saul:

6.07 “Plan and Execution” — 624 votes

6.08 “Point and Shoot” — 613 votes

5.08 “Bagman” — 516 votes

6.03 “Rock and Hard Place” — 512 votes

with the conclusion of our tournament, i’d like to share some of the insight and results that came from your participation.

for my data junkies—attached is a spreadsheet with total vote counts for every episode, season, and writer / director. i really enjoyed getting to dig through this data, hopefully you all will find it interesting as well!

COMPLETE SPREADSHEET.

our BREAKING BRACKETS champion:

Breaking Bad 5.14 “Ozymandias”

Written by Moira-Walley Beckett.

Directed by Rian Johnson.

References:

Breaking Bad 5.14 “Ozymandias”

Written by Moira Walley-Beckett.

Directed by Rian Johnson.

Walt goes on the run. Jesse is taken hostage. Marie tries to convince Skyler to tell Junior the truth.

Better Call Saul 6.07 “Plan and Execution”

Written + Directed by Thomas Schnauz.

after 6 rounds and 124 total polls, our final poll will go live at 2:10 pm eastern standard time! in the meantime, don’t forget to vote in our two ongoing polls!

endless thanks to every one of you who offered your participation—voting, campaigning, or spreading the word. at the making of this post, we’ve received over 15,000 total votes, that simply would not have been possible without all your support.

the winner of breaking brackets will be formally announced tomorrow, after which a spreadsheet with final tallies will go live.

recapping…

BREAKING BRACKETS: finals.

here are today’s matchups, for those who missed them this afternoon!

Breaking Bad:

“Ozymandias” / “Salud”

Better Call Saul:

References:

Better Call Saul 6.07 “Plan and Execution”

Written + Directed by Thomas Schnauz.

Jimmy and Kim deal with a last-minute snag in their plan. Lalo is forced to make an unexpected move.

Better Call Saul 6.08 “Point and Shoot”

Written by Gordon Smith.

Directed by Vince Gilligan.

References:

Breaking Bad 5.14 “Ozymandias”

Written by Moira Walley-Beckett.

Directed by Rian Johnson.

Walt goes on the run. Jesse is taken hostage. Marie tries to convince Skyler to tell Junior the truth.

Breaking Bad 4.10 “Salud”

Written by Peter Gould, Gennifer Hutchison.

Directed by Michelle MacLaren.

recapping…

BREAKING BRACKETS: semifinals.

here are today’s matchups, for those who missed them this afternoon!

Breaking Bad:

“Ozymandias” / “Box Cutter”

“Felina” / “Salud”

Better Call Saul:

“Plan and Execution” / “Rock and Hard Place”

References:

Better Call Saul 6.08 “Point and Shoot”

Written by Gordon Smith.

Directed by Vince Gilligan.

An unexpected visitor forces Jimmy and Kim to face the consequences of their actions.

Better Call Saul 5.08 “Bagman”

Written by Gordon Smith.

Directed by Vince Gilligan.

References:

Better Call Saul 6.07 “Plan and Execution”

Written + Directed by Thomas Schnauz.

Jimmy and Kim deal with a last-minute snag in their plan. Lalo is forced to make an unexpected move.

Better Call Saul 6.03 “Rock and Hard Place”

Written + Directed by Gordon Smith.