With such an extensive catalogue of popular and well-written stories backing it up, no wonder execs at AMC thought they had stumbled upon a perpetual-motion machine of a hit TV series. And given its enormous popularity at the time, making public statements about how there was no plan to bring the show to an end\u2014indeed, 10 years\u2019 worth of spinoffs and sequels were in the works\u2014probably felt like the safest bet in the world\u2026as long as, well, you have no real understanding of the history of the medium. TV is not comic books, especially not in the modern era of serialized drama, where we\u2019ve been taught to expect a clearly articulated beginning, middle, and end to our small-screen narratives.