‘Breaking Bad’ season 5: Series finale spawns New Mexico incentive bill

After seeing the benefits that have come to New Mexico for five seasons of “Breaking Bad,” there is one thing that we are pretty sure that we can say without a doubt: the state should be happy to bring in more TV and film productions. For many, the AMC series put Albuquerque on the map, and there are tours that happen across the city, and even many stores sell products that reference the show in some shape or form.

So following the taping of the show’s series finale, the state’s Governor Susana Martinez has reportedly signed into law a bill that will raise tax refunds to 30% for TV productions that choose to film there, while there are also going to be added benefits for feature films, as well. While New Mexico is surely not going to be the ideal location for every series under the sun, it’s easy to see why shows with a more arid climate would want to go there: the people are friendly, the weather is manageable, and there are experienced workers around.

Of course, the reality here is that New Mexico is hoping yet again to capture lightning in a bottle, and capture another series that will be able to make people actually want to travel to the state and spend money there. Thanks to incentives like these, we have seen TV filming has become much more fractured around the continent. You have “Smash” in New York, “The Office” in Los Angeles, “Supernatural” in Vancouver, “Covert Affairs” in Toronto, “Homeland” in North Carolina, “The Walking Dead” in Atlanta, and “Burn Notice” in Miami. For drama series especially, looking outside of traditional venues has become important.

What do you think about this “Breaking Bad” episode? Be sure to share some of your thoughts with a comment below, and you can check out a pretty funny video featuring Giancarlo Espositeo (Gus) about the series over at the link here.

Photo: AMC