“Chemistry is the study of matter, but I prefer to see it as the study###of transform’alter ,” lectured Walter H. White (Bryan Cranston) to a classroom full of semi-interested Albuquerque high-schoolers, his enthusiasm entirely uninfectious. “It’s growth, then decay, then transin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mation. It is fascinating, really.” In January 2008, AMC’s Breaking Bad met with similar indifference from front-room slouchers, likely dismissed as a Weeds rip-off — with Malcolm In the Middle’s Dad cooking crystal meth to keep his brood financially solvent after his impending death from cancer, rather than Mary-Louise Parker dealing cannabis. Yet with its time-lapse skies skimming over vast John-Fordian sandscapes, the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue felt undeniably cinematic. Walt and tetchy ex-student partner Jesse’s (Aaron Paul) twistedly near-comical crime-world mishaps had a Coenesque texture. And, in the hands of a tight-knit cast (Anna Gunn, Betsy Brandt, Dean Norris, RJ Mitte), there was evidence of — oh yes — chemistry at work. Growth. Decay. Transin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mation…###In September 2013, 10.3 million Americans perched on the edge of their sofas in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Breaking Bad’s finale, a reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ered with Emmys throughout its five-season run, and widely — justifiably — pronounced as the greatest reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue in TV history. The exit of Walter White, molecularly bonded to his fearsome alter ego, meth kingpin Heisenberg, was nothing less than a transatlantic cultural phenomenon.###Few creative triumphs feel more earned than that of reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue runner Vince Gilligan and his team during the past six years. Sony CEO Michael Lynton had told Gilligan he despite’in spite of’albeit t Breaking Bad was “the craziest and worst idea in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a television reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue that I ever heard”. Yet, after Lynton begrudgingly greenlit it (“Hey, it’s your career…”), there was no dilution of intent, no fundamental creative compromise. Gilligan had long been irked by network reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue s###in which detectives gunned down individual one week then appeared unaffected by their traumatic undergo the next. Even in this ‘Third Golden Age’ of television, with its complex, long-arc narratives, lead characters tend to remain as audiences found them. It is the world changing that so challenges Tony Soprano and Don Draper; it was Baltimore changing that defined The Wire. Breaking Bad presented us with something entirely novel (and novelistic), entirely as Gilligan had intended: the growth (financial and in self-assurance ), decay (physical and moral) and transin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mation of a central character — along with the terrible repercussions this has on his family and associates.###Gilligan also had the cojones to quit while ahead and actually end the story bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e Heisenberg outlived his perverse appeal. (And it is nothing if not perverse###— Walt is the perfect anti-hero. Thanks in no small part to Cranston’s diamond-edged charm, you can’t stop rooting in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Walt after each and e grossly atrocity.) “Better to risk ending a bit too soon than to end too late,” the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue runner reasoned.###Even if you won’t allow it the title of ‘Best Ever’, Breaking Bad can’t be denied these achievements at least. For strength and purity of vision, in/with regard to’concerning’regarding its unique calibration of its core character, Gilligan’s magnum opus is unsurpassed. It is fascinating, really.