Wednesday, Dec. 07, 2011

Breaking Bad, 'Crawl Space'

This is a good place to note that I limit this list to no more than one episode per show. If not, there might be nothing but Louie, Parks and Recreation and America's favorite crystal-meth drama. Breaking Bad could have been selected for half its season: the knife-edge (cough) tension of "Box Cutter," the humanizing Gus Fring flashback in "Hermanos," the cat-and-mouse game and gut-punch final moments of finale "Face-Off." But when I look back on its season, the first thing I see is the bloodcurdling image of Walter White lying in the dust, laughing maniacally as he senses his and his family's doom — Walt, shot from above, literally at his lowest. This episode kicked off the final struggle between Walt and Gus, which Walt won only at a terrible moral price. Breaking Bad has always been a show that tells its story through astonishing visuals, and that particular one said it all: Walter White is going to hell.