Breaking up is hard to do

This was the first Sunday Night after the Breaking Bad season finale. And while a fine Game 2 of the NBA Finals helped fill the void, the loss of my new favorite show hasn't really sunk in yet.

***CAUTION-SPOILERS***

While it hasn't sunk in for me yet, imaging being Walter White (Bryan Cranston).

You've beaten cancer. You've taken care of your family financially for the forseeable future. You've rescued Jesse (Aaron Paul), your "business" partner from an abyss of drug addiction and depression and set him up in a cushy recovery situation.

You've managed to evade law enforcement. This includes a dogged DEA bigwig who just so happens to be your brother-in-law who is actually looking for you (well your alias "Heisenberg" - named after a pioneer in quantum mechanics).

And most importantly you're still alive when so many that you've come into contact with are no longer.

So, you've won. Except that all the lies you've told your family to get to this point are being called...And your wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) says she's had enough and leaves you.

And as this all sinks in, Walt's property is bombarded by debris from an overhead plane crash...The result of a chain of events that he actually set in motion. Seems that everything's connected in the ABQ.

Now, we'll all miss the great characters unveiled in the second half of Season 2.

"Better Call" Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk, Mr. Show) - the sleazy, well-connected, brilliant criminal lawyer. Without Saul, Walt and Jesse would still be at each other's throats and more importantly, would still be broke.

Gustavo (Giancarlo Esposito from a million things, maybe best in Do The Right Thing) - the successful owner of Los Pollos Hermanos, a regional chain of Mexican chicken shacks, and community leader. He's also the largest crystal meth wholesaler in the Southwest.

Donald (John de Lancie, who was the comic antagoinst "Q" from Star Trek: TNG) - the grief-stricken air traffic controller who can't come to grips with his daughter's overdose, which yields tragic results.

I guess we'll see ya'll next season. It's a break that will seem too long.

Breaking the Mold of the TV Drama

*CAUTION - SPOILERS*












AMC is now officially a resounding 2-for-2. The basic cable movie channel's foray into dramatic series has been a smashing success.

First Matthew Weiner (Sopranos producer) created "Mad Men," the life and times of a Madison Avenue ad agency in the early 1960s. It's so real you cringe at the constant barrage of sexual, ethnic, and racial discrimination. And you can smell the Lucky Strikes in the air.

Then as a follow-up, AMC released "Breaking Bad," created by Vince Gilligan (X-Files).

Now in Season 2, it's just your average story of frustrated, middle-aged high school chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston). After learning he has late-stage lung cancer, Walt decides to use his chemistry expertise to create the purest form of crystal meth on the market. He does this all behind his family's back to finance his radical cancer treatment and provide for his family's future, which just introduced a newborn baby girl.

But Walt is a square. And even though he may have the criminal instincts to pull it off, he doesn't have the connections or the know-how. That's where Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) comes in, Walt's partner and former drop-out student. Though the two of them are completely different personalities, the scenes they're together in explode with...chemistry.

And their fortunes change constantly, whether it be through their brilliance, incompetence, or sheer luck - good or bad, leaving the viewer unprepared for the next plot twist.

While they're just a chemistry teacher and small-time drug dealer to start, they've advanced quickly up the food chain and left a number of bodies in their wake: Emilio, Krazy 8, Tuco, Spooge, Combo, and Jane (did not see that one coming).

So the stakes are at a fever pitch as Walt tells lie after lie to deceive his wife and Jesse reaches a drug-addled rock bottom since these deaths are crippling his soul.

All that plus some massive foreshadowing ploys to tease next week's season finale. Six days away, and breaking great.