Say my Name – How Breaking Bad became the greatest American television show

Toward the tail end of “Ozymandias,” the third-to-last episode in Breaking Bad‘s final season, Bryan Cranston’s Walter White delivers a warning to his wife over the phone.

He calls his wife names and tosses out threats, while pausing to catch his breath as tears flow in the single most powerful scene of the season yet.

After an episode where the walls are crashing quicker than you can say “Heisenberg,” writer/creator Vince Gilligan, writer Moira Walley-Beckett and director Rian Johnson pump the brakes just enough to make sure the audience remembers why Breaking Bad has become one of the greatest American television shows.

To fall in love with the show, we fell in love its characters who are so well-written that we have been baited into weekly anxiety attacks and impatient “what’s next” conversations the following Monday.

Last Sunday’s episode, “Granite State,” wasn’t the relentless thrill ride like “Ozymandias,” but rather a cooling off, showing off the show’s efficiency and flair for character development.

Given the show’s unique setting and plot (a chemistry teacher with cancer cooks meth), Gilligan has created a world like none other with fully fleshed out characters.

Dean Norris’ Hank Schrader is a relentless D.E.A. hound who can smell the stink miles away. Betsy Brandt’s Marie Schrader is a crumbling housewife who always stands by Hank’s side no matter the consequences.

Anna Gunn’s Skylar White is a woman who has no easy plays left. Skylar’s son, Walt Jr., played by Louisiana native RJ Mitte, is the collateral damage of his father’s con. Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman is Walter’s partner in crime, and Pinkman can never catch a break.

And we haven’t even touched those other villains and cast members.

There hasn’t been an American television show quite like Breaking Bad that has caught my attention, which is waning more and more as I watch less of the tube. However, I now hold the show in that respected category of best TV ever with The Wire and Homicide: Life on the Street.

It’s genius how Breaking Bad became the television show. At first, it was brushed off to the side by some as Mad Men dominated the TV culture. Gilligan kept the show going, though. Using services like Netflix, the show was readily available for consumers. Even a cynic like me could catch up on what everyone was talking about.

By season four, Gilligan had created a constant nail biter as Walter White began to cook for kingpin Gustavo Fring, played by the always-underrated Giancarlo Esposito. As attention and hype built, superseding AMC’s other popular shows, Gilligan kept the story tight at only five seasons—a move that only built anticipation or dread.

Breaking Bad encapsulates everything viewers think of when they think of this “golden age” of television. It’s shocking in its plot development and pace. It’s got Easter Eggs for the geeks. It’s got great one-liners for the dullards. Simply put, it’s a special piece of television that makes viewers care.

Very few shows do that, and very few showrunners have the mindset to put that show in a capsule of beginning and ending.

Some say this golden age started with HBO’s The Sopranos, and from then, network and cable channels started dialing their antennas, calling upon risk-takers.

In the last 15 years, we’ve definitely seen a wealth of great television—be it drama with Boardwalk Empire, The Walking Dead, Justified, Homeland, the canceled-too-soon Terriers, or more recently, Hannibal, or be it comedy with The League, Archer, Portlandia and Bob’s Burgers.

What’s exciting is that we know these shows will end soon. They can’t go on, but while these characters are here, we love them. These shows also have excellent replay value, something that can’t be said for most popular shows today—cough every modern network comedy except Seinfeld cough.

Even more exciting is the wealth of streaming-only shows that are better than what the network provides. Netflix has some of the best shows around, right now with Derek, Orange is the New Black and House of Cards.

While some might be worried about what’s next with Breaking Bad and Mad Men going off the air, there are great shows coming—HBO’s True Detective, starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey; TNT’s Mob City, created by Frank Darabont; Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, with Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher; not to mention the next seasons of shows that are still running.

Television, like film and music, will always strive to cater to the lowest common denominator. We will never change that. Also like film and music, television’s heavy hitters are in a panic, searching for that next big ratings boom, be it Duck Dynasty or whatever bile Seth MacFarlane, J.J. Abrams or Chuck Lorre have lodged in their skull.

Television, like film and music, is learning the hard way what we and Walter White already knew—greatness comes with a price. Decades from now, as the major studios continue to put out the worst television, we’ll still say Walter White’s name, just as he would have wanted.