'Breaking Bad' returns, better than ever

In a brief video looking ahead at the final season of Breaking Bad, series creator Vince Gilligan and the show's stars promise the wildest, darkest season yet. Judging by the two episodes that AMC sent for review, there's no reason to disbelieve them.

They pick up where last season's finale, aptly titled "Face Off," left off: Having gotten rid of deceptively calm-mannered drug kingpin Gus Fring, Walter White (Bryan Cranston), the chemistry teacher-turned-methmaker, is high on the victory, feeling empowered and cocky. Walt had always been able to outsmart his foes before, but there was a desperation to his methods. Now that's gone, and Walt seems more dangerous than ever, going further down the road from milquetoast husband and father to finding his inner sociopath.

Other people are seeing Walt differently, too, whether its his longtime drug partner, Jesse (Aaron Paul), Fring's henchman Mike (Jonathan Banks) or Walt's wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn). Now aware of what Walt is capable of, Skyler is both terrified of Walt and tormented by her own actions, all of which is beautifully illustrated in a quiet, shudder-inducing early-season scene in which Gunn doesn't say a word.

It's those quiet scenes that are among the best elements of Breaking Bad, which is TV's most cinematic series, using wide-screen shots that emphasize the smallness of the characters against the New Mexico landscape -- there's a great moment that makes lovely use of the dustiness of the desert -- and tight framing that lends to the claustrophobic air enclosing the characters.

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