If you’ve finally managed to catch your breath after a couple of notably bloody weeks across some of television’s best shows (hell, someone even got stabbed, twice, on Mad Men last week, and we won’t even comment on Game of Thrones’ Red Wedding in this space), it might be high time to start thinking ahead to what will undoubtedly be a bloody end of summer. High time? Get it? We’re talking about Vince Gilligan‘s Breaking Bad on AMC here. With the second half of the show’s fifth season (season 5.5?) finally hitting the small screen with a Bryan Cranston-directed premiere episode on August 11th, marketing has started to slowly waft out across the internet like so many meth fumes through your friendly neighborhood cook house. Sure, the first look at the show’s newest poster (and a very brief ten-second teaser trailer, which you can check out over at The Wrap if you feel like sitting through thirty seconds of ads before you get to what is also an ad and essentially a glorified motion poster) are tantalizingly brief (the poster doesn’t even bother to really name the show or its home network), they also make no bones about what is going to happen in the final eight episodes. “All bad things must come to an end.” Did you think this would go on forever? Did you think things were going to end happily? Did you forget about the meth? We haven’t and we can’t. And we also can’t wait to see just how things will end for the show when

Breaking Bad, which recently finished the first half of its final season, is the perfect combo plate of highly nuanced, captivating performances and stunning writing. It’s also as addictive as the stuff that it’s protagonist/antagonist Walter White cooks up (I imagine). But before creator Vince Gilligan was plotting Walter’s moral decline, he was cranking up the sexual tension between FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully as a writer on The X-Files. Breaking Bad, The X-Files—on the surface they couldn’t be more different but they’re bound by Gilligan’s inventive approach to storytelling and talent for injecting humor (that always feels totally organic) into otherwise dramatic narratives. Gilligan started writing for The X-Files in season two and the episodes that he penned during his tenure were some of the show’s sharpest and most satisfying. These are five of his best, which you might consider re-watching if the wait until next summer’s Breaking Bad conclusion proves too difficult to bear.

The following post contains spoilers. If you are not caught up on the current episode of Breaking Bad, proceed with caution. This current season of Breaking Bad has successfully hit the accelerator as we get closer and closer to the end of the series. The shocking end of former kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) has only made way for a new one – our increasingly sinister anti-hero, Walter White (Bryan Cranston.) The formerly meek and mild chemistry teacher may now view himself as an untouchable, successful drug lord, but those around him are suffering the consequences – whether they realize it or not. Since the beginning, Breaking Bad has gotten its distinct and inventive sound from composer Dave Porter. I spoke with Porter before the premiere of Season 5 and his teases of what was to come (both musically and episodically) have proven to be as true as those flash forward glimpses director Vince Gilligan and co. are so foud of giving us.

Breaking Bad has not only pushed boundaries through it’s no holds barred story lines and the stunning performances of its cast (most notably Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul), but it has also created a soundscape that has helped to shape the chaotic world of Walt (Cranston) and Jesse (Paul.) Unlike most shows where the score is full of rich instruments and emotion, Breaking Bad stands apart with a score that is certainly based in classic instrumentation, but infuses it with found sounds, design elements, and unexpected instruments to give it’s score an almost otherworldly feel. With the show set to return to our television screens this coming Sunday (July 15th) for it’s fifth season, I spoke with the show’s composer, Dave Porter, about how he has created Breaking Bad‘s distinct sound over the past four seasons and where he sees things going from here.

It will be weeks before we revisit the world of Walter White, in which he’s now in the running to become the one and only meth kingpin of Albuguerue, New Mexico. But before we get to that, it’s time to start some Breaking Bad movie talk. The talk itself hasn’t come from an anonymous online source, but star Bryan Cranston himself. In an interview with The LA Times, Cranston claims that a big screen version is ”not far-fetched. I wouldn’t mind visiting that possibility. And this is coming from a guy who doesn’t know anything of how the show’s going to end.”

*The following contains Breaking Bad spoilers in general and a major spoiler for the season four finale in particular. The Breaking Bad bandwagon is one that I avoided  getting on for a long time. After watching seasons one through three in a summer marathon, I found a lot to enjoy in the show, but there certainly wasn’t any drinking of the Kool-Aid being done. And while there still isn’t, I’ll be damned if the ending of season four didn’t at least tempt me to take a sip or two. This season started off rather lackluster compared to the high of the previous season. Sure, Gus slitting Victor’s throat and the cartel shoot-out were among some of the greatest moments of the show’s history, but they were scattered in a field with the likes of Hank’s self-loathing and distractingly annoying advertisements for Denny’s. But the final two episodes of this season made up for the majority of all that lackluster crap. What made the Breaking Bad season four finale special is that the immediate storyline involved is played out over two episodes instead of one. “End Times” is mostly set up for what we saw in “Face Off,” and that’s why “Face Off” is so fucking good. Imagine if the spinning gun scene in “End Times” had instead aired in the same episode as the final shot of the season. It wouldn’t have worked, simply because the final shot was one what required a moment of processing by the audience. Had everything been in

The evolution of Walter White is, without a doubt, one of the most engaging character arcs ever to grace the small screen. Once the school teacher and family man everyone liked, and now the man who many fear. Very few characters transform that heavily, but like the storytelling in general on Breaking Bad, that change has been done with patience and care. Walter White is a character that has garnered many fans, and star Bryan Cranston is on that fan list as well. The Emmy-winning actor was kind enough to make time for a phone interview, and early on in our chat, Cranston’s passion and love for the character was clear. And for good reason. Walter White travels to new and interesting places that most actors never get the chance to explore. Thankfully, we’ll be going along with Cranston on White’s journey for another 16 episodes. Cranston and I started off discussing the collaborative process on the well-deserved critical darling, Drive, then soon moved on to discussing how Walter has changed over the course of the show, and if there’s any chance of hope for our favorite meth maker.

“No more half measures, Walter.” Anyone who witnessed the season three finale of Breaking Bad, which now feels like it was years ago, knows exactly what this means. For those who don’t, I won’t spoil. Just know that Breaking Bad is one of those rare shows that has put foot to gas pedal since day one, with a constant display of its willingness to up the ante at every turn. But in the waning episodes of season three, it got an injection of turbo unlike any other. Such an injection earned Emmys for Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul. Said injection has left a lasting effect, and now we finally get to see what happens next. On Sunday, July 17, when the show returns for what we expect will be a powerful fourth season. We know this because there’s a trailer. You can check it out after the break for yourselves.

If you watched last night’s season three finale of Breaking Bad, I have no doubt that you are just as excited as I am about the fact that AMC has picked the show up for a fourth season. Announced in a press release yesterday just after the finale, the network said that Vince Gilligan’s dark drama has gained 20% in overall household ratings from season two to three. It has also won a few Emmys and features one of the best actors on television, Bryan Cranston.