"Breaking Bad" (AMC)

"Breaking Bad" is notable not only for how twisted, funny and shocking it is, but also for how it keeps on upping the ante. This summer's satisfying mini-season ended in a most unlikely fashion, hinting that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) might actually break free from his life of spiraling disaster and resurrect his happy home. But then, in the last scene, Walter's drug-enforcement-agent brother-in-law made the connection that had always eluded him: the drug lord he's been chasing all this time is Walter! Once again, the series' never-broken promise was upheld. Next summer's final eight episodes aren't going to be pretty.

By AP TV Writer Frazier Moore.

Credit: Ursula Coyote/AMC