A few notes on the excellence of Breaking Bad Season 4

Nearing the end of Season 4 of "Breaking Bad," and will post on the completed season, but have to make a note here along the way about the extraordinary quality of this season, the writing especially. I've posted before about the writing in this series, but Season 4 is especially strong - no series on TV has used extended monologue as effectively as Breaking Bad - and in almost every episode there is a long scene in which characters truly open up in ways that are very moving and unexpected - and that feel very natural, true to life. Early on in Breaking Bad I had so much trouble buying the unlikely premise of s science teacher diagnosed with cancer who embarks cooking meth to provide for his family - but as the series has moved along the premise has become just a given and I have come to accept the characters and to come to know them. And I just think the whole program has gotten more sure-footed with time: Walter White/Bryan Cranston of course makes the show with his understated, deliberate style - that conceals an incredibly wide range of emotions and expressions. The secondary characters are also very good and by and large grow beyond "types"; though they're not as well-rounded as the characters in the great Sopranos or The Wire, some of the characters (particularly Cranston's wife Skylar/Anna Gunn) seem to have a life of their own beyond the confines of the script. Season has a lot of humor and - especially in the episodes toward the end of Season 4 - a lot of dramatic tension as well. So I have joined the chorus of critics in praise of the excellence of Season 4 of BB.