Breaking Bad finally broke through in a big way at the 2014 Golden Globes with wins for Best Drama Series and Bryan Cranston for Lead Actor in a Drama Series after years of snubs. Though the Hollywood Foreign Press was slow to reward the show, seemingly every other source on the planet had been showering praise and awards on Vince Gilligan's epic since its first season. The show became an enormous phenomenon in its final eight episodes that aired from August to September of 2013. Its ratings were staggering compared to those of previous seasons. By comparison, about 1.9 million people watched the outstanding Season 4 finale, "Face Off," while the series finale, "Felina," garnered 10.28 million viewers. The folks at AMC and Sony Television were probably kicking themselves that it was already decided that the show would ride off into the sunset after five excellent seasons when they saw the ratings sky-rocket for the final half-season. Breaking Bad has cooked its way into the discussion for the best drama in recent television history for many people, usually ranked in some order alongside The Sopranos, The Wire, and Mad Men. One area in which Breaking Bad surpasses them all is its consistency. There is not a single misstep throughout its entire 62 episode run. For what is frequently regarded as the "worst" episode (mostly for Marie's kleptomania subplot), "Open House" still has several redeeming qualities that elevate it to merely good. The success of Breaking Bad is a major triumph for serialized storytelling on television. The show was famous (or infamous) for its incredible tension-building drama throughout full seasons which culminated in explosive mid-season and end-of-season episodes that were often the best episodes of the show. Nearly everyone appreciates the significance of episodes like "Pilot," "Crazy Handful of Nothin'," "Grilled," "4 Days Out," "Phoenix," "One Minute," "Half Measures," "Full Measure," "Box Cutter," "Salud," "Crawl Space," "Face Off," "Dead Freight," "Gliding Over All," "Confessions," "Ozymandias," and "Felina." But the awe-inspiring and buzz-inducing moments in these episodes often overshadowed other outstanding intermingled episodes that earned less mainstream fanfare. This list is a tribute to the under-appreciated, overlooked, and underrated episodes that helped make Breaking Bad a modern masterpiece. The episodes are arranged in chronological order.
