Gliding Over All

'Breaking Bad' is one of the most popular rated shows on IMDb, is one of those rarities where every season has either been very positively received or near-universally acclaimed critically and where all of my friends have said nothing but great things about.

Very few shows in recent memory had me so hooked from the very start that before the week was over the whole show had been watched, especially when for a lot of shows now airing watching one episode all the way through can be an endeavour. 'Breaking Bad' had that effect on me, and its reputation as one of the best, consistently brilliant and most addictive shows in many years (maybe even ever) is more than deserved in my eyes. Its weakest season is perhaps the first season, understandable as any show's first season is the one where things are still settling.

Actually everything is established remarkably from the very start, but once the writing and characterisation becomes even meatier the show reaches even higher levels.

"Gliding Over All" is another incredible 'Breaking Bad' episode, one of the best of Season 5. The sizzling tension and emotional impact are only a couple of truly great things and even more the rich subtlety and a cliffhanger that will make one's jaw drop to the floor in amazement and shock, really is one for the ages.

Visually, "Gliding Over All" is both stylish and beautiful, with photography and editing that are cinematic quality and put a lot of films today to shame, where there are a lot of visually beautiful ones but also some painfully amateurish looking ones. The music always has the appropriate mood, never too intrusive, never too muted.

The writing in "Gliding Over All" is a fine example of how to have a lot of style but also to have a lot of substance. The dialogue throughout is thought-provoking and tense, while also have a darkly wicked sense of humour, nail-biting tension and heart-tugging pathos. The story is texturally rich, intimate, tense and layered, with the pace of it consistently deliberate but taut.

Can't say anything bad about the acting. Bryan Cranston is phenomenal as one of the most fascinating anti-heroes, or even of any kind of character, in either film or television. Aaron Paul has never been better and Anna Gunn is affecting. The supporting cast are both intriguing and entertaining. The characters are compelling in their realism, likewise with their chemistry, and the episode is superbly directed.

All in all, another episode that is difficult to find fault with. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Every season of Breaking Bad does it: that moment when you realise your jaw has dropped and you are completely aghast at two separate things - the shocking turn of events and the fearless brilliance of the shows creators. The 'mid-season finale' does not disappoint.

I can scarcely thing of a less predictable show than BB. No matter if you guess one of the things that might happen - you'll never guess how, and anyone who hasn't seen this episode should run mile from anyone who tries to spoil it for them. Again, Vince Gilligan makes amazing use of the shows back catalogue of episodes to make this episode fit so beautifully, almost poetically, as a key point in the story of so many characters. It ends the mini-season leaving you itching to jump forward in time so you can find out what happens next, and is easily the best episode in what has been another incredible season.

Discussions will rage on geek sites for the next 8 months and in bars all over the US and hopefully the world about what should happen, what will happen, who the hero of the show is or will be, and who will survive. The saddest thing is that this masterpiece of television will end next year, leaving a Sopranos-sized whole in the lives of all those who have watched it.

Walt has now become Heisenberg and does business like never before, surpassing Gus in terms of potential and distribution! We see a Walt who wants to be the best at what he does and leaves no loose ends!

This show has always been k own for its great montages, but I think the montages in this episode remains some of the best, iconic and most memorable! Extremmely well directed and the choice of songs are just perfect!

Some great scenes with Walt and Skyler as he finally admits that he has got what he wanted!

I qlso have to talk about that shocking cliffhanger! Just when you think qll.is good and all is safe you are left like "oh...no" when the episode ends!

Amazing mid-season-finale before the emotionally devestating second half!

All of Walt's hard work finally pays off and he is all set to happily retire. This would have been a good ending because Walt worked so hard during the series. I hope in the end he prevails and is able to live in peace.

The first part of Breaking Bad's final season ends on a phenomenal note – a twist audiences have feared since the character of Walter White was introduced in 2008, but have stashed away in the subconscious after more than 50 episodes of the series. "Gliding Over All" sets up so many possibilities and a whole new direction for the final eight episodes of the series and makes predicting the end of this amazing story an impossible endeavour.

To rephrase one of Walt's lines in this episode, last things first: the ultimate scene in "Gliding Over All", that simple yet momentous and jaw- dropping epiphany for one of the characters, wouldn't be as great as it turns out to be if it weren't for the perfect lead-up to it. The intensity is lacking for most parts of this episode, but that turns out to be the perfect calm before the storm – a storm that one could also describe as the best season-ending cliffhanger of the series. However, my 10 rating isn't the result of merely one remarkable scene, since there are loads of other things to praise in this episode. Firstly, there are Breaking Bad's best two minutes of non-stop violence in the most beautifully (not inappropriate to say, right?) shot murder montage. If such bloodshed isn't your cup of tea, there's still the drug cooking and contributing, getting stretched out to a three-minute chain of the whole process, set to contrasting music, looking purely amazing, and impressing with more match cuts you could ever expect to find in any other episode of any TV series.

Fans of subtlety will find a lot to admire about "Gliding Over All" too, with hints to episodes quite a while ago and the little disguised murder contemplations (Walt's ricin, Jesse's gun) being present in these 50 minutes, which may not be the series' most intense or thoroughly entertaining, but are artistically made and opening an outstanding new story for the series, making it the best episode of this half of the fifth season.