"Breaking Bad" is about love, sex, and death; it's funny and subversive; it has a snappy, alliterative title and a memorable opening-credit sequence. A man abandons his lofty intellectual dreams to become a teacher. Later, a cancer diagnosis shakes him. If there isn't a God, if life can be so random and awful, then why not make some cash in the world of methamphetamines? Walter White shows smarts in certain ways; he manages the nefarious kingpin Gus Fring, and he extracts himself from Fring's watch (while also keeping his stooge, Jesse, alive). Walter wards off a DEA visit even when his vehicle has obvious "bullet wounds," and he stops a murderous plot by connecting many, many dots, in his head, at just the right moment. At the same time, Walter can be almost incredibly obtuse, especially with his spouse, who is just as sharp as he is. And when Walter advises teenagers not to have sad thoughts about a recent plane explosion, you really can't belie...