Breaking Bad season finale ends best season

Here's the dilemma about Sunday night's Breaking Bad season finale: We can't wait to see it. But once we do, we won't get any more Breaking Bad episodes for...well, a long time.

The show's fourth season has cemented its status as one of the best TV dramas ever, and, we might even argue, the best TV show ever, period. Fans of The Wire and The Sopranos and Mad Men will make their own arguments, but we challenge anyone to honestly point to another series that, episode after episode, season after season, entertains as much as this one.

Series creator Vince Gilligan, the writers, the crew, and the Emmy-winning cast have built a sometimes unbearable amount tension into season four, with payoffs both subtle (Hank's theory about the industrial laundry operation!) and shocking (poor, dumb Ted Beneke).

They've also managed an astonishing amount of humor in a show about a chemistry teacher who starts cooking meth with his slacker former student after a terminal cancer diagnosis. Much of the credit goes to comic mastermind Bob Odenkirk (Better call Saul) -- but everyone gets their licks in.

Everything so far comes to a head in Sunday's season ender, as the inevitable showdown between Walt and his drug boss Gus (Giancarlo Esposito) plays out. Jesse and Walt's entire family are caught in the middle.

We can't wait to see how it unfolds. Even though we'll have to wait -- until the summer of 2012, most likely -- to check back in with our favorite Albuquerque residents for the show's fifth and final season.

Sunday's finale airs at 10/9c on AMC.