‘Breaking Bad’ enters its final season and it’s not too late to start rooting for the bad guy

I scare easy. As a teenager, I discreetly looked away as the rest of my friends watched wide-eyed the exploits of Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, and the hundreds of other serial killers, dream demons, and creatures in the woods. The mere book jacket on my father’s copy of “Pet Sematary” gave me nightmares. Which is why, if you were to tell my 15-year-old self that my 33-year-old-self’s favorite show on television involves shoot-outs, drowning, throat slicing, asphyxiation, poisoning, skin melting, strangulation, decapitation, and toilet suicide—well, my 15-year-old self would probably question your ability to time travel, but he would also wonder what the hell happened to turn me into a fan of such outright depravity.

Tell him Walter White happened to me.

Walter White is a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher turned meth manufacturer and the ostensible hero of “Breaking Bad,” now airing its fifth and final season Sunday nights at 10 p.m. on AMC. But over the course of four and a half seasons, Walter—a role that has won “Malcolm in the Middle” refugee Bryan Cranston three straight Emmy awards—has morphed from hero to antihero to something else entirely. He’s why “Breaking Bad” isn’t just the greatest show on television right now, it’s possibly one of the greatest shows of all time. And he’s why I find myself now rooting for the monster.

The brainchild of Vince Gilligan (who cut his teeth on eight seasons of “The X-Files”), “Breaking Bad” stuck its head out of the cathode ray tube in January 2008. Cut short by the Writer’s Guild strike, Season 1 presents a tight seven-episode lesson in suspense, characterization, and of course, science! Starting with the one of the best pilot episode opening sequences ever put to film—Flying pants! Gas masks! Sirens!—the shortened opening season initially lulled many viewers into thinking they were watching “MacGyver 2.0.” Many a time did Walter White save the day with a last-minute chemical concoction in those early days.

Rival drug lord getting you down? Mercury fulminate will show him who’s boss!

Need to dispose of a body that’s taking up room in your basement? Hydrofluoric acid to the rescue!

Rival drug lord still getting you down? Ricin made from castor beans is a man’s best friend!

I caught up with Season 1 on DVD before Season 2 premiered. I may have watched that entire first season in a day. Season 2 of “Breaking Bad” is one of the most beautiful seasons of episodic television I have ever seen. The writing staff builds a puzzle, doling out bizarre clues and characters (A charred pink teddy bear? Georgia O’Keeffe? Death by ATM? Q from “Star Trek: The Next Generation”?), only for it to wrap up its 13 episode Gordian Knot in breathtaking, heart-stopping fashion. Fact: Each season trumps the preceding season in quality, audacity, and suspense.

If you watch “Breaking Bad,” you’re now nodding your head in solemn agreement. If you don’t watch “Breaking Bad,” what are you waiting for?! The crackerjack writing of “Breaking Bad” is married to the first rate regular cast. Aaron Paul (“Big Love”), essentially the second lead, continues to play Jesse Pinkman as the recovering junkie Sherman to Cranston’s meth genius Mr. Peabody. He’s brighter than he looks as he stumbles to help cook meth in a growing list of fantastic locations. Unctuous lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), fast food king Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), and professional “cleaner” Mike (Jonathan Banks) also help supply Albuquerque and its suburbs with the addicting, pure “blue meth” Walter makes. The safety of Walt’s long suffering wife Skyler (“Deadwood’s” Anna Gunn) and cerebral-palsy-afflicted son Walt Jr. (RJ Mitte) is the impetus for Walter’s entrance to the world of methamphetamine production. Hank Schrader, Walter’s always just-enough-in-the-dark brother-in-law, happens to be a DEA agent. Played by Dean Norris, Schrader is the blowhard antagonist at the start of “Breaking Bad.” Much like rooting against the FBI on “The Sopranos” or The White House on “24,” the viewer knows that it’s morally wrong to root against these institutions of authority, but these dashing anti-heroes make it so hard not to hope they’ll get away with it in the end.

But Walter White isn’t Tony Soprano, and he sure as hell isn’t Jack Bauer. By the time you realize you may have miscalculated in cheering on Walter White, it’s already too late. He’s gone further than you wanted him to. He’s done things you never thought possible. He’s not keeping people safe; he’s endangering them. You welcomed him into your home. Now he’s not leaving. He needs to win. But what does winning mean? This is the question that drives “Breaking Bad.” And every time you think you’ve settled on the answer, Gilligan and crew throw a devastating curveball at your brain. Walter White is not a hero. He’s not even an antihero. He’s a monster that makes me want to look away, but I cannot. I keep looking. It’s horrifying. And I love it.

Zach Foote once skipped lunch for three months to be able to bid on a costume from “NewsRadio” in an eBay auction.