Ellen Gray: AMC delivers a new show

BREAKING BAD. 10 p.m. Sunday, AMC.

ANY DAY NOW, I expect the promos for AMC to read, "It's not movies. It's AMC."

On Sunday, in the wake of the critical success of its searing period drama, "Mad Men," the once-cozy old-movie channel ventures deeper into HBO and Showtime territory with "Breaking Bad."

Bryan Cranston ("Malcolm in the Middle") stars as an already beleaguered high school chemistry teacher who, upon learning that he's facing a terminal illness, decides to start cooking and selling crystal meth.

It's not as simple as that, of course - it never is - but you get the idea.

If we've learned anything from HBO's "The Wire," it's that if a portion of the population is cut off from the fruits of official economy, then an unofficial economy will emerge to take its place.

If we've learned anything from Showtime's "Weeds," it's that middle-class America is concerned enough that it could be next to consider a pot-dealing suburban widow a semi-sympathetic character.

(OK, maybe she's only "semi" to me, since I've never understood that a McMansion and housekeeper were inalienable rights.)

"Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan ("The X-Files") isn't taking any chances, though, with Cranston's character.

When Walt White's not lecturing to apathetic and insulting adolescents, he's working at a car wash to make ends meet.

His teenage son, Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte), has mild cerebral palsy. His wife, Skyler ("Deadwood's" Anna Gunn), is both an unsuccessful writer and pregnant. And Walt himself suffers from a persistent cough that's only going to be getting worse.

So when Walt's DEA agent brother-in-law, Hank (Dean Norris), unwittingly serves up a glimpse of a prosperity that Walt has every reason to believe will never be his, his next move's pretty much a no-brainer, right?

In reconnecting with Jesse Pinkman, a former student (Aaron Paul) who's putting his extremely limited knowledge of chemistry to work cooking meth, Walt triggers his own chain reaction, one that leads, inevitably, to his standing in the desert, holding a gun and wearing no pants.

Cranston, who was in many ways the life and soul of "Malcolm in the Middle," is as good as it's possible to be in a role that's all about the heavy lifting, and he's once again surrounded by a first-rate cast.

But "Breaking Bad" is a bit of a load, more weighted than wacky, and surprisingly predictable for a show whose main character is first discovered wearing a gas mask but no trousers.

You say the American Dream is shriveling, but that the alternative's likely to turn into the American Nightmare?

Tell us something we don't already know.

For those who'd prefer to spend an evening watching something that involves a different kind of chemistry, PBS' "Masterpiece" salute to Jane Austen continues with a new adaptation of "Northanger Abbey" (9 p.m. Sunday, Channel 12).

Austen's playful parody of the then-popular Gothic novel isn't the best of her books, but Andrew Davies' sprightly adaptation does it only good.

Felicity Jones is delightful as the too-fanciful Catherine Morland, whose first trip to Bath yields far more romance than the author herself ever discovered there.

Davies also retains Austen's stirring defense of novels, a form of entertainment once held in about the same regard as "American Gladiators." *

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