I have always attributed Paul's performance in the first (two?) season(s) as part of his writing arc and not an acting component. I don't think he "improved" as actor too incredibly much, but his character became more complex and required more.
That is very possible. I will go back and re-watch the entire series again at some point, so I will see if I feel that way the second time around.
Also, when Walt and Skyler fight it's always pretty obvious that Walt has the "mental" edge over her. So I mean it's not that Anna can't act it's that their fights are written with the idea of Cranston being on top, look at the one they had in season 5 where she is trying to one up him and he bats it everytime, she's just trying to keep it together.
Well, he might have the mental edge, but she almost always has facts on her side. Like when she exposed his lies when she left him at the end of Season 2. Once she exposed his lies, he basically just stood there and took it and didn't say a word.
Tony's balancing act was certainly fun to watch. However, he was something of a stagnant character. He was always a good family man and a ruthless bastard. Walter White is a fantastic transformation to watch. While Tony was a vile yet sympathetic character, Walt moved gracefully from one to the other. It's hard to pinpoint the exact time when Walt actually moved from sympathetic to scum. That to me is more interesting. Furthermore, Gandolfinini wasn't really acting outside of his comfort zone. He was played the fat Italian thug, which was somewhat natural for him. I'm not diminishing his acting ability which is top notch; just qualifying it a bit. It boggles my mind that Cranston is the same guy who played Hal. There's a depth of acting here that makes me rank him higher.
As for Falco vs Gunn, I think Dimi nailed it. The ladies are both in the same roll, but written completely differently. Hard to compare.
Also, when we talk about supporting casts, lets not leave out Gus Fring and Mike. I'd rank Giancarlo's performance up there with anybody from either series.
Yep, Giancarlo Esposito definitely did a fantastic job as Gus, and Mike was one of my favorite characters; I liked his silent but deadly approach. And everything he said was always so deliberate.
But I do have to take issue with calling Tony a good family man. Let's see, he was a serial cheater, he once threatened a guy his daughter was dating just because he was black and he once referred to his son as a "fucking idiot" to his shrink.
That is a good family man?
The episode he really shined early on was Peekaboo. Definitely took his character to the next level.
I supposed. Personally, as much as I love the show, some of the episodes that focus on Jesse a lot lagged a bit. The Peekaboo episode was a good one as far as character-building went - it showed his love for kids that was first evident when we saw his interact with his little brother - but it wasn't overly interesting to watch for nearly an hour. Same for early in Season 4, when there were several episodes which focused big time on him having all of those hobos and stuff living in his house. Yeah, he was trying to deal with the anguish of having killed Gale - I get it - but it wasn't that interesting to watch, even though it was obviously understandable to show how his character was dealing with that traumatic event.