In the first part of the latest "Off the Cuff with Peter Travers," Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston breaks down the final season of the hit AMC show, why it's split in two and his feelings on the series' end.

"They came to the number 16 [episodes] because Vince Gilligan, the creator of the show, thought, 'That seems about right,' to be able to have the time to wrap it up and to end on his own merit, in his own way," says Cranston. "But then AMC wanted to split that up and actually, Vince wanted to split that up too, so that he had time to focus on the first eight [episodes] in season five and be able to go through it and have time to edit, have time to put that away and do the final mix and do it all, and then take a couple weeks off for a break, and then assembling the writers again in August."

"I would rather end this show in a respectful way and hopefully end it before its time," adds Cranston. "You don't want that asterisk next to the title of your series saying, 'Breaking Bad, six good seasons, three kind of mediocre ones and one clearly crappy one – and season eleven was like, 'ugh.''"

But the final season looks to be quite dark. "Walter White has expanded beyond the cavity of his chest, so he's bursting out of his skin with pride," says Cranston. "Although pride goeth before the fall."

The first half of the final season of Breaking Bad premieres on July 15th on AMC.