Goth girlfriend = drug overdose (what happened to Jesse's MILF interest?)
New girlfriend with kid and kid brother = both kids get endangered/killed
Three buddies dealing = fodder for turf war (I was expecting two out of three)
Old boss = affair
Bookkeeping errors in old boss' company = spills over into Walt's money issues
Etc., etc.

Some expected cliché's didn't pan out — Jesse's little brother was never endangered, Marie didn't have an affair with Hank's physical therapist (they re-ran the klepto stuff instead), Walt Jr. didn't pick up on the meth — so kudos for that, but others were drawn out further than they needed to be (as one example: the issue of laundering Walt's money could have been handled more simply by filtering it through Beneke, which would have made for a more interesting love triangle by not necessitating turning Beneke into a moron).



My Name is Earl surprised me almost every episode.



Constantly having to wonder who wants to kill whom and why gets old really quickly. Actually having a character say the words, "You can't/won't kill me," is only topped by that old invitation for explication, "But I don't understand," as the most hackneyed piece of dialogue ever.