By John Keegan and Edmund BoysWhen a show starts hitting its stride, you surrender yourself to the narrative, confident that wherever the writers choose to take you will be entertaining, compelling, and satisfying. At one time in television history, it was rare for a show to achieve this in its freshman season. But, in recent years, as producers have been given more freedom, especially on cable, the phenomenon of the show fully-formed at birth has sprung onto our screens. While I’ve always felt the auteur theory is an insult to the collaborative nature of filming stories, there is no doubt that the singular visions of Matthew Weiner or Vince Gilligan shape “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.”