"Breaking Bad": Exciting, funny, with a little politics thrown in
I was shocked that there's no thread on this amazing show. With "Battlestar Galactica" ended and "Mad Men"'s most recent season not being as good as this show's 2nd season, this is the best show on TV.
It's by Vince Gilligan, former X-Files writer (Season 2's "Soft Light", Season 3's "Pusher", Season 4's "Unruhe", "Paper Hearts", and "Small Potatoes", Season 5's "Bad Blood", etc). The main actor is Bryan Cranston, the dentist from Seinfeld and the dad from "Malcolm in the Middle". He's backed by many wonderful actors, including guest actors like "The Mr. Show"'s Bob Odenkirk.
It airs on AMC at 10 pm Eastern Sundays. The 3rd season premiered in March, but it's not too tough to get into it. I got into it in a very rough way and loved it enough to buy the first two seasons on DVD.
It's about a brilliant high school chemistry teacher who is paid poorly and has to work another job to make ends meet, who then finds out he has cancer. He decides to manufacture crystal methamphetamines (which are damaging and addictive drugs) to make enough money to provide for his family when he's gone.
It sounds really depressing, but I swear it's not. It balances the serious elements of life with a wonderfully unpredictable and unique story-telling approach that's both exciting and funny without being ridiculous or over-the-top like so many comedies nowadays.
Non-spoilery sample:
YouTube - Breaking Bad - bench scene.
The political insight is very slight, but there's some stuff referring to tough economic times (the costs of health care, poor work pay, etc) and race relations with Latin Americans that's quite touching.
If you get caught up on DVD, there's a mini-marathon of Season 3 to date starting on Friday, April 23 from 8pm Eastern to midnight of the first 4 episodes of Season 3, then resuming with the fifth episode on Saturday, April 24 at 12:08 am Eastern (actually early Sunday, April 25), and then we’ll all be ready for Episode 6 on Sunday, April 25, 2010.