Breaking Bad

Is good. Very good. In my humble opinion.

For those not hooked it's a TV series on AMC Sunday nights at 9 central. It's got me, and I haven't been hooked on a TV series since the 90s.

The general premise follows the title--good guy goes bad. Matter of fact, the initial previews were somewhat of a turnoff to conservative-minded law and order types--just another liberal glorification of crime due to circumstances.

But as the series has unfolded it's become remarkably compelling to watch Bryan Cranston's middle aged Walter Mitty-like high school chemistry teacher character first learn he has terminal cancer, then realize his life savings will get wiped out paying for treatments. With a pregnant wife (with an 'oops' baby in the oven) and a handicapped teenage son to think about he decides to solve the problem by teaming up with a former slacker student to cook the best meth ever while dodging his DEA brother-in-law, and the 'fun' begins.

Cranston won an Emmy last season for his role, very well-deserved. The writers should be awarded as well. Breaking Bad has more bizarre plot twists and predicaments than you'll ever see, all utterly believable and imminently clever. Perhaps the most alluring part for us middle class burb dwellers is the cross pollination of cultures depicted as Cranston bounces back and forth between his docile life in suburbia and the mean streets of Albuquerque.

So far they've stuck to heavy doses of reality in favor of agenda. That may well change, but I don't care. Next week's episode can't come soon enough for me.