TV review - "Breaking Bad" (2008-13) Complete series *****

I resisted this for a while because people kept trying to shove it down my throat but it is a very good show. A simple, brilliant idea is very well developed - who isn't on Walter White's side by the end of ep one, after he's been diagnosed with terminal cancer, has a pregnant wife and disabled son, works three jobs, and faces an enormous health bill?

It kicks off an epic journey with plenty of twists and turns. It's one of the best serial dramas I've seen - in that things that happen are rarely forgotten, they have ramifications that echo.

Some random thoughts:

* season 3 I think the praise that the show had gotten went to their heads a little with some OTT visuals and the super-assassin twins

* they never did that much with the teenage son - he never really got his own storyline

* I get that some people think the criticism of Skyler was misogynistic - maybe it was. But the grumpy cat face the actress wore all the time didn't help. She did nag - I'm sorry I know that's a tough word but she did, we'd see Walt go off cooking meth and evading assassins during the day and she'd give him a hard time for forgetting dinner. The performance didn't really have much humour or warmth in it. It was effective in the later seasons though.

* they never used the school setting that much - I figured he would sell to/use students, but he didn't.

* the villains/antagonists were some of the greatest of all time - Gus the crime lord with undiagnosed PTSD, Mike the grand-daughter loving tough guy, Todd the cheerful Nazi, Lydia the sugar addict. Superb.

* so many amazing moments but perhaps number one is Lydia begging for her body to be discovered by her daughter so she didn't think her mother had abandoned her.

* Walter White never seemed to have any fun as a drug king pin. He bought a sports car - that was about it. The dude could never lighten up.

* my favourite support character was Hank Schrader - who is established as a buffoon first off but is soon revealed to be a tough, dogged, smart agent who loves his family and who goes to his death bravely...

* the main thing Walter White never seemed to learn - how to resolve problems without killing people. Him and the Roman Empire!

* the moment that really got my gut - when Jesse's nice girlfriend is shot by Todd. So pointless, so mean. I get why they did it from a story point of view, it just felt so depressing.