1. Breaking Bad 

I have a history of getting pretty nerdy (obsessed) with certain TV shows.  When I was younger my uncle would tape The Simpsons for me on VHS every week.  I watched those tapes so many times that I had memorized the commercials as well as the dialogue.  In college I scheduled my classes around Law & Order reruns at 1PM on A&E, and probably knew more about Lenny Briscoe and Jack McCoy than I did about whatever class I was going to later that afternoon.

Nowadays I’d have to qualify both of these shows as “mild obsessions” compared to my relationship with Breaking Bad.  I am flat out HOOKED!  There isn’t a single flaw in any aspect of the perfect diamond that is this show.  The acting is superb, the cinematography is fantastic, and the writing is just unbelievable.  Vince Gilligan has created something that oscillates between funny and unsettling; something that is both full of heart and downright horrifying.  By the end of each episode my heart is beating so fast, I may as well be on Heisenberg’s blue super-meth!  At the end of four seasons, the characters are so real, so deep and so complex, I would argue they rival some of Shakespeare’s finest work.  Someday college students will be studying the development of Walter White’s character arc, his epic journey from milquetoast to super-villain.  And when they do, I say sign me up to be the professor!

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