Rent Breaking Bad: Series 5: Part 2 (2013)

Great stuff and highly addictive. Now that it's over I'm starting to get withdrawal symptoms :) - Breaking Bad: Series 5: Part 2 review by RP

I must be addicted. Not to crystal meth, but to 'Breaking Bad'. I've just finished watching Season 5 and I've now watched all 5 seasons, 5 years worth of broadcast TV, all 62 episodes. For after day after day I've watched around 47 solid hours of TV - I think that must count as addiction? - and now that it's over I'm starting to get withdrawal symptoms :)

The series follows the (mis)adventures of high school chemistry teacher Walter White as, following a diagnosis of terminal cancer, he takes the seriously bad decision to provide for his family by using his chemistry skills to earn a fortune as a manufacturer and later a distributor of methamphetamine. We watch as Walt changes, metamorphosing from mild-mannered school teacher to ruthless killer, letting nothing and nobody stop him as he builds a drug empire. Not other local dealers, drug barons, the Mexican drug cartel, the DEA - nobody. And claiming all the time that he's doing this "for his family".

And in the process - perhaps inevitably - he loses his family and indeed, his own life.

What sets this series apart from many others is a combination of the directing (always sharp), the storyline (always clever, with many twists), the characterisation (every character is well drawn), the acting - Bryan Cranston as Walter White is fantastic - and something I very much appreciate, the blackest of black humour.

This final series, while perhaps not as dark and violent as Season 4, has Walt trying to evade the DEA as they close in on him, trying to extricate himself from the drug business and trying - and largely failing - to transfer his ill-gotten earnings to his family. Many loose ends are tied, some neatly, some messily and bloodily, and the series ends in probably the only way it could.

I have enjoyed it very much. Yes, it's unbelievable stuff, yes it's very American, but it really is great, unmissable TV. 5/5 stars - highly recommended. But be warned: you too could become addicted!

Just a great GREAT TV series - Breaking Bad: Series 5: Part 2 review by PV

OK, just to say this whole series is one of the best things I have ever seen on TV. However, it is also fair to say the law of diminishing returns came into play.

The early series are sublime - the 1st and 2nd especially. And the first episode is probably the best TV pilot I have ever seen. It's just PERFECT.

The later series, however, tended to get a bit soapy - with family issues and wives taking to the fore.

That is true of this last series which involves a baby prominently and the denoument.

Having said that, I was transfixed watching this so give it 4.5 stars rounded up.

I also think BADFINGER'S Baby Blue is played in here somewhere!

Just a great series - I feel like watching it all over again from series one now.

There were a couple of teasers in here with Walt at some unspecified later date returning to his old run down house with skateboarders in the empty derelict swimming pool. So I wonder if there'll be a series 6 ever?