Walt, Jesse, Gus, and Us.

Rather than risk being left behind as the Cultural Zeitgeist chugged on without us, The Wife and I recently made the very important decision to watch Breaking Bad from the beginning up to now.  For those of you not in the mix, where we are now is that the finale season, season 5, was broken into two parts of 8 episodes each and the second 8 episodes are premiering Sunday.  Anticipating that there was no way you jackasses would be able to get through this without dropping hella spoilers, we've been valiantly trying to catch up.

CONCLUSION: Breaking Bad is a very good TV show.  It's nowhere near as artsy and self-conscious and Big Idea-y as Mad Men, and probably not as Film-y as The Sopranos, but you know what it does really well?  PLOT.  It is so expertly plotted and constructed that it does the single most important thing a TV show can do: makes you want to watch the next episode as soon as the one you're watching ends.

(Also, the acting - especially Bryan Cranston in the lead role - is generally superb, which helps.)

WARNING: VERY MILD SPOILERS AHEAD.

So we are now in Season 4.  Last night we had 4 episodes left.  And when we finished the next-to-last episode of the season last night at 10:40 p.m., we had a decision to make.  Push on?  Or call it a night.

WHAT DO YOU THINK HAPPENED.

Duh, we decided to watch the season 4 series finale.  Breaking Bad is a show, ostensibly, about making methamphetamine and it really gets you in the spirit by being the CLOSEST THING TV OFFERS TO ACTUALLY BEING ADDICTED TO METHAMPHETAMINE.  You will do anything for another hit.

So we get up to the final minutes of season 4.  If you've seen it - AND THIS ISN'T GIVING TOO MUCH AWAY - we're at the point where Jesse and Walt shake hands on top of the parking structure.  There's about 5 minutes left.

Then, suddenly, POOF.  The power goes out.

OH FUCK ME ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING.  Nope, not kidding.  Can you imagine?  Finishing up one of the most crucial moments in the most riveting season (so far, for us, anyway) of one of the best shows ever and the fucking power goes out?  OUR GOD IS A CRUEL GOD.

(Anticipating you questions, The Wife's iPad was basically out of batteries.  My laptop doesn't get 3G and our home wifi was without power, natch.  So we had no backup.)

Anyway, we watched the last 5 minutes this morning. I KNEW IT.  If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about.

When we started this project about a month ago, I thought there was no fucking way in hell we'd be caught up by August 11.  Just no way.  I had crunched the numbers and concluded we'd be caught up by the end of August, in time to watch the last 5 episodes in real time.  Now, we'll EASILY be caught up.  We only have to watch 8 episodes between now and Sunday!  Fuck, that's nothing.  We watched 6 last Sunday in ONE DAY.