(2) BREAKING BAD (2008-2013)

“I am the one who knocks!”

This needs no introduction – just say the name.

A neo-Western crime drama – or Macbeth makes meth. In this case, Macbeth is mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher Walter White, who takes one hell of a left turn in Albuquerque to rise to the throne as a drug kinpin. However, his three witches are not so much a literal trio of fates spouting prophecies of the throne, but more metaphorical fate and grim prophecy in the form of a diagnosis of inoperable lung cancer, that threatens to destroy his family’s financial future. And his Lady Macbeth is also more metaphorical – although many would be happy to cast his wife Skyler in that role more literally – as not so much his equally ambitious and power-hungry wife pushing him to become king through crime, but the opportunity he sees while on a ride-along with his DEA brother-in-law Hank Schrader. After seeing a former student of his, Jesse Pinkman, escape a drug bust through dumb luck, he sees a potential opportunity to entrap Jesse with a proposition to use his chemical expertise and Jesse’s drug connections to manufacture crystal meth and make them both rich. And after that, like Macbeth, one bloody footprint leads to another as the pair find themselves entangled by the worst kind of attention from both local drug pushers and law enforcement – and even more so toll it takes from their lives, loves and psyches.

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD-TIER)