You are a horrible human being if you are not already following the lives and adventures of TV’s top meth cooks. If you mistook it as Weeds-Heavy (Weeds is Weeds-lite in its own measure.), you are missing a great opportunity to grow as a person. Breaking Bad is a triumph in long-form television storytelling.

The characters are what truly make this show great: everyone is where they are because of Walt (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse (Aaron Paul). These two, along with the other actors on the show do not act; They become. From the first episode, we quickly forget that Cranston was ever Malcolm’s goofy dad on television. Season 4’s recent finale is a great measure for just how much these characters have grown from the first season’s first meth-cooking session in the RV.

Breaking Bad is reality TV. The characters and situations may be fictional, but they are grounded in reality. The way characters react when put in a situation would seem like the way a real person would act in that situation. We hate (or adore?) Walt when he lies. We feel the mental anguish that Jesse has had to face because of the truly awful, unfair things that has happened to him. These aren’t very nice people, yet, in a way, we want to see them triumph.

The people around them are equally interesting. They add so much to the show just by being there. Their presence tells us what kind of people Walt and Jesse are. Each character is there for a reason. They bring their own motivations and ego to the table. Each character’s past tells of their future motivations.

There are also consequences: being a hero agent that shoots down cartel assassins may seem bad-ass, but it also means the character will be crippled for more than a season. Walt truly believes he’s doing the right thing — he’s in denial — but he has done awful, despicable things under that belief. The once-reluctant meth cook is now top contender for drug kingpin as a consequence of what he has had to live through during the last four seasons.

I respect continuity because continuity respects the viewer. The writers stretch out every season into one big story where everything is a seed. Characters, events and things are defined by their past. A seemingly-forgotten plot thread will pop up at an unexpected moment, in a way no one ever expects. Every nod to continuity makes the “long game” approach to the story that much more satisfying. This respect for continuity and the skill with which the writers of Breaking Bad put into each season rewards viewers every episode.

If there was a memory-mapping/erasing service a-la Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I’ll have them remove Breaking Bad from my memory, so I could experience it all again for the first time.

If you don’t want to be a horrible human being, catch up with the show. Get it. Consume it. Let it sit.

The last few series finales of Doctor Who has always been going further than what further meant the season before it. Raising stakes unbelievably high to make the Doctor either win it all or lose it all. (spoiler alert: more times than not, a series finale is always tragic, at least, in the Davies era)

In closing Steven Moffat’s second series as head, he has answered lingering questions from the last series while also raising two more in its place. This is also the first time in the revived series that a finale was a single episode, so every 5 seconds, there has to be something new happening. I don’t know how “history happening all at once” might look like, but if it’s anything like how it’s represented here: it will be ridiculous. Hot air balloon cars! Pterodactyl parks! Pyramid monorails!

Is it a satisfying answer to the months-long question of “how does he get out of this one?” Definitely. The “doubles” theme this season already had us all guessing anyway. I’m more intrigued by the result for the seventh series. The Doctor’s escaped death now. Is there nothing he can’t absolutely do? What of Amy? The “companions-as-weapons” pops in again in that one scene.

What happens in the fields of Trenzalore? How will The Fall of the Eleventh go about? … Doctor Who?

[As always, my favorite post-Doctor Who read is Bleeding Cool's analysis. Here's Ten Thoughts About Doctor Who: The Wedding of River Song]

io9 pretty much covered this episode. Here are a few notes I have for it:

Portal – The design of the facility where Amy gets trapped in reminds me of Portal. Creepy and sterile, complete with an AI voice that interacts with the “trapped” female.

Forget it – No one mentions that Rory *had* to wait more than the years that cougar-Amy had to wait. No one mentions that by traveling with the Doctor, their married life has taken a horrific turn, far, far from the cheerful series 5 finale. No one mentions that this newly-married couple can’t raise their baby because of this man?

Sinisterization – The Doctor has been growing even more callous by the episode. “The Doctor lies.” How many times has that been mentioned since the series’ return? Is this any indication that this truly isn’t *our* Doctor?

No regeneration? – This was mentioned in passing. Is it a theme for this series? Third time it’s been mentioned that he can’t regenerate for one reason or another. (Okay, so the first time, the Doctor was shot during the process.)

Breather – Sometimes it’s great to watch episodes like this that aren’t in the major arc and instead focuses on character development. This really cements the characterization of Amy and Rory as husband and wife, better than any previous portrayal they have ever had.

Blind robots? – Okay, for a race that could develop a dual-time-stream watch-your-relatives-grow-old facility, they sure built some lousy non-seeing robots.

What now? – After Rory proclaiming “it’s all your fault” — will this carry any heft in the way this couple treat the Doctor in future episodes?

After “Night Terrors,” what really did it for me was the preview for the next episode: “The Girl Who Waited.” It has butt-kicking cougar-Amy in itttt. So far, this series has a lot of replication/duplication tech: the flesh, time-displaced versions and the Teselecta. Will they bring all this up in the finale?

So yeah, let’s screencap like tumblr:

The last one, while not terribly focused, shows Amy in the background after just decapitating a robot. The glasses are bound to generate “Hipster Amy” posts on the tumblrs. Or hashtags like #hipstercougeramy.

…or, punch him, tell him to shut up and stuff him in a closet.

Like a majority of Who fans, I’m really just glad that it’s back — and that it’s good! Months of conspiracy-theorizing finally come to an end: this is a story of River Song Year Zero — with an ending that leaves it even more open for her to pop in and out of the Doctor’s adventures. (Now that we know who she is and how she came to be, it’s time to focus on The Doctor putting an end to The Silence. There was that bit with River having an eyepatch, so I’m guessing that’s part of the series finale?)

Thoughts:

• It’s interesting to note that this story is set in 1938 — just before the war, so is that some Moffat-foreshadowing at work?
• The references/homage! Star Trek, The Graduate, etc
• I wish they had used the Sisters of Plenitude instead of the Sisters of the Infinite Schism.
• Donna Noble! 11th and Donna — I’d like to watch that. Given that Donna’s head doesn’t explode.
• As of this episode: has the Doctor died more times than Rory in this series so far? LOL
• “I’m trapped inside a giant robot replica of my wife. I’m trying not to see that as a metaphor.” — is my favorite line of the whole episode.

Here’s a feature I read just after watching the latest episode of who: Bleeding Cool’s Ten Thoughts.

If you’re anything at all like me, then you will have found these series 6 posters already anyway.

Thanks to SDCC, the last few weeks have been Doctor Who-filled, thanks to the panels and the announcement that later this month, the second half of the 6th series will be returning. If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent the time between then and now rewatching the first half of the series, rewatching everything from the start, rewatching Confidential, or trolling about on the YouTubes looking for cast interviews/outtakes/etc. (Or just looking for Karen Gillan pictures.)

Entertainment Weekly released this poster: (which lacks a comma lol)

Here’s another one, slightly older, which involves the impossible astronaut, the Silence, River Song and The Doctor‘s new trenchcoat: (trenchcoats are cool?)

So … how many more days again?!

YES.

Doctor Who! Yay, time-based mystery! Also, this time around, they didn’t wait ’til we were at least 2-3 episodes in until they reveal some nightmare fuel — meet the Silence:

Creepy! (Not to mention the lady-exploding, mouth-sucking thing one of them did in the White House washroom.)

Like most of you who have seen this — rewatching this episode does not make the next one come out any sooner. Boooooo!

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena — TOMORROW

This is probably the strongest holiday special The Simpsons have had in recent memory.  Also, this screencap below makes me look forward to growing old like Mr. Burns: