Nightly entertainment

Walter White,
maker of meth and mayhem

In the evening, after emails are read, dinner done and dishes washed, we spend a couple of hours watching TV shows on Netflix. The run-of-the-mill fare doesn't interest us, and comedies with laugh tracks are a bore. In fact, most comedies are a bore--this from someone who loves to laugh. Our tastes run to dramatic crime shows and smart drama, and if a little humor is occasionally woven in, that's a bonus. Some of the series we have truly enjoyed in the last couple of years include Boston Legal, Grey's Anatomy, Friday Night Lights, Damages, Dexter, and Breaking Bad. My wife is not a sports fan, so for a series about a high school football coach to capture her rapt attention is quite an accomplishment, which is what Friday Night Lights did for both of us. But the most fascinating series are those with deeply flawed characters--a vile, cutthroat lawyer, a serial killer who targets other murderers, a high school chemistry teacher turned meth maker. Now we're watching Walter White, who has lung cancer and has turned to making meth to support his family when he's gone. He sets off a chain of disasters that might make you think the world would have been better off if he'd been strangled in his crib. But he sure is fascinating.