Breaking Bad: season three, DVD review Vince Gilligan's meth lab saga Breaking Bad is just about the darkest, most brilliantly volatile thing on TV. That no UK network has been willing to pick up its third and fourth seasons has, therefore, got to be one of the great television mysteries. Taking its title from a southern American colloquialism meaning to take a turn off the straight and narrow path, the drama is set in and around Albuquerque, New Mexico. And its premise is ingenious: a nebbishy chemistry teacher, Walter White (Bryan Cranston), gets terminal lung cancer and decides to cook high-grade crystal meth in order to provide a nest egg for his family after he's gone. We follow him as he and his former student turned small-time meth-dealer Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) drift deeper and deeper into South Valley's violent criminal underworld. Season three, released on DVD this week, opens with the devastating aftermath of a mid-air plane collision which rained flaming debris, not to mention body parts, on the Whites' hitherto bucolic neighbourhood. This plot strand acquires an added frisson from the fact that we know something that the community doesn't: that Walter was indirectly responsible for the crash. The disaster happened because an air-traffic controller, whose junkie daughter died when Walter let her choke on her own vomit, was distracted by grief. Indeed, this season finds Walter in all kinds of trouble - not only is his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn, excellent), having stumbled on to the fact that he's mixed up in meth, preparing to file for divorce, but there are two hulking assassins from a Mexican drug cartel closing in on him. Thankfully, the icy drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) seems set on protecting him - and his meticulously concocted meth. Part of what makes Breaking Bad so exhilarating to watch is its slow-burn approach: it allows you to soak in the stunning visuals as well as appreciate the wonderfully nuanced performances, particularly from Bryan Cranston, who's won three Emmy Awards for his role as Walter. It also allows tension to mount - and, boy, does season three explode into life later on. Tightly written and punctuated with Coen brothers-like humour, Breaking Bad is, rather appropriately for a show about meth dealers, eye-bleedingly addictive. I defy you not to become hooked. The meaty extras include video podcasts with the cast and crew and deleted scenes. Breaking Bad: the Complete Third Season is out on DVD now; season four aired in the US last year.