Five Best TV Shows to Replace Breaking Bad

For many of us there is a giant hole that has recently been created in our lives. I am of course talking about that gap that Breaking Bad has left after finishing a few weeks ago. It's always good to have a TV series on the go, so, we've gathered together our five favourites you can watch at the moment to replace your weekly dose of excitement.

1. Homeland

Watch the latest season here on 4od or catch up with Season 1 & 2 by buying the DVDs on Amazon. 

The obvious choice to replace Breaking Bad. The latest season started up two weeks ago in the UK on Channel 4, and will certainly give you that same weekly helping of tension. The show started out with the premise of an American prisoner coming back from Iraq after being released from years of captivity. The mystery is whether he has been ‘turned' by his captors against the US.

After dozens of twists and turns, it is now more of a general story of the CIA fighting terrorism, though the same brilliant main characters are still bossing it. Whilst the latest season hasn't started all that brilliantly, it is certainly still worth giving a go.

2. Peaky Blinders

Catch up here on BBC iPlayer.

A gangster show set in 1919 Birmingham based on a real gang with a cast led by Cillian Murphy- what's not to like? This is certainly the most ambitious original drama on British TV at the moment. Plus the soundtrack is one of the best around, featuring The White Stripes, Tom Waits and original songs written by Nick Cave.

It is already five episodes in, with the finale on Thursday, but you can catch up on all of them on BBC iPlayer. Very violent, very tense and very cool.

3. The Walking Dead

Buy Season 1, 2 & 3 on Amazon, with Season 4 coming to UK TV soon.

The set-up to The Walking Dead is a familiar one. A man wakes up alone in hospital to find the building deserted. He wanders around the city, totally alone and confused, until he comes to the abrupt realisation that he is in a post-apocalyptic zombie world.

However, nothing else about the show is so predictable. It is incredibly tense, and there is nothing more thrilling than when the main characters (frequently) discover a horde of zombies chasing them. The ideal way to replace the drugs of Breaking Bad, with zombies.

4. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Watch early seasons on Netflix or buy DVDs from Amazon.

Criminally unknown in the UK, this is without doubt our very favourite US comedy. The five main characters run a bar in Philadelphia with zero success or even care. What makes it different to almost any other comedy is that all the characters are, without exception, horrible people. From taking up crack cocaine to get benefits, to ruining a priest's life, to faking various deaths, they are simply amoral characters.

However, despite that they are still somehow very likeable, and most importantly very, very funny. Whilst not really a Breaking Bad replacement, we couldn't make a list of TV shows without including this absolute gem.

5. The Wire

Get all five seasons on Amazon for £40.

Ok it may not have been on for years, but if you haven't seen The Wire before, you need to take a long hard look at yourself. Quite simply one of the greatest things TV has done for humans, its level of realism is unprecedented. Set in Baltimore the five seasons follow everyone from the mayor, to the police, to street lords, to crack addicts, all focussed on one thing- drugs.

With dozens of characters, intense local dialect and a plot that doesn't try and simplify things, you have to commit to The Wire, but it is oh so worth it.

Have we missed anything? Let us know in the comment below.

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