Set Your DVR

AMC has had a pretty good track record in choosing original series over the past several years. Rubicon did not receive a renewal, but otherwise the channel has been extremely successful in programming shows that garner critical acclaim, win shelves full of awards, and tap into the cultural zeitgeist in a particular way. I opted not to watch The Walking Dead because I'm just not into zombie stuff, but it drew very impressive ratings for a cable show, and you already know how I feel about Mad Men.

Earlier this year I wrote about how much I've enjoyed AMC's other original show Breaking Bad. In a departure from the scheduling strategy AMC has followed in past years, season four will not air until some time this summer. I don't know why they have chosen to do this, but in the meantime, word arrives from the channel (via Alan Sepinwall at HitFix) that it will be rerunning seasons one through three during the late night hours of Wednesday nights/Thursday mornings starting next week.

There will be two episodes per week, but they will not be on at the same time each week, because they will be shown after whatever movies AMC is showing that night, and the running times vary. If you're interested in catching up with the show, the best thing to do is create a season pass on your DVR so it will find and record the episodes each week. Otherwise you'd have to search for each week's showings manually, which can certainly be done but requires more effort and is subject to bouts of forgetfulness (take it from me).

Addendum: Huge apologies, I screwed up. When I read the post on HitFix, I didn't realize that it had been posted last Friday, so the words "next week" were referring to this week. So yeah, episodes 1 and 2 of season one were shown last night. I know you can watch the first episode on the AMC site here, and you can get the second episode from iTunes for a couple of bucks.