I tend to recommend my artistic enthusiasms, as some of you may have noticed, ahem. Here is the latest: the AMC cable-like series "Breaking Bad."

AMC has repositioned itself from a cable channel that replays old movies -- AMC stands for American Movie Classics -- the reliable comfort zone for viewers who still remember their favorites in black and white, to an edgy producer of serious drama. In the void left behind by the passing of The Sopranos, The Wire, Sex and the City, and other series in the same realm, series of roughly 13 episodes a season with Hollywood quality production values, Breaking Bad has joined the party.

As usual, I was a year late catching the wave. Now I watch them in bunches on DVD, which come out around the time the new season airs. It works for me. I am now nearing the end of season 3 on DVD. Season 4 recently ended its air run and AMC announced it would produce a fifth and last season of 16 episodes, possibly aired over two years a la the last Sopranos "season."

Described in bare bones, this show doesn't sound very appealing. It revolves around the methamphetamine business. The main character, who has the everyman name of Walt White, is a high school chemistry teacher in Albuquerque who lives a life of quiet desperation trying to convey his love of chemistry to bored students. The linchpin is Walt learns he has inoperable cancer and has months to live.

Worried that his family will suffer without his income, and through a random encounter with a past dismal student, Walt goes into the meth business. With his knowledge of chemistry he quickly becomes the best producer of blue meth in the southwest.

What I really like about it is how sharply the characters are written. None of them are stereotypes. They all have their good and bad traits, just like people in real life. I really hate fiction which paints people as either heroes or antiheroes. In every episode there are random comments from one or another of them which deepen my understanding of the character. None of them is the character we first met. Walt in particular has darkened in a way the Greek dramatists would recognize. The show creator, Vince Gilligan, has said in recent interviews that he envisions Walt as a character on a steadily downward path.

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Why do actors and actresses get so much credit and the writers who created their roles so little? Not taking anything away from Bryan Cranston, who has won at least one Emmy for his portrayal of Walt -- he is terrific -- but the character did not spring from his imagination. He is just the actor with the good fortune to be given the responsibility of portraying Walter White. Which he has done.

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It is not a lighthearted series but has its moments of humor. I like the delightfully slimy lawyer Saul and also the dark hearted Mexican cousins who are enforcers for the Mexican cartel, with their forbidding look and their long toed boots. Every time they appear the tension ratchets up. In an unforgettable opening scene of one episode they get out of their fancy car and crawl across the Mexican desert on their knees to place a picture on a shaman's shrine -- Heisenberg, a.k.a. Walt White. A hex on his head.

The character I have been blown away by in recent episodes is Gus. He is the mild mannered owner of a a chicken fast food place who in fact controls the meth business north of the border. A man who gives away nothing. In this case I definitely give props to the actor. He holds himself in perfect control, arms at his sides, soft spoken. With his stillness he can convey meaning with a tiny twitch of the eyebrow.

I forewarn you that it isn't everyone's cup of tea. Right out of the gate the content will be offputting to some. No problem. I am not here to steer anyone to something they will not enjoy. I just really admire the writing and the acting. As the movie critic Roger Ebert put it, it isn't what the story is about, it's how it's about it.