Over the course of three previous seasons of AMC's phenomenal "Breaking Bad," viewers have watched Walter White shift from a mild-mannered chemistry teacher and family man into a ruthless, murdering criminal.

Walt's actions, precipitated by a cancer diagnosis and desire to leave his family financially secure, can't be excused because of his sympathetic backstory (in part because once his cancer was in remission and he had a nice nest egg, he continued his involvement in the drug trade). But at the same time, his actions have always been at least understandable (we do not condone!) on some level because at Walt's core, he is a survivor. In fact, his dangerous, destructive path demonstrates a primal "survive and advance" instinct.

When Season 3 of "Breaking Bad" ended, the science teacher-turned-crystal meth cooker was orchestrating a last ditch play to avoid being murdered by his drug kingpin boss, Gus (Giancarlo Esposito). In the final moments of that season ender, Walt (Bryan Cranston) dispatched his partner Jesse (Aaron Paul) to secure their survival in a particularly brutal way. This weekend's Season 4 premiere deals with the immediate fallout from that move.

Here's another chance to catch up on every episode of the best drama on television before the new season starts on AMC.

Of course, I'm talking about the Emmy-winning 'Breaking Bad.'    

AMC will begin a marathon of all 'Breaking Bad' episodes (in order) starting with the show's pilot on Wednesday, July 6. They will show three episodes every night starting at 2 a.m. until Season 4 begins on July 17th. The seasons are typically 13 episodes long, so this is doable.

'Breaking Bad' follows high school chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston) as he discovers he has lung cancer and decides the only way to leave his family financially secure is to cook and sell crystal meth.

Trust me, it's incredible.

So clear out the DVR and get ready for some incredible drama!

Law & Order: Los Angeles (9pm, NBC) - If you missed this new show's premiere earlier in the week, here's your chance to catch up. It's not bad. It's pretty much exactly like the old "Law & Order" except set in Los Angeles, where things just seem too bright and shiny to be a real "Law & Order." But I think it's a work in progress and will get better. This first episode has a bit of a "Lindsey Lohan ripped from the headlines" vibe.

Iconoclasts (9pm, Sundance) - In the fifth season premiere of this series which profiles creative visionaries, Charlize Theron joins legendary anthropologist Jane Goodall in the wild to learn about primates.

Saturday Night Live (11:30pm, NBC) - Three time Emmy-winner Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad") is the host and Kanye West is the musical guest.

Austin City Limits (12 midnight, UNC-TV) - The 36th season kicks off with a show by Jimmy Cliff who performs a mix of his greatest hits and songs from his "Existence" cd.

AMC announced the renewal of "Breaking Bad" last night, just as the show was getting ready to shut down its third spectacular season. Never has a renewal been more deserving (or less surprising).

Speaking of last night's finale, it seems many viewers interpreted that last scene with Jesse as something of a cliffhanger. But according to the show's creator Vince Gilligan, who also wrote and directed the episode, any ambiguity was purely unintentional.

Spoilers ahead.

Last night's pivotal episode of "Breaking Bad" was likely seen by a tiny fraction of the people who tuned in for "Lost," but that doesn't mean it was any less remarkable. In fact, this was an episode that stood out as extraordinary, even in a season that has been filled with one stellar offering after another.

The episode, titled "Fly," focuses on Walt's efforts to cope with the fact that the circumstances of his life (and by association, the lives of his loved ones) have slipped beyond his control. We've seen glimpses of Walt's coping mechanisms in earlier episodes, where he tried to deal with his guilt over the plane crash and Jane's death by obsessively rationalizing the relative severity of the crash and by fixating on the odds for such a thing even occurring. The more Walt's life has come unraveled this season, the more he has sought to restore order through meticulous routine, logic, and science.

This brilliant "Fly" episode often swings from eerie and foreboding to absurd and slapstick. It opens with creepy, up-close shots of a house fly while a mournful lullabye plays in the background. It feels a little like the opening of a horror film, and the episode does go there a time or two. But the dark moments are balanced by silly action and witty dialogue, and the result feels like TV perfection.

Last year, about this time, I begged you people to start watching "Breaking Bad" on AMC. If you ignored me then, I'm sorry for you because you missed a truly excellent bit of television. (For the record, I'm convinced the only reason this show doesn't get as much love as "Mad Men" is because the people in it aren't as pretty to look at.)

In Season Two of "Breaking Bad," we watched high school chemistry teacher-turned-crystal meth cooker Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston, who has won two Emmys for this role) sink deeper into desperation as he battled cancer while trying to cook and sell enough drugs to leave behind a plump nest egg for his family.

The pitiable suburban family man we felt empathy for in season one adopted a steely resolve in Season Two to do anything -- anything -- for the sake of his brood, including coldly watching his partner Jesse's volatile girlfriend choke to death, because he knew his own chances for survival were better with her gone.

It's Emmy time at last, so I'm settling down in front of the TV to see just how badly I did on my Emmy ballot. If you didn't watch, here's what you missed.

Most favored Emmy host Neil Patrick Harris starts with an intro that sounds like a 1940s newsreel announcer. He then comes out in white dinner jacket and channels Frank Sinatra for his big song, a clever number that implores folks to put down the remote. It's brief and fanastic. The funniest part of the song was the line about how curvy Joan from "Mad Men" could turn a gay man straight, then "Oh wait, there's Jon Hamm."

First Kanye West joke of the night is from NPH: "I hope Kanye likes '30 Rock.'"

NPH gives a tour of the fancy stage and tells us they will present the awards grouped in genres this year. Interesting. First up is comedy and there's a comedy montage that reminds me once again why I do not watch "Two and a Half Men."