Vince Gilligan's hit series about a Chemistry teacher turning to the meth business to support his family once he learns he's dying of cancer - Scarface by way of Goodbye, Mr Chips is how he used to pitch it - became one of the monster hits of the modern television renaissance, snatching The Wire's crown of people smugly asking you why you haven't watched this show yet, because what could possibly be more important? (NB We may have been one of those smug people. Seriously, if you haven't watched Breaking Bad yet, what are you doing with your life? What could possibly be more important?) If the five seasons of intense drama are a little off-putting, you could always opt for the Colombian telenovela-style remake that aired earlier this year. Metastasis, as the remake is called, is a fair straight retelling of the original Breaking Bad story, albeit in a different language with different actors and a significantly smaller budget. It does look like a bit of a cheap knock-off, albeit it's officially licensed. Plus Walt and Jesse - or should we say Blanco and Jose - tool around the desert cooking meth in an old school bus instead of an RV, because apparently that would arouse less suspicion in Bogotá, Colombia than it did in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Amazingly, whilst we had to wait half a decade to get through Walter White's transformation from down-on-his-luck teacher to morally indefensible monster, Metastasis managed to tear through all 62 episodes in the space of three months, airing daily and wrapping up this September after beginning in June. It's an almost word-for-word recreation, but a quick and dirty one, with some concessions made since, y'know, Colombia has something of a history for drug dealing...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
