TV reviews: Breaking Bad and The 65th Annual Emmy Awards

Over five seasons we've watched him transform from a mild family man given the death sentence of cancer on his 50th birthday, to a cold-hearted killer whose actions have brought nothing but misery to the family he wanted only to provide for after his passing.

He's caused the murder of his policeman brother-in-law, ruined his wife, been rejected by the son he loves and found himself cold and alone, far from home, with only his money for company as he awaits the arrival of the Grim Reaper, who will surely escort him to his very own en suite room in hell.

And yet, despite all Walt's done over 61 episodes, all the chaos, all the betrayals, I still don't hate him. God knows I should, but I don't.

Lesser dramas would tell you exactly what to think of each character, but Breaking Bad doesn't do that. Nobody is simply black or white. Everybody is painted in shades of grey.

Walt did what he did for his family. And now he's lost them. All of them.

Here was the man others came to fear reduced to a man whom others pitied.

Walt's attempt to intimidate his bent lawyer failed when the cancer brought on a coughing fit that made him collapse.

He can't even give to his son the money he made from making methamphetamine. "Why are you still alive?" asked Walt Junior in a painful telephone conversation. "Just die."

Will he? We'll find out next week when one of the greatest television dramas reaches its no doubt bloody conclusion.

Now from the sublime we turn to the ridiculous, with yet another jewel in the televisual crown of channel 5USA. (You know, on Freeview. Channel 31. Near QVC Beauty, Price-Drop TV, the Jewellery Channel and all the other purveyors of tat you can't quite believe anybody watches.)

Yes, through them we could share in the glory that was the 65th Annual Emmy Awards (5USA). All two hours and five minutes of the flipping thing.

Actually, I just had to check the timings again because it appeared to go on for days. Mind you, it would have been a lot shorter and a good deal less painful if they didn't feel the need to applaud absolutely everything.

Honestly, every time the bloke from Doogie Howser M.D. came on he got a round of applause.

Every person he introduced to present an award got a round of applause.

The name of every nominee that person read out got a round of applause.

The winner then got a round of applause as he/she made their way to the stage, where they would thank everybody on God's good earth – all of whom got a round of applause – before leaving the stage accompanied by a round of applause.

And after that the whole thing would begin again. Like Sisyphus condemned to roll a giant boulder up a hill in the Greek myth.

Over and over. Again and again. Until the end of time.

It is a wonder anybody's got hands left at the end of the evening.

By the time they get to the end credits the audience must be beating together nothing more than bleeding, raw stumps.

Still, Breaking Bad was named Outstanding Drama Series, and I won't argue with that.

In fact, I think I'll give it a round of applause. You too. Come on. One, two three...