WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS: ‘BREAKING BAD’ PREMIERE, ‘LIFE’

C'mon guys, use the crosswalk.

Breaking Bad (Sunday, AMC) — Season 3 premiere. I admit, I missed Season 1 and only caught part of Season 2, but every time I watched, it kicked ass. Check out the praise: “With its sense of place, its spare dialogue and its oddball peripheral characters, Breaking Bad is the closest that TV comes to the best Coen brothers movies.” [Star-Telegram] “This is a series that has gone to greatness as fast as any of television’s truly excellent offerings. It’s also one of the most daring exercises in creative storytelling that anyone has attempted.” [SF Chronicle]

Life (Sunday, Discovery) — “‘Life,’ like its predecessor ‘Planet Earth,’ is the reason flat screens, Blu-ray and high-definition TV were invented. No doubt the 11-part series, with its astonishingly intimate footage of A-Z species engaged in every sort of behavior, will play well on any screen. But its color, scope, detail and gorgeousness cry out for a home theater situation, one of those screens so big you can watch it from the street.” [LA Times] Hellloooo, DVR and illegal drugs.

Who Do You Think You Are? (tonight, NBC) — At long last, we get the answers about Lisa Kudrow’s ancestry we’ve craved for so long.

NCAA Basketball Tourney (all weekend, CBS) — Goooo, Georgetown!!! What’s that? Aw crap.

Thin Ice (tonight & Sunday, ABC) — A two-part ice skating competition featuring host Elisabeth Hasselbeck and a judging panel that includes Kristi Yamaguchi, Katarina Witt, and Dick Button. Heh, “dick buttin’.” Despite the name, competitors do not, unfortunately, compete on thin ice.