Rory Ford picks the best reasons to stay in this month

By RORY FORD
Published on 14/09/2012 18:00

Breaking Bad – Season 4 is the best thing not on television. Shockingly, no UK TV channel broadcasts the continuing exploits of cancer-stricken chemistry teacher Walter White (the superb Bryan Cranston) as he funds his own chemotherapy by becoming a crystal meth kingpin.

BB defies categorisation: you could call it a blackly comic, character-driven crime drama but it’s also a novelistic study of moral decay, yet it also features a sublimely funny turn from Bob Odenkirk as Walt’s corrupt lawyer, Saul (“Better Call Saul!”) Goodman. Magnificent. DVD, £29.99, 1 October.

The Casual Vacancy

Harry Potter author JK Rowling’s first novel for adults is a complete departure from the fantastic. Set in the fictional English village of Pagford, this “blackly comic” novel chronicles the aftershocks caused by the death of a local councillor and an election campaign that brings out all the tensions that the rural idyll has been repressing for years. £20, 27 September

A Week In Winter

Maeve Binchy, who died in July, was one of Ireland’s most successful novelists. Loved by her fans for her humour and warmth, in a World Book Day readers’ poll in 2000 she finished ahead of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Binchy returns to the west coast of Ireland for this tale of disparate characters that assemble at the grand Stone House hotel for a week’s holiday that should prove memorable. £18.99, 11 October

Joseph Anton

Salman Rushdie delivers the book he inevitably had to write: a memoir of his years of living under the death sentence issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. He was forced into hiding under an alias, Joseph Anton, the first names of two of his favourite writers – Conrad and Chekov. Rushdie documents the realities of living with armed police, his struggle for support and how he eventually regained his liberty. £25, 18 September

Community – Season 2

This gem of a sitcom is obscure in the UK as it airs on the little-seen Sony Entertainment channel. Ostensibly it’s about a group of misfits (students and teachers alike) on a US community college campus but really, it’s more concerned with deconstructing sitcom conventions and putting them back together in innovative ways, parodying popular culture and just letting Chevy Chase goof about. Very funny, very addictive and very highly recommended. DVD, £19.99, 24 September

Resident Evil 6

Capcom are hyping this as the biggest Resident Evil game to date and there really is an everything-including-the-kitchen-sink approach to proceedings (the US President gets eaten by zombies before the game even begins). The explosions are bigger, movement is faster, characters from past RE games return and they’ve looked to all-action Hollywood blockbusters for inspiration. Fingers crossed that they remember to reinstate the all important “fear factor” that was sadly missing from RE5. PS3, Xbox 360, £54.99, 2 October

The Bugle

This weekly “audio newspaper for an unrelentingly visual world” has now passed its 200th episode and is an oasis of smart/stupid political satire that is refreshingly global in its outlook. Fronted by clown-haired funnyman Andy Zaltzman in London and Daily Show regular John Oliver in New York, it’s a lot slicker and far less indulgent than most podcasts (although the less said about Zaltzman’s “pun runs” the better). Listen online, subscribe via iTunes, whatever – once you try it you may find that it quickly becomes the highlight of your week. • thebuglepodcast