Film

Breaking Bad, Greatest Television Series: The 2026 Case

The 2026 verdict on Breaking Bad: the finished arc, Ozymandias, a Guinness record and Better Call Saul build the definitive case for TV's greatest show.

By ZOD Culture Editorial Team · Essay

Back in 2013, with the final episodes still unspooling week to week, this magazine asked whether Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad was the greatest television show of all time and, sensibly, refused to answer. Greatness needs a full life to be measured against, and the show still had an ending to earn. "Only time will tell," that piece concluded, "if Breaking Bad holds the same gravitas this time in five years."

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The Zodiac

a standing department: history, myth, art. No horoscopes.

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This season · The Twelve

Leo. ♌︎

the lion no blade could cut. The sign of the hour, read as literature: myth, sources and pictures.

Jul 23 to Aug 22 · Monograph V of XII

Origins · Longread

Before the Horoscope.

The zodiac was built by Babylonian astronomer-scribes: seven centuries of watching, dated and filed.

Forthcoming in the department

♈︎ Aries ♉︎ Taurus ♊︎ Gemini ♋︎ Cancer ♌︎ Leo ♍︎ Virgo ♎︎ Libra ♏︎ Scorpio ♐︎ Sagitt. ♑︎ Capric. ♒︎ Aquar. ♓︎ Pisces

Criticism

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Self & Society

A 21st Century Problem – Maintaining ‘A Room of One’s Own’

Yasmyn Shaikh

Arts

On Survival: Lessons from a Festival Exploring Sexual Abuse

Tanaka Mhishi

Arts

Daniels Langeberg On Photography, Cycling & Exploration

Daniels Langeberg

Self & Society

To see an ocean of dreams in a mere teardrop as Wichita falls

Benjamin Eli Levine

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Architecture

buildings, cities and the politics of space

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The Sunday Letter

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