Let's face it, guys and gals. The televisual landscape can be pretty bumpy and it seems as though as soon as you find yourself a series that you can tolerate the network yanks it because it's getting crap ratings. And why was the show getting crap ratings? Because TV viewers are hesitant to invest in anything new because it might wind up getting pre-maturely cancelled. It's a vicious circle. A snake eating its own tail.

With everyone coming off of their respective Winter Olympic highs and ready to sink down into a somber, sulking depression over Jay Leno returning to the tarnished, bastardized Tonight Show this evening, we thought we'd send some good vibes out your way and list off 5 shows that we think you all might like/love/get a kick out of. Most of these are smaller-scale shows that would be lucky to pull off a million or two viewer so there is a bit of an agenda hidden in these recommendations. We're hoping to spread the word about these kickass series so that they'll, you know, stick around for a couple more seasons. So here are one pay-cable show, one network show and three cablers that we think everyone should be tuning in to on a weekly basis.

Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad is one of the most joyfully wretched shows on TV. Let's just say that watching cancer-stricken chemistry teacher, Walter White (Emmy-Award winner Bryan Cranston) brave the dark and perilous world of New Mexican underworld meth cooking is a "good pain." We're all very happy that showrunner Vince Gilligan makes it a point to include gallows' humor and macabre laughs every so often to break up the brilliant despair and palpable intrigue. At the Winter TCA press tour, Cranston's co-star Aaron Paul, who plays White's hapless, yet sympathetic apprentice Jesse Pinkman, confided to us that the third season will get even darker than its predecessors. And after watching the first two new episodes of this year, we can hardly wait for the freight train of tension and torment headed our way.

With an amazing supporting cast, haunted desert landscapes, merciless drug enforcers and a once-noble high-school teacher on the brink of being buried under his own secrets and lies, Breaking Bad offers some of the best and riveting TV that we've ever seen. Hell, it was so good that it won the IGN TV Best Series and Best Drama awards for 2009.

Breaking Bad returns Sunday, March 21st at 10PM/9C on AMC. You can catch up with Season 1 on DVD right now - and Season 2 on DVD and Blu-ray on March 16th.

Archer

"Because that's how you get ants!"

Step into the action-packed world of secret ISIS agent Sterling Archer, a self-absorbed prick of an international super-spy with a knack for pissing off everyone he meets. Do you like your engaging espionage tales littered with subversive humor and profanity? Do you get a boner at the thought of your mother's murder? Do you like to verbally eviscerate your elderly dogsbody, Woodhouse? Do you forget the name of most everyone in your office or accidentally set your co-workers on fire while testing out new gadgetry? Then Archer is the show for you.

For those of you who lapped up the surreal, bats*** humor of Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo , then you should know that Archer also comes to us from the wonderfully demented mind of Adam Reed. Aisha Tyler Chris Parnell , Jessica Walter and Judy Greer round out the stellar supporting voice cast for H. Jon Benjamin's sickeningly vain, Oedipally-stricken Super Agent.

There are only two more episodes of Archer this season, with the next episode coming up this Thursday, Mach 4th at 10pm on FX. But the good news is that Archer has been picked up for a second season.

Head over to Page 2 for more Shows You Should Be Watching…