Obama binges on 'Breaking Bad'

David Jackson | USA TODAY

Thanks to video services and recording technology, busy people who can't make appointment television can "binge watch" some favored shows — and that group includes President Obama.

The president is now making his way through Breaking Bad, the recently finished AMC series about a man who over the course of 62 episodes turns from mild-mannered chemistry teacher to vicious meth lord.

The show premiered Jan. 20, 2008 -- as Obama was battling Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination — and wrapped up Sept. 29, in the fifth year of Obama's presidency.

In recent weeks, Obama has also voiced his admiration of House of Cards, a Netflix series about political warfare in a fantasized Washington.

"I wish things were that ruthlessly efficient," Obama joked during a meeting this month with technology executives, including one from Netflix.

Referring to House of Cards protagonist Frank Underwood — who in season one connived to move from House majority whip to an appointment as vice president — Obama said, "this guy's getting a lot of stuff done!"

Season two will be released in February, though Obama inquired about an advance copy.

As the New York Times notes, Breaking Bad and House of Cards are very much in keeping with Obama's television preferences: Dark and edgy.

Reports the Times:

"Mr. Obama is also a devotee of Showtime's Homeland, which offers an eerily familiar mirror to the president's own foreign policy adventures: terrorism, Iranian nuclear negotiations, drone strikes, and an intelligence agency struggling for legitimacy with Congress and the American people.

"And the list of heavies continues. Mr. Obama has told people he is a big fan of Game of Thrones, a brutal imagining of the wars in medieval Europe. He has raved about Boardwalk Empire and the BBC's Downton Abbey, two period dramas that document the angst and difficulties that people faced during those times.

"And he has worked his way through the DVDs of AMC's smoldering Mad Men series, telling friends that the character of Peggy Olson has given him insight into what it must have been like for his strong-willed grandmother in a world dominated by men."