‘Breaking Bad’ season 5: Now with a touch of ‘Downton Abbey’?

There have been some great parodies of “Breaking Bad” and “Downton Abbey” produced over the years, but even with that in mind, this latest one coming to us courtesy of “The Colbert Report” Thursday night still has to be counted as one of the very best.

The introduction to it was very simple: after Colbert heard that Michelle Obama had an opportunity to watch season 3 of the period drama before basically any other person in America (at least legally), he decided to call up “friend of the show” Vince Gilligan to get some exclusive footage from the rest of the AMC drama’s fifth and final season. However, what he presented was a little bit unexpected: “Breaking Bad” as performed by the cast of “Downton Abbey,” in particular Hugh Bonneville (Robert), Rob James Collier (Thomas), and Jim Carter (Mr. Carson).

All three of these actors were hilariously game to spoof both their show and “Breaking Bad,” and Bonneville even went as far as to sport a very Walter White-esque goatee while he talked about the new business venture he has taken with “tea” as a way to help keep cash coming in to preserve the Abbey and his family’s fortune. There are three installments in the video below, and the second one even features a cameo from Mark Consuelos playing the leader of some sort of gang. (The yellow teeth are a nice touch.) Perhaps what was the biggest surprise here was the amount of restraint Colbert showed in not really casting himself in here, which thus gave the video a little bit more viral potential given there was no one he could have accurately played.

What do you think about this video? If you want to see more of what is actually coming up on “Breaking Bad” season 5, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: AMC