“Breaking Bad” is a critically acclaimed American television series created by Vince Gilligan that originally aired from 2008 to 2013. The show follows the transformation of Walter White, portrayed by Bryan Cranston, from a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher to a ruthless and cunning methamphetamine manufacturer.
The catalyst for Walter’s descent into the criminal underworld is a terminal cancer diagnosis, which leads him to team up with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul. As Walter and Jesse delve deeper into the illegal drug trade, they face increasingly dangerous and morally ambiguous situations.
Breaking Bad is 5 seasons with a total of 62 episodes (about 45 minutes each). The show takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, between 2008 and 2010.
The series is known for its intense storytelling, complex characters, and moral ambiguity, challenging viewers to empathize with a protagonist who becomes an antihero. Bryan Cranston’s portrayal of Walter White earned him widespread acclaim,
and Aaron Paul’s performance as Jesse Pinkman also received critical praise, with both actors winning multiple Emmy Awards for their roles. The show explores themes of morality, the consequences of one’s actions, and the impact of choices on individuals and their relationships.
The character development is exceptional, with supporting characters like Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), Walter’s brother-in-law and a DEA agent, and Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), a colorful criminal lawyer, adding depth and humor to the narrative. “Breaking Bad” received numerous awards and accolades,
including 16 Primetime Emmy Awards. The series is often regarded as one of the greatest television shows of all time, praised for its writing, acting, and character arcs. Its legacy extends beyond its initial run, influencing subsequent TV dramas and setting a high standard for quality storytelling in the medium.
Main Cast
- Cranston, Bryan as Walter White, a high-school chemistry teacher who, shortly after his 50th birthday, is diagnosed with Stage III lung cancer and turns to making meth to secure his family’s finances. (born March 7, 1956) Amazon Women on the Moon, Dead Space, That Thing You Do!, Saving Private Ryan, Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D, The Lincoln Lawyer, Drive, Contagion, John Carter, Rock of Ages, Total Recall, Argo, Godzilla, Get a Job, The Infiltrator, The Disaster Artist, Power Rangers, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, Asteroid City, Argylle, TV Episodes of CHiPs, Airwolf, Murder, She Wrote, Hill Street Blues, Matlock, Falcon Crest, Baywatch, Jake and the Fatman, Viper, Walker Texas Ranger, Seinfeld, Touched by an Angel, Diagnosis: Murder, Babylon 5, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, From the Earth to the Moon, V.I.P., The X-Files, 3rd Rock from the Sun, The Pretender, The King of Queens, Malcolm in the Middle (151 episodes), How I Met Your Mother, Breaking Bad, Archer, 30 Rock, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Better Call Saul
- Paul, Aaron as Jesse Pinkman, Walter’s cooking partner and former student. (August 27, 1979) K-PAX, National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, Mission: Impossible III, Need for Speed, Central Intelligence, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, TV Episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, 3rd Rock from the Sun, The X-Files, NYPD Blue, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, Veronica Mars, Point Pleasant, Criminal Minds, Bones, Ghost Whisperer, Breaking Bad, Mythbusters, Westworld, Better Call Saul
- Gunn, Anna as Skyler White, Walter’s wife who was pregnant with their second child before his diagnosis and who becomes increasingly suspicious of her husband after he begins behaving in unfamiliar ways. (born August 11, 1968) Without Evidence, Enemy of the State, Lost Souls, Nobody’s Baby, Red State, Sully, Being Frank, TV Episodes of Quantum Leap, Seinfeld, NYPD Blue, Murder One, Chicago Hope, The Practice, ER, The Drew Carey Show, Yes Dear, Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, Boston Legal, Breaking Bad, Law & Order, Lie To Me, The Mindy Project, Criminal Minds
- Norris, Dean as Hank Schrader, Marie’s husband, Walter and Skyler’s brother-in-law and a DEA agent. (born April 8, 1963) Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, Lethal Weapon 2, Hard to Kill, Total Recall, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Lawnmower Man, The Firm, Gattaca, Starship Troopers, The Cell, Little Miss Sunshine, Evan Almighty, The Heartbreak Kid, The Frozen Ground, Death Wish, TV Episodes of The Equalizer, NYPD Blue, Married… with Children, The X-Files, Murder One, Dark Skies, The Pretender, Nash Bridges, V.I.P., ER, Walker, Texas Ranger, Millennium, Charmed, Boston Public, Six Feet Under, JAG, 24, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS, Without a Trace, Cold Case, Nip/Tuck, Grey’s Anatomy, Breaking Bad, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Bones, True Blood, Lost, Criminal Minds, Lie to Me, Medium, CSI: NY, Castle, The Mentalist, Under the Dome (39 Ep), The Big Bang Theory, Better Call Saul, Law & Order: Organized Crime
- Brandt, Betsy as Marie Schrader, Skyler’s sister and Hank’s kleptomaniac wife. (born March 14, 1973) TV Episodes of Judging Amy, JAG, ER, Without a Trace, The Guardian, NCIS, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Boston Legal, Breaking Bad, Parenthood, The Michael J. Fox Show, Life in Pieces (70 ep), Better Call Saul
- Mitte, RJ as Walter White Jr., Walter and Skyler’s son, who has cerebral palsy. He begins lashing out after Walter’s cancer announcement. (born August 21, 1992) Mitte himself has cerebral palsy, although his is a milder form than in Breaking Bad, The Recall, TV Episodes of Hannah Montana, Breaking Bad, Switched at Birth
- Odenkirk, Bob as Saul Goodman, a lawyer and a former scam artist, who becomes involved with the criminal world. - (born October 22, 1962) Wayne’s World 2, The Truth About Cats & Dogs, The Cable Guy, Dr. Dolittle 2, My Big Fat Independent Movie, Operation: Endgame, Ass Backwards, Freaks of Nature, Incredibles 2, Little Women, TV Episodes of Saturday Night Live, Roseanne, The Larry Sanders Show, Mr. Show with Bob and David, Seinfeld, NewsRadio, Everybody Loves Raymond, Tenacious D, Just Shoot Me!, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, How I Met Your Mother, Weeds, Breaking Bad, The Office, Better Call Saul, The Simpsons
- Banks, Jonathan as Mike Ehrmantraut, a former Philadelphia police officer working as a parking lot attendant at the Albuquerque courthouse, and later a private investigator, bodyguard and “cleaner” – (born January 31, 1947) Coming Home, Who’ll Stop the Rain, The Rose, Airplane!, Stir Crazy, 48 Hrs., Gremlins, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Beverly Hills Cop, Armed and Dangerous, Freejack, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, Dark Blue, Bullet, Horrible Bosses 2, Incredibles 2, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie,TV Episodes ofBarnaby Jones, Lou Grant, The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, Best of the West, Hill Street Blues, Whiz Kids, Cagney & Lacey, Hunter, Falcon Crest, Designing Women, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Highlander: The Series, Matlock, Walker, Texas Ranger, Tales from the Crypt, Diagnosis: Murder, Alias, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Ghost Whisperer, Without a Trace, Dexter, ER, Lie to Me, Cold Case, Castle, Breaking Bad, Modern Family, Two and A Half Men, CSI: Miami, Parks and Recreation, Better Call Saul, MythBusters
- Esposito, Giancarlo as Gus Fring, the owner of the fast food restaurant chain Los Pollos Hermanos, which is a front to distribute cocaine for the Mexican cartel, in uneasy cooperation with the Salamanca family. (born April 26, 1958) The Changeling, Taps, Trading Places, The Cotton Club, Desperately Seeking Susan, Maximum Overdrive, Malcolm X, The Usual Suspects, Ali, Son of Batman, Batman: Assault on Arkham, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, TV Episodes ofGuiding Light, Miami Vice, The Equalizer, Spenser: For Hire, New York Undercover, Law & Order, NYPD Blue, Nash Bridges, South Beach, Ghost Whisperer, Bones, CSI: Miami, Breaking Bad, Lie to Me, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, Once Upon a Time, Community, Revolution, Dear White People, Better Call Saul, Westworld, Harley Quinn, The Mandalorian, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Kaleidoscope
- Margolis, Mark as Hector Salamanca, A former high-ranking member of the Juarez Cartel who is now unable to walk or speak because of a stroke, communicating with the help of a bell. He is the uncle of Tuco, Marco, and Leonel Salamanca. (November 26, 1939 – August 3, 2023) Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Cotton Club, The Secret of My Succe$s, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, The Pit and the Pendulum, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, I Shot Andy Warhol, The Pallbearer, Absolute Power, The Thomas Crown Affair, End of Days, Hannibal, Daredevil, Black Swan, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, TV Episodes ofThe Equalizer, Quantum Leap, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Columbo, Law and Order, New York Undercover, Guiding Light, Oz, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Sex and the City, Californication, Breaking Bad, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Person of Interest, American Horror Story: Asylum, Gotham, Elementary, Better Call Saul, The Blacklist
Recurring Cast
Steven Michael Quezada as Steven “Gomey” Gomez – Hank’s DEA partner and best friend, who assists in tracking down and learning the identity of Heisenberg. In comical situations between him and Hank, Gomez serves as the “straight man”. Jessica Hecht and Adam Godley as Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz – Co-owners of Gray Matter, a company that they co-founded alongside Walter, who left the business prior to its major success.
Gretchen was a former flame of Walt’s and partially the reason he left. Raymond Cruz as Tuco Salamanca – A sociopathic Mexican drug kingpin who becomes Walt and Jesse’s meth distributor. Christopher Cousins as Ted Beneke – Skyler’s boss and president of Beneke Fabricators who begins developing financial problems,
resulting in an intervention from Skyler. Krysten Ritter as Jane Margolis – Jesse’s apartment manager and girlfriend, who is a recovering addict. David Costabile as Gale Boetticher – A chemist hired by Gus Fring to work alongside Walter. Daniel Moncada and Luis Moncada as Leonel and Marco Salamanca – Two ruthless and taciturn hitmen for the Juarez Cartel who are the cousins of Tuco Salamanca and the nephews of Hector Salamanca.
Emily Rios as Andrea Cantillo – Jesse’s second girlfriend, who is also a recovering addict. She has a young son named Brock. Lavell Crawford as Huell Babineaux – Saul’s bodyguard who also handles problems Walter needs fixing. Tina Parker as Francesca Liddy – Saul Goodman’s receptionist.
Special Guests
Danny Trejo as Tortuga – A Mexican cartel member and DEA informant. Robert Forster as Ed Galbraith – A vacuum cleaner repairman whose undercover business is a new identity specialist. Charlie Rose as himself, a journalist and talk show host.
Breaking Bad was created by Vince Gilligan, who had spent several years writing the Fox series The X-Files. Gilligan wanted to create a series in which the protagonist became the antagonist. The initial versions of the script were set in Riverside, California,
but at the suggestion of Sony, Albuquerque was chosen for the production’s location due to the favorable financial conditions offered by the state of New Mexico. Donna Nelson, a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Oklahoma, checked scripts and provided dialogue. She also drew chemical structures and wrote chemical equations which were used as props. Breaking Bad was shot on 35 mm film because of the robustness of the equipment and to keep a focus on shooting scenes economically.
It also allowed for a later digital transfer to 4K Ultra HD resolution. By the end of the fifth season, episodes had cost upwards of US$6 million to produce. The complete series was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 26, 2013, in a collectable box shaped like one of the barrels used by Walt to bury his money.
The set contains various features, including a two-hour documentary and a humorous alternative ending that features Cranston and his Malcolm in the Middle co-star Jane Kaczmarek playing their characters Hal and Lois, in a nod to the final scene from Newhart.
Further Reading
Sources
- Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad. (n.d.). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0319213/
- Breaking Bad. (n.d.). IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/
- Breaking Bad. (n.d.). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad
- Fandom “Welcome to the Breaking Bad Wiki” https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/Breaking_Bad_Wiki
- Breeze Wiki “Welcome to the Breaking Bad Wiki” https://breezewiki.com/breakingbad/wiki/Breaking_Bad_Wiki
- GameRant “Breaking Bad: The 18 Best Walter White Quotes” https://gamerant.com/breaking-bad-best-walter-white-quotes/
