Breaking Bad (2008)
Breaking Bad is a 2008 drama series created by Vince Gilligan and Dave Porter. It stars Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Anna Gunn.
A high-school chemistry teacher named Walter White gets a terminal cancer diagnosis and decides to cook methamphetamine to leave his family money. Walt is very good at chemistry and very bad at staying small, and Vince Gilligan's series follows him and his former student Jesse deeper into a New Mexico drug trade that keeps demanding more than either of them meant to give. The show runs on consequence: every lie needs a bigger lie, every fix breaks something else. Bryan Cranston turns a mild man's corruption into one of television's great slow burns.
Quick answers
What is Breaking Bad about?
A high-school chemistry teacher named Walter White gets a terminal cancer diagnosis and decides to cook methamphetamine to leave his family money. Walt is very good at chemistry and very bad at staying small, and Vince Gilligan's series follows him and his former student Jesse deeper into a New Mexico drug trade that keeps demanding more than either of them meant to give. The show runs on consequence: every lie needs a bigger lie, every fix breaks something else. Bryan Cranston turns a mild man's corruption into one of television's great slow burns.
When was Breaking Bad released?
Breaking Bad was released on 20 January 2008.
How many episodes does Breaking Bad have?
Breaking Bad has 62 episodes across 5 seasons.
Who made Breaking Bad?
Breaking Bad was created by Vince Gilligan, Dave Porter and Peter Gould.
Where can I watch Breaking Bad?
Breaking Bad is available on Netflix, Amazon, AppleTV and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch Breaking Bad
Stream: Netflix
Buy: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home
Official site
Cast
- Bryan Cranston as Walter White
- Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman
- Anna Gunn as Skyler White
- RJ Mitte as Walter White Jr.
- Dean Norris as Hank Schrader
- Betsy Brandt as Marie Schrader
- Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman
- Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut
- Steven Michael Quezada as Steven Gomez
- Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring
- Charles Baker as Skinny Pete
- Christopher Cousins as Ted Beneke
Similar series
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Breaking Bad in our writing
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- Companion guide: Undercover & Deep Cover
- Companion guide: Villains & Great Antagonists
A few thoughts on Breaking Bad
Vince Gilligan builds the whole show on consequence, one lie forcing the next. The Godfather tells the same slow-corruption story on the page, and Disco Elysium gives you a ruined man to reassemble as a game.
When a terminal diagnosis rewrites everything
Breaking Bad opens on Walter White's cancer and the cold math of leaving his family money. These sit with that same reckoning: people handed a diagnosis or a deadline who suddenly weigh what their life was for, some racing to build something lasting, others just trying to feel alive before the clock runs out.
Ordinary people down in the drug trade
Once Walt starts cooking, Breaking Bad pulls a mild chemistry teacher into a New Mexico meth economy that keeps asking for more. These follow the drug world from the same ground level: growers, dealers, and people who wandered in over their heads, staying closer to kitchens and back roads than to cartels while the trade reshapes everyone inside it.
When one lie keeps demanding a bigger one
Breaking Bad runs on consequence: every cover story needs another, and each fix breaks something new. These share that engine of escalation, following people whose single choice or buried secret compounds until it corrodes everyone around them, and who keep telling themselves the next step will be the last one they have to take.