Breaking Bad (AMC 2008-2013, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul)

Crime drama series. When High school chemistry teacher and part time car washer Walter White discovers he has cancer he turns to crime to help pay his medical expenses and provide for his wife Skylar and disabled teenage son Walt Jr after he is ‘gone’.

Using his knowledge of chemistry he teams up with former pupil Jesse Pinkman and the pair begin producing crystal meth of an exceptionally pure kind. The pair are soon very much out of their depth especially when they become involved with drug kingpin Gus Fring. Things are further complicated by the fact that Walter’s brother-in-law Hank is a drug enforcement officer determined to bring down the team producing this new pure meth.

No brief outline can do this incredible show justice, rightly regarded as one of the greatest TV shows ever made. As the five seasons progress Walter gets himself (and Jesse) deeper and deeper into trouble, it seems there is nothing he won’t do (including murder) to keep his ‘business’ going. Even as his marriage and world falls apart Walt keeps getting deeper – as he says to Skylar at one point when she says she doesn’t want bad guys knocking on their door ‘I am the one who knocks’.

February 2015 saw the arrival of a prequel called Better Call Saul focusing on the world of Walter and Jesse’s lawyer Saul Goodman, six years before the events of Breaking Bad.

production details
USA | AMC – Sony – Gran Via – High Bridge Entertainment | 62×50 minutes Broadcast 20 January 2008 – 11 August 2013.

Creator: Vince Gilligan
Theme Music: Dave Porter
Executive Producers: Vince Gilligan, Mark Johnson, Michelle MacLaren

cast
Bryan Cranston as Walter White
Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman
Anna Gunn as Skyler White
Dean Norris as Hank Schrader
Betsy Brandt as Marie Schrader
Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman
RJ Mitte as Walter White Jr
Krysten Ritter as Jane Margolis
Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring
Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut
Charles Baker as Skinny Pete
Matt L. Jones as Brandon ‘Badger’ Mayhew
Laura Fraser as Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (season 5)
Jesse Plemons as Todd Alquist (season 5)