# Breaking Bad (2008)

> A mild-mannered New Mexico chemistry teacher with terminal cancer turns to cooking methamphetamine to secure his family's future, and slowly becomes the dangerous figure he never expected to be.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/1312

## Facts

- Seasons: 5
- Episodes: 62
- Episode runtime: 49 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Vince Gilligan
- Network: AMC
- Cast: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, RJ Mitte, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt, Giancarlo Esposito, Bob Odenkirk
- TMDB rating: 9.5/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: brutal
- Tone: tense, darkly comic, bleak, propulsive, harrowing

## What critics say

Widely acclaimed as one of television's great dramas, praised for its writing, lead performance and slow-burning moral descent of its protagonist.

## Synopsis

Breaking Bad (2008-2013) is a United States prestige drama crime series created by Vince Gilligan for AMC. Bryan Cranston plays Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal cancer, who partners with former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) to cook methamphetamine and secure his family's financial future. Anna Gunn plays his wife Skyler, and Dean Norris plays his brother-in-law Hank Schrader, a DEA agent whose investigations push the danger closer to home. Across five serialized seasons, each episode builds on the last as Walter navigates rival dealers, cartel violence, and the growing lies he tells his loved ones. The tension is concrete and mounting: a home lab, a stolen shipment, a volatile partner, a fixer who always has a solution. The show is tightly plotted, darkly comic, and often harrowing, with a bold visual register and a steady sense of dread. Fans of The Sopranos, The Wire and Better Call Saul will find resonance in its study of moral decline, its morally compromised characters, and its patient, consequence-driven storytelling set against the stark desert landscape of the American Southwest.

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- [The Big C (2010)](https://ember.film/tv/29823)
- [The Walking Dead (2010)](https://ember.film/tv/1318)
- [The Wire (2002)](https://ember.film/tv/1354)

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