Breaking Bad (2008)
Change the equation.
Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting desire to secure his family's financial future at any cost as he enters the dangerous world of drugs and crime.
| Type | TV series |
|---|---|
| First aired | 20 January 2008 |
| Status | Ended, last episode 29 September 2013 |
| Genre | Drama, Crime |
| Created by | Vince Gilligan |
| Starring | Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Anna Gunn |
| Seasons | 5 seasons, 62 episodes |
| Episode length | about 49 min |
| Time to watch it all | about 51 hours |
| Rated | TV-MA |
| Scores | TMDB users 9.0/10 |
Where to watch Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad is streaming on Netflix ($17.99 a month) in the US. At ten hours a week, all of the series takes about 2 months of Netflix, or $35.98 at list price.
We check availability daily. Page last updated 30 September 2026. Prices are standard monthly plans and change often, so check with the service before you sign up.
What kind of watch this is
Breaking Bad is a 51-hour crime drama about a chemistry teacher who turns to meth production. Created by Vince Gilligan, it stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul. It is for viewers who like their protagonists to start with good intentions and end up in a place where the only logical next step is violence. The 5 seasons provide a slow, inevitable descent into a world where "Heisenberg" is just a name and a warning.
What the critics said
Universal acclaim is a strong claim, but the numbers back it up. Metacritic sits at 87 out of 100, which is high enough to stop you from arguing. The American Film Institute listed it in its top ten for five straight years, a streak that outlasts most marriages. Critics rarely disagree on the ranking, though they do on the tone. Robert Bianco of USA Today found humor in the characters' attempts to apply scholarly logic to messy crimes. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly called it a "superlatively fresh metaphor for a middle-age crisis." The consensus is loud, but the show earns the volume.
How it did with audiences
Breaking Bad debuted to 1.4 million viewers, a number that reflected the NFL playoffs eating its timeslot. The writers strike kept first season numbers modest. But the show defied the usual serialized decline. Viewership climbed through the seasons, spiking when Netflix added previous episodes. That digital availability triggered a renewed burst of interest, a trend few shows had seen before. The finale pulled over 10.3 million viewers. On TMDB, users give it a 9. The audience did the math; the network finally caught up.
Awards
Breaking Bad collected 42 awards from 102 nominations. The series took home 16 Primetime Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series in 2013 and 2014. Bryan Cranston won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times: 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2014. He also secured the SAG Award in 2013. Aaron Paul won the Supporting Actor Emmy in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Anna Gunn won the Supporting Actress Emmy in 2013 and 2014. The show also earned 2 Peabody Awards. A lot of hardware for a show about cooking.
What came next for the cast
Bryan Cranston moved from Little Miss Sunshine to Drive. Aaron Paul shifted from Mission: Impossible III to El Camino. Anna Gunn kept working, moving from Junior to Sully. The credits show a range, not a cause. The show did not build their careers; it merely sat in the middle of them.
Where it left its mark
The show bled into reality, mostly through chicken. In 2019, Family Style, Inc. secured rights from Sony and Vince Gilligan’s blessing to sell chicken dinners through Uber Eats under the Los Pollos Hermanos brand. It is a strange legacy, turning a fictional fast-food joint into a genuine three-year business deal across California, Nevada, and Illinois.
Police also report seizing blue crystal meth in raids. The series’ popularity is credited with shaping that specific visual in drug culture. Gilligan had to ask fans to stop re-enacting the pizza-throwing scene from "Caballo sin Nombre" after the real homeowner complained. The show left a mark, and one of them is a roof.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched Breaking Bad.
Sources
- Breaking Bad on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q1079 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “Breaking Bad” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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