Breaking Bad is an American
television drama series created and
produced by
Vince Gilligan.
The series is produced
by Sony Pictures Television
and broadcast in the United States
and Canada
on the
cable network AMC. It premiered on January 20,
2008, and completed its first seven-episode season on March 9,
2008. The show's 13-episode second season ran from March 8 to May
31, 2009. A third season was announced in April 2009. to premiere
in April 2010.
Set and
produced in Albuquerque
, New
Mexico
, Breaking Bad revolves around Walter White
(Bryan Cranston), a struggling
high school
chemistry teacher with many family
issues. When White is diagnosed with terminal
lung cancer, he breaks down and turns to a life
of crime, and starts producing and selling
methamphetamine with his former student
Jesse Pinkman (
Aaron Paul) in a desire to
secure his family's financial future.
Breaking Bad has received widespread critical acclaim,
particularly for its writing and Cranston's lead performance, and
has won four
Emmy Awards in addition to
numerous other awards and nominations.
Production
Lead actor Bryan Cranston stated in an interview that "the term
'breaking bad' is a southern
colloquialism and it means when someone who
has taken a turn off the path of the straight and narrow, when
they've gone wrong. And that could be for that day or for a
lifetime."
The series is set and filmed in and near .
The
AMC network, on which the
series premiered January 20, 2008, originally ordered nine episodes
for the first season (including the
pilot), but the
Writers Guild
of America strike limited the production to seven episodes.
AMC's "'Breaking Bad' mixes dark humor, drugs."
USA Today. Retrieved on 16 January 2008.
Synopsis
Season one
Walter White, a chemistry teacher with a pregnant wife, Skyler, and
a son with cerebral palsy, is diagnosed with stage-three terminal
lung cancer. Determined to develop a sufficient inheritance for his
family before his death, Walter enters the
drug trade, using his chemistry knowledge
to cook remarkably
potent
methamphetamine (crystal meth) with Jesse Pinkman, a former
student. Operating out of a
recreational vehicle in the desert, the
two defend themselves from two local drug dealers, formerly Jesse's
distributors, who accuse Walter of being a
DEA agent. At gunpoint,
Walter bargains his and Jesse's life for the recipe to his crystal
meth and gases them with
phosphine gas
during the production process, leaving the two dealers to suffocate
in the RV, before driving away with an injured Jesse in tow.
Walter and Jesse discover that one of the dealers is still alive
and decide to restrain him in Jesse's basement. After a coin flip,
Jesse is tasked with disposing of the dead dealer's body, while
Walter must deal with killing the other, a prospect that sickens
him. Jesse dissolves the dead body in a bathtub of
hydrofluoric acid, but the acid eats
through the tub and the floor beneath it, dumping the remaining
semi-dissolved body into the hall below. Meanwhile, Walter has
begun providing food and a latrine to his prisoner, Krazy-8, whom
he also confides in, giving him time in attempting to find an
excuse to leave him alive. Due to his illness, Walter passes out
briefly while delivering food in one such instance, breaking a
plate. Awakening later, Walter picks up the broken plate and after
a "heart-to-heart" with Krazy-8, Walter goes to retrieve the key to
set him free. However, while upstairs, Walt has discovered that
there is a large sharp piece of the plate missing. Realizing that
Krazy-8 intends to kill him the second he sets him free, Walter
decides that he has no choice but to kill the dealer. Following the
disposal of the body, Walter severs ties with Jesse and the drug
trade.
Meanwhile, Walter's brother-in-law Hank, who actually
is a
DEA agent deduces that there is a new drug producer in the region,
following a trail of evidence left at Walter's cook site. It is
also revealed that Walter's sister-in-law, Marie, is an
occasional shoplifter. Later, Walter reveals to
his family, Marie, and Hank, that he has cancer. They implore him
to visit specialist doctors and undergo
chemotherapy. While Walter is adamant at first
to decide his own fate, to die honorably instead of suffering the
indignities of chemotherapy
side-effects, Walter finally
agrees to treatment. He pretends to accept financial assistance
from wealthy friends as a cover story to explain the source of
payment for his chemotherapy. In reality, he approaches Jesse to
rebuild their business arrangement and so pay for the treatments
himself as a matter of pride. Jesse, unable to replicate Walter's
recipe, accepts Walter's partnership and agrees to their clearly
defined roles: Jesse as the salesman and Walter as the cook. Jesse
learns that Walter has lung cancer, and realizing his goals of
helping his family after his death, develops a newfound respect for
him.
Dissatisfied with the insufficient profit that Jesse is bringing in
solely through lowly street deals, Walter sends Jesse to negotiate
with Tuco, who has taken over local drug distribution—and is also,
unbeknownst to Walt, a violent psychopath. During their first
meeting, Tuco refuses to pay up front for the product and savagely
beats Jesse when he attempts to end the deal. With Jesse in the
hospital, Walt, under the pseudonym of
"
Heisenberg," confronts Tuco with
a demand for an up-front payment. As Tuco prepares to assault him,
Walt detonates a small amount of
mercury fulminate, creating an
explosion that blows out the top floor of the hideout and
intimidates Tuco into surrendering payment with a promise for
future business. Jesse recovers from his wounds and the two resume
cooking meth, this time circumventing the restrictions on
over-the-counter pseudoephedrine products by stealing a large
drum of
methylamine from a chemical
warehouse and using an alternate method of synthesis. Now able to
produce four times as much crystal meth as before, the two begin
steady business with an increasingly psychopathic Tuco.
Season two
After killing one of his deputies, Tuco kidnaps Walter and Jesse,
planning to take them to a superlab in Mexico after the DEA raids
his operation in Albuquerque. The two manage to incapacitate Tuco
and escape. Hank, in his search for the missing Walt, comes across
a wounded Tuco. A shootout occurs resulting in Hank killing Tuco.
Walter engineers a return home claiming to have been in a
fugue state, but this excuse has numerous holes
and creates an uneasy distrust in his relationship with Skyler. The
DEA seizes Jesse's "drug" money, putting a strain on his
partnership with Walter after he demands half of Walter's meth
profit to save him from homelessness.
Jesse rents a new place and becomes romantically involved with his
landlord, Jane, a recovering drug addict. With Tuco dead, Walter
and Jesse decide to move their business into new territory, but
more problems arise as their enterprise expands. One of their
dealers, Skinny Pete, is mugged, so Jesse is forced to confront the
perpetrators. One of the addicts is killed by his girlfriend, but
Jesse receives the credit, earning him fear and respect and further
solidifying "Heisenberg" in the area. Another dealer, Badger, is
arrested by the DEA, forcing Walter to deal with Saul Goodman
(played by
Bob Odenkirk), a crooked
lawyer who offers a solution to keep Badger from snitching while
also keeping him alive. Walter and Jesse attempt to intimidate
Saul, but Saul makes a deal with Walter for a cut of the meth
profit in return for being Walter and Jesse's legal counsel and
advisor in their drug operation, further eroding their
income.
Considered a hero for killing Tuco, Hank is promoted and sent to El
Paso. In private, he suffers panic attacks due to the unexpected
shootout with Tuco. El Paso proves to be too much for Hank after he
witnesses the severed head of a cartel snitch explode and severely
injure fellow DEA officers. He is immediately sent back to
Albuquerque by his superiors. Meanwhile, Gretchen, Walter's former
lover and co-head of Gray Matter, discovers Walter has been lying
to his family about Gray Matter paying for his cancer treatment.
She is horrified when an angry and bitter Walt blames her and her
husband, Elliott, for profiting off his research, although she
still keeps Walter's secret for his family's sake. Skyler goes back
to work for Ted Beneke, her former boss who apparently groped her
when drunk, forcing her to quit. She increasingly relies on Ted for
emotional support due to Walter's constant absence and strange
behavior.
Walter believes his cancer has gotten worse after sneaking a peek
of the latest PET/CT scan of his lungs. Having only $16,000
remaining of the meth money after the numerous setbacks, he and
Jesse spend several days in the desert cooking 38 pounds of meth to
sell off before Walter dies. At the doctor, Walter discovers his
cancer has not spread and his tumor has, in fact, shrunk by 80% and
what he thought was growth was actually inflammation. Walt plans to
end the meth operation once the 38 pounds are sold off, but finds
himself bored with the return to his mundane life, finding pleasure
only when he is distracted or dealing with dangerous
situations.
When one of Walter and Jesse's dealers, Combo, is killed by rival
dealers, Jesse is sent spiraling into a drug addiction that also
drags Jane out of her sobriety. With their remaining dealers
backing out, Saul uses his connections to introduce Walter and
Jesse to Gus, a discreet, cautious, yet successful drug
distributor. Despite never having met or seen Gus, Saul is able to
arrange a meeting at a local fast food restaurant. Unbeknownst to
Walter, Jesse, or Saul, Gus owns and manages a number of fast food
restaurants and has purposely scheduled the meeting at one of his
own restaurants in order to observe Walter and Jesse. Jesse arrives
for the meeting late and high on drugs and leaves the restaurant
after briefly arguing with Walter. Having seen this, Gus deems them
unreliable and chooses not to approach Walter, who initially
assumes that Gus has stood them up. Walter eventually deduces that
the manager of the restaurant was in fact the man they were to
meet, and later approaches him for a second chance. Gus reluctantly
offers to buy Walter's product for 1.2 million
dollars and offers him only a short time frame to
deliver it. Walter attempts to contact Jesse to complete the
exchange, but he and Jane are incapacitated after an injection of
heroin. Walter is forced to carry out the trade himself just as
Skyler goes into
labor. He manages to
complete the transaction at the cost of missing the birth of his
daughter.
Walter loses trust in Jesse and promises to give him his share of
the payout only if he agrees to go sober. Upon learning of the
money and Jesse's relationship with Walter, Jane concocts a plan to
blackmail Walter and convinces a reluctant
Jesse to go along. Jane calls Walter and threatens to turn him in
to the authorities if he doesn't give Jesse his share of the money.
Walter reluctantly complies and the two agree to go their separate
ways, but Walter feels obligated to help Jesse. Coincidentally, he
meets Jane's father Donald in a local bar. Unaware of their mutual
acquaintances, the two men share perspectives on the challenges of
raising children, a subject Walter raises by describing his
troubled "nephew". He returns to Jesse, only to discover that he
and Jane have taken heroin again. While attempting to wake up
Jesse, he
intentionally
allows Jane to
asphyxiate on her own
vomit. Jesse believes he is responsible for Jane's death and goes
into a depression. Walter attempts to help Jesse by taking him to a
drug rehabilitation clinic. Meanwhile, Gus discovers that Hank is
Walter's brother-in-law and that Walter has cancer.
As Walter undergoes anesthesia for his lung cancer surgery, he
accidentally confirms to Skyler the existence of his
secret second cell phone. This prompts her
to leave him several weeks later, after she systematically
investigates and uncovers his lies. Walter offers to explain
everything to Skyler, but she responds that she is too afraid to
know the truth. After Skyler leaves, Walter sees an explosion in
the skies above his home. A grieving Donald, an air traffic
controller, has accidentally directed two airplanes into each other
in the sky above Albuquerque. In an image foreshadowed in the
season's first shot, a charred pink teddy bear lands in the Whites'
pool and floats there until it is collected as evidence by
NTSB agents.
Characters
Episodes
| Season |
Episodes |
Premiere date |
End date |
Region 1 DVD release date |
| Season One |
7 |
January 20, 2008 |
March 9, 2008 |
February 24, 2009 |
| Season Two |
13 |
March 8, 2009 |
May 31, 2009 |
January 5, 2010 |
| Season Three |
13 |
March, 2010 |
unknown |
unknown |
|
Season one
The first season consists of nine episodes, but due to the
2007–2008
Writers Guild of America strike only seven episodes were
filmed. The first season premiered on January 20, 2008, and
concluded on March 9, 2008. Bryan Cranston won the
Emmy Award for
Outstanding
Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Walter
White.
Minisodes
On February 17, 2009, AMC and Sony teamed up to offer original
Minisodes of Breaking Bad that
take place between seasons one and two. These episodes were made
available on the Minisode's home
Crackle and
AMC's site. On March 6, Minisodes
of each of the first seven episodes of the show were released on
Crackle to help users refresh their memory
of the first season before the season two premiere.
On March 5, a collection of five webisodes was released for free in
HD 720p for download on the
PlayStation Store via the
PlayStation 3 system. These differ from the
Minisodes in that they are original clips, never aired on TV.
Season two
AMC announced in May 2008 that
Breaking Bad was renewed
for a second, 13-episode season. Production began in July 2008 and
the season debuted on March 8, 2009.
"From critical praise to strong ratings and devoted audience,
Breaking Bad further reinforced AMC as a top producer of
high-quality, distinctive television", said Charlie Collier,
Executive Vice President and General Manager of AMC. "
Breaking
Bad is a powerful, intelligent thought-provoking series that
clearly resonates with viewers and critics alike. We're excited for
a second season of
Breaking Bad with a new provocative
storyline that will delve deeper into the next chapter of the life
of Walter White".
Season three
On April 1, 2009, four episodes into
Breaking Bad's second
season, it was announced that AMC had renewed the show for a third
season. In a recent interview with William Keck of TV Guide
Magazine it was announced that the third series will air in Canada
and the United States in March 2010.
Reception
Breaking Bad has received critical acclaim in addition to
two
Emmy Awards for its first season. It
won the award for best editing, and Bryan Cranston won for best
actor in a drama series.
Linda Stasi of the
New York
Post stated "the acting is as good as you'll see on TV."
Time said the series "has the
elements of success". Ken Tucker of
Entertainment Weekly rated season
one a "B+".
The pilot episode was watched by 1.4 million people, while the
subsequent six episodes of the first season were watched by 1.1-1.3
million viewers each.
The second season opener was watched by 1.7 million people, up 21%
from the previous season.
The second season received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama
Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Bryan Cranston)
and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Aaron Paul).
Cranston won for Outstanding Lead Actor.
International distribution
Breaking Bad premiered in
Australia on
Showcase on August 28, 2008.
The show
debuted its first season in Ireland
and the United Kingdom
on FX commencing September
28; Five USA have bought the first run
rights for the second season. On October 9, 2008, it
premiered on Turkey
's e2 and on October 15, 2008 on New Zealand
's C4.
It debuted
in Italy
on November
15, 2008 on AXN Italy and later in Brazil
on Sony Entertainment
Television . On January 1, 2009 the show began airing on
Finland
's Nelonen. AXN Germany aired the show in
Germany for Pay-TV viewers.
The Franco-German culture TV channel Arte has recently acquired the Free-TV rights to
broadcast the show in France
and Germany
.
Swiss
television
channel SF2 started airing Breaking Bad on
May 17, 2009 and on yes Stars Drama
in Israel.
Awards and nominations
2008
2009
Online promotion
An online customisable video was used to promote season one. Users
would receive a webcam message from Walt urging them to live their
life to the fullest, at the end of which he would score their name
from a list. The promotion is still live at
www.waltswisdom.com.A viral marketing campaign has
also been produced for season two, users can experience meeting
Walt from a first-person perspective. The promotion is located at
www.waltswarning.com. The charity website set up for
Walter White in Season 2 by Walter Jr is also available at
www.savewalterwhite.com.
Chemical elements in the credits
The credits feature symbols of chemical elements from the
Periodic Table in green (for example, the
symbols
Br and
Ba for
bromine and
barium in
Breaking
Bad). The credits at the
beginning of the show usually continue this, with cast members'
names usually including one chemical element symbol if
appropriate.
The opening credits also feature the formula
C
10H
15N which is repeated several times in
each frame that it appears. This is the
molecular formula for
methamphetamine, it indicates that each
molecule contains 10 carbon atoms, 15 hydrogen atoms and one
nitrogen atom.
The number 149.24 is also repeated in the introduction, which is
the
molecular mass of the
methamphetamine compound.
References
- AMC renews 'Breaking Bad' Hollywood
Reporter. Retrieved on 7 April 2009.
- "3 New Breaking Bad Season 3 TV Spots!"
MovieWeb. Retrieved on 29 November 2009.
- "No. 93: Bryan Cranston." Esquire. Retrieved
on 18 September 2007.
- "Fans Chat With Bryan Cranston." AMC. 9 March
2008. Retrieved on 6 February 2009.
- "Series 'Breaking Bad' to Begin Production at Albuquerque
Studios." Albuquerque Studios. Retrieved on 23 August
2007.
- Inside Breaking Bad "ABQ"
- Gelman, Vlada. "Breaking Bad Starts Shooting Season 2" TV
Week. 8 July 2008. Retrieved on 6 February 2009.
- "AMC Renews Breaking Bad for a Second Season"
AMC. 8 May 2008. Retrieved on 6 February 2009.
-
http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/kecks-exclusives/big-news-on-breaking-bad--1726.html
- "'Breaking Bad' Emmy Winner Brings Award To
Albuquerque." KOAT. 23 September 2008. Retrieved on 6 February
2009.
- "Downtime - Breaking Bad."
TIME. 18 January 2008. Retrieved on 18 May 2008.
- Tucker, Ken. Novelist Stephen King also praised the series as "the
best scripted show on TV" in his "Pop of King" column in
Entertainment Weekly. "TV Review - Breaking Bad (2008)." Entertainment
Weekly. Retrieved on 6 February 2009.
-
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3ibfbb102b9ca4ac6c88c949ddd1c902ba
- "'Bryan Cranston Wins 2009 Emmy Award for
Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series." broadwayworld.com. 20
September 2009. Retrieved on 21 September 2009.
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