Breaking Bad

About

Breaking Bad is a television drama series about a high school teacher who begins to cook and sell methamphetamine to secure his family's finances after being diagnosed with lung cancer. The series, which began in January of 2008, was produced and created by Vince Gilligan and set in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

History

The pilot episode of Breaking Bad premiered on the cable channel AMC on January 20th, 2008, introducing the character Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) as a high school chemistry teacher that has been diagnosed with lung cancer. After coming to the realization that his family would not be financially secure after his death, he partners up with his former student Jesse Pinkman (played by Aaron Paul) to manufacture and sell methamphetamine. The second season premiered on March 8th, 2009, the third season premiered on March 21st, 2010, the fourth season premiered on July 17th, 2011 and the first half of the fifth and final season premiered on July 15th, 2012. The second season is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2013.

Reception

The television series has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregation website Metacritic^[2], season one received a score of 74, season two received a score of 85, season three received a score of 89, season four received a score of 96 and season five received a score of 98. In 2014, Braking Bad was inducted into the Guinness World Records as the highest rated show of all time.

The Series Finale

On September 29th, 2013, the series came to an end with the broadcast of the finale episode "Felina." Being one of the most highly anticipated and talked-about TV shows of the year, social media mentions^[15] of Breaking Bad during and after the finale episode jumped through the roof in comparison to the episodes leading up to the finale (shown below).

In the hours following the broadcast, Twitter^[16] and Reddit^[17] became awash with people's reactions and discussions about the episode. Although the endgame of Breaking Bad was largely met by positive responses, many of them praising how it handled the tying of the loose ends, some fans immediately began fixating on the fate of Saul Goodman's bodyguard Huelle Babineaux, who was last seen getting coaxed into staying at a DEA safehouse in the thirteenth episode "To'hajiilee."

Better Call Saul

On February 8th, 2015, a Breaking Bad spin-off series entitled Better Call Saul premiered. The show follows Jimmy McGill (portrayed by Bob Odenkirk), the real name of Saul Goodman, Walter White's lawyer from Breaking Bad, as he grows into his alter ego. As of 2019, the show has run for four seasons, receiving mostly positive critical acclaim and various awards.^[21]

Film Sequel

On February 13th, 2019, The Hollywood Reporter^[22] reported that a sequel film to the series, which would star series regular Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman, would air on AMC and Netflix. According to the report, the film would be written and directed by series creator Vince Gilligan.

Bryan Cranston confirmed that the film was in development. He said, "It's a great story and there are a lot of people who felt that they wanted to see some kind of completion to some of these storylines that were left open [in the series finale]. This idea, from what I'm told, gets into those -- at least a couple of the character show were not completed, as far as their journey. I don't know if there's an appearance -- flashbacks, flash forwards -- but I'm excited about it because it's Breaking Bad and it was the greatest professional period of my life and I can't wait to see all those people again, even if I just come by to visit."

Online, many expressed their excitement for the film, discussing what they hoped to happen and who they hope appears in the film (examples below). Twitter^[23] published a Moments page on the discussion of the film.

Accolades

The series has been nominated for a total of 260 awards and has won 108 of them, including 16 Primetime Emmy Awards (out of 49 nominations), 12 Saturn Awards (out of 27 nominations), six Writers Guild of America Awards (out of 20), three Screen Actors Guild Awards (out of 11), two Golden Globe Awards (out of seven nominations), two Directors Guild of America Awards (out of four nominations), three Satellite Awards, two Peabody Awards and one Producers Guild of America Award (out of four nominations). Numerous cast members of the show have received Primetime Emmy Awards for their acting in the drama category, Bryan Cranston, who won three consecutive awards for Outstanding Lead Actor, Aaron Paul for Outstanding Supporting Actor, and Anna Gunn Outstanding Supporting Actress.

Walter White in Real Life

On August 16th, 2012, the Sheriff's Office in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, revealed that a man named Walter White had been placed at the top of the county's most wanted list for manufacturing methamphetamine. An article on the Tuscaloosa News^[7] website revealed that the 55-year-old man was on probation for producing methamphetamine in 2008.

The same day, Gawker^[8] staff writer Neetzan Zimmerman wrote an article titled "Cops in Alabama on the Lookout for Meth Maker Named Walter White", which noted how the man's name was identical to the protagonist of the AMC show Breaking Bad. On August 17th, the viral content site BuzzFeed published a post titled "A Man Named 'Walter White' is Wanted in Alabama For Manufacturing Meth", including a mugshot of White morphed into a screen capture of the Breaking Bad protagonist (shown below). On August 19th, the New York Daily News^[9] published an article reporting that White had been found at a treatment facility from a court order in a different jurisdiction.

Online Presence

On April 27th, 2009, the Breaking Bad Wiki^[4] was created, which featured detailed pages on episodes and characters within the series. On September 28th, the "Fuck Yeah Breaking Bad" Tumblr^[5] blog was launched, which highlighted fan art, promotional photographs and image macros related to the series. On February 24th, 2012, the online art project Breaking GIFs^[6] was unveiled, which showcased animated GIFs inspired by the television series (shown below, left). On June 21st, 2012 the Interet culture blog Laughing Squid published a post titled "Bricking Bad, A Breaking Bad LEGO Meth Lab", which featured photographs of LEGO's built to resemble the methamphetamine manufacturing lab shown in the series (shown below, right).

Related Memes

Breaking Bad Comics

Breaking Bad Comics are a series of crudely drawn MS Paint comics that inspired the creation of several single topic blogs on Tumblr. The comics often feature the character Jesse Pinkman using the word "bitch" at the end of each sentence.

Yeah Science, Bitch!

“Yeah science, bitch!” is an expression associated with the character Jesse Pinkman, originally from Season 1 Episode 7, which aired on March 9th, 2008. In the episode, Walter White informs Pinkman that he discovered an alternative method to cooking methamphetamine that does not require pseudo-ephedrine as an ingredient, to which Pinkman replies “Yeah Mr. White! Yeah science!”. On the web, the phrase is often used to express enthusiasm and approval for scientific discovery. On July 28th, 2012, Redditor Pass-A-Fist submitted an image macro featuring a screen capture of Pinkman with the caption "Yeah / Science bitch" (shown below) to the /r/AdviceAnimals^[12] subreddit. Within seven months, the post received over 12,700 up votes and 230 comments.

Walter Jr. Loves Breakfast

Walt Jr. Loves Breakfast is a humorous observation made by the fans of the show about a recurring trope used throughout the series in which Walt White Jr., the son of the protagonist, is oftentimes portrayed as a flat character who usually enters the scene to eat breakfast before leaving for school and adds little to the main plot.

Hank and Marie Watch Walt's Confession

Hank and Marie Watch Walt's Confession refers to scene from Season 5 Episode 11, in which the characters Hank and Marie Schrader (Walt's DEA agent brother-in-law and his wife) watch a video "confession", in which Walt claims that Hank is the mastermind behind his meth empire. Both Hank and Marie become visibly distraught at this blackmail, and their reactions have been used as a video exploitable. One of the first examples was Hank & Marie Watch the MTV Video Music Awards" (shown below), uploaded on August 26th, 2013, the day after the broadcast of the episode and the award ceremony.

Just Todd Things

Just Todd Things is a series of image macro parodies in which Todd Alquist (played by Jesse Plemons), one of Walt White's former assistants and mentees who emerges as a ruthless and sociopathic murderer towards the end of the final season, is portrayed as a romantic, gentle-mannered "nice guy" using the formatting style of Just Little Things (shown below).

Search Interest

External References