Breaking Bad is an American neo-Western crime drama television series created by Vince Gilligan for AMC. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Bryan Cranston), an overqualified high school chemistry teacher who, after being diagnosed with stage-three lung cancer, begins producing and selling methamphetamine with former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) to sec Bryan… If religion is a reaction of man, and nothing more, it seems to me that it represents a human desire for wrongdoers to be punished. I hate the idea of Idi Amin living in Saudi Arabia for the last 25 years of his life. That galls me to no end. I feel some sort of need for Biblical… I… Betsy Brandt as Marie Schrader, Skyler's sister and Hank's wife, who is characterized by her loyalty to her family and her recurring kleptomania. Brandt said that although Marie could be unpleasant, the character had greater depth through her concern for her family. RJ Mitte as Walter White Jr., Walter and Skyler's son, who has cerebral palsy. Mitte also has cerebral palsy, although a milder form, and said he adjusted his speech and movement to portray the character. Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo "Gus" Fring (seasons 3–4; guest season 2), a drug distributor who publicly owns the fast-food chain Los Pollos Hermanos. Anna Gunn described Skyler White as "grounded, tough, smart and driven", and said the character's stalled writing career reflected her desire to be creative and productive. RJ Mitte, who has a milder form of cerebral palsy than Walter White Jr., said he learned to walk on crutches and slowed his speech for the role. Giancarlo Esposito said his ashtanga yoga and meditation practice helped him create Gus Fring's controlled, methodical physical presence. Bob Odenkirk said he was offered the role of Saul Goodman during the second season, when the character was planned for the final four episodes. I feel some sort of need for Biblical atonement, or justice, or something. I like to believe there is some comeuppance, that karma kicks in at some point, even if it takes years or decades to happen. My girlfriend says this great thing that's become my philosophy as well. "I want to believe there's a heaven. But I can't not believe there's a hell." In a piece comparing the show to The Sopranos, Mad Men and The Wire, author Chuck Klosterman said that Breaking Bad is "built on the uncomfortable premise that there's an irrefutable difference between what's right and what's wrong, and it's the only one where the characters have real control over how they choose to live". A poem in the book, "Song of Myself", is based on many of these same feelings, furthering the connection between Walt's life and Whitman's poetry. The mid-season finale of season five, "Gliding Over All", is titled after poem 271 of Leaves of Grass. In the episode, Hank finds Leaves of Grass in Walt's bathroom and opens it to the cover page, where he reads the hand-written inscription: "To my other favorite W.W. It's an honour working with you. Fondly G.B." Upon reading this, Hank becomes visibly shocked, realizing the truth about Walter for the first time, which provides the opening premise for the second half of the final season. That is, unfortunately, the reality." Vince Gilligan said: "In all seriousness, no doubt some folks are going to say, 'Wow, just what our city needed.' And I get that. I see two of the finest actors America has ever produced. I see them, in character, as two larger-than-life tragic figures, cautionary tales." Highlighting the revenue and economic activity that the series had brought to the area, Albuquerque Democratic Mayor Tim Keller defended the erection of the statues, saying: "While the stories might be fictional... jobs are real every single day. The city is also a character... They stressed the importance of not letting the "master plan" stop them from staying true to the world they created. There came a point where tracking the characters on a moment-by-moment basis proved to be more useful rather than the general direction of the story. Gould said they would always start with the last thought in a character's head. "Where's Jesse's head at? I really felt for Anna, because she's just such a beautiful human inside and out, and she played Skyler in such a fierce way, and people just dragged her character the most." Vince Gilligan has defended both Skyler and Anna Gunn, saying at the same 2018 reunion "I figured Walt would be the one that'd be hard for people to sympathize with. Suddenly, lo and behold, we're hearing this animus toward Skyler White. To this day, it confounds me. Anna Gunn gave such a brilliant performance. We never tried for sympathy or lack of sympathy, we let the chips fall where they may. Obviously, starting with Walter White, there's just very few stories that are told on that scale, that have a character who is that deeply considered at the center of it. And I've heard people describe it as Shakespearean, and I know that word gets tossed around a lot, but I think in this case it really does apply. And that speaks, not so much to the fact that he goes to a dark place, but the fact that his entire journey is so deeply resonant, because it's so deeply considered. == Franchise == Breaking Bad's success caused numerous spin-offs and a media franchise. This includes a spin-off prequel series, a Spanish-language adaptation, a sequel film, a talk show, and a video game. In 2015, series creator Vince Gilligan publicly requested fans of the series to stop re-enacting a scene from "Caballo sin Nombre" in which Walter angrily throws a pizza onto his own roof after Skyler refuses to let him inside the house; this came after complaints from the home's real-life owner. In late 2025, 92,000 pounds of kratom-derived substances were seized by authorities in Florida in a drug raid that was described as "Breaking Bad on steroids" by Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey.