10 Best Performances In Breaking Bad

Now that the excellent El Camino has added a full-stop to Jesse Pinkman's story and confirmed the fate of Walter White, the mainline Breaking Bad story is pretty much capped. Sure, Better Call Saul will extend the universe, but it's presumably unlikely that we're going to see anything else (barring some strange spin-off reuniting Jesse and Saul, of course).

So now is the perfect time to go back and celebrate what will go down in history forever as one of the greatest shows of all time. Trading on an irresistible, compelling story, the phenomenally successful show also managed to pull some truly astonishing performances out of its cast across an incredibly broad spectrum. This was, after all, a universe shared by suburban families and criminal monsters.

But which of the performances on the show was the best? Let's look back...

10. Jonathan Banks - Mike Ehrmantraut

On the surface, Mike is a fairly simple character to play, because he's emotionally guarded and the kind of cold, calculated head you'd expect from someone trained as efficiently as he is to fix thing quietly. But Mike's still waters run incredibly deep and there's complexity to Jonathan Banks' performance that isn't necessarily credited as it should be next to bigger performances.

It's his humanity and the suggestion of his old ghosts that makes him such a likeable character, despite everything and there's a sort of paternal comfort to him that is hard at odds with his toughness.

Jonathan Banks picked up awards nominations (both for Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) as an indication of the critical value of his performance, but it's still one of the most under-appreciated in the show.