Breaking Bad is inarguably one of the greatest serial dramas of all-time. For many of the shows biggest fans, even that laudatory statement with its qualifier one of is insufficient to characterize a show that has won uncountable awards and revolutionized prime time television. Its cinematic in its presentation, Shakespearean in its scope. It's prudent to let a show age a little bit before calling it the best ever, but to Breaking Bads credit, there isnt a lot of competition.
Where The Series Is Now
For anyone who hasnt seen it, Breaking Bad is a show depicting the rise and, one assumes, fall of methamphetamine kingpin Walter White. When audiences first meet White, he is a struggling high school chemistry teacher whos just been diagnosed with lung cancer. Fearing he will die and leave his family a wife, a teenage son, and an infant daughter no means of support, he begins cooking crystal meth with a former student, drug addict Jesse Pinkman. The odd couple begins sloppily but the quality of Walters product is undeniable. His chemistry training allows him to cook the purest meth anyone in the southwest (or anywhere, maybe) has ever seen. They run afoul of several different conflicting interests in the drug world. Each season has its own central antagonist. In season one, it was the Juarez cartels Tuco Salamanca. Seasons three and four focus on Gus Fring, a respected member of the community and a restaurant owner whose highly public facade disguises his enormous meth empire. One at a time, Walt dispatches these enemies with the enlisted help of his partner Jesse. By the end of season four, Walts gone from low-level cook to a criminal mastermind running his own operation. But one challenge, the central one of the upcoming season, still remains. And its by far the most dramatic one yet. When audiences last saw the White family, Walt cut ties with the drug world. He brought in more cash than his money laundering wife, Skyler, could count. Walt's involvement in the drug world tore their family apart and the time came to hang up his meth apron. It seemed like a clean retirement until the one person Walt had so far eluded, his DEA agent brother-in-law Hank Schrader, has a startling revelation. In one of the most memorable scenes of recent TV history, Hank suddenly realizes its his brother-in-law who is the meth kingpin of the alias Heisenberg hes been chasing this whole time. Hank could never suspect Walt. The last thing on his mind is that his own family could be running a criminal empire right under his nose. But all it took was for one missing piece of the puzzle a book gifted to Walt from a fellow drug manufacturer, carelessly left in the White family bathroom to put those two synapses together. As soon as Hank allows the idea of Walt as Heisenberg to enter his mind, all the other pieces of the puzzle form an undeniable picture. Hank spent a year chasing the worst enemy of his career and the revelation came to him in a single shattering moment while hes at the mans house. And thats exactly where season five ended. Fifty-two episodes have been devoted to Hanks pursuit of Heisenberg. Over those fifty-two episodes, Hank has had to kill in self-defense, seen a decapitated head explode and severely wound several of his fellow DEA agents, been shot and paralyzed, received a convincing prank phone call informing him his wife was in critical condition, and had his career jeopardized for beating the man he believed to be responsible for that phone call half to death. Now, with only eight episodes remaining, Hank has been suddenly made aware that all of it is directly the handiwork of his brother-in-law, the man whose toilet Hank is sitting on when he finally figures out the truth, who is at that very moment sitting with Hanks entire family having celebratory drinks and dinner. Audiences have waited one long, incredibly anxious year to find out what Hank Schrader is going to do in thirty seconds. When the final eight episodes of the shows fifth and final season begin airing on August 11th, they will get their answer.