10 Worst Breaking Bad Episodes
10 Of the worst episodes from one of television's most acclaimed shows.
Breaking Bad is a special show.
Created by Vince Gilligian, the show is the story of Walter White, an underpaid and overqualified high school chemistry teacher, being given a cancer diagnosis and going on a meth-cooking adventure with his former student, Jesse Pinkman. Breaking Bad ran for five seasons and sixty-two episodes from 2008 to 2013 and became one of the biggest success stories following its move onto Netflix ahead of its fourth season.
Breaking Bad has some of the most layered and colourful characters in television history, with the show's writers and directors bringing Gilligan's jaw-dropping storylines to life in a truly groundbreaking way. It has become the most acclaimed television show ever released, with so many iconic moments and episodes still being talked about to this day.
However, when the bar is so high, it's natural that there are going to be times where things aren't as universally acclaimed. And whilst there aren't really any episode that are straight-up stinkers, here are ten of the worst Breaking Bad episodes that failed to produce the kinds of staggering reactions the show has built its legacy off.
10. Cancer Man
Cancer Man delivers one of the standout moments from Breaking Bad's opening season, with the closing scene of Walt overheating the battery in Ken's car before calmly walking away as it blows up still being one of the iconic moments that helped put the show on the map.
Written by Vince Gilligan and directed by Jim McKay, the rest of the fourth episode of season one, however, does have a number of pacing issues that hold it back from being one of the greats.
The episode still sees the aftermath of Walt and Jesse's dealings with Emilio and Krazy-8 in the desert, with the former starting to demonstrate the early signs of his nonchalant and ice-cool Heisenberg persona, and the latter struggling with the mental fallout of what he had just taken part in.
Whilst there are a number of awkward moments across Cancer Man, the poolside chat where Walt reveals he is ill to his family being the main one, is an important episode in laying the foundations for the characteristics and personas of Breaking Bad's two main characters, with both Walt and Jesse being given subtle nods to where they are both going to end up.