Breaking Bad & Better Call Saul: Every Character Ranked Worst To Best

Walter White is one of the greatest characters ever written for the small screen, an ego-driven family man with a thirst for power and acceptance that takes him on a violent, bleak journey from chemistry teacher to New Mexico drug lord.

Played without a single flaw by Bryan Cranston, Walt is seen as at once arrogant and pathetic, scared and overconfident, intimidating and cruel, but also loving and vulnerable. Deeply intelligent, he starts his reign as Heisenberg to provide for his family after a cancer diagnosis, but in time comes to relish the image he's created.

The way in which Walt goes from conflicted, desperate and almost endearing in his quest to help his family to callous, vindictive and painfully unlikeable is nothing short of a masterstroke, especially when Cranston and the writers keep finding ways to keep the audience on his side.

Not since Tony Soprano has a TV protagonist ever commanded the screen as much as Walt, but even so he's not quite the best figure the franchise has ever introduced...