---
title: "Breaking Bad"
year: 2008
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/breaking-bad"
fi1m_id: "breaking-bad"
imdb_id: "tt0903747"
tmdb_id: 1396
wikidata_id: "Q1079"
fi1m_score: 91
critics_score: 76
critics_reviews: 8
published: "2026-09-13"
updated: "2026-09-26T19:51:49.264028+00:00"
region: "TR"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Breaking Bad (2008)

Created by Vince Gilligan · RTÜK 18+ · Drama, Crime

## Identity

Breaking Bad

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/breaking-bad
- **Type:** Series
- **Fi1m ID:** breaking-bad
- **IMDb ID:** tt0903747
- **TMDB ID:** 1396
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1079
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/1396, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1079

**Fi1m score: 91** · Critics 76 from 8 reviews

*In a sentence:* We would feel safer if the meth cook stopped explaining how sensible he was being

> Bryan Cranston makes *Breaking Bad* frightening, funny and hard to stop watching. Its cleverness can become a nuisance, but the scrutiny of Walter White’s excuses is sharp enough that we recommend it well beyond the usual crime-drama audience.

## Synopsis

Chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston) receives a cancer diagnosis and turns to making meth to provide for his family. He partners with a former pupil, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), taking his knowledge of chemistry into the drug trade. Their arrangement puts teacher and pupil in business together, with money to be made and criminal consequences to consider. Anna Gunn plays Skyler White, with RJ Mitte as Walter White Jr., Dean Norris as Hank Schrader and Betsy Brandt as Marie Schrader. The series combines crime drama, family pressures and dark comedy.

## Review

*Breaking Bad* is a superb crime drama, and we would recommend it to people who normally avoid the genre. Chemistry teacher Walter White receives a cancer diagnosis and decides to make meth to provide for his family. Working with former pupil Jesse Pinkman, he brings an educated man’s confidence to a business he has no sensible reason to enter. Vince Gilligan’s writing makes that confidence funny before giving us reason to be wary of it.

Bryan Cranston makes Walter’s reasonable tone more unsettling than his anger. He plays the teacher as someone who expects knowledge to bring respect and takes it personally when it does not. We laughed at Walter bringing classroom authority to meth-making, then felt uneasy about how quickly we had accepted his reasoning. The diagnosis makes sympathy easy, but Cranston keeps the self-importance audible even when Walter sounds most reasonable.

Aaron Paul gives Jesse Pinkman enough impatience and hurt to stop the partnership becoming a running joke about an ill-matched pair. Walter can take charge of a lesson more readily than he can manage another person, and Paul makes that distinction count. Their exchanges have the irritation of people who need each other and dislike the fact. Anna Gunn, as Skyler White, supplies a welcome plainness amid so much busy self-justification. She makes ordinary concern worth listening to, even when the criminal business is demanding attention.

Michael Slovis’s cinematography makes empty space feel threatening: there is too much room in the frame for something to go wrong. The compositions are controlled enough that we start looking for danger before anyone has identified it. Production designers Robb Wilson King and Mark S. Freeborn make domestic rooms feel cramped and unglamorous, which helps us understand Walter’s dissatisfaction without endorsing it. The surroundings remain recognisable even when his behaviour becomes difficult to credit.

Editors Kelley Dixon and Skip Macdonald help make practical tasks suspenseful by letting the order of actions matter. There is pleasure in following a process closely enough to anticipate how it might fail, and the cutting gives us time to worry. Dave Porter’s music adds pressure without insisting that every moment needs an emotional instruction. Its restraint is useful in a series where conversation can be uncomfortable enough on its own.

There are costs to making criminal enterprise so absorbing. The mechanics of producing and selling meth can become more interesting than the people harmed by it, and the dark comedy sometimes helps us forget what is being sold. Gilligan and his fellow writers are sufficiently alert to Walter’s excuses that this seldom feels careless. The plotting is occasionally too elaborate, though, introducing difficulties that seem calculated to give a clever man something clever to do. At those moments, we notice how the writers have arranged the trouble before we worry about the person stuck with it.

Crime dramas often make competence attractive, and *Breaking Bad* watches closely how much Walter enjoys having something he can do well. Cranston leaves enough vanity visible to make admiration uncomfortable without making the man impossible to understand. That attention to his behaviour earns our patience when the plotting gets elaborate. Watch closely, and do not take Walter’s explanation for the programme’s own.

*Fi1m score 91, published 13 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

The reviews are unanimous in their approval, and nearly all of them arrive at the same place: Bryan Cranston. Reviewing the pilot in 2008 or looking back years later, critics single out his performance as the mild-mannered chemistry teacher who starts cooking meth after a cancer diagnosis. Vince Gilligan’s writing draws the next most praise for mixing desperation, dark comedy and suspense without settling on one. The later pieces, written on a rewatch, add that the series plans ahead carefully and rewards a second viewing.

The reservations are small and scattered rather than shared. The Hollywood Reporter finds the early episodes too relaxed about the drug at their centre. Variety worries the series is front-loaded and may play like a little-seen indie film stretched across television. The Guardian, otherwise admiring, notes the female characters are thinly drawn. The spread of scores is narrow, from warm to warmer, and nobody dissents from the whole.

## Straight answers

**Is Breaking Bad worth watching?**

*Breaking Bad* is worth watching, and we scored it 91, high enough that we would recommend it to people who normally avoid crime dramas. Bryan Cranston makes Walter White's reasonable tone more unsettling than his anger, and Vince Gilligan's writing keeps his excuses under close scrutiny. The plotting occasionally grows too elaborate, but the attention to Walter's behaviour earns our patience.

**How long is Breaking Bad, and what is it rated?**

*Breaking Bad* is rated 18+ by the RTÜK in Türkiye. It is a drama and crime series.

**Where can I watch Breaking Bad in Türkiye?**

*Breaking Bad* is streaming on Netflix in Türkiye, and it is also available to buy from Amazon Prime Video. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Breaking Bad, and is it suitable for children?**

*Breaking Bad* carries a UK 18 certificate and is not suitable for children. It is a crime drama about a chemistry teacher making and selling meth, and we found it frightening chiefly through Walter White's calm self-justification and a sense that something in the frame is about to go wrong. The certificate implies strong adult content throughout, and the squeamish should take that seriously.

**How does Breaking Bad compare to Better Call Saul?**

*Breaking Bad* is the more frightening and faster-moving of the two, while [*Better Call Saul*](https://film.one/tv/better-call-saul) pays more patient attention to professional pride and self-deception. Bryan Cranston's Walter White is hard to stop watching; Bob Odenkirk's Jimmy McGill takes longer to get going but rewards the wait with precise comic timing. Both are very good, but we think the earlier series the more gripping and the better place to start.

**What should I watch after Breaking Bad?**

After *Breaking Bad*, try [*Better Call Saul*](https://film.one/tv/better-call-saul) (2015, Fi1m 84): For more patient attention to professional pride and the business of self-deception. Then [*A Simple Plan*](https://film.one/film/a-simple-plan) (1998, Fi1m 86): Another ordinary man discovers how easily financial desperation can become an excuse; and [*A Prophet*](https://film.one/film/a-prophet) (2009, Fi1m 86): Prison becomes a practical education in criminal power, with little room for innocence.

### Reviews we read (8)

- **The AV Club**, Donna Bowman (A-): The pilot shows strong promise thanks to Bryan Cranston's mesmerizing performance as a high-school teacher entering the drug trade and Vince Gilligan's raw screenplay. It is rough, ugly, and sometimes nauseating but leaves the critic eager for more. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/breaking-bad-pilot-1798203677)
- **Empire** (80/100, inferred): The series is a dark comedy feast about a high-school teacher who becomes a gun-toting drug dealer after learning he has cancer. Bryan Cranston delivers a standout performance as the chemistry professor cooking meth to provide for his family. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/breaking-bad-season-1-review/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Barry Garron (75/100, inferred): The pilot presents an odd-couple dramedy where a mild-mannered teacher partners with a former student to cook meth after a terminal cancer diagnosis, blending desperation, dark humor, and suspense. Cranston is fun to watch and the strong supporting cast suggests room to grow, though the laissez-faire attitude toward meth is somewhat problematic. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/breaking-bad-first-season-review-2008-815936/)
- **The Guardian**, Sam Wollaston (70/100, inferred): The critic calls the series an epic tragedy charting Walter White's ascent to drug lord and descent into moral depravity, hailing Bryan Cranston's performance as extraordinary and comparing the show to Dostoevsky. They single out the central teacher-pupil relationship with Jesse and the New Mexico desert setting for praise while noting some flaws like underdeveloped female characters. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/dec/05/breaking-bad-box-set-review)
- **The i Paper**, Mark Butler (70/100, inferred): The critic finds that rewatching the series reveals Walter White's darker, more self-serving nature much earlier than first impressions suggested. The piece singles out the central performance and writing for making viewers root for an increasingly flawed protagonist. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/breaking-bad-rewatch-118486)
- **Variety**, Brian Lowry (70/100, inferred): The series offers a breakout role for Bryan Cranston as a chemistry teacher turned meth cook after a cancer diagnosis, with a quirky sensibility and moral dilemmas that keep it absorbing yet front-loaded. It is a worthy addition to cable dramas but risks feeling like TV's version of a little-seen indie film. [Read](https://variety.com/2008/film/awards/breaking-bad-6-1200553589/)
- **Vulture**, Matt Zoller Seitz (70/100, inferred): The rewatch highlights how the emotional weight of Walter White's cancer diagnosis and early choices lands harder on second viewing, crediting the show's craft in characterization, symbolism, and atmosphere. It praises the deliberate visual and narrative planning that rewards revisiting. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2013/07/seitz-on-revisiting-breaking-bad-season-one.html)
- **Den of Geek** (90/100, inferred): The article celebrates the pilot as one of the best series introductions, establishing the protagonist's framework and Bryan Cranston's mesmerizing character work while hooking viewers on the high-stakes premise. It singles out the episode's ability to promise a rewarding payoff for investing in the story. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/how-the-breaking-bad-pilot-foretold-tv-greatness/)

## Details

- **Created by:** Vince Gilligan
- **Creator:** Vince Gilligan
- **Director:** Michelle MacLaren, Adam Bernstein, Vince Gilligan, Colin Bucksey, Michael Slovis, Johan Renck, Bryan Cranston, Terry McDonough, Rian Johnson, Scott Winant, Peter Gould, Tricia Brock, Félix Enríquez Alcalá, Charles Haid, Thomas Schnauz, Sam Catlin, David Slade, Peter Medak, Bronwen Hughes, George Mastras, Phil Abraham, Tim Hunter, John Shiban, Jim McKay, John Dahl
- **Writer:** Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould, George Mastras, Sam Catlin, Moira Walley-Beckett, Thomas Schnauz, Gennifer Hutchison, John Shiban, J. Roberts, Patty Lin
- **Cinematography:** Michael Slovis, Reynaldo Villalobos, Arthur Albert, Peter Reniers, Nelson Cragg, John Toll, Marshall Adams
- **Editor:** Kelley Dixon, Skip Macdonald, Lynne Willingham, Sharidan Williams Sotelo, Chris McCaleb
- **Music:** Dave Porter
- **Production design:** Mark S. Freeborn, Robb Wilson King
- **Costume design:** Kathleen Detoro, Jennifer Bryan
- **Producer:** Stewart Lyons, Diane Mercer, Bryan Cranston
- **Cast:** Bryan Cranston as Walter White; Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman; Anna Gunn as Skyler White; RJ Mitte as Walter White Jr.; Dean Norris as Hank Schrader; Betsy Brandt as Marie Schrader; Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo Fring; Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman
- **Certificate (RTÜK):** 18+
- **Release (Türkiye):** 20 January 2008
- **Genres:** Drama, Crime
- **Also in:** [Emmy Outstanding Drama Series winners](https://film.one/collections/emmy-drama.md) (Nominee, 2009)

## Where to watch in Türkiye

- Netflix: streaming
- Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd

*Checked 2026-09-13.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Costume Designers Guild Award for Best Costume Design – Contemporary TV Series 2014: Costume Designers Guild Award for Best Costume Design – Contemporary TV Series (nominated)
- Primetime Emmy Awards 2014: Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series (nominated); Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (nominated); Outstanding Drama Series (won); Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (won); Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (won); Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (won); Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (won)
- SAG Awards 2014: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series (nominated); Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series (nominated); Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (won)
- TCA Award for Program of the Year 2014: TCA Award for Program of the Year (won)
- Critics' Choice Awards 2013: Best Actor in a Drama Series (won); Best Drama Series (won)
- Golden Globes 2013: Best Television Series – Drama (won)
- Peabody Awards 2013: Peabody Awards (won)
- SAG Awards 2013: Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series (won)
- Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film 2013: Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (won)
- Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film 2013: Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (nominated)
- Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Dramatic Series 2013: Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Dramatic Series (won)
- Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series 2012: Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series (won)
- Primetime Emmy Awards 2012: Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (nominated)
- Saturn Awards 2012: Best Actor on Television (nominated); Best Supporting Actor on Television (nominated)
- TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama 2012: TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Drama (won)
- NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series 2011: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (nominated)
- Saturn Awards 2011: Best Guest Starring Role on Television (nominated); Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series (won)
- Primetime Emmy Awards 2010: Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series (nominated)
- Satellite Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama 2010: Satellite Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama (won)
- Satellite Award for Best Television Series – Drama 2010: Satellite Award for Best Television Series – Drama (won)
- Primetime Emmy Awards 2009: Outstanding Cinematography for a One Hour Series (nominated)
- TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama 2009: TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama (won)
- Writers Guild of America Award for Television: New Series 2009: Writers Guild of America Award for Television: New Series (nominated)
- Primetime Emmy Awards 2008: Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series (won)
- TCA Award for Outstanding New Program 2008: TCA Award for Outstanding New Program (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Better Call Saul* (2015), Fi1m 84: For more patient attention to professional pride and the business of self-deception. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/better-call-saul.md)
- *A Simple Plan* (1998), Fi1m 86: Another ordinary man discovers how easily financial desperation can become an excuse. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-simple-plan.md)
- *The American Friend* (1977): A frightened man enters criminal work, with unease allowed time to grow.
- *A Prophet* (2009), Fi1m 86: Prison becomes a practical education in criminal power, with little room for innocence. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-prophet.md)
- *Happy Valley* (2014): For crime drama that gives those dealing with the damage proper weight.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/breaking-bad