Breaking Bad

A meditation on the desperate resourcefulness of middle-aged anxiety in recession America, AMC’s Breaking Bad challenged the moral assumptions of its audience over its first two seasons. The antihero of the series Walter White (played superbly by Emmy Award–winner Bryan Cranston) has done many questionable things in trying to secure his family’s future. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, Walt has descended into the drug underworld, producing and selling crystal meth. Series creator Vince Gilligan underlines the often exhilarating wretchedness of Walt’s choices by making New Mexico’s desolate landscape a main character. The series looks and feels like no other; as Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com notes Breaking Bad is “a ruthless, rambling art film that stumbled out of your local indie theater.”

Breaking Bad is produced by High Bridge Productions and Gran Via Productions, in association with Sony Pictures Television for AMC.