Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn
Breaking Bad is an American neo-Western crime drama television series created and produced by Vince
Gilligan. The show aired on AMC from January 20, 2008, to September 29, 2013, consisting of five seasons
for a total of 62 episodes. It was set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and tells the story of
Walter White (Bryan Cranston), an underpaid, overqualified, and dispirited high school chemistry teacher
who is struggling with a recent diagnosis of stage-three lung cancer. White turns to a life of crime,
partnering with his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), by producing and distributing crystal
meth to secure his family's financial future before he dies, while navigating the dangers of the
criminal underworld. According to Gilligan, the title is a Southern colloquialism meaning "to raise
hell".
When chemistry teacher Walter White is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given only two years to live,
he decides he has nothing to lose. He lives with his teenage son, who has cerebral palsy, and his wife,
in New Mexico. Determined to ensure that his family will have a secure future, Walt embarks on a career
of drugs and crime.He proves to be remarkably proficient in this new world as he begins manufacturing
and selling methamphetamine with one of his former students. The series tracks the impacts of a fatal
diagnosis on a regular, hard working man, and explores how a fatal diagnosis affects his morality and
transforms him into a major player of the drug trade.