Walter White starts the pilot as a high school chemistry teacher who cannot afford his own cancer treatment. By the finale he has a body count and a nickna
# Breaking Bad Review: Still the Best Drama Ever Made Walter White starts the pilot as a high school chemistry teacher who cannot afford his own cancer treatment. By the finale he has a body count and a nickname that scares hardened criminals. **Breaking Bad** earns every step of that journey, which is why it still tops best-of lists more than a decade after it ended. If you have somehow avoided spoilers this long, this review keeps them safe. Here is the case for why **Breaking Bad** remains the gold standard for serialized drama. ## What Is Breaking Bad About? The setup is simple. A brilliant, underpaid chemist gets a terminal diagnosis and decides to cook methamphetamine to leave his family money. The execution is anything but simple. **Breaking Bad** is a character study disguised as a crime thriller, and the crime is mostly an excuse to watch one man choose the worse option, over and over, until the choices stop feeling like a choice. Creator Vince Gilligan pitched it as turning Mr. Chips into Scarface. The show never cheats that math. Walt does not flip in a single scene. He rationalizes, then he lies, then he starts to enjoy it, and the genius of the series is how slowly and how completely it happens. ## The Performances [Bryan Cranston](/cast/bryan-cranston) plays both men at once, the teacher and the kingpin, and you can watch them fight for control of his own face. It is a performance with no wasted gesture, and it turned an actor best known for comedy into the benchmark for dramatic transformation. [Aaron Paul](/cast/aaron-paul) matches him as Jesse Pinkman, the former student who becomes the show's bruised conscience and its beating heart. The push and pull between the two is the spine of the series. [Anna Gunn](/cast/anna-gunn) takes the hardest job in the cast as Skyler, the wife handed the thankless task of saying no to a man the audience is rooting for. The discomfort she creates is the point. ## The Writing and Structure **Breaking Bad** rewards at...