Breaking Bad: summary by season, analysis, characters of the series
Breaking bad (The breaking bad) is an American television series created in 2008 by Vince Gilligan. It was broadcast on the AMC network and starred Bryan Cranston, who plays a chemist who becomes involved in the world of drug trafficking to ensure the financial future of his family.
The series, which was a before and after in the history of television, is an insurmountable fiction for the most "seriéfilos".
But what is it about Breaking bad? How was the series that left everyone shocked? What does this series have that you cannot forget?
Synopsis
What would you do if you found out that you only had a few months to live, you were about to have a child and you had unpaid debts?
Faced with this situation, Walter White, a chemistry professor, decides to start manufacturing methamphetamine in secret to get the most money possible in a short time to leave it to his family before To die.
Summary by season
Still many wonder how many seasons it has Breaking bad. Although, the hardcore fans waited for the announcement of a season 6,
Breaking bad It consists of 62 chapters divided into 5 seasons.In the series' journey there is an evolution of both the protagonist and his main objective. How it all started? How I finish?
Attention, spoilers from here!
Season 1: from Walter White to Heisenberg
After turning 50, Walter White learns that he has terminal cancer. One day, he runs into his former student Jesse Pinkman while accompanying his brother-in-law Hank Schrader, a DEA agent, on a police raid.
Walter decides to partner with Jesse to produce methamphetamine, an easy business that will earn him a lot of money to support his family. Thus, they begin by making glass in a motorhome in the desert of Albuquerque.
Finally, the first experience as a trafficker ends up turning Walter into a murderer and he decides to move away from that world. However, his refusal to ask his family and friends for money to cover expenses makes him go back to business. This time, under the nickname Heisenberg and with a possible distributor, Tuco, a very dangerous man.
Season 2: Walter White's Double Life Uncovered
Tuco kidnaps Jesse and Walter at the home of his uncle Héctor Salamanca, a criminal who now depends on a wheelchair. They soon manage to escape and Tuco is killed by a gunshot by Hank Schrader.
Jesse relapses to drugs when he falls in love with Jane, a young heroin addict. Walter's business is in jeopardy and he decides to hire attorney Saul Goodman.
On the other hand, a new client emerges, Gus Fring, the owner of a fast food restaurant, who wants to pay Walter a large amount of money in exchange for his methamphetamine production. Walter's involvement in this work means that he is not present at the birth of his daughter.
Walter knows that Jesse has started using drugs again and decides to take some of the money from him. Later, she lets Jane die from an overdose while she lies unconscious with Jesse at her home.
Finally Skyler, Walter's wife, learns of her husband's secret life. Meanwhile, the late Jane's father, an air traffic controller, causes two planes to crash due to trauma caused by the death of his daughter.
Season 3: Death Danger
Walter tries to save his marriage and retires from the meth business but Skyler files for a divorce.
Gus is hell-bent on convincing Walter to keep cooking glass and offers him an offer: work for three months in a clandestine laboratory with a new assistant, Gale, in exchange for a large sum of money.
Jesse works making methamphetamine on his own and Hank tracks him down, putting Walter's job in jeopardy. To avoid this, he offers Jesse a job in the lab.
Tuco's cousins seek to avenge his death and shoot Hank badly wounded.
Soon Jesse gets into trouble and makes Gus angry. Walter asks the young man to kill Gale so he can save his life and blackmail Gus.
Fourth season: business at risk
Jesse kills Gale. The friendship between Walter and his student breaks down. Hank investigates Gale's murder and links him to Gus. He also suspects that Gus is a large drug dealer.
Later, Gus finds out about the relationship between Hank and Walter and decides to end his business with him.
Finally Gus becomes a target for Walter and Jesse, who are willing to assassinate him with the help of Héctor Salamanca. In the end they succeed and destroy the laboratory.
Season 5: The Fall of Heisenberg
Walter and Jesse try to destroy any evidence that may link them to Gus. To do this, they must destroy the victim's computer, which is now in the hands of the police.
They end up partnering with Mike, Gus's former right-hand man, to continue the drug business. But, this time, they use a fumigation company as a cover where Walter and Jesse work as fumigators and cook methamphetamine in the houses that are being fumigated.
Later on, Hank finds out who Heisenberg is and Jesse is willing to help capture him.
Finally, Hank dies and Walter plans to retire from the business, but first he wants to ensure the financial future of his family, even if they despise him. In the end, Walter White dies and Jesse manages to escape.
Series analysis
If we describe Breaking bad In a single sentence, we could define it as: a series of a chemistry teacher who makes and sells drugs. The fiction starts from an apparently “ordinary” idea, which could be simple. But who says that a true masterpiece cannot emerge from simplicity?
What does it mean "breaking bad "?
The choice of title Breaking bad can give us some clue about what happens in the series. The term “breaking bad” is a colloquial “idiom” that, to a certain extent, announces that something or someone is going to “go bad” or that it is going to “corrupt”.
As in the series, everything is in continuous transformation, presents unexpected turns and follows the path of "decomposition". But, the title is nothing more than the "facade" of a more complex fiction than it seems.
What makes this series one of the best in television history?
Complex and unpredictable characters
It is a fact that the first chapters offer a seemingly conventional story. However, like drugs, as you "take" it, this series can be addictive. What is the secret?
One of the narrative techniques that ensure its success is that the story is resolved around the characters and not the other way around, as is generally the case.
Breaking bad offers a lot of very well-built characters, and almost all of them are destined for a flawless transformation. We could assure that the series is built by and for the characters.
As spectators, we are witnessing a radical shift between good and evil. Those characters who represented good at the beginning (Walter) or we despised (Jesse, Hank), at the end of the series make us change our minds.
The behavior of the characters at certain times changes as do the expectations that the viewer had about them, which makes it unpredictable.
From protagonist to villain: who is Heisenberg?
The star ingredient of the series has to do with the complex background of the main character. Walter White undergoes one of the most dazzling transformations in the history of television fiction.
How does Walter White become Heisenberg, an almost Machiavellian drug dealer? Was there a latent Heisenberg within Walter White and was this nothing more than a "cover"?
The normal thing in a fiction is that the spectator empathizes with the protagonist who has to face, almost always, obstacles and overcome adversity. Walter White's goal when he discovers his illness is to protect his family from him.
Thus, we can also understand the disease itself as the motivation that makes the protagonist behave differently.
I do it for my family.
This is the speech that Walter maintains at the beginning of the series. Who wouldn't empathize with someone who only wants to protect their family from him?
However, when the protagonist has gained the viewer's trust, a transformation occurs, a change of discourse that is discovered as the series progresses:
I did it for myself. I liked doing it. He was good at it. And he was really alive ...
With words like these, we understand that cancer was an excuse to remove Heinsenberg, his "alter ego". Walter is a character who presents fear and insecurity and lives in fear. Heinsenberg is strong and fearless and is, in fact, who Walter had always wanted to be.
After all the damage that Heinsenberg causes to his family, Jesse and his friends, we discovered that the series does not only capture the world of drugs or the mafia, the background of that fiction goes further, it tells of an ordinary person who finds his happiness by doing and causing the wrong. But, at the end of the series, we can only reflect: does the end justify the means?
Chemical reactions as a plot development
How can chemistry explain the development of events in a series?
It is clear that the series is a full-blown chemistry lesson. But his development is also closely linked to this science.
Already in the pilot episode, Walter White offers an explanation to his students about what chemistry is, in his words it is “the study of matter, it is the study of change”.
With the development of the series, this class becomes a symbol, a prediction of what will happen from the beginning to the end. Walter White, undergoes a transformation similar to that which occurs in compounds:
That's life, it's like the constant. It is the cycle: solution, dissolution over and over again. It is growing, falling and transformation.
A tribute to the western genre in the Albuquerque desert
The series takes place in a desert and border environment, more specifically, in Albuquerque (New Mexico). Its hostile settings are often reminiscent of western films, the quintessential American film genre.
If in the classic films of this genre the protagonists were Indians and cowboys, in Breaking bad they are replaced by drug traffickers. Walter White plays the role of Western outlaw. This time, the conflict is not centered on the conquest of a territory but, rather, on the struggle to dominate the drug business.
Music that awakens emotions
Vince Gilligan prioritizes ambient sound in this series more often than music. But when it appears on the scene he does it to "manipulate" the viewer and lead him to insurmountable sensations.
Each song that appears has a deep meaning, it does not fall into superficiality. Also, Breaking bad had the ability to bring back songs and turn them into hits many years after their release.
One of the great musical moments that will remain for posterity takes place in the last scene of the series.
While the song is playing Baby blue (1972) of the band Badfinger the end of Walter is approaching, lying on the ground, narrated with an exceptional crane shot. But how can a "love" song fit into an ending that predicts the death of the protagonist?
The disparity between what we see and hear can manipulate our emotions. This scene could have been accompanied by a sad song, however, it is precisely this contrast that makes us emotional. Although, if we look at the lyrics of the song, the choice of him makes even more sense:
I guess I got what he deserved; I did not know that you could think that he was going to forget or regret me, this special love he had for you, my sad girl (blue).
Thomas Golubic, musical supervisor of the series, clarified its meaning in this scene: “It is the story between Walter White and his love for science, his best achievement (…) It is not about Walter White as a criminal, murderer or bad guy. person. It is him finishing by himself ”.
Cast of Breaking bad
The series has a brilliant cast to embody the different characters. These are some of those that appear throughout the five seasons:
Walter White / Heisenberg
The actor Bryan cranston He plays a chemistry professor who, after being diagnosed with lung cancer, becomes a methamphetamine manufacturer to secure the future of his family.
Skyler White
Anna gunn plays Walter's wife. She is pregnant with a girl at the beginning of the series and is worried about the illness of her husband. She finally finds out about Walter's double life and asks for a divorce from her.
Jesse pinkman
Aaron paul plays this character, a former student of Walter and drug addict, who becomes his partner in the business of methamphetamine trafficking.
Walter White, Jr.
Interpreted by RJ Mitte, Walter Jr is the firstborn of Walter and Skyler. He was born with cerebral palsy and was affected in speech and body mobility.
Hank schrader
The actor Dean norris plays Walter White's brother-in-law. She is a DEA agent working to stamp out drug trafficking in Albuquerque. She is unaware of Heisenberg's true identity until the end of the series.
Marie schrader
Betsy brandt plays Skyler's sister and Hank's wife. She is kleptomaniac, which causes her to have problems with the law and arguments with Skyler.
Gus Fring
Giancarlo Esposito plays one of the most important drug dealers in the United States. He runs a fast food restaurant that he uses as a cover to launder money.
Saul goodman
Interpreted by Bob odenkirk, he is a scam lawyer who works for Walter White and Jesse.
Mike ehrmantraut
The actor Jonathan Banks brings to life this character, a former cop who works for Gus Fring.
Based on the universe Breaking bad
After the success of the series, in 2015 the “Braking Bad universe” continued to be successful with the premiere of the prequel Better call saul. A spin-off of the series that delves into the life of lawyer James Morgan (Saul Goodman) and is contextualized six years before Breaking bad.
In 2019 the series' cosmos continues to expand thanks to the film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (trailer)
The end of Breaking bad brought with it the death of Walter White, after having secured the financial future of his family. For his part, Jesse manages to escape. Where is he going? What is his fate after the end of the series?
This is the mystery that the movie tries to solve El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, sequel to the series released on October 11, 2019 on Netflix.
If you have already seen Breaking bad, below you can enjoy the trailer of the movie.
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