I watched Breaking Bad for the first time in January 2021. It might sound weird to remember the exact month you started watching a show, but I think it means that Vince Gilligan’s master creation is just that memorable. This was about eight years after the show completed its original run on AMC. After hearing its greatness regurgitated by every media outlet and superfan ad nauseam for a decade, it’s safe to say there was a mountain of expectations and a certain amount of respect I gave the series right from the jump.
Everything I had been told about Breaking Bad still didn’t paint the complete picture of the viewing experience I fell in love with. Watching Walter White transform from your regular, superordinary chemistry teacher into the vile and egotistical mess he finishes as in season 5 is TV’s ultimate roller coaster. Just as Walter tells his wife in the series finale when asked why he indulged in his Heisenberg alter ego, the series’ 62 episodes made me feel alive.
17 years after its pilot episode, Breaking Bad still has a way of transfixing people like me into its orbit, unlike any other show ever has. Every person has their own story about the show’s greatness, but the overarching theme of each anecdote is the same: this is a show that changed the way we watch TV forever, both for its incredible storytelling and because of the moment in time it came about and helped usher in.
Breaking Bad propelled the antihero movement
Most of the dramas of the late 2000s and early 2010s featured a specific type of protagonist: the antihero. These characters are riddled with problems and a gray moral code that makes them much more fascinating than the traditional hero of a story. The Sopranos was the first show to introduce the antihero movement to the masses with Tony Soprano, but Breaking Bad’s Walter White took that original template and expanded it into something much more relatable.
Tony Soprano was a mob boss with a family and a therapist. Sure, he seemed like a normal guy when he was sitting on the couch with his wife and kids, but heading a New Jersey mafia takes away some of that everyman exterior. Walter White’s journey starts where the average American does. He’s a school teacher too poor to pay for his cancer treatments. He is under tremendous stress trying to support his wife and child. The only person he has any power over is his mentee, Jesse Pinkman. Bryan Cranston’s ability to make Walter likable even after committing heinous crimes might be the most influential part of the series in totality. All of these factors made Walter an evolution of Tony Soprano and one that kicked off various successors throughout the next decade (Sons of Anarchy, Mr. Robot, Better Call Saul, etc.)
Walter’s flaws continue to build upon each other as the series goes forward, forcing the audience to pick between their loyalty to Walter and their better judgment between right and wrong. Walter goes from the hero to the villain of his own story. This arc helped demonstrate to other TV creators that long-form storytelling on the small screen was the right avenue for building better plots and more interesting themes. When a hero is too perfect, they become boring. Walter was always going to make a questionable, immoral decision that forced us to think about the lengths we’d go to if put in the same situation.
Breaking Bad’s copycats are still widespread
Breaking Bad’s legacy can be summarized easily by the number of shows that tried to copy its formatting, characters, and themes in the years after its finale. These shows aren’t just similar to Breaking Bad, but they surely wouldn’t have even existed without it. Ozark is the best example of this phenomenon. Starring Jason Bateman, the series follows a nerdy financial analyst who becomes the Mexican drug cartel’s number one money launderer. Watching Marty Myrde dive deeper into the world of crime and violence that he seemingly wouldn’t have touched years before is entertaining, but it’s also like shopping for clothes at Walmart after going to Macy’s earlier in the day.
Griselda, starring Sofia Vergara, was a hit for Netflix in 2024. While it’s based on a real story, the fictional retelling of a mother who turns into a drug lord might not have seen the light of day if Breaking Bad hadn’t set the precedent for telling stories about normal people who get into the criminal underworld. This dichotomy between what a human’s purpose should be and what their destination ends up crystallizing into is thoroughly fascinating and transferable to different series.
Shows like The Sopranos and Dexter were influential in similar ways to Breaking Bad, but Breaking Bad’s appeal is in its reliability. It feels like anybody could become a Walter White because of his milquetoast, mundane backstory. Tony Soprano was always in the mob. His aura is more untouchable. Walter is a lovable loser. We all want to see that person’s story over and over again, even if it’s a guilty pleasure.
Breaking Bad transformed the binge-watching model
Breaking Bad’s importance to the TV industry runs deeper than just the characters and shows it influenced. Vince Gilligan’s series was one of the original imports to Netflix from cable TV in the early 2010s. Netflix is known for boosting a show’s views, but that didn’t happen all that often before Breaking Bad. The combination of the show’s thrilling plot and the streamer’s accessibility was a match made in heaven. Fans couldn’t get enough of clicking over to the next episode of Walter’s downfall.
All these years later, Netflix is still distributing Breaking Bad to the masses and adopting the same schedule release format that keeps viewers up into the wee hours of the night to finish a new season of a classic or contemporary favorite. Other streamers like Hulu and Max are back to the traditional release schedule of weekly episodes, but Netflix knows the all-at-once experience is just as fun for many fans. Breaking Bad was the type of adrenaline-heavy epic that allowed the binge-watching model to gain credence and stay relevant for years after.
Would Breaking Bad still be popular today?
TV series often serve as a time capsule, a look into the period in which they were created. Shows speak on the moments and movements from which they were built. This makes it hard for certain stories to fit into the pop culture zeitgeist decades after their inception. Is Breaking Bad one of those legendary entities that would have only succeeded in the late 2000s and early 2010s, or would it still resonate with audiences today?
The themes that live deep within the soul of the series are very much relevant in 2025. Walter White represents a certain subset of the male population that feels deprived of their destinies. His actions are horrific, but his motivation to become the best at what he does and to be appreciated by his family for it still unifies the interests of many American males. Sterling Bank did a study that revealed that nearly three-quarters of 18-to 24-year-old men believe that males should provide for themselves and their significant others.
Walter’s original intent to sell drugs was to feed his family after his death, but astute viewers could read deeper into this crux immediately. Walter’s desire to provide is just a device that feeds his ego. Having millions of dollars wasn’t necessary to protect the ones he loved, but rather a symbol of male domination. Walt had an insatiable hunger to be better than others through superficial means such as money. This is an unfortunate misogynistic viewpoint that is reflected by the study cited above.
I could argue that young men today would hero-worship Walter White in a way they didn’t back in 2008. Gen Z men are more socially conservative than their parents and grandparents. They almost certainly would be excited by Walter’s power-trip journey and want to be like him for all the wrong reasons. Think of how many men still cite the famous novel The Catcher in the Rye when discussing the literature and themes that invoke strong feelings.
If I move on to the more technical aspects of the series, it becomes even clearer that it would succeed in the 2020s. The aforementioned discussion about how Breaking Bad basically invented the reason for binging in the late 2000s and early 2010s firmly cements it as one of the preeminent examples of and reasons for the current model of watching TV.
The incredible cliffhangers, the larger number of episodes than today’s TV (13 instead of eight or 10), and the film-like cinematography all contribute to its universal appeal no matter what year we’re watching it in. Better Call Saul’s popularity and the excitement surrounding Vince Gilligan and Rhea Seehorn’s new drama close any argument against Breaking Bad and its ancillary actors and creators. The Gilliverse (Vince Gilligan’s shows set in Nex Mexico) is alive and well in 2025, and it will be for years to come.
