Breaking Bad Quiz

Breaking Bad Summary

Breaking Bad is an American neo-Western crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan for AMC.
The series follows Walter White, 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 and partners with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, to produce and distribute methamphetamine to secure his family's financial future before he dies, while navigating the dangers of the criminal underworld.
Breaking Bad premiered on AMC on January 20, 2008, and concluded on September 29, 2013, after five seasons consisting of 62 episodes.
The show's co-stars include Anna Gunn and RJ Mitte as Walter's wife Skyler and son Walter Jr., and Betsy Brandt and Dean Norris as Skyler's sister Marie Schrader and her husband Hank, a DEA agent.
Breaking Bad received unanimous critical acclaim, with praise for the performances, direction, cinematography, screenplay, story, and character development.
By the time that the series finale aired, it was among the most-watched cable shows on American television.
The show received numerous awards, including 16 Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Peabody Awards.
The series gave rise to the larger Breaking Bad franchise, including Better Call Saul, a prequel series, and a sequel film, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
Breaking Bad was shot primarily on 35 mm film, with digital cameras employed as needed for additional angles, point of view shots and time-lapse photography.
The series was initially set in Riverside, California but was changed to Albuquerque, New Mexico, due to the favorable financial conditions offered by the state.
The show's creator, Vince Gilligan, cast Bryan Cranston for the role of Walter White based on having worked with him in an episode of The X-Files. Cranston contributed significantly to the formation and development of the Walter White persona.Breaking Bad: A Summary of Scientific Accuracy, Technical Aspects, Episodes, and Themes

Scientific Accuracy:

Donna Nelson, a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Oklahoma, provided scientific accuracy to the show's chemistry dialogue and props.
Mythbusters featured attempts to validate or disprove scenes from Breaking Bad, and some scenes were shown to be physically impossible.
Jason Wallach of Vice magazine commended the accuracy of the cooking methods presented in the series, including the depiction of a once-common clandestine method, the Nagai red phosphorus/iodine method.
The crystal meth Walter "cooks" has very long crystals, is very pure, and has a strong cyan blue color, which is not accurate for pure crystal meth.

Technical Aspects:

Michael Slovis was the cinematographer of Breaking Bad and received critical acclaim for his work throughout the series.
Breaking Bad was shot on 35 mm film to keep a focus on shooting scenes economically and allowed for a later digital transfer to 4K Ultra HD resolution.
Kelley Dixon was one of the few editors of Breaking Bad and edited many of the series' "meth montages", for which she received six Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

Episodes:

The first season was originally intended to be nine episodes but only seven were filmed due to the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike.
The second season sees Walter and Jesse working with corrupt lawyer Saul Goodman and high-profile drug distributor Gus Fring and hitman Mike Ehrmantraut.
The third season sees Skyler learning of Walt's crimes and seeking a divorce from him, while Hank's investigation leads him to Jesse and eventually to Walt.
The fourth season sees Walt and Jesse being coerced by Gus to work together while eliminating the Mexican cartel.
The fifth and final season sees Walt, Jesse, and Mike starting a new meth business, with Walt eventually being forced to flee alone.

Themes:

The larger lesson of the series is that "actions have consequences".
The show explores most of the main characters' connections to their families in great detail, with Walt justifying his decision to cook crystal meth and become a criminal because of his desire to provide for his family.Breaking Bad: A Summary of Themes, Symbols, and Critical Reception

Themes:

Familial ties and obligations are a significant theme throughout Breaking Bad, with many characters engaging in illegal activities in order to provide for their loved ones.
Pride and hubris are major themes in Walter White's character arc, leading to his downfall.
The use of color, particularly in wardrobe, is a recurring symbol used to represent a character's state of mind or relationship between characters.
The character of Walter White is named after the poet Walt Whitman, and his copy of Leaves of Grass becomes a significant symbol throughout the series.

Symbols:

The pink teddy bear is a motif within the second season, representing the damage that Walter White feels responsible for.
The use of color, particularly in wardrobe, is a recurring symbol used to represent a character's state of mind or relationship between characters.
Walt's copy of Leaves of Grass becomes a significant symbol throughout the series, connecting his life to the poetry of Walt Whitman.

Critical Reception:

Breaking Bad received widespread critical acclaim and is considered one of the greatest television shows of all time.
The series has been praised for its writing, acting, direction, and cinematography.
Breaking Bad won numerous awards, including 16 Primetime Emmy Awards.
The show's audience numbers doubled from the fourth season to the fifth.
Breaking Bad has been criticized by some members of law enforcement and the legal community for normalizing or glorifying methamphetamine creation and usage.Summary of Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad premiered on January 20, 2008, with only 1.4 million viewers due to the NFC game's running time.
Despite this, the show's viewership grew with each season and made history as the first show to have renewed interest due to its availability on Netflix.
The series finale had over 10.3 million viewers, and the show has won 110 industry awards and has been nominated for 262.
Bryan Cranston won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times, and Aaron Paul won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series three times.
There were challenges in developing certain characters, such as Skyler White, who became unsympathetic to some viewers in earlier seasons.
Director Rian Johnson worked on three episodes and learned a lot about working with actors because of his directing of Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul.
Breaking Bad's success caused numerous spin-offs and a media franchise, including a spin-off prequel series, a Spanish-language adaptation, a sequel film, a talk show, and a video game.
Several attempts to create a real restaurant concept after Los Pollos Hermanos have occurred, and law enforcement authorities have reported occasional instances of seizing blue crystal methamphetamine in drug-related arrests and raids.
Beyond appearances in Better Call Saul and El Camino, Cranston reprised his role as Walter in a commercial for Esurance and another for PopCorners.
A Breaking Bad fan group placed a paid obituary for Walter White in the Albuquerque Journal, and a mock funeral procession and service for the character was held at Albuquerque's Sunset Memorial Park cemetery.
Gilligan and Sony Television Pictures commissioned and donated a bronze statue of Walter and Jesse to the city of Albuquerque in July 2022.
In May 2015, the New Mexico Law Review published a collection of eight articles by legal scholars, each dedicated to dissecting legal issues presented by Breaking Bad.