Breaking Bad is the show that really kickstarted the binge-watching craze, with so many catching up on it through streaming as it became a belated sensation.
There were so many great episodes, so many that ended in a way that made you want to immediately watch the next one, so it’s tricky narrowing them down just ten. But here are our Top 10 Breaking Episodes, let us know what you think:
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10 – Fly (Episode 3 Episode 10)
We start off with a controversial one. Rian Johnson became a big name when Star Wars Episode VIII came out in 2017 but he directed a lot of key Breaking Bad episodes, including this divisive bottle episode. A bottle episode is the industry term for a cheap one that only takes place in one location with only a few actors needed, so this one features just Walt and Jesse in the meth lab, along with a pesky fly. No action but lots of depth added to their relationship, which makes it a great use of limited resources.
9 – Crazy Handful of Nothin (Season 1 Episode 6)
This is the episode where Breaking Bad exploded into life, literally.
We’d seen Walter White’s downfall begin in the first five episodes of the season but here we start off with his shaved head look in place and a huge explosion and a load of cash, before going back to find out just how things had suddenly gotten so serious.
Heisenberg was here to stay and Walt’s life would never be the same again.
8 – One Minute (Season 3 Episode 7)
Breaking Bad was always at its best when things start to spiral out of control, and One Minute has one of those moments, which had been built up to for a while, with Walt’s DEA brother-in-law Hank finally targeted by the Salamanca brothers in a car park.
It’s a situation we just can’t see him possibly surviving but in a thrilling action sequence he manages to fight off both of them, killing one and seriously injuring the other. But the stakes just keep on getting higher.
7 – Felina (Season 5 Episode 16)
The show’s final episode suffered slightly from coming a couple of episodes after its real grand finale, but Walter White’s death was the only way Breaking Bad could end and while the enemies he had left to fight felt inconsequential compared to who had gone before, the mission of saving Jesse was certainly an important one.
And the Badfinger-soundtracked final scene was undoubtedly a touching way to see off a great TV character.
6 – Crawl Space (Season 4 Episode 11)
Bryan Cranston had many stand-out moments as Walt, but one of his finest came in this episode, a turning point where so many things go against him that he finally decides to go on the run, only to discover when he checks the crawl space under the house that Skyler has given some of the money to Ted, leaving Walt teetering on the edge of sanity as he lies there in the dust, laughing maniacally.
The only way from here is further into the darkness.
5 – Confessions (Season 5 Episode 11)
The second half of Season 5 builds up to its final climax with a run of incredible episodes and Confessions is the real start of Walt’s downfall, ending on a real cliffhanger that threatens to blow up everything.
Earlier we have the classic scene where Walt records a ‘confession’ for Hank and Marie that is really blackmailing them into silence, but the real drama is when Jesse realises that Walt was responsible for poisoning Brock and the episode ends with him pouring gasoline all over the Whites’ house.
4 – ABQ (Season 2 Episode 13)
Of Walt’s many evil deeds across the run of Breaking Bad, not many match up to allowing Jesse’s girlfriend Jane to choke to death in front of him, and that action’s repercussions come to bear here along the answer to what the deal was with that weird burned-up bear we’d kept seeing.
It turns out that her dad works in air traffic control and returns to work too soon, causing a mid-air collision and adding hundreds of deaths to Walt’s toll.
3 – Dead Freight (Season 5 Episode 5)
The show’s best action sequence, this train heist is tension-filled genius from start to finish, a well-executed plan that could have gone horribly wrong a few times but is pulled off with seconds to spare, but still ends in tragedy.
In many ways that can be said to be the case for the whole show, but there haven’t been many more horrifying shocks than when crazy Todd shoots the innocent bystander child dead at the end.
2 – Face Off (Season 4 Episode 13)
Gus Fring hasn’t featured much in this list despite being one of Breaking Bad’s best characters and a real threat to Walt. However, his final episode was an undoubted classic, with wheelchair-bound Hector used by Walt to blow Gus to smithereens and end both of their long feuds with him.
The iconic scene where Gus walks out of the room, seemingly having survived, only to reveal that half of his face is missing will stay with us all for a long, long time.
1 – Ozymandias (Season 5 Episode 14)
Breaking Bad is up there with the best TV shows ever made, and this episode stands as one of the best TV episodes ever.
Starting with Hank and Gomie being outgunned and murdered, Ozymandias is where Walt’s sins all come home to punish him, culminating in the terrifying and upsetting confrontation with his family at home, with Junior pulling a gun on him and Walt snatching Holly and running off with her, leaving Skyler sobbing in the road behind him.
He’d always told himself he was doing it for his family and now he was destroying them, and us too.
