Is ‘Breaking Bad’ Based On A True Story?

The Golden Globe-award winning AMC series Breaking Bad has had a tight grip on pop culture since it first debuted in 2008.

The drama, written by showrunner Vince Gilligan, follows high school chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston), who amid financial troubles is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and decides to turn an old RV into a meth lab to support his family. He recruits the help of his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), who became a meth cook and dealer under the name of Cap’n Cook.

The series led to the popular prequel show Better Call Saul, which followed White’s attorney Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) and premiered in 2015. Better Call Saul ran until 2022.

Gilligan’s original series also inspired the 2019 film El Camino, which had a limited theatrical debut alongside a Netflix release. The film prolongs Jesse’s story, serving as both a sequel and an epilogue to Breaking Bad.

So, is Breaking Bad based on a true story? What is the correct order in which you should watch Breaking Bad and its subsequent spin-offs? Keep reading to find out.

Is Breaking Bad based on a true story?

No. The story stemmed from the creative genius of Vince Gilligan, who told NPR in 2019 that he was “not sure where the idea for the show came from,” but that he remembers “the exact moment in which the idea hit” him.

“I was about to turn 40 years old,” he explained. “And, perhaps, I was thinking in terms of, you know, an impending midlife crisis. And to that end, I think Walter White, at least in the early seasons of Breaking Bad, is a man who’s suffering from, perhaps, the world’s worst midlife crisis. And although — actually, to be accurate, I suppose, in the first episode, he finds out it’s more of an end-of-life crisis than a midlife crisis. But maybe that’s what was inspiring me.”

In what order should you watch Breaking Bad and its spin-offs?

The sequential order in which viewers should watch Gilligan’s works — which are all streaming on Netflix — goes as follows:

• Breaking Bad
• El Camino
• Better Call Saul

However, as ScreenRant notes, Better Call Saul presents two timelines, signified by black-and-white scenes that take viewers as far back as the year 2002, six years prior to the start of Breaking Bad. Nonetheless, the potential confusion is all wrapped up by the end of the three installments of Gilligan’s Breaking Bad timeline.