Breaking Bad season 5

Cast

Main

• Bryan Cranston as Walter White, a terminally ill man who cooks meth to provide for his family, though he tries to distance himself from the criminal life.
• Anna Gunn as Skyler White, Walt's wife.
• Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman, Walt's former student and assistant with his meth production who turns against him.
• Dean Norris as Hank Schrader, Walt's brother-in-law who is the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Albuquerque DEA office who learns about Walt's crimes.
• Betsy Brandt as Marie Schrader, Skyler's sister and Hank's wife.
• RJ Mitte as Walter White, Jr., Walt and Skyler's teenaged son with cerebral palsy.
• Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman, a sleazy lawyer who helps hide Walt's crimes.
• Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut (Season 5A only), one of Saul's associates who used to work for Gus Fring before he was killed. He helps Walt continue his meth production.
• Laura Fraser as Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (main, Season 5B; recurring Season 5A), Gus' former business associate who helps distribute Walt's meth into Europe.
• Jesse Plemons as Todd Alquist (main, Season 5B; recurring Season 5A), a psychopathic former pest exterminator who becomes involved with Walt's crimes.

Recurring

• Steven Michael Quezada as Steven Gomez, Hank's partner at the DEA.
• Michael Bowen as Jack Welker, Todd's uncle who is the leader of a Neo-Nazi gang.
• Kevin Rankin as Kenny, Jack's right-hand-man.
• Lavell Crawford as Huell Babineaux, an associate of Saul's.
• Charles Baker as Skinny Pete, one of Jesse's friends.
• Bill Burr as Patrick Kuby, an associate of Saul's.
• Louis Ferreira as Declan, a drug kingpin from Phoenix, Arizona.
• Chris Freihofer as Dan Wachsberger, an attorney who represents nine of Gus Fring's former employees who can identify Walt as Heisenberg.
• Matt L. Jones as Badger Mayhew, one of Jesse's friends.
• Emily Rios as Andrea Cantillo, a young mother and Jesse's girlfriend.
• Mike Batayeh as Dennis Markowski, one of Dan's clients who was the manager of Gus' laundromat.
• Adam Godley as Elliott Schwartz, Gretchen's husband and Walt's former business partner and friend.
• Jessica Hecht as Gretchen Schwartz, Elliott's wife and Walt's former business partner and friend and ex-fiancée.
• Jim Beaver as Lawson, an arms dealer who sells Walt a machine gun.
• Christopher Cousins as Ted Beneke, Skyler's former boss whom she also had an affair with who's in the hospital from a horrible accident.
• Larry Hankin as Old Joe, a junkyard owner who helps Walt, Jesse and Mike with destroying Gus' laptop.
• Carmen Serano as Principal Carmen Molina, the principal of J.P. Wynne High School, Walter Jr.'s principal, and Walt's former boss.
• Michael Shamus Wiles as ASAC George Merkert, the former head of the Albuquerque DEA office and Hank and Gomez's former boss, who's let go of his position because of his friendship with Gus Fring.
• Tina Parker as Francesca Liddy, Saul's secretary.

Episodes

Development and production

In July 2011, series creator Vince Gilligan indicated that he intended to conclude Breaking Bad with the fifth season. In early August 2011, negotiations began over a deal regarding the fifth and possibly final season between AMC and Sony Pictures Television, the production company of the series. AMC proposed a shortened fifth season (six to eight episodes, instead of thirteen) to cut costs, but the producers declined. Sony then approached other cable networks about possibly picking up the show if a deal could not be made. On August 14, 2011, a deal was made in which AMC renewed the series for a final 16-episode season. Filming for the season began on March 26, 2012. In April 2012, Bryan Cranston revealed that the final season would be split into two halves, with the first half airing in 2012 and the second in 2013. After a four-month break, filming for the second half of the season began on December 7, 2012, during which AMC sent the cast and crew cupcakes decorated with characters and props used throughout the show's run.

Vince Gilligan explained that the season was split at his request in order to have more time to write the final episodes. Thomas Schnauz revealed that the writers initially tried to conceive a 16-episode arc in advance of completing the first eight episodes, but that most of these plans were scrapped as new plot points emerged "that threw everything into a little bit of chaos."

Dean Norris had asked Gilligan to kill off Hank during the first half of the season after being cast in a comedy pilot. However, Gilligan declined his request, citing the importance of Hank in the final eight episodes.

Gilligan stated that the introduction of the M60 machine gun in the season's first episode created several problems down the line in writing. When the premiere script was developed, the machine gun was written in as a thought-provoking idea to suggest to the audience that something significant was going to happen later in the season and draw them in. However, at that time, they did not plan out how the gun would be used, and Gilligan believed that with sixteen episodes, they would be able to figure something out. As Gilligan started writing the last four to five episodes, his staff reminded him about the machine gun. Gilligan was of a mind to simply drop the machine gun but realized this would not work. He eventually had a eureka moment where Walter would need to use the machine gun to kill multiple people at once rather than a single individual, leading to the development of the character of Jack Welker and the white supremacist gang to be the target of Walter's wrath.

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the fifth season has an approval rating of 97% based on 99 reviews, with an average rating of 9.5/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Breaking Bads final season cements its status as one of television's great series, propelling its narrative to an explosive conclusion with sharp direction and assured storytelling." On Metacritic, it holds a 99 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, making it the highest-rated season of any show on the site. In his review of the second half of the season, Seth Amitin of IGN stated, "Whether you call it a 'half-season' or consider these final eight episodes its own season, this final batch of Breaking Bad is one of the best runs of episodes TV has ever offered." "Ozymandias" in particular was widely praised and has since been called the greatest television episode ever broadcast.

Ratings

The fifth season had six separate episodes that became the most watched episodes in the series up to date, in order: "Live Free or Die" (2.93 million), "Say My Name" (2.98), "Blood Money" (5.92), "Ozymandias" (6.37), "Granite State" (6.58), and "Felina" (10.28).

The first half of season five was watched by an average of 2.6 million viewers per episode; the second half averaged 6.04 million viewers. As a whole, season five averaged roughly 4.32 million viewers per episode.

Accolades

For the 65th Writers Guild of America Awards, the series received four nominations for Best Episodic Drama, for "Buyout" (written by Gennifer Hutchison), "Dead Freight" (George Mastras), "Fifty-One" (Sam Catlin) and "Say My Name" (Thomas Schnauz), and won for Best Dramatic Series. For the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, the series received 13 nominations, with three wins. It won for Outstanding Drama Series, Anna Gunn won for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and it won for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series. Nominations included Bryan Cranston for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Jonathan Banks and Aaron Paul for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, George Mastras and Thomas Schnauz for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series ("Dead Freight" and "Say My Name"), and Michelle MacLaren for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series ("Gliding Over All"). For the 29th TCA Awards, Breaking Bad was named Program of the Year, and also was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Drama, and Individual Achievement in Drama for Bryan Cranston.

For the 66th Writers Guild of America Awards, the series won for Best Dramatic Series and Gennifer Hutchison won for Best Episodic Drama for "Confessions". The series received two other Best Episodic Drama nominations, Thomas Schnauz for "Buried" and Peter Gould for "Granite State". For the 20th Screen Actors Guild Awards, the cast won for Best Drama Ensemble, Bryan Cranston won for Best Drama Actor, Anna Gunn was nominated for Best Drama Actress, and the series was nominated for Best Stunt Team. For the 71st Golden Globe Awards, the series won awards for Best Drama Series and Best Drama Actor (Cranston), while Aaron Paul was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. For the 30th TCA Awards, the series won for Program of the Year and received a nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Drama, and Bryan Cranston was nominated for Individual Achievement in Drama. For the 4th Critics' Choice Television Awards, the series won for Best Drama Series and Aaron Paul won for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Bryan Cranston received a nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Series and Anna Gunn received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. For the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, the series won Outstanding Drama Series, Bryan Cranston won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Aaron Paul won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, Anna Gunn won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama, Moira Walley-Beckett won Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for "Ozymandias", and Vince Gilligan was nominated for both Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for "Felina".

Home media

Part One

The first half of the fifth season was released on Blu-ray and DVD as "The Fifth Season" in Region 1 on June 4, 2013.

Special features on the DVD and Blu-ray include:

• "Chicks 'N' Guns" is a scene created and produced exclusively for the home entertainment release.
• Cast & crew commentaries on every episode
• Deleted scenes
• Outtakes Three all-new featurettes:
• "Nothing Stops This Train" takes viewers on location to see what a huge undertaking it is to film a modern-day train heist.
• "The Cleaner: Jonathan Banks as Mike" gives viewers a chance to spend time with fan-favorite Cleaner, Jonathan Banks, as he talks about his time with the show.
• "Chicks 'N' Guns: Behind-the-Scenes" shows how the scene came to be, going behind the scenes with Aaron Paul and Bob Odenkirk as it's filmed.
• "Writers' Room Timelapse" takes viewers through the entire breaking of episode "Fifty-One" with commentary from the writers.
• Laura Fraser & Jesse Plemons audition footage
• Prison stunt rehearsal footage
• "Gallery 1988 Art Show" features artwork inspired by the show
• "Chris Hardwick's All-Star Celebrity Bowling" features team Breaking Bad going head to head with team Nerdist to raise money for charity.
• Inside Breaking Bad: 19 episodes that give a behind-the-scenes look of what it takes to create an episode
• "Scene by Scene: Directors Discuss Memorable Moments" provides the directors' experience making the show (exclusive to Blu-ray)
• "The Writers of Breaking Bad" gives the writers a turn to show viewers what it's really like to work together and create amazing scripts (exclusive to Blu-ray)

Part Two

The second half of the fifth season was released on Blu-ray and DVD as "The Final Season" in Region 1 on November 26, 2013.

Special features on the DVD and Blu-ray include:

• Cast and Crew Commentaries on Every Episode
• 4 Featurettes
• The Main Event
• The Final Showdown
• Life of a Show Runner
• Behind-the-Scenes of the Alternate Ending
• Alternate Ending - A 3-minute alternate version of how Breaking Bad could have ended.
• Deleted & Extended Scenes
• Gag Reel
• Walt's Confession
• The Layers of a Sound Mix
• Over 15 Episodes of Inside Breaking Bad
• Uncensored and Extended Episodes
• "Blood Money" Table Read - A rare look at the only final season Breaking Bad table read (Blu-ray exclusive)

Related media

''Chicks 'N' Guns''

An eight-minute bonus scene titled Chicks 'N' Guns was included with Breaking Bads fifth season DVD and Blu-ray sets. Written by Jenn Carroll and Gordon Smith and directed by Michelle MacLaren, the scene offers a backstory on how Jesse Pinkman obtained the gun seen in the episode "Gliding Over All". Sony Pictures released a behind-the-scenes featurette discussing the scene on its YouTube channel.

''Talking Bad''

Main article: Talking Bad

After the success of the live talk show Talking Dead, which aired immediately following new episodes of The Walking Dead, AMC decided to create a similar series, titled Talking Bad, for the remaining episodes of Breaking Bad. Chris Hardwick, host of Talking Dead, also hosted this series; Talking Bad also had a similar logo and theme music to Talking Dead. Talking Bad featured crew members, actors, producers, and television enthusiasts, recapping the most recent episode, and taking questions and comments from viewers.

References

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