List of Breaking Bad episodes
Over the course of its broadcast, "Breaking Bad" aired 62 episodes over five seasons. The pilot episode was first aired on January 20, 2008, and the series finale was broadcast on September 29, 2013.
"Breaking Bad: Original Minisodes" is a web series based on the television series "Breaking Bad". On February 17, 2009, five "mini-episodes," which were more comedy-oriented than most full episodes, were made available online before the premiere of the show's second season. Additional minisodes were to be produced before the premiere of the fourth season, but these did not come to fruition. The first five were included with "Breaking Bad: The Complete Second Season".
Breaking Bad
Both halves of the fifth season received overwhelming critical acclaim. Following the end of the series, critic Nick Harley summarized his commendation of the show: "Expertly written, virtuosic with its direction, and flawlessly performed, "Breaking Bad" is everything you could want in a drama. Critics will spend the next decade dissecting and arguing about what made it great, but the reasons are endless and already well documented." During the final season, the show also received praise from George R. R. Martin, author of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels, particularly the episode "Ozymandias"; Martin commented that "Walter White is a bigger monster than anyone in Westeros." In his review of the second half of season 5, Seth Amitin of IGN stated, "This final batch of "Breaking Bad" is one of the best run of episodes TV has ever offered," and praised "Ozymandias" in particular, referring to it as "maybe the best episode of TV [he's] ever seen". Jonah Goldberg of "National Review" called it "the best show currently on television, and perhaps even the best ever". The veteran actor Sir Anthony Hopkins wrote a letter of praise to Bryan Cranston, telling him that his "performance as Walter White was the best acting I have seen – ever". He lauded the rest of the cast and crew as well. The letter first appeared on Steven Michael Quezada's (who portrayed DEA Agent Steven Gomez) Facebook page, and in spite of it being taken down, the letter soon went viral. In 2013, Guinness World Records named "Breaking Bad" the highest-rated TV series of all time, citing its season 5 Metacritic score of 99 out of 100.