Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this TV show takes a look at the life of a high school chemistry teacher who deals with a terminal illness diagnosis in a unique way.
Walter Hartwell White (Bryan Cranston) has been diagnosed as having terminal lung cancer and is given a prognosis of two years to live. This changes the normally mild temperament of this high school chemistry teacher. Wanting to be sure that his his wife, son, and baby daughter will be well provided for, he uses his chemistry know-how to create and sell crystal meth. In his younger days, he performed groundbreaking research and formed Gray Matter Technologies with his friend. He dated his assistant, then suddenly abandoned both her and his research. Gray Matter went on to become successful without him and he remains bitter.
Skyler White (Anna Gunn), Walter’s wife, writes short stories and sells items on eBay. She makes many of Walter’s decisions for him and remains very devoted. However, this relationship becomes strained due to his unexplained absences and strange behavior. Because of the family’s financial state, she’s forced to go back to work as a bookkeeper for Ted Beneke (Christopher Cousins), a man who previously made sexual advances towards her.
Walter and Skyler’s teenage son, Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte), was born with Cerebral Palsy. It’s left him with some speech and motor difficulties and requires him to uses crutches. His father’s frequent unexplained absences have caused him to become distant. He learned to drive from his friends and is now requesting that he be called “Flynn.” Not knowing about his father’s alternate money source, Walter Jr. started a website looking for donations. It became successful, but what he doesn’t know is that it’s been hacked. The money the site’s received is a way of laundering the profit from Walter’s meth business.
Jesse Bruce Pinkman (Aaron Paul) goes by the name of “Captain Cook” when he’s working with Walter in the meth business. He’s a past student of Walter’s and failed his class. He comes from a good family, but was kicked out. He was living in a house he inherited from his late aunt, but was kicked out again when his parents found out about the meth lab in the basement. He gets along well with his younger, over-achieving brother and is involved with his landlord, Jane.
Marie Schrader (Betsy Brandt) is Skyler’s sister who needs to practice the upstanding citizenship she preaches about. He husband, Hank (Dean Norris), is a DEA agent. He’s investigating “Heisenberg,” the new meth king in the area that’s actually his brother-in-law. While searching for Walter when he went missing, he killed a drug baron and received a promotion. This transferred him to El Paso, but he was soon back in Albuquerque because it didn’t go well.
