Better Call Saul is arriving on Netflix next week, so here at Digital Spy we're preparing ourselves by looking back over its parent show, Breaking Bad.

We loved watching Walter White's descent from mild-mannered chemistry teacher into the dreaded Heisenberg, as well as the general excellence of Bryan Cranston, best known before for his slapstick role in Malcolm in the Middle.

Why do you love Breaking Bad?

For me Breaking Bad had everything needed in a series, great storylines with some cracking cliffhangers & a wide range of unique characters like Hector and his hilarious expressions. Cannot wait for Better Call Saul, bring it on B***h.

Loads of reason.

It had a subtlety in its storytelling lacking in many TV dramas. Few characters, with lots of development. I found watching Walt's relationships with Skylar, Jessie, Hank, Gus and Saul all fascinating.

Brilliant Actors, great scripts, and a very good storyline

I struggled with Breaking Bad to be honest. I enjoyed the first few but then I watched the episode with the kid and the safe and found it really depressing. Bit too bleak for me.

Breaking Bad was the best series I've watched in a long time. For me it was the characters. A very strong cast with gripping story arcs made it a winning combination.

Tried watching when it first aired on FX and struggled with the first episode and thought "hopefully this will speed up" for the second episode. But it was more of the same!

So I didnt watch it for a few years until a few months ago. Basically whilst discussing with a friend I decided to give it another go and I'm glad I did. For me it's the kind of show that works best on platforms such as Netflix because you can watch a few episodes in one sitting - I did - so much so that I completed it all in just over a month.

Stunning show.

Best examples of character development in a show ever.

my nephew told me to watch it , didnt look the kind of thing i would like....but how wrong i was.
got netflix turned on just before christmas and after a few episodes was hooked. took me 3 weeks to watch the lot. think i was just screaming WHAT, NO, WHY, YOU IDIOT at the tv screen all the time.

My whole family watched BB and IMHO it is the best TV series ever made the Characters just suck you into one incredible sequence of events for the entire show

First few episodes were slow I thought, then I was hooked, amazing show.

Pure craftsmanship. Everybody in this series is pulling their weight - actors, writers, directors. Hardly a duff note anywhere. Just cooked to perfection.

Series 4 & 5 are incredibly intense & compelling. And the last three episodes of S5 are absolutely harrowing but fantastic viewing.

I've only watched the whole thing for the first time in the last three weeks! I think there have been better programmes for me (The Wire comes to mind) but not many.

Jesse.

Walt of course is a brilliant character, but for me I was on board to see Jesse's journey. I love characters who are bad guys but actually have a good heart and that was Jesse.

However, of course, BB wouldn't be the show it was without everything else in place. The twists and turns, the well-written characters, the dark comedy, among everything else.

Because Walter White is the greatest character ever The show had great acting and a superb script. It was extremely addictive. Had me hooked from episode 1. But not just WW, but the showed had some other amazing characters in Mike, Gus, Jesse and Hank.

Seen it twice straight though and will feel in the mood to go through it again pretty soon.

Are there any notable female characters?

It seems to be a very male oriented show and I think it's that little niggle that's put me off watching, so far.

For me the whole Walter White thing of his descent from what we believe was the normalcy of an every day average American life into a hardened killer of a drug lord was a fascinating journey.

Add into this the ascent of Jessie in the opposite direction and a sprinkling of characters that added to the whole thing and you have an excellent series.

Topped of by the fact that they ended it before it became stale or run out of plot lines.

For me, I will never forget that disinterested face of Mike when dealing with anything.

There's Skylar, who is Walt's wife. She's particularly good, in my opinion, in the later seasons. There's one episode in particular that (without spoiling it) involved a script, and I think that was the funniest scene on the entire show! There's also Marie, who's Skylar's sister.


BIB: I agree, the way Jesse and Walt kind of balanced each other out throughout the entire show was extraordinary.

Everyone would not shut the **** up about how good it is and I must watch it.

The journey of both the characters was hinted at in the very first episode - when Walt explained to his students about chemistry being about the study of change & transformation. I kind of guessed that the two would be undertaking opposing transformations from that quote.

I don't. Its boring. I watched it once and that was it.

Quite tired of Netflix hyping this to death.

Better Call Saul. Giving it a go, bit of a slow burner but will give it a few more episodes as it seems to have potential.

Have you actually watched it? When you say you watched it once, do you mean you've seen one episode or you've watched the entire series once? I don't understand how anyone could call Breaking Bad boring. Fair enough, people may not like characters or may not like the story. I appreciate that obviously not everyone is going to like the show, but to call it boring...seriously?! Anyone who calls the show boring, in my opinion, doesn't have much of an attention span. What's even more puzzling is that despite claiming the show is boring, you've now gone onto watch Better Caul Saul...a spin off from the show you called "boring". A bit odd.

I was hooked from the get go. I've never understood why so many folks decided 1st episode was slow and gave up???? I'd seen the previews of it that FX ran as Dexter's season was ending (Breaking Bad first aired in Dexter's slot on SundaysI recall) and I'd assumed it'd take the whole season to get from normal Walt to Walt in his pants in the desert.... I was blown away by how much happened in a single episode and he was already breaking bad just 60 mins in.
I watched them all avidly and even caught season 2 as it aired on consecutive nights at midnight on 5USA... At that point it felt like being part of an exclusive club cos a lot of cool types would name drop the show and it was coined as "the best show you've never seen". It was a rare time for an old fart like me to feel part of the in crowd.

No. They are completely unbelievable and used only as foils to the main characters.
It was one of the reasons I could not connect with the show at all.
The female characters were completely ridiculous and unbelievable.

Personally I was not a huge fan of the show, I never warmed to the main characters especially Jesse. And I actually DID watch ALL the seasons as people said it got better. It did improve but I just did not like the characters especially Walt's son.

I have watched up until the junkies with the cash machine. I find it boring. I don't like any of the characters and find it very slow. Shame really as I want to like it.

See, this was pretty much what I was afraid of, shows with a heavy male cast tend to be dry as a ryvita and like you said, hard to connect with.

I might watch a couple of episodes and try and get a feel of it but there's no way I'm going to invest time getting suckered into the entire thing hoping it will improve.