15 shows that define prestige TV

9. Breaking Bad

When it rains prestige TV scripts, it pours. That was the case for AMC at least, as only a year after Mad Men premiered the network also dropped the seven-episode first season of Breaking Bad. Who knew the dad from Malcolm in the Middle playing a science-teacher-turned-meth-dealer was the recipe for one of the best shows of all time?

Seriously, Bryan Cranston’s performance as Walter White is right up there with Don Draper as one of the best of the prestige TV era. Walter may have veered into full villain territory based on his actions and bold “I am the one who knocks” proclamations, but his journey from mild-mannered husband and teacher to drug lord Heisenberg was engrossing from start to finish.

The show was basically a buddy drama, with the central relationship between Walter and his former-student-turned-meth-dealer Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) becoming the real heart of the show, far more than his interactions with his wife Skyler White (Anna Gunn). This was the rare prestige TV show unafraid to explore the intricacies of male friendships.

Vince Gilligan’s New Mexico was one heck of a setting for a meditation on the southwestern U.S. underworld. The desert is a setting not often used for prestige TV, and its desolation was used to great dramatic effect throughout Breaking Bad. It also didn’t hurt that the show produced Gus Fring, one of the best pure villains of the prestige TV era.

Mad Men versus Breaking Bad is a popular argument to have among those trying to calibrate the true AMC hierarchy of excellence. The jury’s still out on that one (Mad Men‘s better), but no one can disagree with the notion that AMC putting out those shows back to back is one of the greatest launches of a new prestige TV platform ever.