History YMMV / BreakingBad

* CompleteMonster: Tuco and his cousins. Also, the unnamed dealers who [[spoiler: use an 11-year old as a dealer and hitman, before executing him in a playground]]
** Don't forget about Don Salamanca, their uncle, who [[spoiler: tried to drown his own nephew in a nearby cooler after his twin brother "wished he were dead".]]

** Kind of a subversion, really. His speech, in the episode right after he [[spoiler: [[MoralEventHorizon lets Jane die]]]], hits home how far his morals have decayed since he started cooking meth.

* BrokenBase: Over [[BottleEpisode Fly]]. Much of the fandom seems to think that it's either the best or the worst episode of the show. Its either a brilliant character study, or a pointless {{filler}} episode.

* BrokenBase: Over [[Bottle Episode Fly]]. Much of the fandom seems to think that it's either the best or the worst episode of the show. Its either a brilliant character study, or a pointless {{filler}} episode.

** Kind of a subversion, really. His speech, in the episode right after he [[spoiler: [[MoralEventHorizon]] lets Jane die]], hits home how far his morals have decayed since he started cooking meth.

** Skyler, good woman who's acting poorly due to her husband's action? Simple human frailty? Control freak who ran the family up until Walt's Break Bad and is now looking for any method to put him under her thumb in some form of twisted love? YMMV quite a bit.

* JerkassWoobie: Both Jesse and Walt qualify, though {{YMMV}}.

* TomHanksSyndrome: Before this, BryanCranston was best known as the dad from ''{{Malcolm in the Middle}}''.

*** Walt himself starts as this, then becomes progressively unsympathetic as the show goes on.

** Oh Jesse. If he and Walt haven't crossed it before, they sure have now.[[spoiler: Walt plans to kill Gale, but Jesse finishes the job. ]]

* TearJerker: During the I.F.T. episode, [[spoiler: Jesse repeatedly calls Jane's voice mail just so he could listen to her voice. The Tear Jerking moment happens when the voice mail is finally disconnected. The look on Jesse's face, knowing that he will never hear her voice again...]]* cries*

** The pace of the show markedly picks up from the beginning of season 2, with every episode feeling like an 'end of season cliffhanger'. While season 1 was great, season 2 onwards is addictive.

** Walt strangling Krazy Eight with a bike lock.

** [[spoiler:Gus himself in ''Box Cutter'', climaxing with him slitting Victor's throat with the titular instrument. '' "Get back to work." '']]

*** The little boy in "Peekaboo".

** Oh Jesse. If he and Walt haven't crossed it before, they sure have now.[[spoiler: Walt plans to kill Gale, but Jesse finishes the job. Or, it looks like he does.]]
**** [[spoiler: WordOfGod says Jesse really murdered Gale, despite odd dolly shot.]]
***** [[spoiler: Not true. In that interview Vince Gilligan said that he was ABLE to confirm what happened to Gale. He's able to, but he didn't. Read carefully.]]
****** [[spoiler: He said "I don't intend for there to be any ambiguity" but he is "reluctant to tell the audience afterward what to think or how to feel". In a later interview discussing Jesse and where he is with regards to the MEH, he states "If he [Jesse] had lost his soul utterly, he probably wouldn't have a problem that he shot Gale." Gale's dead.]]

* FridgeBrilliance: a detail that bothered me in the otherwise perfect second season finale is the strange overreaction Walt has to the cash register sound his son's computer is giving off. Upon later viewings I realized that it is not only a matter of his pride being hurt, but the fact that it is the exact same sound of Tuco's uncle ringing his bell.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The opening for "Negro y Azul" (a VillainSong for Walt/Heisenberg as his trade is booming, in the style of a mariachi music video). And there are few BLAMs in any medium better than this.

** Don't forget about Don Salamanca, their uncle, who [[spoiler: tried to drown his own nephew in a nearby cooler after his brother "wished he were dead".]]

* TomHanksSyndrome: While Bryan Cranston was not an exclusively comedic actor before the series, by far his most famous role was as the BumblingDad on ''MalcolmInTheMiddle''. To put it mildly, Walter will be quite a departure for his fans from that show.
** Given that Hal was a similarly put-upon mid-life-crisis type character, see it as [[HeyItsThatGuy Hey, That Guy]] TookALevelInBadass!
** Apparently Cranston had specifically taken the role [[PlayingAgainstType because it was so different]] from both [[MalcolmInTheMiddle Hal]] and every other bumbling dad role he'd been offered around the time. Read that how you will.

** Walt strangling the potential Killer with a Bike lock
** Tuco punching His henchman to death for talking out of turn
* MoralEventHorizon: Walt, Jesse, Saul, and Tuco on more than one occasion. Walt's worst act is what he didn't do.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[MalcolmInTheMiddle Hal]] and [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration Q]] discuss the discovery of ice on Mars.