Given the enormity of “Breaking Bad” and its impact, legacy, and cultural presence, watching it is as much an exercise in participation as an experience in storytelling. As incredible as the series is in itself, sharing it with the world makes it even better. And the Gilliverse franchise became keenly aware of that as it went along, reacting and responding to the world’s own response to “Breaking Bad,” playing with audience expectations, dosing fanservice and in-jokes (this is, after all, an often deeply funny franchise), and offering subtle, retrospective commentary on itself. In light of all that, the best way for a first-timer to experience the franchise is in the order that the entire world did.
A release-order viewing of “Breaking Bad” would start, of course, with “Breaking Bad” itself, which ran for five seasons, one of them split into two halves, between 2008 and 2013. Follow up “Breaking Bad” with the first four seasons of “Better Call Saul,” a prequel series following the backstory of recurring “Breaking Bad” character Saul Goodman a.k.a. Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk); “Better Call Saul” began in 2015, and Season 4 concluded in October 2018. Before continuing “Better Call Saul,” go ahead and watch the Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul)-focused sequel film “El Camino,” released in 2019, just prior to Season 5 of “Better Call Saul.” Then, finish off the cycle with the last two seasons of the spin-off show — likely, per Vince Gilligan, to be the franchise’s endpoint.
