‘Breaking Bad’ Inspires Everyone From Crack Dealers To Filmmakers

Breaking Bad was a watershed in television history.

As an international sensation, Breaking Bad has been lauded with the greatest superlatives available, with many critics simply calling it the best television show of all time. The Writers Guild of America ranked Breaking Bad among the best written shows ever. Heck, Breaking Bad even entered the Guinness Book of World Records 2014 edition as the “highest-rated TV series” with a world wide critical score of 99 out of 100.

From the cultural force of nature that is Breaking Bad, many are drawing inspiration. Breaking Bad fans were inspired to attack LOST writer Damon Lindelof after the Breaking Bad finale. Their rationale was that Breaking Bad succeeded with its swan song where LOST mostly just made people angry. Lindelof must not have found it too heart-breaking, as he retweeted many of the barbs himself. But some of it got pretty bad.

As Breaking Bad was centered around the drug trade, focusing on crystal meth, it should be of no surprise (although it still is kind of a bit weird) that the show has inspired drug dealers. Wilmington, N.C.’s WECT reports that repeat offender Gregglin White was trying to get a leg up on the competition by marketing his blue-colored crack cocaine as “blue,” a reference to the infamous blue meth on Breaking Bad, which was regarded as the purest form ever, the masterpiece of meth amphetamines. White apparently didn’t call Saul and plead guilty to felony sale of cocaine, receiving a sentence of no less than 58 months in prison, according to Star News Online.

On the less-seedy side of inspiration, Francis Lawrence, director of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, admits he too was inspired by Breaking Bad in the making of his latest film.

“I like a cliffhanger,” Lawrence told Huffington Post. “I was saying, what’s really interesting is I became really obsessed with Breaking Bad while we were making this and binge-watched the entire series up until these last eight episodes while we were making Catching Fire. And the more I watched those episodes, I just became sort of convinced that you can do that kind of stuff with movies, too.”

Although the show is no more, Breaking Bad fans look forward to the spin-off series, with fan fave Robert Odenkirk reprising his role as legal eagle Saul Goodman in Better Call Saul.