Breaking Bad Storytelling Secrets: 3 Techniques To Keep An Audience Hooked From Beginning To End (5 Seasons, 100+ Hours!)

From one of the most binge-worthy shows in TV history.

Dear Writer,

I recently re-watched all 5 seasons of Breaking Bad—one of the first shows on Netflix that caused people to clear their calendars and watch hours and hours of TV in a row (myself included).

I had already seen the show a decade ago. So watching it again (while on the couch recovering from COVID) allowed me to pay closer attention to the WAY the story was being told—opposed to paying attention to what was happening in the story itself.

And wow, did I walk away with a lot of takeaways & crystallized storytelling techniques.

Originally, I was just going to write up my lessons learned for myself. But then I figured, why not open source the ideas? Why not pass them along to you, so that you can “skip to the end” without having to rewatch what came out to be approximately ~100+ hours of television.

(See? This is how I rationalize something unproductive… by making it “productive!”)

Full disclosure: There will probably be some spoilers in here, so if you haven’t seen the show and plan on it (although it’s been out for 10 years so…), stop reading here.

Otherwise, let’s dive in.