A must-watch for any Breaking Bad Fan

A world embroiled in the damning effects of methamphetamine, an unlikely working relationship between a chemistry teacher diagnosed with cancer and a troubled former student, and drugs disguised as ingredients for Los Pollos Hermanos fried chicken can only be found in the award-winning Breaking Bad (2008).

We all relished in the turbulent narrative of Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) life and his often hostile relationships, with some added humour thrown in by Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Packed to the brim with nail-biting scenes, questionable morals and enough violence to make you wonder how any of the characters survive until the final take – it’s hard to find a show quite like it. I’ve racked my brains and luckily enough come up trumps for all you die-hard Breaking Bad fans.

So now we turn to Your Honor (2020) – what can only be described as another unmissable Bryan Cranston edge-of-your-seat crime drama series.

Your Honor

If you’re a fan of the stellar acting by Bryan Cranston (because well, who isn’t) then Your Honor should be next on your binge-watching list. Cranston takes on the prominent role of Judge Michael Desiato, alongside Hunter Doohan as his son Adam. It wastes no time drawing us into the drama that will inevitably unfold throughout the series.

Grieving for his mother, Adam sets out to visit the site where she was murdered just one year before. Spooked by residents, he soon finds himself driving erratically whilst suffering from an asthma attack. His attempt to save his own life, costs 17-year-old Rocco Baxter his – who dies from their collision.

This unravels into a series of wrongful convictions, inexcusable actions of revenge and difficult decisions – all delving into the ultimate question: to what lengths will a father go to protect his son?

Much like Breaking Bad, it’s a real butt-clencher. It takes a deep dive into a dark, crime-riddled world entwined with lies, drugs and gangs – illustrated by the many scenes toned with dark blues, greens and browns in an affluent area of New Orleans. This mundane look of the series helps us to draw back from what we are looking at and focuses in on the more troubling matters the characters are going through.

It’s beautifully created, which we all loved so much about Breaking Bad – the similar colour palette to connote an almost rather drab world until it is turned upside down, and the array of dynamic characters all with their own story to tell. And we only touch the surface in this new drama.

Your Honor is deceptively slow-placed – with long takes and intensely long scenes. But don't let that fool you, this show can't get enough of extreme lengths of violence, turbulent young love, and a dog always seeming to get into trouble. And not forgetting the Addam's Family look-a-likes, the Baxter's, who are the whirlwind of anxiety for Judge Desiato. Introducing a crime family into the show is one of its many interesting elements that blurs the lines between family dynamics, the law and justice.

And if, like me, you felt that siding-with-the-antagonist-guilt in the final episodes of Breaking Bad, then apologies, but you might just end up doing the same here. Rocky relationships between legal professionals, crime families and a battle between right and wrong – Your Honor disrupts the status quo on a plethora of societal norms and thrusts you into desperate confusion.

It makes us question what we would do in the same situation, would we tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Or, would we go to any and all lengths to protect the ones we love – even at the sacrifice of innocent people?