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# A Visual Look at Breaking Bad IMDB Ratings
- URL: https://www.philsimon.com/a-visual-look-at-breaking-bad-imdb-ratings/
- Published: 2019-08-12T12:17:36.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-26T22:42:20.000Z
- Description: How each episode of my favorite show stacks up.
- Author: Phil Simon
- Tags: Dataviz, Breaking Bad, Code, Tableau

Dashboards really pop when you add an element of interactivity. They allow an obsessed fan to answer questions such as:

- Do *Breaking Bad* fans believe that the show improved over time?
- What was the highest- and lowest-rated show per season?
- Which season sported the highest and lowest rating?

I was curious about the answers to these questions so I created the following interactive dashboard using [IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/?ref=philsimon.com) data from my favorite show.

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/8f/b5/8fb5e321-49a6-4cf5-8a28-c6f6d5417e54/content/images/2025/05/brba-1.jpg)](https://public.tableau.com/views/BreakingBadIMDBRatings/DB-selectclick?:language=en-US&:sid=&:redirect=auth&:display%5Fcount=n&:origin=viz%5Fshare%5Flink&ref=philsimon.com)

See the interactive dataviz [here](https://public.tableau.com/views/BreakingBadIMDBRatings/DB-selectclick?:language=en-US&:sid=&:redirect=auth&:display%5Fcount=n&:origin=viz%5Fshare%5Flink&ref=philsimon.com).

As you can see, at least according to the fans, the show improved over time. When present in this way, it doesn't take long to identify the lowest-rated episode. Season 3's [*Fly*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly%5F%28Breaking%5FBad%29?ref=philsimon.com) certainly polarizes audiences. I can understand why some folks don't like it but I found it gripping.

Which was the highest-rated season? Reference lines easily answer that question. They are hands down one of my favorite features in Tableau. They easily allow users to compare individual values against a set measure. I can see why so many sites such as [538](https://fivethirtyeight.com/?ref=philsimon.com) add them to their data visualizations.