Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Listen, I understand that Walter White’s demons were all pretty much metaphorical, but if you imagine them as LITERAL demons, and imagine him as a nubile young woman who has to LITERALLY fight those demons and kill them to move on with his life, then this is the PERFECT follow-up to Breaking Bad. A sort of ancestor that doesn’t admit it “drunk -screwed” its way into the bloodline one night.
It may not be as cerebral as Breaking Bad, but in the same breath, all the other shows I mentioned are heavy, with seriously dark themes throughout. Buffy the Vampire Slayer at least throws in some pop culture nods and some humor around all that heaviness, just to make the impact less, well, depressing. Think about the episode where Buffy loses her Mom. That is powerful, nihilistic stuff, which is to say, pretty much what every episode of Breaking Bad was like.
But Buffy, for the most part, is incredibly fun, stylish, and knows how to poke fun at itself, which is just the kind of show you need to watch after you are forced to fall in love with Walter White and then inevitably watch him die.
Yup, I said it. Now if you’ll excuse me, after all this heavy talk, I want to go watch the musical episode of Buffy. That always puts me in a good mood.