Broken Down Hard

Broken Down Hard is an American crime drama streaming television series created and produced by Cooper Brandis. The series is broadcast around the world on the streaming service HOOT. The show premiered on May 10, 2015, airing five seasons to date. A sixth and final season, consisting of 13 episodes, is scheduled to air in 2022.

Set in Los Angeles/ Riverside, California,  Broken Down Hard  revolves around Jordan McKimmel (Cooper Brandis), a former Marine and a struggling accountant with a pregnant wife, Holly (Alison Brie). When the already tense McKimmel is becoming closer to the verge of bankruptcy, he breaks down and turns to a life of crime, selling cocaine with his former colleague, Dave (Oscar Isaac), in a desire to secure his family's financial future while avoiding detection from Los Angeles County Sheriff, Lucas Townsend (Antony Starr).

Broken Down Hard has received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for its writing and Brandis's performance on the show, and it has garnered many nominations, including a Peabody Award, 23 Primetime Emmy Awards, eleven Writers Guild of America Awards, five Critics' Choice Television Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.

Conception
Cooper Brandis, who had spent years writing comics for Titan Entertainment, expressed interest in creating a series in which the protagonist of the story was a good person in a life of crime and the antagonist would be a cruel person in a life in the law. Brandis has stated numerous times that another goal of his was to turn the protagonist from good to evil, and the antagonist from evil to good. The concept of Garcia-Lopez emerged as Brandis talked with fellow Titan Entertainment writer William Fischer regarding their unemployment.

Brandis has stated that it was difficult to develop a story for Jordan McKimmel because the character was very dark. Brandis later said that the idea of Jordan's character intrigued him so much that he "didn't really give much thought on how well it would sell", stating that the premise made him want to give up because it was "such an odd, dark story" that could have difficulties being pitched to studios. During the course of the series, as time progressed, Brandis and the writing staff made McKimmel increasingly unsympathetic.

The series is set and filmed in and around Riverside, California and Los Angeles, California. This, along with stunts, locations and of course, actors, reportedly $3 million per episode. This meant that Broken Down Hard cost approximately $195 million to produce across 6 seasons.

In July 2020, Brandis indicated that he intended the series to finish with the six season. Negotiations began regarding the final season, and a shortened sixth season to cut costs was considered, but the idea was declined. The final season was ordered on April 14, 2020, and the series was renewed for a final 13 episodes.

Casting
"You're going to see that underlying humanity, even when he's making the most devious, terrible decisions, and you need someone who has that humanity – deep down, bedrock humanity."

- Cooper Brandis, about his performance Brandis casted himself for the role of Jordan McKimmel because he was expressing interest in eventually becoming an actor, and thought this would be a good start. HOOT executives were originally hesitant about the casting choice, knowing Brandis only from his comedy shows, comedic sketches, and his humor-centric personality, but were soon convinced after Brandis's first screen test.

Brandis originally intended for Oscar Isaac's character, Dave Sanchez, to be killed off by the end of the first season of the series. The concept was that after Sanchez had been killed off, that this would be a plot device to plague the main protagonist with guilt. However, by the second episode of the first season, Brandis was so impressed with Oscar's performance that he recognized it would be a "colossal mistake" to kill off the character.

Scientific Accuracy
Scripts and dialogue regarding the scientific subjects of the series were provided by the professor of organic chemistry at the University of Oklahoma, Donna Nelson. Nelson also illustrated the chemical structures and wrote chemical equations which were used as props. According to Brandis, Nelson approached the production crew and stated her interest in the show, offering her assistance regarding the subject of chemistry. She also offered assistance on electrical engineering, and physics. Brandis accepted the offer to maintain the scientific accuracy on the scripts. Before a script was published, Brandis would allow Nelson to proofread it and check it for any scientific errors or add descriptions and dialogues to it. The production crew also had assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration based out of Los Angeles.

Reception
Broken Down Hard has received critical acclaim in addition to numerous awards and nominations, including seven Emmy Awards. Cooper Brandis has won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series four times. Oscar Isaac has won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2019 and 2020, and Alison Brie has won for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 2019 and 2020. Cooper Brandis and the rest of the producing staff finally nabbed the prestigious Outstanding Drama Series award in 2019 for the fourth season, and later in 2020 for the fifth season.

Viewers
The first season averaged 6.79 million viewers in the first year of release, and currently has an average of 50.2 million viewers. As of January 2020, the pilot remains the highest viewed episode of the series with a current approximation of 72.4 million viewers. Within a year of its release, the second season had an averaged viewership of 10.58 million viewers. As of January 2020, the second season premiere has been watched by 54.7 million viewers, and has a season average of 49.1 million viewers.

The third season premiere was the highest viewed episode in the series' history at that time (excluding the pilot); having been watched by 15.01 million viewers, and now currently has 51.9 million viewers. The rest of the third season episodes currently average between 42.7 and 48.3 million viewers. The fourth season premiere received 27.2 million viewers within the first year of release, and currently has 64.5 million views.

The fifth season premiere received 40.39 million viewers, with the series having a large increase in viewership over the Season 4-Season 5 hiatus. 45.9 million people have viewed in for "Townsend vs McKimmel". The third-to-final episode "Hangman," also referred to by Cooper Brandis as "the best episode we ever will have" has been watched by 56.4 million viewers. The next episode "Down the Wrong Path" has continued the trend and has been watched by 46.58 million viewers. The season five finale "Something Hopeful" was watched by 50.3 million viewers when it began airing on April 19, 2020.

Seasons

 * See the list of all episodes from all seasons.


 * Season 1 (2015)
 * Season 2 (2016)
 * Season 3 (2017)
 * Season 4 (2018)
 * Season 5 (2020)
 * Season 6 (2021)