Hank Schrader

Hank Schrader is a DEA agent, loud and swaggering, the kind of guy who dominates a dinner table with cop stories and cigars. He's brother-in-law to mild-mannered Walt, whom he treats with genial condescension, and he genuinely loves the danger of his job — chasing meth cooks he thinks he's smarter than.

Dean Norris plays the bluster so well early on that you underestimate Hank right alongside everyone else, which is exactly the trick. The writing lets him be a blowhard and a real detective at once, and slowly reveals a stubborn, decent competence underneath the machismo that makes him far more dangerous — and more human — than he first appears.