Breaking Bad - Villainy 101

So after the Month of Death (TM) that was June, I've been meaning to write a lot for this thing. I want to talk about all the episodes I ruthlessly skipped over for "Game of Thrones," along with a recap post that has book spoilers in it. I want to do a recommendation for the excellent psycho-thriller show "Luther" that has Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) playing a good cop and Jane Eyre (Ruth Wilson) playing a crazy killer. I want to write reviews of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I wanted to bitch about the Fourth of July Curse, the stress of trying to find a real job (or even a fake one), and do another Bar Quest post...

But after finishing up thirteen hours of insane, brilliant, brutal television, I've got to do something else.

I have to order anyone who isn't watching "Breaking Bad" to start. Now. You all have five days until the the fourth season begins. Just stay home sick from work and watch 13-odd hours of TV every day, and you'll be ready for the continuation of some of the best damn TV you're likely to come across.

No spoilers to be found, just lots and lots of squee. 


I acquired the first six episodes of "Breaking Bad" as the first season was airing. I had heard nothing but amazing things about it, wanted to see Bryan Cranston being a bad ass, and was in need of a good summer TV fix. But, after three episodes, I decided that the show really wasn't for me.

As most people know, the story's about Walter White (Cranston), a high school chemistry teacher who gets cancer and decides to start 'cooking' meth to provide for his family after his death. Understandable, since he has a very pregnant wife (Anna Gun), a son with cerebral palsy (RJ Mite), and absolutely no other options. Mad-cap adventures(/some fucked up shit) ensue, encouraged by Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), a former student/drug dealer/junkie who gets Walt into the business, an asshole DEA agent for a brother-in-law (Dean Norris), an obnoxious sister-in-law (Betsy Brandt), crazy drug dealers, and, of course, the fact that Walt has bitten off far more than he can chew out of devotion to the people he loves and pure desperation.

The premise was incredibly interesting, but something about the execution rubbed me the wrong way. The show was labeled as a black comedy, but every time something funny happened I was way too horrified to enjoy it properly. What's more, a lot of that first season ended up with Walt looking like a hapless fool. Yes, he was making strides to amend an impossible situation, and Bryan Cranston did a frankly spectacular job of depicting this, but I had read too much Earnest Hemingway to be all that interested in the 'reclaiming lost masculinity' narrative that seemed to dominate the show.

I liked Cranston, I theoretically liked the story being told, I loved the way the whole thing was shot (usually not something that I notice, but it's hard not to marvel at the beautiful landscapes (thanks, New Mexico!) and stylizing awesomeness these directors managed (colors of the clothes people wear alone - awesome)), but the show wasn't for me. Whenever a lot of buzz for the started for the program again (as it always did) I tried watching more of it, but I never got invested. I resigned myself to never loving it and being mocked forever.

I finished the first season around the time I arrived in New York, and I decided to hold off again. The show still wasn't my thing, even if the end had gotten exciting. Then I met a new friend in the city (with nearly identical taste in television, and therefore obviously an individual with excellent judgement) who couldn't stop talking about it. So I kept watching, stalled again. Finally, I suspect getting bored of my excuses, my friend said the thing that truly set "Breaking Bad" apart from other television was the consistent character development that it was able to pull off, and pull off believably.

Well, all right then. I love me some character development.

Half-way through the third season, and I'm liking this show. A lot. The second season ends with a shocker and I'm on the edge of my seat for the third. It's surprising. It's enthralling. It's holding my interest, breaking my heart, making me think, and still having me gasp over pretty cinematography things. I'm hooked. Watching it slowly, but totally hooked.

And then last week my cousin sends me an article promoting the show and pimping it for the fourth season. It was all very good (don't read it unless you've already seen the show though - major spoilers), but one of the first remarks made me all slack-jawed and feel like a moron.

“Television is historically good at keeping its characters in a self-imposed stasis so that shows can go on for years or even decades,” says Breaking Bad’s creator, Vince Gilligan. “When I realized this, the logical next step was to think, how can I do a show in which the fundamental drive is toward change?” So Gilligan designed Breaking Bad to transform its hero into a villain—or, as he put it in his early pitch meetings, “Mr. Chips into Scarface.” (Source)

Duh, dumbass self.

I finished the last six episodes in the past two days. It took me two years to finish the first six.

I had missed the entire point. Like reading the Harry Potter series and somehow overlooking the fact that there was magic in it. Or not figuring out that Harry ends up with Sally in When Harry Met Sally. Or not realizing that Ulysses takes place in Dublin. In all of my attempts to watch this show, I never once thought why it was being made. I didn't look up the writers (sacrilege in Myranda-world), didn't look at the big picture, and didn't get the end game.

Walter White, the helpless, pathetic, doomed man we're introduced to at the start of the show - the one whose narrative I found a little too predictable - is the bad guy.

And that's the entire point. How do you have a character go through that kind of transformation without it seeming forced, artificial, or just plain stupid? How do you go through the motions of making a character the audience used to root for into an unsympathetic, cruel, and even nasty person and have the viewers truly believe the transformation? Granted, Walt is never a traditional hero, even at the start of the show, but at least at the beginning he's got the anti-hero thing going for him and motivation that makes his actions understandable, if not entirely moral. 

Three seasons later, and that morality is all but gone. Best described as ambiguously grey at the start of the last season, he's since turned dark to the point where the audience (or at least I) can no longer excuse his actions. Especially since he's now taking everyone he cares about down with him.

And if that's not compelling TV, I don't know what is.

Vince Gilligan (the show runner) is brilliant (read an interview from the man - he knows his stuff), the actors are universally excellent*, so is the show, and my English degree is totally wasted on me. And on life. Because what the hell do you do with a BA in English if not analyze TV in a semi-correct manner? 

* There's really not a good space to insert this, so I'm just going to put this in italics and pretend that it fits with the rest of my recommendation. Cool? Cool. I started watching the show knowing that Bryan Cranston was brilliant. Aaron Paul is just as good. Jesse Pinkman goes through as much of a transformation as Walter White does as the show progresses. As Walt descends further into darkness, Jesse becomes the true heart of the program. A man literally saturated in corruption and decay who simultaneously conveys an odd sort of innocence that is totally unexpected, and therefore all the more impressive. Add to that the fact that Paul has to start just about every sentence with "Yo" and end it with "Bitch," and you've got some damn fine acting.** 

** Plus he can monologue like whoa. 

Watch it,  have patience, and know that "Breaking Bad" will be well worth the investment you put into it, and the days you miss from work in order to watch it. (Well. Maybe not monetarily or anything, but, you know. Spiritually. Which is more important, yes?)