Why I like Breaking Bad

I caught the third episode of Breaking Bad late one night and thought the episode was simply fantastic. I mentioned this to a friend who happened to have the complete first season on DVD and thus was able to watch the entire season. I have now watched the first three seasons. But this is why I like it and feel that it is the best show since The West Wing, though that show lost its way in the final few seasons; let’s hope that is not the case here. Here are a few points that I really enjoy:
• It is entertaining. Many episodes are simply crazy; that is unpredictable and engaging. The “stakes” are often high and as Walter White slowly “Breaks Bad,” he finds himself in very dicey situations.
• It’s realistic. While this aspect relates to the first point, it can be considered on its own merits. The power of this and most shows rests on its realism—especially with the show’s subject—the meth drug world. Of course, having no knowledge of the “drug world” outside secondary sources, my understanding and appreciation for the realism should be channeled through that perspective. However, not having direct knowledge of a “scene” does not disqualify one from appreciating how it’s rendered and from my perspective, I find it realistic. Walter and to a lesser degree Jesse’s decent into the “bad” must be realistic, for if it wasn’t, the “stakes” would not be as substantial or impactful. Though often in the show they are what I would call very fortuitous situations. To the show’s credit though, these fortuitous situations are not forgotten. Walter sees them and offers his perspective on them, though as a scientist, he doesn’t understand them
• Each character, beside the son RJ, has issues, but his issue, as it were, is physical, so every character has some issue. The show does a nice job of outlining the characters and imbuing them with their own damaged proclivities. More on the characters, since it really is the characters that drive the success of the show, or at least my interest. We must identify with the characters or the show won’t work. If I don’t care what happens to a character, then there are no stakes and whatever happens doesn’t matter. Further we must like the characters, and I simply love several.
o Hank, Walter’s DEA brother in-law. He is the embodiment of masculine braggadocio, or at least his idea of what it means to be masculine. Despite the fact that he is a successful DEA agent, he is an

idiot—not in his work, just as a man. He reminds me of so many men who are constantly trying to act tough. He is racist and often ridiculous. Often I find myself laughing at him, not with him, and I am not sure if the writers intend for that response, but he is so over-the-top with his hyper masculinity that I simply can’t help it. Thought the show does not celebrate this, really. Hank deals with this own substantial problems and because he can’t communicate except in insults and rage, he can’t help himself. And when is physicality is taken from him, well, Hank can’t deal with it. A man must be physically able to take care of himself and when Hank can’t, his idea of what it means to be a man is altered. I am curious as to how he handles this in the following seasons.
o Skylar, Walter’s wife. The show really needs to do more with the women. This is one criticism of the show, but it seems as she “breaks bad,” we might get a little more development of her and perhaps her sister, Hank’s wife. But I like where she heading. I have high hopes for her character in the upcoming season.
o Saul Goodman, Walter’s sleazy lawyer.

Saul’s license plate reads LWYRUP. That says everything about the character, and he is simply fantastic in the show. Funny, smart, untoward, inappropriate, lewd. He really became one of my favorite characters, as every time his is in a scene, just about, he is really funny. He is the ambulance chaser lawyer that advertises via obnoxious and garish commercials. He is great.
o Jesse Pinkman, Walt’s partner-in crime. I am not as high, pun intended, on Jesse’s character, but the interesting character point about Jesse, the meth user and criminal, is that he represents the moral compass of the show. Despite the fact that he is a really stupid and an incompetent drug dealer, and the only character involved in drugs and the drug world as the show begins, aside from Hank that is, he often reminds us and others about what the morally right thing to do is. Of course, Jesse is not quite articulate enough to put it that way, but his strong sense of morality is what makes for an unbelievable season three finale. That season finale can be best summarized this way: “Holy fucking shit. I don’t believe it.” Another aspect I like about Jesse is his vulnerability. He is a deeply flawed person, as his relationship with his parents’ shows. I find that portrayal often heartbreaking, at least initially. I wonder how difficult it must be for parents to deal with drug addled children. The show, I think, does not present the parents as one-note evil, rigid people. They are tormented by what Jesse does, but after all the years and years of problems, they have concluded that they can’t help and must divorce themselves from him.

We are offered a counter point of view to this in Jesse’s girlfriend’s father, who tells Walter that “you never give up on family.” Jesse’s parents do and are punished for it. So Jesse is a deeply flawed person who simply wants to be loved and accepted, much like most of us really.
o Mike, Gus’s enforcer. I like Mike. He is the strong man who takes care of Gus’ “problems.” We learn a bit of his background which explains his current line of work. He is direct and phlegmatic when discussing and resolving “issues.” Though unlike other stereotypical enforcers, Mike has a heart. This juxtaposition is set-up when we see him interacting with his daughter. He is at once kind, sweet and attentive and in the next scene cruel, violent and deadly. Pigeon-holing him simply won’t work. He too has some moral fiber, though it is very thin.
o Gus, Walt’s nemesis. The thing about that I like is that he is smart, calculating and exact. He seems more like a professor than a drug lord. Seldom are characters written as really, really smart. He has a plan and when his plan encounters “problems” he thinks quickly but with steely control. That is quite unnerving because we don’t really know what he thinks. We can’t read him because he is calm and clear. That often is very scary. Unfortunately or fortunately Walt is his intellectual equal.
o Walter White, the brilliant chemist cum high teacher cum meth producer. Walt makes the show, really. We must be able to believe him as the unappreciated high school teacher who slowly “breaks bad.” This evolution or devolution must be rendered appropriately. His character is tragic in the literary sense of the word. He understand and recognizes his foibles and realizes that he made his choice and must stick with it. Understandably he fights it and tries to rejects it, but ultimately can’t. One of my favorite episodes in season three is “The Fly.” Essentially, there is no “action” and it focuses exclusively on Jess and Walt in the super lab. I find this episode critical in understanding and appreciating Walter. He fully understands that he had his chance to “get out” but not now.

This recognition potentially makes him a tragic figure; I say potentially because tragic figures die—they understand that it is their ambition and the realization of that ambition—in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, for example, becoming the king—that leads to their tragic end. If Walter eventually dies—he has cancer, too—as a result of his drug involvement, he will be a tragic figure.