More Breaking Bad Love

Breaking Bad Commentary

After watching Episodes 4-6 of Season 1 of Breaking Bad I continue to be blown away by the level of quality of the show.

The Lead is Not A Simple Hero

To me the most interesting part of it is the continuing dimensions Vince Gilligan and Co. are able to find of Walt White (Bryan Cranston), the desperate chemistry teacher.

The setup of the story basically has him cooking meth so his family can be supported when he dies of cancer, but the show repeatedly undercuts the heroic quality this implicitly has.

Walt’s brother-in-law Hank tells him if anything happens he will take care of his family. Now, Walt probably doesn’t like Hank, an arrogant guy who makes frequent inappropriate jokes, but Hank is serious when he makes the promise.

Walt refuses to accept that. He also refuses to accept the offer of a job AND payment for his cancer treatment from old “friend” Elliot, whom it’s implied basically stole some sort of formula or invention credit from him (and possibly got the Nobel prize for it).

So this character is so proud that he won’t take help from family or an old “friend”, but not too proud to cook crystal meth. I think if anything the series continues to imply Walt enjoys cooking meth, that it is the only time he seems to really feel alive.

At home Walt is often withdrawn, for example Marie and Skyler discuss what treatments Walt should get in front of him basically like he’s not in the room, which Walt doesn’t object to at the time.

But when he’s interacting in this meth world Walt really becomes like a different person. In episode 6, head shaved after suffering some hair loss from chemo, Walt marches into the lair of gangster Tuco and uses a chemical weapon (good fundamental writing, Walt is using his unique skills to solve a problem) to intimidate him. He demands payment for his stolen product and Jesse’s injuries (Tuco stole his product from Walt’s cooking partner and badly beat him) and Walt has his demands met, and seems to earn some grudging respect from Tuco.

Getting back in his car outside Walt celebrates with an explosion of energy and vitality we don’t often see in his home life.

Writing Themselves Out of a Corner

The series also has a habit of writing itself out of a corner well, like the above scene with Tuco where Walt seemed doomed, as well as a half dozen or so other times so far (and I’m only 6 episodes in!).

Playing Your Expectations Against You

Another big plus about Breaking Bad is it often takes what you expect and surprises. When Walt complains everyone got Eliot a big gift at his party and his will be lame by comparison, you expect exactly that to happen when Eliot starts opening gifts.

Instead Walt’s gift of a specific type of noodles not readily available anymore that he and Eliot survived on in college is seen by Eliot as extremely sentimental and he loves it.

Character Depth

In Episode 4 Jesse, Walt’s yo-yo-yo street hood partner, goes home. This was an excellent choice by the writers and really expanded Jesse’s character.

You got to see how this guy was an addict, whose kind parents had grown cynical towards him over time.

He has a younger brother, Jake, who has clearly outshined him, even at a youthful age. But the younger brother insists Jesse is all their Mom and Dad talk about. 

The cleaning lady finds a joint in the house, and the parents blame Jesse. He denies it’s his. As the viewer, we don’t believe him.

But when he leaves it’s revealed the joint belonged to Jake, and Jesse was just not snitching on him.

This is an example of playing your expectations against you and ALSO by doing so the writers gave Jesse’s character more depth, he really hadn’t done anything wrong, and his brother’s character got more depth, he wasn’t just some straight-arrow Mathlete.

Dark Humor

The show also occasionally shows some dark humor, which is pretty unusual for this type of drama. For example in Episode 6 there’s a montage of Jesse selling meth set to very upbeat music, complete with images of the addicts frightening expressions. The juxtaposition is pretty funny.

In Case It’s Not Clear Already

This show is absolutely fantastic. Watch it!