Breaking Bad Commentary
At the risk of flooding my site with Breaking Bad content, I want to comment on the first episode of the second season.
Writers are sometimes told to make the story the worst day of their character’s life. We are told to raise the stakes, up the conflict, etc.
But a lot of times, that doesn’t happen. It’s very easy to settle, as a writer, when the stakes are raised to a sufficiently high level.
I think a great example to look at of a story not settling is with the show Breaking Bad.
End of Season 1
At the end of the first season chemistry teacher turned meth dealer Walt and partner Jesse witnessed gangster Tuco brutally beating up one of his henchman for no reason.
This act raised the stakes, and heightened the conflict for Walt, who has repeatedly made clear his distaste for violence. It made Walt realize this is not a game and people will get hurt (though arguably that same message was sent when Tuco beat up Jesse earlier in the season) and honestly, that seemed like enough, to me. Walt is a pretty self-deluded character, and it seems to take this level of intensity for him to realize how bad what he is doing is (it’s not exactly like cooking meth is a victimless crime to begin with, but I digress).
I went into the second season expecting Walt and Jesse’s encounters with Tuco to gradually become more and more intense, while the continuing stress of living a double life ate away at Walt.
I honestly think most writers would have gone that way.
Season 2, Episode 1
But Vince Gilligan and Co. of Breaking Bad upped the ante far more than I expected.
The finale of season 1 left it perhaps ambiguous, but at least allowed the possibility that Tuco’s beating of his henchman had not resulted in the henchman’s death.
But in the first episode of season 2 the same scene continues, and the henchman dies…right in front of Walt and Jesse.
Now that they are witnesses to Tuco murdering someone, the ante is raised both externally (Tuco may come kill them) and internally (Walt and Jesse have witnessed a murder, and not only failed to prevent it, but are afraid to call the police).
At this point Gilligan and Co. could go several directions. I think an interesting plotline would be Walt going to his DEA brother-in-law or just the cops in general, but obviously that would get pretty complicated.
So what Breaking Bad does is have Walt and Jesse start sweating it out. They discover they are being followed.
The stakes are raised AGAIN when Walt discovers someone watching his house. The core decency of Walt is in his care for his family, so this really strikes home internally (no pun intended).
And What Happens At The end Of The Episode?
Jesse pulls up outside of Walt’s house. Walt is surprised, since he already told Jesse to get out of town, lest he be killed by Tuco.
And out of the backseat of Jesse’s car appears…Tuco.
He makes Walt get in and they drive off as the episode ends.
That’s not just damn fine television, but a really great example of effective raising of the stakes.
A Sidenote on Tuco
I have had mixed feelings about Tuco as a character. To some extent he seems like just a typical gangster (a really salient example is his dialogue about his henchman calling him “stupid” — very reminiscent of Goodfellas), but the performance of Raymond Cruz (and possibly the writers had this in the script) seems to make the character unique.
When Tuco gets excited he has this intense delivery, reminiscent of a football fan celebrating a touchdown, that’s both frightening and oddly comic at the same time. It’s actually a nice microcosm for Breaking Bad in general.
But it’s that touch that makes Tuco both interesting and fun to watch. When he beats up his henchman and looks up, yelling at Walt and Jesse to look at his bloody fist like he just scored a touchdown in the Superbowl, that moment stuck in my head for a long time.
Here’s hoping Raymond Cruz starts getting some bigger roles, because he is knocking this one out of the park.
-Dan Benamor