The Genius of Breaking Bad

Wow, going out on a limb here. Saying “Breaking Bad” is a genius show is as risky as saying the sky is blue. I’ve already taken a position that leaves nothing controversial about it. Unless, we actually have to define what “genius” means.

BB works because of its characters. As Andy Greenwald said in his Grantland.com article, Breaking Bad is a chain reaction that makes it so interesting. These characters don’t have moments or reflection where they decide their fate. It’s been pre-determined by circumstance, a circumstance that drives all of its characters to their chaotic and destructive results. After watching “51” just now, I realize that I’m not watching a show about humans anymore, but about elements in a periodic table that are reacting to each other until there are no elements left to react with. It’s humanity in it’s completely basic outlook. We were created from atoms and molecules and we behave like them. We may seem more complex today but at the end of the day, for Vince Gilligan, humanity is not something that can decide its future but just be a result of a predetermined past.

Shows like that, where humanity is unable to decide its future and are the result of more powerful forces have been very successful. “The Wire” is considered the greatest TV show ever because it’s characters are not people of free will, but people who are the result of institutions. Institutions of the police force, government, the school system, the media, unions, the economy, etc. The a specific and vocal group of American viewers have been drawn like magnets to this type of world outlook with a cult like frenzy. We don’t decide our futures, more powerful forces do. And the shows that fit that world view are the ones that resonate the most with us. It’s an unnerving strain of thought that many people are following. Free will doesn’t exist. Powerful forces are controlling us, even simple people like Walter White who is just a mild mannered guy and is now a drug lord with an unholy ambition. Walter never had a choice about what he was to become. The viewers of BB feel there is something to that, because if not they would dismiss the show’s premises and it wouldn’t carry the same level of engagement that it does now.

The old adage has been, in movies people change but in TV they don’t. Walter White and his change will be the subject of scholarly debate for many years. Has he changed, or has his true nature always been there, just revealed by the circumstances. It’s a questions I don’t 100% know the answer to. But I deep down believe in change because my motion picture passion lives in the film realm. I have always loved the spectacle nature of film superficially and I have always enjoyed the transformations of the characters in film. It’s two completely different ideologies from an industry that sometimes doesn’t seem to have a diverse selections of ideologies to offer.

But if you put a gun to my head, I would pick a 3rd option. Walter White has changed…he’s Heisenberg now. Walter’s detachment from of whatever moral code he has stuck to has opened up the monster inside of himself. And this is why this show will remain a landmark show until the end of time. You can make an argument that people don’t “change” per say, they just choose a different version of themselves to show to the world. For Walter White, he has now chosen Heisenberg. And for everyone in his hemisphere, the chain reaction not stopping there. Has anyone changed by their won free will, or has the environment changed them? That is the questions we’ll all be asking ourselves when the credits roll to black on the last episode.

So while we have a little bit of this season and all of the 2nd half of the season next summer, what we do know is that some major changes are going to happen. What exactly, I don’t know. But what I do know is that the elements floating together cannot last together for long. Before we know it, Walt, Jesse, Mike, Skyler, Hank, and Marie are going to once and for us show us the destructive mix they are. And there will be nothing anyone can do to stop it.

Stephen