There was a Ninja, some woman with green hair named Gertrude, probably my sister Vengeance, and Lord Skywalker. You know. The one that likes to snorkle.) colabed on a story! Making the Best of Bad, Immersion Breaking Story Telling Part 3! Preemptive Dealer’s choice Patreon reward for TheGreatEater! · 10:16pm May 23rd, 2018
I thought I was done talking about this series last post, but it turns out I’m not and getting a jump on one my Patreon rewards for next month… even though I still have a backlog… Reminder that there are just TONS of spoilers for Breaking Bad below, so if you don’t want those, probably best abandon post at the moment. Thanks again to the TheGreatEater for his support and thanks to MythrilMoth for reminding me I had more to say.
Speaking of which, if you haven’t already, you should read Moth’s counterargument to feelings on this divisive book issue from last post.
First and foremost, I did not write this blog post to specifically refute Moth’s post. The being said, his post did remind me of a few other things that irked me in regards to the series and also some things I liked. It’s now it’s clear we don’t see eye to eye on everything in the series including some things he mentioned in the post. Again though, I want to stress that this is not some sort of wordy, escalating breakdown of points he made.
I mean… I could have just replied like a semi-sane internet dweller if I wanted to continue the discussion in such a manner.
So, Moth pitched the idea that this book somewhat represents Walt’s regret over Gale, potentially also a link to Walt’s humanity, or even his soul if you will. I actually quite like this explanation and it’s in line with a lot of the symbolism that goes on in the background which the show actually excels at.
I do, however, stand by the idea that Hank should have caught onto Walt by another method. If Hank had eventually done his due diligence and stumbled upon the key threads leading to Walter himself, I think there'd be a stronger case for the idea that 'crime doesn't pay' was at least one of the ancillary messages of the series.
I absolutely support the notion, at least at that point in the series, that Walt still has aspects of his character that at least point to him being a decent human being at heart. At the very least he never stops caring for his family and that even seems to extend to people outside his immediate family. Basically, despite Walt’s faults we never see him turn into a complete nihilistic monster.
Making up for all the Rick and Morty references that weren’t in my last post!
What does bug me about this, especially in regards to the books as a linchpin that lead to Walt’s downfall is ALSO somewhat suggests the underlying moral of the story is "If you see the Buddha on your path, kill him... double for Jesus... just... kill and burn everything on your path. Also, your path isn't enlightenment, it's becoming an unstoppable drug kingpin."
To put my finger on the pulse of what really bugs me about the series is how much actual 'evil' Walter has committed. He's certainly done 'bad deeds’, but it's shown to be repairable for the most part. Sure, he's killed people, but one could make a compelling argument that all of them deserved it even if they didn't necessarily deserve Walter to be their executioner. Yes, he's condoned heinous acts, but after the fact that it was presented as him not having a ton of choice in the matter. And, it’s clear he didn't do everything for his family, but he was driven to do right by his kids up to the very end, at least and he was willing to give up for Hank's sake.
Something I meant to elaborate on in my initial post yesterday is the show simultaneously goes out of its way to put Walter in a box but make sure he's more 'human' then whoever the antagonists are. Gus mentions he has children, but we never see them. Walt has a bunch of people killed in prison, but we don't even know their names. Todd and crew are Todd and crew, and that's really all that needs to be said on the matter. There was time to show Lydia had a daughter, but Lydia is also just the worst (and ordered a bunch of hits).
Compare that all with Mike who we see with his granddaughter MANY times. I mean, is Mike's death at Walter's hand really anything of a turning point for Walt? Mike wasn't necessarily evil, but he certainly was a stone-cold killer. Wouldn’t it have gotten people to questions things more to show that Walt was killing a loving father when he exploded Gus? It’d certainly make for an interesting point to establish both Gus and Walt cared about their families.
And let’s not forgot that Walter is probably ruining lives with his drug, but we don’t see that. Okay, sure… Jane… but Jane’s drug of choice was heroine mixed with a little meth, and other than her most drug users we see are either Jesse and his band of lovable stoner scamps, murderous psychos like Tocu, or people so far gone independent of Walt and Jesse that they’re nicknamed ‘Spooge’ or they’re the type of woman who’d let a man nicknamed ‘Spooge’ stick his dick in her.
Clearly these two are just a few rehab sessions away from becoming model citizens.
Walter remains the hero of his story and from an outsider’s perspective, the show could’ve challenged that much more than it did. It feels sort of underhanded from a writing perspective. I mean, all we needed is a few things here and there: Gus with his children, show that these prisoners Walt end-of-Godfathered out of existence had families, maybe mentioned that meth use is on the rise and a casual reminder that maybe Walt’s ruining a few more lives outside the ones directly connected to him. Sure, these are all things we can figure out for ourselves if we take the time to think about it. However, without these in the show, it feels like the hope is the audience will continue to route for Walter while having to do relatively little soul-searching.
Again, I wanted to watch Walter slide further and further into those roles he saw himself in. He claimed he was in the “Empire” business, but what we get is him in the “Starting an Empire and then shrugging and deciding enough is enough” business. Walter claims he’s going to Hell, but he never truly loses sight of his goal, to provide for his family after he’s gone.
It’s clear that’s not his sole motivator, but the ending comes at a time where Walt’s ambition never threatens to supersede the love and care he claimed to have for his family. I mean, one can argue his pride did that in season one, but of course that’s part of Walter and he never is really given that moment where he struggles to decide if he’s reached the point that this really is now all about himself and not his family and really see what kind of man Walt is.
Basically, Walt never has his “I’m the bad guy” moment
As a weird counterpoint to my own argument above. The closest we get is two moments towards the end. One, where Walt kind of proves he’s not the bad guy when he decides Hank’s life is worth more than the years’ worth of work he’s put into making tons of money and the many, many deaths. Or another where Walt claims he did everything for himself to Skyler after we see him pull off a scheme to make sure his children are taken care of… and he kind of has a history of just making up bullshit to placate Skyler because having a conversation with her must be exhausting.
I’ll sum my thought sup thusly, I liked the series as a whole. There were parts I had problems with, and one part I CLEARLY will never get over, but the biggest problem of the series is it clearly had more story to tell and it didn’t get to all of it. We’re not the only ones cheated here. Hank got cheated of living up to his full detective potential. Walt got cheated of a moment where he really had to choose between being a man who really wants to provide for his family or maybe just really, really wants to reclaim what he thinks the world owes him. Skyler gets… Well… No one really cares. Marie gets to go fuck herself, because, seriously…. just what the fuck. Jesse… Okay, Jesse probably gets saved from even more insane bullshit, because who knows how much farther the creators would have dug that pit they had another season or two.
Think of all the additional torture porn you insane nutbars missed out on!
To borrow from the shows own vernacular, the ending left me with the feeling what I watched was only a half-measure, especially in regards to Walter's conscience.
For all its faults though, I still binged the whole thing on Netflix in relatively short order, and I’m still gleefully consuming the franchise. Compare with, say, the Walking Dead which I happily abandoned in season 2 and have no plans of returning to.
Aaaaand that’s it for Breaking Bad! Probably! Maybe. Thanks for those who embarked with me on this magical baby-blue adventure!
Something, something, Patreon rewards, something, something catch you in the comments
Plenty of valid points here, and the narrative is far from perfect--there's far too much reliance on contrivance, and it seems a bit far-fetched that Gus' goon managed to NOT notice the huge honking bomb on Tio's oxygen tank. Among other things people mysteriously failed to notice. Also, one thing was NEVER explained to my satisfaction, it was just left dangling, and I really hope BCS deals with it: That stuff the Salamancas knew about Gus and his true history in Colombia. Who IS Gus Fring? What WAS Gus Fring? BrBa never explained this. I hope BCS will.
But for me, I can forgive almost all of BrBa's narrative sins because I'm more appreciative of the character construction and the style. What drew me in wasn't the narrative, it was the presentation. The long scenes of just two or three guys talking. The subtle symbolism. The contrasting use of music. Remember the entire "Windy" scene? THAT is the kind of thing Vince Gilligan brings to the table--it's heavily inspired by Quentin Tarantino, but it has REFINED his style. Every shot tells a story. Every scene has layers of meaning. Even if it's just a couple of stoners watching a Roomba go by and giving each other confused, "Did that just happen?" looks.
BrBa's narrative isn't perfect, but it doesn't have to be, because the actors, director, and all the production staff made something visually, viscerally appealing. BrBa is an experience. One not for the faint of heart, granted. And there are so many things, as you say, that could have been done better, or more time used to expand on them.
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Well said.
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Grats Moth, he'd put down the pitchfork and his burnin' stick and 'ya got him to pick them up again.
You raise some good points here Justice, thank you for the read and insight. I gotta agree with Moth here though, Breaking Bad has some serious plot holes, sure, but the style, filmography and character development- or demolition, in some cases; is what makes the series for me. It's why I've been able to watch it multiple times. That said... I had to stop for a solid two days after the book thing too because it felt like lazy writing.