There are not many TV shows that are so well-crafted that fans become a perennial tribe years after it goes off air. Our take on one such immortal show, Breaking Bad
It has been more than 10 years since the first episode of Breaking Bad aired on TV. It had a great run between 2008 and 2013 and along the way it picked up multiple awards and a place in the Guinness World Records for being the highest-rated TV series after getting more than 99 per cent viewership in 2013. Cut to 2018 and the show still has the potential to transform any viewer into a fan online.
The American crime drama television series was created and produced by Vince Gilligan. The series was about a middle-aged chemistry teacher, diagnosed with cancer, who becomes a drug dealer and wants to leave a fortune behind for his family. With Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) knowledge of chemistry and Jesse Pinkman’s (Aaron Paul) street smart skills, the two start a small drug business.
Walter believed till the end that he was helping his family but his good intentions made no difference when he spent his borrowed time on earth risking his life by working around criminals.
The series gets its name from a southern American colloquialism, which means taking a wrong turn off the straight and narrow life. And if you have already watched the series you know how the teacher’s life took a turn so big that he became a drug dealer. If not, you’ve been missing on some great action.
I don’t think it was difficult to market a character as complex as Walter White since he had layers of darkness and moral degeneration and shades of goodness as well. Writing the character on the other hand must have been a long and arduous process.
Soon after Walter found out about his ailment, he started experimenting with drug combos and realised that he could live a dual life, of a teacher and a drug dealer. He kept the morally reprehensive part of himself hidden even from his family. The show created some iconic characters apart from Cranston and Paul. Walter’s wife Skyler and brother in-law Hank played very important roles in his life as a mirror for his actions. But, despite dire consequences to his personal relationships Walter had stepped in too deep in to the murky world of drugs.
His relationships with Hank and Marie (Hank’s wife) were tumultuous to say the least. Hank always thought of Walter as a wimp but he was totally off-base. Hank’s relationship with Walter became that of between a cat and mouse towards the end. We learnt that Hank was a Drug Enforcement Agent (DEA) who finally caught on to his brother-in-law’s criminal activities. He was Walter’s reckoning but there too he failed. When you boil it down and compare him to all the other characters, Hank was the only good person.
This action-packed series was possible only because of Vince Gilligan, who crafted every single character in the dark and complex series. Despite being a show about a drug dealer, the dialogues are considered motivational and inspirational even today. It has loyal fans who would watch re-runs online.