Breaking Bad (2008) Review

On January 20, 2008, Breaking Bad hit the airwaves on AMC's cable station. Vince Gilligan, writer and creator, channels his imagination by creating characters who are in constant opposition with moral conflict and ambiguity. An RV, high school Chemistry teacher, and a drug addict equals a critically acclaimed television series that is mesmerizing, intriguing, and absolutely in genius to the critics eye.

Walter White finds himself in a pickle when he is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Earning $43,000 annually as a Chemistry teacher while supporting a 16 year old son in addition to his pregnant wife and having a mortgage payment is reason enough for an incredulous panic attack. However, the difference between Walter White and anyone else in this situation is Walter's questionable moral obligation and his outlandish ego which so happens to be the size of Texas. 

Gilligan invests his audience in a high-powered, smart, witty series filled with action, and intensity combined with adrenaline pumping scenarios that keep viewers on their toes waiting to see what comes next. In the beginning of the series, the audience invests its time in the protagonist, Walter White, and by the end of the series, the audience is stunned by the antagonist's (Walter White) cold-hearted tendencies to bring in as much money as he can until his cancer supposedly claims his life.

The in genius in Breaking Bad doesn't lie in the efforts of a science enthusiast gone Chemistry teacher, or Chemistry teacher gone criminal. It lies in the complexity of the character of Walter White/ Heisenberg. As a critic, I am first invested in Walter White, the Chemistry teacher whom is responsible for a special needs son, a wife whom is pregnant, and the dreaded mortgage payment. This scenario is relatable to the average American dealing with this type of curve ball. Like the stock market, my investment shifts. I am no longer invested in the Chemistry teacher that I once was, but I now take stock in this crystal meth manufacturer whose ignorance squashes his ego and in turn creates an opposition of evil; hence, Walter White once being the protagonist whom is now the antagonist. 

Didn't we learn how dark and dismal the drug world is with Jenji Kohan's Weeds? The audience learns how to become a Queen pin of marijuana by escaping several criminal consequences by bribing, begging, and sleeping with men whom are more interested in the marijuana than they are with an attractive woman. Heisenberg, the King pin, in Breaking Bad, is incredibly book smart, but when it comes to street smarts, Nancy Botwin has a leg up. And, well, the DEA agent takes the cake in Breaking Bad as the brother-in-law as opposed to the naive husband in Weeds. 

I have yet to find an answer as to why the drug world is a topic of interest to so many. A man who faces inoperable cancer has steel brass balls and has everything to lose, somehow finds the adrenaline rush in making cash illegally intoxicating. Exactly how many people must suffer in order for Walter White to become King of the streets with the potency so strong it kills?