SENA KAYASÜ (ARCH/IV)
sena.kayasu@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
Despite my love of the song of the same name by the Dutch band Within Temptation, the title refers to the cult television show “Breaking Bad.” Since I dedicate a lot of time to television and cinema in this column, I realized that I had to write about the “Breaking Bad” phenomenon after I saw a man on the subway with the show’s logo tattooed on his arm. A tattoo. On his arm. He didn’t have any other ones, either.
For you, dear reader, I sat and watched the entire series: five seasons of a financially troubled, family-oriented high school chemistry teacher in New Mexico, USA. If you are planning to do the same, be aware that it requires commitment. A friend warned me that the plot was densely woven, and I really had to concentrate to catch everything and appreciate the elements of the show that have built its massive—and very dedicated—following.
The idea for this show came from the desire to create a series in which the protagonist becomes the antagonist. We watch a perfectly ordinary—even banal—man use his skills as a chemist to produce and sell methamphetamines, known as “crystal meth” or just “crystal” on the street. The show embraces change. The character is meant to change at an incredible level, and this constantly affects everyone around him. His business gets bigger and bigger, just as more and more people find out about what he is up to. Along the way, we start asking ourselves if we want our protagonist/antagonist to succeed at all.
This is quite the opposite of what most shows concentrate on nowadays. Once the producers of a series find a line—or niche—that gives their show a stable rating, they try to keep everything constant. Even “Supernatural,” where every season, they introduce a new catastrophe just when you think it can’t get any worse (Lucifer possesses our protagonist—the gates of hell open—angels are evacuated from heaven—civil war in heaven—the universe is about to collapse…), the characters are pretty much predictable, acting on conventional principles.
Not Walter White, our protagonist in “Breaking Bad.” He crosses boundaries set by society, and by himself. It is very hard to guess where the next blow may be coming from, since it may even be from White. Nothing has to fit in to his character, because his motivations and desires keep evolving with the circumstances. His actions have consequences, to which he must adapt. Early on, he develops the persona “Heisenberg” to carry out his illegal activities while maintaining a level of camouflage.
The show feels solid because it infuses real science into the depiction of crime. Walter White is not a chemistry teacher or a criminal hero; he is a man who can make bombs, batteries, meth (obviously) and poison using scientific knowledge and logic. Henry Ford was famously quoted as saying, “Whether you think you can or you can’t—you’re right.” White, initially out of sheer neccessity, always thinks he can. He has to. So he does.
Another part of the show’s success comes from the visual symbolism it utilizes. It presents cues that reward close viewing, especially in terms of characters’ appearances. White, for example, always wears calm, neutral colors. Everything, from his clothing to his hair, beard, glasses and even his car, is bland. Those characters who are unaware or ignorant are clad in purple, while blue signifies innocence.
Then, of course, there is Jesse. Jesse Pinkman is Walter White’s former student, not very bright, and involved in a life of crime. They develop a business relationship as well as an emotional one almost like that between a father and his son. But this is a dysfunctional family. As Walter breaks bad, Jesse turns good and is plagued by the consequences prompted by his actions. He has a certain way of speaking and dressing—which changes as things get more serious. Although he is initially a great source of comic relief (which is required for all kinds of drama—see the “Illiad”), he becomes the sombre moral center of the whole story. While Walter remains unaware of the moral consequences his accelerated criminality produces, Jesse feels everything that is going on. After watching the show, I read that he was originally meant to be killed after season one. This is odd, considering that Jesse later becomes the yin to Walter’s yang as the latter’s “bad” becomes more and more infectious to those around him.
There is an episode entirely about the pair trying to get rid of a mosquito that proves this point. It is one of the more visually challenging segments that I mentioned above, and it demonstrates how fixated Walter can become about the smallest things, driving himself right to the edge of a cliff, while Jesse maintains the ability to see the bigger picture. It is in season three, before we even start to see this dynamic in the larger-scale events of the last two seasons.
Walter White was our hero. He slowly—but not so slowly—becomes our monster. He is both loathsome and sympathetic. He is a criminal mastermind and a high school chemistry teacher. He is our protagonist and our antagonist. He gazed long enough into the abyss that the abyss gazed back into him.
Fun Fact: After binge-watching the entire five seasons in two weeks, Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins sent Bryan Cranston an e-mail saying “Your performance as Walter White was the best acting I have seen—ever” (source: The Guardian).