Devouring TV: Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad isn't the first TV programme I've been addicted to (before it, there's been Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The West Wing, True Blood... basically any tv series where I can devour the box sets quickly and efficiently) but it is the most recent and feels the most consuming right now. Hence, this post. And you know what? I didn't really think I was going to like it, just based on the few synopses I'd read (drugs? Eurgh! was more or less my reaction) but then at the end of last year I read Stephen King's top twenty things of 2011.

Oh yeah. All of this was Stephen King's fault, OBVIOUSLY, because all good things emanate from Stephen King (that's an actual FACT, just so you know). So yeah, he said that Breaking Bad was even better than The Sopranos (I am a person who, while I liked The Sopranos, is able to believe that there are better things than it out there) and I was like, hmm. Stephen King, I shall believe you! And off I went on an internet video finding mission (if you're in the UK, the first two seasons are on Netflix, and honestly, it's worth signing up to it just for them- and, in fact, the third season is now on there, which would have been good to know before I went trawling for episodes. *grumble*) and I fell into a Breaking Bad hole. In fact, I fell into two- I watched everything up to around the middle of season 3 in one big gulp, then couldn't find the next episode anywhere, got pissed off and stopped watching any more internet tv apart from Netflix (where I had the great fortune of watching Twin Peaks) and then these past few weeks, I found it again and watched the rest in a giant gulp of awesome.

But why? Why do I love it so? It's difficult to say, because there are a lot of things in it that normally, I just wouldn't be down with. I mean, there are basically two female characters, only one of them a main one really, and she's mainly just the main main character's (Walt's) wife. She genuinely doesn't really get to do anything interesting, and I kind of don't even like her, and normally, I wouldn't be down with that. And also? I don't even like Walt. I hate Hank. Marie is so annoying and Skylar (Walt's wife) is a total hypocrite. But also? I love them all as much as I hate them, which I really think is the mark of really great characters- you have all these conflicting emotions about them, but in the end you just kind of love them all because they're like family (all the characters I've mentioned so far actually are family in the show, which helps, of course).

And then there's Jesse. And sometimes I hate Jesse too, but mostly I love him. And there's really no reason to- he's a junkie, he's a drug dealer, he sometimes has absolutely no morals (he tries to sell drugs to people at NA meetings, which is fairly low) but the dude has so many layers. Like, all he wants is approval from Walt or basically any adult, whilst also wanting to escape from all authority figures; and it always surprises me how much he really really loves kids- it's a fairly standard thing in the series that, just when you think Jesse is a complete dick, he'll go and be really sweet to a kid, and just like that you're kind of in love with him all over again. It also doesn't hurt that he's kind of short and skinny and just looks like the kind of person that you want to protect. That is, when he's not smoking meth or brandishing a gun. Obviously.

Adorbs.

So Breaking Bad is all about the decisions of Walter White, a high-school chemistry teacher (but mildly secret chemistry GENIUS) who discovers he has terminal lung cancer and decides to cook meth in order to leave behind lots and lots of money to make up for all the cash he won't be earning when he's all dead and stuff. So, a large part of Breaking Bad is about his family, and hiding the things he's doing from them and how they all interact with each other. And that's all fine, and I like it enough and all, but the show really comes alive for me when Jesse and Walter are together. They are so unalike that the absolute only way they'd hang out is to cook meth together, and because of that their exchanges are brilliant, and hilarious, and absolutely the best thing about Breaking Bad. My favourite episodes are always the ones where it's basically just the two of them in one location for the whole 45 minutes, and whenever they're not speaking or working together (which happens at the start of season 3, and quite a lot in season 4) it makes me really sad. For Breaking Bad to work, they need to be together, even though their disputes are often as entertaining as their tentative friendship. It never fails to amuse me that, after everything they've been through together, Jesse still calls Walter 'Mr White', and Walter usually calls him 'Pinkman'. And they've never had a real hug. *SOB*

Obviously a lot of Breaking Bad (although maybe not as much as you'd think) is about drugs because, you know, they cook the meth and all. But I find the most interesting thing with the drugs is, again, the way that Jesse interacts with them. And by interacts, I obviously mean takes them, and by takes them, I mean that he's a drug addict. But he's a very high functioning drug addict. Like, he can have an all night and day meth party, and still turn up to work (where he does, of course, cook meth). And it's interesting because it always seems like he's in control of his drug use, until he's not, when it becomes clear that he's able to be swayed into full blown addiction (because of a hot girl) and that he shelters in drugs when things are going badly, i.e. he is an addict. I really don't know very much about addiction, but it seems to me that this is a realistic thing- that Jesse can stay away from the drugs, but that when things get rough, they're always what he turns to, as an emotional crutch.

I think Breaking Bad has a bit of a rep for being overly violent, and about drugs and drug use, and also it bothers me that no one has ever said 'yeah, you're just manufacturing meth, but think about the lives you're destroying- that makes you way worse than the people who use' but that kind of moralising doesn't really come into it. But the thing is, whenever I think about Breaking Bad, I hardly ever think about the drugs, and I basically never think about the violence- I just think about the relationships and the intricate lies and whether or not Jesse's going to be ok; and this could just be me ignoring what's there, but I think it's more that... Man, I really love the characters. Like, even when Jesse and Walt do murders (and they do do a few self-preservation murders, I have to warn you) it's like... they're really not very good at them, and you feel a lot more worried about them getting caught than you do about the murderee, which actually, now that I think about it, is pretty messed up. But the point is that you really don't think about the violence, but you more just worry about the potential consequences for the characters that you/I love.

So, to sum up: I love/hate Walt, Skylar, Marie and Hank, I LOVE Jesse, even when he's bad, and Breaking Bad is the greatest thing in the world. It's maybe not my favourite TV programme EVER, but it's definitely my favourite right now, and hey, it's also maybe my favourite ever. If you haven't seen it yet, I advise it maybe more strongly than I've ever advised anything in my life, and just, you know, enjoy the crap out of it. I know that I have, and I can't WAIT for July 15th (or I guess the 16th, for me) when the new (and last! *SOB*) season begins.