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Breaking Bad is a middle-class horror story Breaking Bad is a middle-class horror story
(8 days later)
Before Walter White on Breaking Bad got his swagger, declared himself "the one who knocks", and told his retiring partner he's in "the empire business", he had a humbler reason for entering the drug trade: he needed the money.Before Walter White on Breaking Bad got his swagger, declared himself "the one who knocks", and told his retiring partner he's in "the empire business", he had a humbler reason for entering the drug trade: he needed the money.
What makes Breaking Bad's anti-hero such a compelling character may be his more complex psychological motivations for staying in it: the regret of missed opportunities, the rush of power from vanquishing his foes. But what makes him believable in the first place is the depressingly unremarkable financial squeeze in which he finds himself at the beginning of the series: working a second job at a car wash, begging an ambulance driver not to take him to the ER because he "doesn't have the greatest insurance", fretting over the debt he'll leave behind for his family when he dies.What makes Breaking Bad's anti-hero such a compelling character may be his more complex psychological motivations for staying in it: the regret of missed opportunities, the rush of power from vanquishing his foes. But what makes him believable in the first place is the depressingly unremarkable financial squeeze in which he finds himself at the beginning of the series: working a second job at a car wash, begging an ambulance driver not to take him to the ER because he "doesn't have the greatest insurance", fretting over the debt he'll leave behind for his family when he dies.
Needing money is, of course, the reason lots of other people do illegal things. Breaking Bad is an unusual hit crime show, one that resonates – despite its small cast and relatively unfamiliar setting of Albuquerque – by not exoticizing its criminals, making them suburban, middle class, and (not incidentally) white. Convincing viewers to swallow its otherwise far-fetched premise of a high school teacher-turned-meth cook rests on the realization that first propels Walt to break bad, which we are invited to realize along with him: we're not that far off. Or could be. The show cannily plays on sentiments that Americans find unnervingly familiar: deep economic insecurity and the get-rich-quick ambition to escape it. When it comes to capitalism, Americans have always had a Walt-like split personality: rooting for both the underdog and the robber baron, and if possible, both.Needing money is, of course, the reason lots of other people do illegal things. Breaking Bad is an unusual hit crime show, one that resonates – despite its small cast and relatively unfamiliar setting of Albuquerque – by not exoticizing its criminals, making them suburban, middle class, and (not incidentally) white. Convincing viewers to swallow its otherwise far-fetched premise of a high school teacher-turned-meth cook rests on the realization that first propels Walt to break bad, which we are invited to realize along with him: we're not that far off. Or could be. The show cannily plays on sentiments that Americans find unnervingly familiar: deep economic insecurity and the get-rich-quick ambition to escape it. When it comes to capitalism, Americans have always had a Walt-like split personality: rooting for both the underdog and the robber baron, and if possible, both.
Walter White embodies both. In the first season, he starkly assesses the situation his family faces: son going to college, baby on the way, and now a cancer diagnosis. To Americans, it's understandable that such circumstances could push a man to desperate measures. We know that the majority of personal bankruptcies are driven by medical expenses. That college tuition costs have skyrocketed, reaching as high as $60,000 a year, while real wages have stayed the same for over a decade. Because Breaking Bad is concerned with personal morality and not politics, the idea that someone with a stable, middle class job might resort to cooking meth to provide for his family is presented as a given: extreme, perhaps, but not incredible.Walter White embodies both. In the first season, he starkly assesses the situation his family faces: son going to college, baby on the way, and now a cancer diagnosis. To Americans, it's understandable that such circumstances could push a man to desperate measures. We know that the majority of personal bankruptcies are driven by medical expenses. That college tuition costs have skyrocketed, reaching as high as $60,000 a year, while real wages have stayed the same for over a decade. Because Breaking Bad is concerned with personal morality and not politics, the idea that someone with a stable, middle class job might resort to cooking meth to provide for his family is presented as a given: extreme, perhaps, but not incredible.
But it's something viewers in other countries, or Americans of another era, might find puzzling. One internet gag outlines the premise to "Breaking Bad Canada": Walt's doctor tells him "You have cancer. Treatment starts next week." The end. It takes a moment to stop and think that maybe such a reality is wrong to begin with.But it's something viewers in other countries, or Americans of another era, might find puzzling. One internet gag outlines the premise to "Breaking Bad Canada": Walt's doctor tells him "You have cancer. Treatment starts next week." The end. It takes a moment to stop and think that maybe such a reality is wrong to begin with.
But this is the reality we do live in: where four years out of a recession, average real incomes are increasing only for the top 1% and actually declining for the bottom 99% (pdf), where pensions and collective bargaining agreements are largely a distant memory, where McDonald's offers employees financial planning advice that entails advising them to get a second job, and where someone with a teacher's salary and two children lives one illness away from complete financial ruin. And it's this insecurity that explains the other object of our sympathies: the kingpin.But this is the reality we do live in: where four years out of a recession, average real incomes are increasing only for the top 1% and actually declining for the bottom 99% (pdf), where pensions and collective bargaining agreements are largely a distant memory, where McDonald's offers employees financial planning advice that entails advising them to get a second job, and where someone with a teacher's salary and two children lives one illness away from complete financial ruin. And it's this insecurity that explains the other object of our sympathies: the kingpin.
Walt doesn't remain the victim very long. He strives for what the rest of us mostly dream of: not being a druglord, but being free from the burdens of worrying what calamity might wipe us out. We may not excuse Walter White's actions, but the fact that we can identify at all with a character who achieves financial independence by selling poison and murdering people reflects our understanding of what would happen if he accepted the fate handed to him by the present-day market economy.Walt doesn't remain the victim very long. He strives for what the rest of us mostly dream of: not being a druglord, but being free from the burdens of worrying what calamity might wipe us out. We may not excuse Walter White's actions, but the fact that we can identify at all with a character who achieves financial independence by selling poison and murdering people reflects our understanding of what would happen if he accepted the fate handed to him by the present-day market economy.
In a country where there are no workers, only entrepreneurs, where our folk heroes are Silicon Valley billionaires, where everyone is told they are middle class, but that status is so precarious, being rich beyond one's dreams is not so hard to imagine. But more importantly, neither is being poor. The one thing that seems fanciful is working hard, playing by the rules, and having a decent income and a stable retirement to show for it.In a country where there are no workers, only entrepreneurs, where our folk heroes are Silicon Valley billionaires, where everyone is told they are middle class, but that status is so precarious, being rich beyond one's dreams is not so hard to imagine. But more importantly, neither is being poor. The one thing that seems fanciful is working hard, playing by the rules, and having a decent income and a stable retirement to show for it.
Breaking Bad's apolitical outlook sets it apart from that other critically acclaimed crime drama to which it's sometimes compared, The Wire. The two couldn't be more different. The Wire was modeled as a Greek tragedy, with institutions (the police department, school system, media, even capitalism itself) taking the place of gods capriciously wrecking the lives of ordinary people. Their lack of personal agency went against Hollywood conventions of the hero riding into town and saving the day, and was often frustrating to watch, but that was exactly the point.Breaking Bad's apolitical outlook sets it apart from that other critically acclaimed crime drama to which it's sometimes compared, The Wire. The two couldn't be more different. The Wire was modeled as a Greek tragedy, with institutions (the police department, school system, media, even capitalism itself) taking the place of gods capriciously wrecking the lives of ordinary people. Their lack of personal agency went against Hollywood conventions of the hero riding into town and saving the day, and was often frustrating to watch, but that was exactly the point.
Breaking Bad is a truly American TV show. In its universe, bad things happen not because of impersonal structural forces but because of the choices made by bad people. That would be reassuring if that universe weren't so bleak to begin with. A morality tale, Breaking Bad asks the viewer, what would you do in the same situation? At what point do you stop sympathizing with Walt and start to condemn him? But given the economic realities of 21st century America, perhaps the real question is, why aren't more people cooking meth too?Breaking Bad is a truly American TV show. In its universe, bad things happen not because of impersonal structural forces but because of the choices made by bad people. That would be reassuring if that universe weren't so bleak to begin with. A morality tale, Breaking Bad asks the viewer, what would you do in the same situation? At what point do you stop sympathizing with Walt and start to condemn him? But given the economic realities of 21st century America, perhaps the real question is, why aren't more people cooking meth too?
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