Breaking Bad - Plot Justification and a Worrying Possibility
I might be nine years late to the finale to what might be one of the greatest television series to have graced streaming our screens, but having just finished Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad, I think I might be early to acknowledging what seems to be an overlooked bit of genius in the show: plot justification.
Where this stands out most is regarding two aspects particularly, firstly, the ending, and secondly, in reaffirming Walt’s character arc. The climax of the show was, in my opinion, rather well executed, when on the face of it, it might come across as a tad bit far-fetched. By starting the final season with a snippet of the fate that besets the show, the shock factor of seeing Walt’s boot busting heavy machine gun is dampened by its earlier debut into the show. Often, I criticise a lot of Hollywood blockbuster movies for their inadequate development and subsequent employment of various ‘Deus Ex Machina’s’ – a hopeless situation which is suddenly solved with an unexpected occurrence (I’m looking at you Star Wars the Last Jedi). However, Breaking Bad’s brilliance of showing us a few seconds of either an event or character before said entity’s purpose is exposed, prevents the occurrence from being lumped in such an ignominious camp.
The execution of Walt’s character development is another prominent beneficiary of this plot justification, especially towards the end of the show where we are reminded of the contrast in his nature between the first season and its final. The show does a great job at incrementally shifting Walt’s disposition closer to that of the criminals he feared of emulating, and we are reminded of his journey through these momentary flashbacks, like at the beginning of the episode ‘Ozymandias’. The slightly broader point I want to make here is in relation to this as the juxtaposition we see here begs a question – are we all really as susceptible as Walt? Can a decent, well-meaning teacher, if pushed, become a Meth King Pin? This birthed the curiosity in determining at what point Walt really became Heisenberg during the show. My immediate thought was when Walt first wore the hat during his exchange with Tuco Salamanca in episode seven of the first series, but this seemed inadequate, so I looked for a later point and found season four episode six to be perhaps the most fitting, with the infamous “I am the danger” quote. But then I realised, really, it was when Walt told his first lie to Skylar, cooked his first batch, was complicit in a murder – the very first step that Walt took on this path was the moment the identity of Heisenberg was born, it just became more prevalent as the show went on.
Breaking Bad achieved perhaps what Game of Thrones did, only earlier. It amassed an enormous fan base that only continued to blossom with each successive season, with the shows finale more than quintupling in viewership in comparison to its penultimate’s, and it never saw a drop in quality as time went on, and that is a rarity for a television show. There’s so much more that can be said about this show, but for now all I’ll say is this – Breaking Bad should definitely be on everyone’s bucket list.
