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Breaking Bad versus The Wire, round one
Sep. 27th, 2022 02:39 pmCurrently watching: Breaking Bad, of all things. I never wanted to see this show but my boyfriend finally decided to purchase the set and I agreed to watch the first episode with him, just to say I had. It was compelling enough to watch the second episode and now we're into season two and I kind of loathe the show, but nevertheless it's incredibly well done and facilitates some entertaining debates so I endure.
Notably, unlike other dark realistic shows such as The Wire, there are almost no "breather" scenes because every single plotline is pure unadulterated cringe/horror. Watching Walt reveal himself to be a total sociopath easily drifting into the emotional abuse of his family, I tense up every time he enters his own house. Hank and his escalating PTSD is no relief. The drug plot is a drug plot. There are basically no scenes on offer to counterbalance the despair - no Herc and Bodie meeting at the movies, no moving the desk in and out of the office, no front and follow in the grocery store.
It's incredibly well done and a brilliant character study of Walt, but as of yet I see no reason to declare this show the greatest one ever made or some kind of Shakespearean tragedy of a good man gone bad, because Walt was clearly always a monster - getting a terminal diagnosis just gave him the excuse to let it out and start a (very badly executed) double life. The show takes the time-honored tactic of playing up worse psychopaths and making Walt's murders self defense to make him more sympathetic, but it's not working on me because every situation he's in is his own damn fault.
Seeing The Mayor in a bit role as Walt's psychiatrist was awfully fun, though. I was rooting for him to become a giant snake and eat Walt for being a terrible human being.
Seriously, I absolutely despise that man.
On the other hand, and possibly being inconsistent here, I kind of love Jesse. I'm forlornly hoping that this will be a two-way street of a show, following Walt's descent and Jesse's salvation, but I really doubt it. Jesse registers as "just a kid" and so I feel an automatic protectiveness toward him, coupled with the fact that he gets most of the funny lines, often born from his actually understanding the reality of the situation (unlike Walt, who is completely deluded about what he's doing and whose lies are now turning into his fantasies, as when he claims the rich Schwartzes are bankrupt to get out of telling Skyler the truth AGAIN). Jesse is a drug addict and a total screw up but he's still a human being and watching Walt prey on him (because that's what Walt's done from the beginning) is repugnant.
This got me thinking what is it exactly that makes me tolerate a villain protagonist? I used to think it was intelligence but that doesn't work on me with Walt and I think this is because what I actually admire in a villain is actually competence. Walt thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, but he's a middle-class no-nothing when it comes to the game. His adventures in meth are clownish and clueless unless chemistry is involved, and even then his strategic blunders are endless. Comparing this show to Boardwalk Empire, whose main cast I also despised, I can see why Boardwalk was the easier watch for me, and it isn't just the costume porn: It's the fact that all of those characters (except Gyp Rossetti) were professionals. They were businessmen whose business was bootlegging and the more professional they were, the more I was able to be entertained by them.
But on the other hand, I didn't like any of them either. I did like several of the villains on The Wire and maybe I'll figure out why that is as I continue to compare these two.
What's kind of amusing is that my boyfriend, who called Tru Calling "morbid" when I watched a couple episodes on YouTube (and I still want to get back to that show, because time-traveling Eliza Dushku), went ahead and purchased the box set of this siphon of despair. I've told him he doesn't ever get to criticize my love for creepy supernatural shows again, because even Dollhouse wasn't this systemically disturbed.
Notably, unlike other dark realistic shows such as The Wire, there are almost no "breather" scenes because every single plotline is pure unadulterated cringe/horror. Watching Walt reveal himself to be a total sociopath easily drifting into the emotional abuse of his family, I tense up every time he enters his own house. Hank and his escalating PTSD is no relief. The drug plot is a drug plot. There are basically no scenes on offer to counterbalance the despair - no Herc and Bodie meeting at the movies, no moving the desk in and out of the office, no front and follow in the grocery store.
It's incredibly well done and a brilliant character study of Walt, but as of yet I see no reason to declare this show the greatest one ever made or some kind of Shakespearean tragedy of a good man gone bad, because Walt was clearly always a monster - getting a terminal diagnosis just gave him the excuse to let it out and start a (very badly executed) double life. The show takes the time-honored tactic of playing up worse psychopaths and making Walt's murders self defense to make him more sympathetic, but it's not working on me because every situation he's in is his own damn fault.
Seeing The Mayor in a bit role as Walt's psychiatrist was awfully fun, though. I was rooting for him to become a giant snake and eat Walt for being a terrible human being.
Seriously, I absolutely despise that man.
On the other hand, and possibly being inconsistent here, I kind of love Jesse. I'm forlornly hoping that this will be a two-way street of a show, following Walt's descent and Jesse's salvation, but I really doubt it. Jesse registers as "just a kid" and so I feel an automatic protectiveness toward him, coupled with the fact that he gets most of the funny lines, often born from his actually understanding the reality of the situation (unlike Walt, who is completely deluded about what he's doing and whose lies are now turning into his fantasies, as when he claims the rich Schwartzes are bankrupt to get out of telling Skyler the truth AGAIN). Jesse is a drug addict and a total screw up but he's still a human being and watching Walt prey on him (because that's what Walt's done from the beginning) is repugnant.
This got me thinking what is it exactly that makes me tolerate a villain protagonist? I used to think it was intelligence but that doesn't work on me with Walt and I think this is because what I actually admire in a villain is actually competence. Walt thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, but he's a middle-class no-nothing when it comes to the game. His adventures in meth are clownish and clueless unless chemistry is involved, and even then his strategic blunders are endless. Comparing this show to Boardwalk Empire, whose main cast I also despised, I can see why Boardwalk was the easier watch for me, and it isn't just the costume porn: It's the fact that all of those characters (except Gyp Rossetti) were professionals. They were businessmen whose business was bootlegging and the more professional they were, the more I was able to be entertained by them.
But on the other hand, I didn't like any of them either. I did like several of the villains on The Wire and maybe I'll figure out why that is as I continue to compare these two.
What's kind of amusing is that my boyfriend, who called Tru Calling "morbid" when I watched a couple episodes on YouTube (and I still want to get back to that show, because time-traveling Eliza Dushku), went ahead and purchased the box set of this siphon of despair. I've told him he doesn't ever get to criticize my love for creepy supernatural shows again, because even Dollhouse wasn't this systemically disturbed.
