The Breaking Bad Effect: Bad Isn’t Good, It’s Great #breakingbad

With the Emmy Awards tonight I feel like talking about TV for a change.

Breaking Bad and Dexter are both highly acclaimed shows about anti-heroes, both are ending soon, and they are part of an interesting trend on television.  People are watching more shows about bad guys doing bad things. And they are cheering them on!

I was late to start watching this show. How on earth can people like a drug dealer? Meth kills and ruins lives! But one episode and I was hooked. Good thing I never tried meth…

I’ve heard some stories that Anna Gunn, who plays Skyler, drug king-pin Walter White’s wife, on Breaking Bad, has been the target of a lot of view hatred. She’s been upset and shocked about how much some vocal viewers do not like her character.

Yes, Skyler has done some shit to make Walter’s life difficult. Most of it is highly understandable. Her mild-mannered chemistry teacher husband becomes a meth cook, then a killer and eventually runs the whole New Mexico meth business (or so it’s implied). Skyler just wants to keep her family safe. The money –Walter’s original motivation—has paled in comparison to the horrible things she’s learning about her husband every episode.

Take a look at Season One’s iconic image:

 

And look at Walt now:

 

 

So, why are viewers siding with Walt and not Skyler?

This is the million dollar question, especially for a writer. How did this show manage to get viewers to follow Walt on his descent and not only still like him, but think his wife is the bitch for trying to stop him?  We writers are always told to make viewers and readers love our characters and root for them. It’s easy when your main character is a crime-fighting cop. Law and Order has given us hundreds of shows where we want the bad guys to go down hard.

But when Dexter has a close call and ends up not killing a guy, we’re disappointed. We want Dexter and Walt to succeed, even though their goals are awful.

Why? Are we bored with good guys? Or have our lives gotten so mundane or downright unbearable, that maybe we can see how Dexter and Walt got where they are? Maybe we want to stand up to drug dealers or kill a rapist. For me, I’m fascinated with watching a normal guy disintegrate. If he’s going to suddenly grow a set, why not do something good with his new-found empowerment? Walter White took that advice from Network a bit too far: We’re not gonna take it anymore.

These shows take another writing guideline to an extreme: We’re advised to give the hero a flaw or weakness, and a little bad side and to make sure the antagonist isn’t all bad.  He needs some redeeming value and a good reason why he does what he does, even if it’s bad.

On Breaking Bad, the antagonist is Hank, Walter’s DEA agent brother-in-law. We want him to fail in his attempts to find Heisenberg. If you’ve been watching Season 5, you know Hank figured it out, but until then there was a cat-and-mouse game that had us hoping the mouse would get away.

As a romance writer, the next logical question for me is whether an antihero can ever be a romance hero? Bonnie and Clyde were partners in more than crime. Are readers and viewers ready to fall in love with a Walter White?

What about you?