Idk man, as a science communicator, I watched it and thought it sucked. I know enough about any science field to explain to laypeople, but not enough to properly engage experts usually. I try, but my specialty is breadth, not depth.
It’s not a bad show per se, but it’s a bad show, imho, as far as normal human motivations are concerned. Who gets their shit handled and still risks their whole family’s shit? Like maybe it’s just me but that’s stupid and hard to believe.
… You are saying you find the idea of someone being very reckless and engaging in very risky behavior, for the thrill of the whole thing, to feel more alive than just going through the mundane motions of an average and safe life, to feel powerful, to prove to themselves that they can do something remarkable and be exceptional…
You find this stupid and unrealistic?
Like, I’ll give you that the science of the show has flaws, but like… it is at least fairly within the ballpark for most things, decently detailed with a lot of other things… like, the FCC is not going to let you air a show that provides detailed, accurate instructions on how to cook meth or make a thermite bomb/lance, lol.
But… I don’t get how you find the concept of people being motivated by … whatever in particular it is, to do dangerous things… is stupid an unrealistic. This happens tens of millions of times, every day.
The entire point of Walt breaking bad is that… yeah, he had a taste of all that violent and dangerous shit… and he liked it.
At one point, I think the last time he sees his wife, Skyler, Skyler basically asks him why he did all this insane shit… and Walt more or less says, I’m not gonna lie to you, I’m not gonna bs you… “I was good at it.”
His normal life was unfullfilling to him, constantly being disrespected and belittled, not feeling fulfilled by what he had… and he found and chose a path that granted him the validation and respect he felt he never had.
Yep, that destroyed him and his family and many other people in the end.
The whole show is thus a cautionary tale, that even an otherwise meek, intelligent, and generally respectable man can repress much of his true nature, and that if this isn’t consciously addressed and reconciled responsibly, in a healthy way… it can manifest as a transformation into an entirely different person, with different fundamental values and goals.
Walt is basically a midlife crisis gone nuclear, a giant episode of toxic masculinity bursting forth, a man’s repressed shadow self (if you’re into Jung) subsuming and transforming him into a monster.
Walter was offered to have his entire treatment paid for and turned it down in favour of selling drugs…
…he lost all my sympathy. I was increasingly curious about how things were going to go wrong for him. More fascinating train wreck, less investment in him personally.
Warning - this post doesn’t contain specific spoilers, but I would recommend against reading it if you haven’t watched Breaking Bad because it may color your opinions of the ahow
I feel like you missed the point of the show if you thought the point was to show Walter sympathetically or as the good guy. The whole point of the show is that it is his pride and greed are ultimately what drive him to do worse and worse things no matter how much he tries to blame his actions on external circumstances. There are multiple instances where he does things that are completely unnecessary because at his core, Walter White is a bad person. He is not truly driven by desparation or by love of his family, but by his pride. He wants to earn his own money, and he enjoys being above the law and feels that he deserves all his money and power because he is smarter and superior to everyone. As he gets deeper and deeper into crime, it becomes clearer and clearer that his moral decay is entirely his own doing and not primarily driven by circumstances, even though Walter certainly tries to act that way. I can provide specific examples but I wanted to keep this post spoiler free.
Idk man, as a science communicator, I watched it and thought it sucked. I know enough about any science field to explain to laypeople, but not enough to properly engage experts usually. I try, but my specialty is breadth, not depth.
It’s not a bad show per se, but it’s a bad show, imho, as far as normal human motivations are concerned. Who gets their shit handled and still risks their whole family’s shit? Like maybe it’s just me but that’s stupid and hard to believe.
… You are saying you find the idea of someone being very reckless and engaging in very risky behavior, for the thrill of the whole thing, to feel more alive than just going through the mundane motions of an average and safe life, to feel powerful, to prove to themselves that they can do something remarkable and be exceptional…
You find this stupid and unrealistic?
Like, I’ll give you that the science of the show has flaws, but like… it is at least fairly within the ballpark for most things, decently detailed with a lot of other things… like, the FCC is not going to let you air a show that provides detailed, accurate instructions on how to cook meth or make a thermite bomb/lance, lol.
But… I don’t get how you find the concept of people being motivated by … whatever in particular it is, to do dangerous things… is stupid an unrealistic. This happens tens of millions of times, every day.
The entire point of Walt breaking bad is that… yeah, he had a taste of all that violent and dangerous shit… and he liked it.
At one point, I think the last time he sees his wife, Skyler, Skyler basically asks him why he did all this insane shit… and Walt more or less says, I’m not gonna lie to you, I’m not gonna bs you… “I was good at it.”
His normal life was unfullfilling to him, constantly being disrespected and belittled, not feeling fulfilled by what he had… and he found and chose a path that granted him the validation and respect he felt he never had.
Yep, that destroyed him and his family and many other people in the end.
The whole show is thus a cautionary tale, that even an otherwise meek, intelligent, and generally respectable man can repress much of his true nature, and that if this isn’t consciously addressed and reconciled responsibly, in a healthy way… it can manifest as a transformation into an entirely different person, with different fundamental values and goals.
Walt is basically a midlife crisis gone nuclear, a giant episode of toxic masculinity bursting forth, a man’s repressed shadow self (if you’re into Jung) subsuming and transforming him into a monster.
Honestly from the point where
spoiler
Walter was offered to have his entire treatment paid for and turned it down in favour of selling drugs…
…he lost all my sympathy. I was increasingly curious about how things were going to go wrong for him. More fascinating train wreck, less investment in him personally.
Warning - this post doesn’t contain specific spoilers, but I would recommend against reading it if you haven’t watched Breaking Bad because it may color your opinions of the ahow
I feel like you missed the point of the show if you thought the point was to show Walter sympathetically or as the good guy. The whole point of the show is that it is his pride and greed are ultimately what drive him to do worse and worse things no matter how much he tries to blame his actions on external circumstances. There are multiple instances where he does things that are completely unnecessary because at his core, Walter White is a bad person. He is not truly driven by desparation or by love of his family, but by his pride. He wants to earn his own money, and he enjoys being above the law and feels that he deserves all his money and power because he is smarter and superior to everyone. As he gets deeper and deeper into crime, it becomes clearer and clearer that his moral decay is entirely his own doing and not primarily driven by circumstances, even though Walter certainly tries to act that way. I can provide specific examples but I wanted to keep this post spoiler free.
I don’t think we were supposed to sympathize with him at that point.
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Yeah, that shit.
That’s exactly it, and where I stopped because omfg who does that…???
Nobody with normal human motivations, that’s who.
Wow, I thought we left ‘I am too smart for things everyone likes’ in 2015
Wow if that’s what you took from that… that says a lot about you…
Sorry I don’t like your pet fantasy…?
That I can read?
More that you can’t, but hey, sure! Whatever makes you happy!