"Breaking bad" or "to break bad" means to defy convention and go against what is behaviorally normal, especially in relation to society at large. "To turn against one's previously lawful lifestyle for one of crime, usually at the detriment of others."
We all know the story. Walter White, disgruntled and underachieving but morally upstanding high school Chemistry teacher, breaks bad and begins cooking methamphetamine while reeling from a lung cancer diagnosis.
Man, some straight like you, giant stick up his ass, all of a sudden at age what, sixty, he's just gonna break bad?
– Jesse Pinkman, Breaking Bad, Pilot
Throughout the show, Walt makes numerous decision that are "morally gray;" killing Crazy 8 once he was left with no choice despite his best effort to let him live, allowing Jane to die in order to keep Jesse around him but also to prevent Jesse from overdosing on heroin and dying himself, etc. None of Walt's decision were ever black and white, they were heavily layered. And herein lies the hidden, meta meaning to the show's title.
Walt and several others characters broke bad over the course of the show, this is true. But the show itself LITERALLY /broke/ /bad/. It broke our preconceived notions about what it meant to be morally "bad," and caused us to support Walt and even root for him while he was making decisions that we would have previously defined as bad without a second thought. Allowing someone to choke on their own vomit when you could have save them? Bad. Running over two drug dealers and then murdering them in cold blood? Bad. Bombing a nursing home? Bad. Cooking crystal meth? Bad. And yet I was rooting for Walt to the bitter end, even after Brock and Mike and Hank and Jesse's captivity. And I still tend to root for him while rewatching the show.
We didn't see Walt as all black. We saw the Yang to his Yin. We saw the shades of gray in his action, that infinite set of numbers between 0 and 1, and we rooted for him with all our hearts. And, in this way, Breaking Bad itself truly "broke" bad.
The great irony here? My very first experience with Breaking Bad was in my boyfriend's sophomore dorm room, where I happened to walk in while he was watching Fly for the first time. And my instinctual, intrinsic reaction was to dislike Walt. Knowing nothing about him, and nothing at all about the show, I didn't like him at all. But, upon investing myself in his character, I couldn't help but to support him. And as a matter of fact, on my true first viewing of Fly in syndication, I absolutely loved Walt and hated Jesse for his attitude and carelessness. And this, to me, proves my theory.
Breaking Bad broke bad. I believe that it was somewhat intentional. I believe that this is the true meaning of the show's title. And I believe (read: hope) that this was Vince Gilligan's true artistic message to his audience all along.
tl;dr In a beautiful meta turn of events, Breaking Bad literally broke our preconceived notions of "bad."
Submitted May 28, 2017 at 09:23PM by LxIC0N http://ift.tt/2s5bcyD
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