It's not just exciting--it's cathartic. Walter White is a smart guy who is put into a desperate situation, and overcomes that situation. In the process, he kin

It's not just exciting--it's cathartic. Walter White is a smart guy who is put into a desperate situation, and overcomes that situation. In the process, he kinda turns into a monster as his problem solving outstrips his morals but not his insecurities, but still, it's impressive to watch him stand up and win. Pablo Escobar (as portrayed in Narcos) started out with a small family smuggling business, and built it up into a multi-billion-dollar-a-year business. He did so while helping the common man, bringing revenue into the country, and generally being of the people in a nation segregated by race and wealth. Arguably, it was only when the US decided to intervene and the old guard of Colombia became threatened by political aspirations that the business became violent. Especially in the latter case--being based on a real person--we see an individual taking a stand against a system with arbitrary rules, fighting for the success of his business, and taking care of his own people (sorta). In contrast, we see them fighting against large bureaucratic machines, organizations without personal ties and human agendas. It's not hard to see that the human despots in gangster narratives are more sympathetic than the abstract almost-forces-of-nature they're competing against.