We got to Walter White because that was the design goal of "Breaking Bad" - to turn Mr Chips into Scarface. The mechanism in use was, IMO, a partial ( and perha

We got to Walter White because that was the design goal of "Breaking Bad" - to turn Mr Chips into Scarface. The mechanism in use was, IMO, a partial ( and perhaps oscillating/varying) reductio ad absurbum on the very idea of heroes and villains in narrative. Eastwood's played the antihero for decades now. It's not new. But it's Science! ( ala Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science"). Sort-of yawn. That way lies ex deux machina and Merlin figures...