14 ms·
At risk of derailing the original article, this is a really interesting point. Both Breaking Bad and Mad Men are shows that go at lengths to depict how flawed,
by jmduke 13y ago
At risk of derailing the original article, this is a really interesting point. Both Breaking Bad and Mad Men are shows that go at lengths to depict how flawed, unhappy, and usually outright immoral their protagonists are, but both Walter White and Don Draper are the target of a lot of escapist fantasies. (Try searching on Twitter for #TeamWalt.)
- shashashasha 13y agoIt reminds me of this essay, on Breaking Bad and culture: "But despite these cautionary endings, they don’t sell Scarface and Godfather t-shirts at every tourist shop in Manhattan because people like to remind themselves about the dangers of hubris. Stories and the characters in them are more than lessons, and a narrative’s most ideologically weighty elements don’t map onto a seventh grade worksheet about major themes. Long after we’re done watching we hold moments with us: shot angles and character dynamics, snippets of dialog and unquestioned premises. The point of critically examining cultural objects like Breaking Bad isn’t to place them in categories good or bad, to predict the ending, or even to decode what’s “really” happening; the point is to pay attention to our attention, to look at how it’s being held, on what, and how someone’s making money on it. If pop criticism is to be good for anything, it’s that." http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/walter-white-supremacy/ http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/walter-white-supremacy/
- 001sky 13y ago+1 As a general point, illegal activity has entertainment value. Goes for all sorts, especially killing and violence.