‘What do you think it is that makes them who they are’? The connections between Latinx stereotypes, claims of white difference, and characters’ deaths in Breaking Bad

This article argues that while reliant on Latinx stereotypes in character construction, Breaking Bad (2008–2013) ultimately uses them to problematise American racial categories and conquest mythology. Comparing stereotyped Latinx criminals to the main white character, Walter White (Bryan Cranston), who claims difference, reveals that they share traits. In its use of Latinx stereotypes to transfer focus from difference to sameness, Breaking Bad shifts the imperial gaze to offer a critical view of the regeneration through violence myth, so integral to American western expansionism and central in Walt’s story, in that he dies in his attempt to regenerate by killing his Latinx enemies.

O vislumbrar da espiral mimética no seriado Breaking Bad

A intenção deste estudo é a de assimilar o contexto da narrativa do seriado Breaking Bad, mais especificamente o das interações entre os personagens Skyler White, Theodore (Ted) Beneke e Walter White, com a Teoria Mimética elaborada pelo teórico francês René Girard que, basicamente, seria o caráter mimético do desejo intersubjetivo e interdividual do sujeito em relação ao Outro que pode ocasionar situações de conflitos. Dessa forma, propõe-se analisar, sob a ótica da teoria referida, alguns aspectos das interações narrativas em que os personagens almejam alcançar certo desejo e que isso consequentemente leva a uma rivalidade mimética que gera conflitos violentos. Caso essa violência não seja extirpada em forma de “bode expiatório”, ocorre uma escalada de violência como em uma espiral mimética crescente. Portanto, resta saber se na narrativa do seriado Breaking Bad surge essa espiral mimética crescente de violência em decorrência da busca dos desejos, de desejos miméticos.

Walter White: From «Apply Yourself» to «Say my Name». Aspects of Political Theory in «Breaking Bad»

This text should be understood as an interdisciplinary inquiry into one of the most successful US TV series: Breaking Bad (BB). I use political theory analysis, plot analysis that one could understand as textual analysis of the story, and my interpretations of the series’ main characters. In the first chapter, I present a summary of the story of Walter White and how his decisions affect his family. In the second chapter, I analyse BB according to Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. What Hobbes meant with his famous saying that man is man’s wolf, thus a deadly reciprocal threat of all against all comes to life in Walter becoming a full-fledged criminal, murder and deception now the tools of his new chosen craft. Walter is breaking bad, ignoring societal norms and ethical values, pursuing relentlessly his plans of making money for his family, enjoying his new self as a powerful provider because that is what men do: they provide. The third chapter is dedicated to an analysis how Hannah Arendt’s definitions of power, strength, authority, violence and judgement can explain Walter’s change from Paulus to Saulus. In the conclusion, I shall present my thoughts about the series and answer the following research questions: first, why is the global public still so smitten with Walter White? Second, what can one learn from BB for our contemporary conditio humana in the 21st century? Third, is Walter White the master of his life, thus self-determined (Selbstbestimmung), or is he dominated by forces outside of his own free will (Fremdbestimmung)?

Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad is an American television crime dramatic series created and developed by Vince Gilligan. The series aired on AMC cable channel from 20 January 2008 to 29 September 2013 and reflected American middle-class anxieties during the period of the Great Recession (2007–2009). Many TV critics consider Breaking Bad to be one of the best television series of all time. Breaking Bad tells the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a put-upon, underpaid high school chemistry teacher, who upon learning that he has stage 3 lung cancer decides to begin making and selling crystal methamphetamine with Jesse Pinkman, a former student, to secure his (White’s) family’s financial future. The series title is derived from a southern US colloquialism, “breaking bad,” which signifies a person who has decided to follow a life of crime or immorality. Gilligan has described White’s character transformation as being from the reserved schoolteacher Mr. Chips to the brutal drug lord Scarface. The series is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The program’s recurrent images of wide-open western vistas, deserts, and rugged outlaws have led some critics to label the series a modern neo-western. The show has fostered a strong audience following that has allowed Gilligan and AMC to produce the spin-off, prequel series Better Call Saul in 2015 and a sequel film, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, released on Netflix and select theaters in 2019. Sony Entertainment Television produced a Spanish-language version of the series, titled Metástasis, in 2014. Breaking Bad has served as fodder for important scholarship in media studies, cultural studies, and film and television studies. Scholars have focused their work on a range of topics, including Disability and Impairment, Economics and Social Class, Gender, Genre and Narrative, Pedagogy, Production Culture, Race and Ethnicity, and Science.

Drugs, Death, Denial and Cancer Care: Using Breaking Bad in the spiritual care of cancer patients

This article argues that watching Breaking Bad (2008–13) could encourage people affected by cancer to recognise and reconsider damaging reactions to their condition. If viewers are invited to see the series’ antihero, Walter White, as an iconic ‘silhouette’ of a better path not taken, this can provoke them to entertain more honest, constructive attitudes to cancer and death. Using the theological concept of a ‘silhouette of goodness’ and Jung’s theory of the ego-life and true Self, this article suggests that symbolic moments in Walt’s descent into chaotic criminality could help caregivers to meet the ‘need for symbols’ in cancer care.

Teoria dos arquétipos e construção de personagens em filmes e séries

Este artigo introduz a teoria dos arquétipos a partir da revisão dos conceitos desenvolvidos por Jung, Campbell e Durand e analisa o uso pragmático de arquétipos na produção de filmes e séries de TV. O estudo articula as reflexões sobre o tema nos campos da antropologia, psicologia e artes, buscando definir o que são os arquétipos e quais são suas funções nas narrativas. Por fim, o conceito de arquétipo na construção de personagens é aplicado com o estudo de caso de Walter White, protagonista da série de TV Breaking Bad. O resultado obtido é um conceito de arquétipo aplicável aos processos de criação e construção de personagens nas narrativas audiovisuais.

Walter White/Heisenberg: construção da personagem em Breaking Bad

The present work seeks to analyze the construction of Walter White / Heisenberg in Breaking Bad (2008-2013) created by Vince Gilligan. The premise is that the character presented in the first episode transforms radically and in a unique way, losing its original characteristics.Unlike other contemporary series, in which a character evolves, matures or adds new attributes to his composition, it can be said that Walter White, an honest and humble family father and chemistry’s teacher, becomes a Heisenberg, a producer of methamphetamine and international trafficker. His values and goals are being changed so significantly that the codename used by him to difficult for the police his recognition, ends up naming a kind of new character.This transformation is one of the main narrative arcs of the series, which confers a rare feature to Breaking Bad. The majority of audiovisual works end up creating protagonists with great emotional complexity, but with fixed and immutable constructive characteristics. This option allows turning points, false leads and other strategies, precisely by rescuing the character’s original attributes.The elements to be analyzed are:• The presentation of the character in the first episodes - its role in attribution to fixation of original attributes;• Physical attributes and their evolution;• Emotional attributes, personality and values and their evolution;• Actions that determine the character’s construction.Still, other series will be cited to demonstrate the difference between Walter White / Heisenberg and other protagonists.

Montage Sequences, Diegetic Music and Narcotics in Vince Gilligan‟s Breaking Bad

Vince Gilligan’s “Breaking Bad” is a neo-Western television crime drama series that was broadcasted on AMC (American pay television channel). Crime Films can be comprehended as a cinematic genre that was inaugurated by crime fiction in literature. The crime film is a complex and variegated object of study. Unlike the other existing genres, “crime film” is not defined as a cinematographic genre. This genre is characterized by stories where there is an impending crime, in some cases the crime would have already taken place and is followed by the consequences. The advancement in technology especially the invention of VCR,DVD and many such affordable machines have made viewing television easy and affordable, which in turn paved the way for the success of critically acclaimed serials such as “Breaking Bad” to embrace the success it deserved. The arrival of large screens and quality visuals largely contributed to an increase in viewership and audience. “Breaking Bad” was recognized for its complex and violent plot structure, where in the protagonist, Walter White is an antihero who is diagnosed with cancer. The disease aids as a catalyst to bring out the passive demon and narcissist within him and this in turn wrecks his familial and professional life. The present paper proposes to explore how advancement in technology and the use of music successfully brings out the narcissistic tendencies in Walter White’s character.