WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.980 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are... 00:00:04.030 --> 00:00:06.190 We're not just scratching the surface here. We 00:00:06.190 --> 00:00:09.730 are excavating an absolute monument. Oh, without 00:00:09.730 --> 00:00:11.769 a doubt. We're talking about a show that didn't 00:00:11.769 --> 00:00:13.869 just capture the cultural zeitgeist. I mean, 00:00:13.890 --> 00:00:16.589 it practically invented a completely new form 00:00:16.589 --> 00:00:19.550 of television chemistry. We are talking, of course, 00:00:19.850 --> 00:00:22.429 about Breaking Bad. Yeah, it's really rare that 00:00:22.429 --> 00:00:25.109 we get to look at a piece of media that is so 00:00:25.109 --> 00:00:28.829 universally acclaimed, yet so deeply complex 00:00:28.829 --> 00:00:31.929 in its morality. It is a crime drama, yes, but 00:00:31.929 --> 00:00:34.079 to call it just a crime drama, feels like a total 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:36.380 disservice. Right. It's really a tragedy in the 00:00:36.380 --> 00:00:39.020 classical sense. A complete morality play where 00:00:39.020 --> 00:00:41.939 actions have inescapable consequences. Exactly. 00:00:42.060 --> 00:00:44.460 And look, I think we can skip the standard high 00:00:44.460 --> 00:00:46.780 school teacher cooks meth elevator pitch. If 00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:48.259 you are listening to this deep dive, you know 00:00:48.259 --> 00:00:50.240 who Walter White is. You know who Heisenberg 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:52.350 is. You definitely do. What I really want to 00:00:52.350 --> 00:00:54.250 unpack today, the mission for this deep dive, 00:00:54.390 --> 00:00:57.950 is how a premise that sounds like a bad joke 00:00:57.950 --> 00:01:00.710 or maybe a dark comedy sketch, how that morphed 00:01:00.710 --> 00:01:03.090 into one of the most significant evaluations 00:01:03.090 --> 00:01:06.150 of the human ego in modern history. That is the 00:01:06.150 --> 00:01:10.209 core question. Because honestly, on paper, this 00:01:10.209 --> 00:01:12.329 show should not have worked. No. It shouldn't 00:01:12.329 --> 00:01:14.579 have been made. And frankly, We shouldn't have 00:01:14.579 --> 00:01:16.219 rooted for the protagonist for as long as we 00:01:16.219 --> 00:01:19.099 did. That is the part that always gets me, the 00:01:19.099 --> 00:01:21.400 absolute complicity of the audience. But before 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:24.159 we get to the psychology of the viewer, I think 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:25.939 we need to go back to the chemistry of the creation 00:01:25.939 --> 00:01:28.560 itself. Oh, the origin story. Yeah, because I 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:30.519 was looking through the notes on the origin of 00:01:30.519 --> 00:01:33.980 this series. And it is actually kind of terrifying 00:01:33.980 --> 00:01:37.180 how close this show came to just never existing 00:01:37.180 --> 00:01:39.359 at all. It hangs by a thread. I mean, you have 00:01:39.359 --> 00:01:42.459 Vince Gilligan, who had come off the X -Files, 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:47.260 and he's in this period of unemployment. And 00:01:47.260 --> 00:01:50.319 The Spark wasn't some grand artistic vision about 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:52.540 the American dream gone wrong. It was literally 00:01:52.540 --> 00:01:55.079 a joke about desperation. Yeah, he's talking 00:01:55.079 --> 00:01:57.019 to Thomas Schnauss, another writer, and they're 00:01:57.019 --> 00:02:00.500 just complaining about the industry, joking about 00:02:00.500 --> 00:02:01.959 their unemployment. Yeah, they're joking that 00:02:01.959 --> 00:02:03.980 the only way to actually make money is to buy 00:02:03.980 --> 00:02:06.730 an RV and put a meth lab in the back. Which is 00:02:06.730 --> 00:02:08.629 the classic, you know, I'm broke, maybe I should 00:02:08.629 --> 00:02:10.530 turn to crime joke that basically everyone has 00:02:10.530 --> 00:02:13.129 made at a bar at some point. Totally. But Gilligan 00:02:13.129 --> 00:02:15.830 actually wrote it down. And that little seed. 00:02:16.270 --> 00:02:19.210 grew into something very specific. He had this 00:02:19.210 --> 00:02:21.830 goal that was actually quite revolutionary for 00:02:21.830 --> 00:02:24.789 television at the time. The Mr. Chips to Scarface 00:02:24.789 --> 00:02:27.150 thing. Exactly. He called it the Mr. Chips to 00:02:27.150 --> 00:02:29.310 Scarface transformation. We hear that phrase 00:02:29.310 --> 00:02:32.030 a lot now, Mr. Chips to Scarface. But I think 00:02:32.030 --> 00:02:34.610 we really take for granted how incredibly risky 00:02:34.610 --> 00:02:38.449 that was in, what, 2005 or 2006. It was completely 00:02:38.449 --> 00:02:40.370 unheard of. If you look at the history of television, 00:02:40.889 --> 00:02:43.530 the entire medium was built on what we call self 00:02:43.530 --> 00:02:46.870 -imposed stasis. Self -imposed. stasis. Right. 00:02:46.969 --> 00:02:49.870 Think about Gunsmoke or MH or Law and Order. 00:02:49.949 --> 00:02:52.050 You want to be able to tune in whenever. Exactly. 00:02:52.270 --> 00:02:55.069 Even the Sopranos, to a degree. You need the 00:02:55.069 --> 00:02:57.110 main character to be completely recognizable 00:02:57.110 --> 00:02:59.629 in Season 10 as the exact same person they were 00:02:59.629 --> 00:03:01.550 in the pilot. Because that's how syndication 00:03:01.550 --> 00:03:04.009 works? That's how you sell ads. You definitely 00:03:04.009 --> 00:03:06.150 don't want the sheriff to suddenly become the 00:03:06.150 --> 00:03:08.900 villain halfway through the run. Because if the 00:03:08.900 --> 00:03:11.240 sheriff becomes the villain, you break the engine 00:03:11.240 --> 00:03:13.400 of the show. You just can't solve the crime of 00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:15.180 the week if the detective is the one committing 00:03:15.180 --> 00:03:18.479 them. Precisely. But Gilligan wanted to design 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:22.259 a show that was finite. A show where the entire 00:03:22.259 --> 00:03:24.840 point was the metamorphosis. Reactive change? 00:03:24.960 --> 00:03:27.800 Yes. He wanted to document the chemical reaction 00:03:27.800 --> 00:03:31.659 of a man's soul -changing states. He wasn't interested 00:03:31.659 --> 00:03:33.919 in maintaining the status quo at all. He wanted 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:36.520 to destroy it. So he takes this radical idea, 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:39.240 he writes the pilot, and then he just gets rejected 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:42.300 by basically everyone. Everyone. And this is 00:03:42.300 --> 00:03:44.800 a really fascinating look at the industry lanes 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:49.180 back then. Showtime passed. HBO passed. TNT passed. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:51.240 The Showtime rejection is the one that really 00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:53.159 fascinates me, actually, because they had weeds 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:55.080 at the time. That was exactly their reasoning. 00:03:55.219 --> 00:03:57.439 They said, we already have a show about a suburban 00:03:57.439 --> 00:03:59.699 parent selling drugs to support their family. 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:02.419 Which, okay, on the surface is technically true, 00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:05.800 but tonally. I mean, Weeds is a satire, it's 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:08.740 a dark comedy. Breaking Bad is, I don't even 00:04:08.740 --> 00:04:10.680 know what you call it initially, it's incredibly 00:04:10.680 --> 00:04:14.159 grim. It's an existential Western, but networks 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:18.060 are incredibly risk -averse. Yeah. They saw the 00:04:18.060 --> 00:04:19.860 drug -dealing parent box was checked, so they 00:04:19.860 --> 00:04:22.199 just moved on. And then there's FX, because they 00:04:22.199 --> 00:04:23.800 actually bought the script, right? They started 00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:25.620 discussions, yeah. It really looked like it was 00:04:25.620 --> 00:04:28.870 gonna happen in FX. But then... The executives 00:04:28.870 --> 00:04:31.610 had to make a choice between Breaking Bad and 00:04:31.610 --> 00:04:34.930 a show called Dirt. Dirt. Starring Courtney Cox. 00:04:35.209 --> 00:04:37.509 I vaguely remember that. It was about tabloids, 00:04:37.629 --> 00:04:40.649 right? It was. And they chose Dirt. It just goes 00:04:40.649 --> 00:04:42.850 to show you that quality isn't always the deciding 00:04:42.850 --> 00:04:45.449 factor in Hollywood. Sometimes it's star power. 00:04:45.870 --> 00:04:48.050 Or just what the network thinks is hot at that 00:04:48.050 --> 00:04:50.769 exact moment. So Breaking Bad ends up at AMC 00:04:50.769 --> 00:04:53.189 almost by default. Pretty much. AMC was known 00:04:53.189 --> 00:04:55.790 for classic movies back then, not original programming. 00:04:56.029 --> 00:04:58.149 aside from Mad Men, which was really just starting 00:04:58.149 --> 00:05:01.410 to find its footing. So it lands at AMC. And 00:05:01.410 --> 00:05:03.410 now we have to talk about the setting. Because 00:05:03.410 --> 00:05:05.529 when I close my eyes and think of Breaking Bad, 00:05:05.769 --> 00:05:08.649 I see the desert. Wide open spaces. I see the 00:05:08.649 --> 00:05:11.470 Sandia Mountains. I see that specific yellowish 00:05:11.470 --> 00:05:14.370 filter. But none of that was the original plan. 00:05:14.730 --> 00:05:17.439 No, not at all. The script was actually set in 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:19.120 Riverside, California. It was supposed to be 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:21.100 the Inland Empire. Which makes a lot of sense 00:05:21.100 --> 00:05:23.399 for a meth story, honestly. It totally does. 00:05:24.100 --> 00:05:26.800 But Sony, the production studio, came to Gilligan 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:30.680 and said, look, New Mexico has a 25 % tax rebate. 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:33.180 We need you to shoot there. Financial incentives 00:05:33.180 --> 00:05:36.540 driving art. Always. But this is where the genius 00:05:36.540 --> 00:05:39.319 comes in. Gilligan didn't try to make Albuquerque 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:42.000 look like Riverside. He didn't try to frame the 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:44.360 shots to hide the mountains. He embraced it. 00:05:44.360 --> 00:05:46.879 He realized that if he turned the camera east, 00:05:47.300 --> 00:05:50.779 he had this massive mythic landscape right there. 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:52.860 It fundamentally changes the genre, doesn't it? 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:55.360 I mean, if you shoot in Riverside, it's a gritty 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:58.100 suburban drama. But if you shoot in the New Mexico 00:05:58.100 --> 00:06:01.459 desert with those incredible wide horizons, it 00:06:01.459 --> 00:06:03.680 becomes a Western. Exactly. It becomes a neo 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:06.639 -Western. The isolation is palpable. In a California 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:09.399 suburb, you're always watched by neighbors. In 00:06:09.399 --> 00:06:12.160 the desert, you are completely alone with your 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:15.079 morality. Those wide angle shots that just dwarf 00:06:15.079 --> 00:06:17.420 the RV in the middle of nowhere. That's visual 00:06:17.420 --> 00:06:19.980 rhetoric. It literally says, there is no law 00:06:19.980 --> 00:06:22.720 here. There is only what you decide to do. It's 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:25.240 absolutely amazing that a budget line item created 00:06:25.240 --> 00:06:28.459 the show's most iconic visual signature. But 00:06:28.459 --> 00:06:30.939 speaking of happy accidents, we really have to 00:06:30.939 --> 00:06:33.879 talk about the writer's strike of 2007 to 2008. 00:06:34.220 --> 00:06:36.560 This is probably the single most important event 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.680 in the show's entire history. narratively speaking 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:41.839 explain that for the listener because usually 00:06:41.839 --> 00:06:43.819 when we talk about strikes they kill shows they 00:06:43.819 --> 00:06:46.199 don't save them right well season one was supposed 00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:48.639 to be nine episodes the strike cut it short to 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:52.279 seven Now Gilligan had a major plan for that 00:06:52.279 --> 00:06:55.459 finale of episode 9. He wanted to be ballsy He 00:06:55.459 --> 00:06:58.000 was planning to kill off a major character just 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:00.279 to stake his claim and show the audience He meant 00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:02.759 business and that character was either Hank Schrader 00:07:02.759 --> 00:07:05.180 or Jesse Pinkman most likely Jesse Okay, let's 00:07:05.180 --> 00:07:07.000 just pause on that for a second. Can you imagine 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:09.199 the show without Jesse Pinkman? It would be a 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:11.300 fundamentally different series if Jesse dies 00:07:11.300 --> 00:07:15.379 in season 1 Walt is just He's just a monster 00:07:15.379 --> 00:07:19.339 or maybe a victim seeking revenge, right? Jesse 00:07:19.339 --> 00:07:21.699 provides the heartbeat. He's the one who actually 00:07:21.699 --> 00:07:25.639 suffers. Walt schemes. But Jesse feels everything. 00:07:25.939 --> 00:07:28.560 Without Jesse, you lose the odd couple dynamic. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.079 You lose the entire father -son proxy war. You 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:35.000 lose the moral counterweight. But because the 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:37.139 season was cut short by the strike, they couldn't 00:07:37.139 --> 00:07:39.660 film that death scene. Thank goodness. And during 00:07:39.660 --> 00:07:42.379 the break, Gilligan watched the dailies. He saw 00:07:42.379 --> 00:07:45.180 the incredible chemistry between Bryan Cranston 00:07:45.180 --> 00:07:48.300 and Aaron Paul. It's that lightening in a bottle 00:07:48.300 --> 00:07:51.019 you just can't plan for. He realized that killing 00:07:51.019 --> 00:07:53.500 Jesse would be a colossal mistake. The strike 00:07:53.500 --> 00:07:56.480 forced them to slow down. It forced them to let 00:07:56.480 --> 00:07:59.060 the characters actually breathe rather than rushing 00:07:59.060 --> 00:08:01.560 to a shocking plot twist. It proves that sometimes 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:03.980 external constraints save writers from their 00:08:03.980 --> 00:08:06.160 own worst impulses. It gave them the time to 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:07.839 realize what they actually had on their hands. 00:08:08.060 --> 00:08:09.959 So we've got the setting, we've got the lucky 00:08:09.959 --> 00:08:12.199 breaks with the strike. Now let's move into section 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:14.819 two and talk about the man himself, Walter White. 00:08:15.709 --> 00:08:17.990 Casting Bryan Cranston seems so obvious to us 00:08:17.990 --> 00:08:20.589 now, but at the time, this was a massive gamble. 00:08:21.029 --> 00:08:24.889 A huge gamble. To the executives at AMC, Bryan 00:08:24.889 --> 00:08:27.670 Cranston was just Hal from Malcolm in the Middle. 00:08:28.110 --> 00:08:31.389 He was a goofy, roller skating, frantic sitcom 00:08:31.389 --> 00:08:33.669 dad. I can honestly see why they were hesitant. 00:08:34.309 --> 00:08:36.929 It's hard to see the intense danger in Hal. They 00:08:36.929 --> 00:08:39.330 wanted a movie star. They wanted John Cusack. 00:08:39.470 --> 00:08:41.509 They even wanted Matthew Broderick. I'm sorry, 00:08:41.610 --> 00:08:44.090 but Matthew Broderick is Heisenberg, Ferris Bueller 00:08:44.090 --> 00:08:46.830 saying, say my name. It just does not work in 00:08:46.830 --> 00:08:48.409 my head at all. It would have been a completely 00:08:48.409 --> 00:08:51.049 different energy. But Gilligan had this card 00:08:51.049 --> 00:08:53.389 up his sleeve. He'd worked with Cranston on an 00:08:53.389 --> 00:08:55.769 episode of The X -Files called Drive. I've actually 00:08:55.769 --> 00:08:57.990 seen this episode. Cranston plays a guy who basically 00:08:57.990 --> 00:09:00.250 has to keep driving Wes at high speeds or his 00:09:00.250 --> 00:09:02.769 head will explode. Right, but the character, 00:09:03.149 --> 00:09:06.929 Crump, is a virulent anti -semite. He's nasty, 00:09:07.169 --> 00:09:09.950 he's incredibly mean, but the role required the 00:09:09.950 --> 00:09:12.350 audience to somehow feel bad for him when he 00:09:12.350 --> 00:09:14.950 inevitably dies. Which is a tough tightrope to 00:09:14.950 --> 00:09:17.289 walk. Gilligan realized that Cranston had this 00:09:17.289 --> 00:09:20.529 completely unique ability to be loathsome and 00:09:20.529 --> 00:09:22.950 sympathetic simultaneously. And that right there 00:09:22.950 --> 00:09:25.730 is the secret sauce of Walter White. It is the 00:09:25.730 --> 00:09:28.230 underlying humanity that makes the entire tragedy 00:09:28.230 --> 00:09:31.809 work. If Walt is just a mustache twirling villain 00:09:31.809 --> 00:09:35.440 from day one, we tune out. We need to see the 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:37.659 desperate father. We need to see the guy who 00:09:37.659 --> 00:09:40.000 just wants to leave something for his kids. Cranston 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:42.539 brought that warmth, which made the chilling 00:09:42.539 --> 00:09:46.769 moments later on so much worse. And he transformed 00:09:46.769 --> 00:09:49.029 physically for this, too. This wasn't just acting 00:09:49.029 --> 00:09:51.750 from the neck up. No, not at all. He gained 10 00:09:51.750 --> 00:09:54.450 pounds to look a bit softer, a bit doughy. He 00:09:54.450 --> 00:09:57.129 dyed his hair brown to look completely unremarkable. 00:09:57.210 --> 00:09:59.409 He worked with the costume designer to pick these 00:09:59.409 --> 00:10:01.889 drab colors. The greens and the beiges. You want 00:10:01.889 --> 00:10:04.169 to look like part of the wallpaper. And we cannot 00:10:04.169 --> 00:10:06.750 forget the mustache. The dead caterpillar, as 00:10:06.750 --> 00:10:09.090 he called it. It's so pathetic. It really is. 00:10:09.169 --> 00:10:11.529 It practically screams impotence. That was the 00:10:11.529 --> 00:10:14.120 exact point. Walt at the beginning is a man with 00:10:14.120 --> 00:10:18.500 absolutely zero agency. He's overqualified, underpaid, 00:10:19.080 --> 00:10:21.379 scrubbing cars at the car wash to make ends meet, 00:10:21.779 --> 00:10:23.980 and literally being laughed at by his own teenage 00:10:23.980 --> 00:10:26.559 students. The mustache was the physical symbol 00:10:26.559 --> 00:10:29.279 of a man who had completely given up. So you 00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:32.080 have Cranston anchoring the show with this incredible 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:34.440 nuanced performance. And then you have Aaron 00:10:34.440 --> 00:10:37.980 Paul. as Jesse. Who, as we said, was never supposed 00:10:37.980 --> 00:10:40.259 to be the co -lead. He was just a former student, 00:10:40.460 --> 00:10:42.580 a lost soul. Aaron Paul brought this incredibly 00:10:42.580 --> 00:10:45.580 frantic, nervous energy to the screen. But he 00:10:45.580 --> 00:10:47.960 also brought a really deep vulnerability. Yeah. 00:10:48.259 --> 00:10:50.179 You look at his eyes in those early seasons, 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:52.379 he's just a kid pretending to be a gangster, 00:10:52.860 --> 00:10:56.000 while Walt is a literal genius pretending to 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:58.639 be a novice. It's a perfect inversion. It really 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:00.879 is. Now we have to wade into the Schuyler problem. 00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:03.659 because you simply cannot talk about the legacy 00:11:03.659 --> 00:11:06.620 of Breaking Bad without talking about the intense 00:11:06.620 --> 00:11:09.399 vitriol directed at Skylar White. It is definitely 00:11:09.399 --> 00:11:12.000 one of the most intense audience reactions in 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.299 television history. Anna Gunn, the actress who 00:11:14.299 --> 00:11:16.360 played Skylar, actually wrote an op -ed for the 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:18.220 New York Times about it. It was called I Have 00:11:18.220 --> 00:11:20.899 a Character Issue. She was getting actual death 00:11:20.899 --> 00:11:23.399 threats. People were creating I Hate Skylar White 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:25.759 Facebook pages with thousands of members. It 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:29.200 was incredibly ugly. And we have to unpack why 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:31.700 that happened impartially. based on the analysis. 00:11:32.419 --> 00:11:34.100 Obviously, there is a layer of sexism there, 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:37.000 this ingrained idea of the nagging wife standing 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:39.519 in the way of the male hero's exciting adventure. 00:11:39.639 --> 00:11:43.580 Right. But there is also a structural narrative 00:11:43.580 --> 00:11:45.840 manipulation happening that we have to acknowledge. 00:11:46.039 --> 00:11:48.740 Right, because the show is heavily POV locked 00:11:48.740 --> 00:11:51.080 to Walt. Exactly. Gilligan actually admitted 00:11:51.080 --> 00:11:54.159 this. years later. He said the storytelling was 00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:57.059 rigged. We see Walt's fear. We see his quote 00:11:57.059 --> 00:11:59.759 unquote noble intentions. So when Skylar asks 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:02.100 a perfectly reasonable question like where were 00:12:02.100 --> 00:12:04.440 you all night or where did this duffel bag of 00:12:04.440 --> 00:12:06.899 cash come from? She isn't framed as a rational 00:12:06.899 --> 00:12:09.379 partner trying to protect her family. She is 00:12:09.379 --> 00:12:12.559 visually and narratively framed as an antagonist. 00:12:12.679 --> 00:12:14.919 She is an obstacle to the fund. It's the buzzkill 00:12:14.919 --> 00:12:17.720 effect. We want Walt to blow things up and outsmart 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:19.980 the cartel and she wants to pay the bills legally 00:12:19.980 --> 00:12:23.159 and do the laundry. And yet, if you re -watch 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:25.299 the show now, completely removed from that weekly 00:12:25.299 --> 00:12:28.419 hype cycle of rooting for the bad guy, Skyler 00:12:28.419 --> 00:12:30.539 is often the only rational actor in the room. 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:33.139 As Anna Gunn noted, she has a backbone of steel. 00:12:33.340 --> 00:12:35.659 She doesn't just collapse. She protects those 00:12:35.659 --> 00:12:38.720 kids with a ferocity that easily rivals Waltz. 00:12:39.149 --> 00:12:42.090 but entirely without the massive ego. It's a 00:12:42.090 --> 00:12:44.509 huge testament to Anna Gunn that she held her 00:12:44.509 --> 00:12:47.190 ground against that massive wave of hate. It 00:12:47.190 --> 00:12:49.129 really makes the performance even more impressive 00:12:49.129 --> 00:12:51.529 in hindsight. Absolutely. She played the reality 00:12:51.529 --> 00:12:54.070 of the situation, not the fantasy the audience 00:12:54.070 --> 00:12:56.309 wanted. I also want to touch on the supporting 00:12:56.309 --> 00:12:58.909 cast, because the texture of this world is so 00:12:58.909 --> 00:13:02.110 incredibly rich. Jam Carlo Esposito as Gus Fring. 00:13:02.250 --> 00:13:05.429 The absolute anti -Tuco. Yes. Tuco was chaotic, 00:13:05.769 --> 00:13:08.149 screaming, constantly snorting meth off a hunting 00:13:08.149 --> 00:13:11.190 knife. Gus was, he was just dead. Dead calm. 00:13:11.610 --> 00:13:13.909 Esposito based that performance on Edward James 00:13:13.909 --> 00:13:17.330 Olmos in Miami Vice. He actually practiced yoga 00:13:17.330 --> 00:13:20.070 to get that intense stillness. He wanted to be 00:13:20.070 --> 00:13:22.600 a man completely hiding in plain sight. It's 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:24.279 terrifying because you never know what he's thinking. 00:13:24.460 --> 00:13:26.340 He's just so still in the fire. And then there's 00:13:26.340 --> 00:13:28.940 Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman. I read that he 00:13:28.940 --> 00:13:31.500 based the voice on Robert Evans. The legendary 00:13:31.500 --> 00:13:34.500 film producer, yes. The kid stays in the picture. 00:13:34.580 --> 00:13:36.620 You can completely hear it in Saul's cadence. 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:41.399 That rapid fire slick Hollywood schmooze. Odenkirk 00:13:41.399 --> 00:13:43.419 would literally do a Robert Evans impression 00:13:43.419 --> 00:13:46.000 before scenes to find the rhythm. Yeah. It brought 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:48.279 a comedic relief that the show desperately needed 00:13:48.279 --> 00:13:51.159 as the plots got darker and darker. It's incredible 00:13:51.159 --> 00:13:53.740 that Odenkirk, who was a sketch comedy legend 00:13:53.740 --> 00:13:56.460 for Mr. Show, became the absolute pivot point 00:13:56.460 --> 00:13:59.799 for this entire Albuquerque universe. And we 00:13:59.799 --> 00:14:01.259 definitely should mention R .J. Mideas -Walt 00:14:01.259 --> 00:14:05.139 Jr. He has cerebral palsy in real life. just 00:14:05.139 --> 00:14:07.460 like the character. But a milder form than the 00:14:07.460 --> 00:14:09.740 character. Yes. He actually had to learn to walk 00:14:09.740 --> 00:14:12.360 on crutches and purposefully slur his speech 00:14:12.360 --> 00:14:14.379 more than he naturally does for the role. It 00:14:14.379 --> 00:14:16.639 adds such a crucial layer of authenticity to 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:19.120 the family dynamic. Walt isn't just providing 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:21.639 for a generic family, he's providing for a son 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:25.120 with very specific long -term medical needs, 00:14:25.340 --> 00:14:27.960 which really ramps up his justification for needing 00:14:27.960 --> 00:14:30.820 the money early on. So we have the players. Now 00:14:30.820 --> 00:14:33.240 let's get into the game. The philosophy of it 00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:35.990 all. Section three. You mentioned earlier that 00:14:35.990 --> 00:14:38.590 this is a tragedy. Vince Gilligan has a very 00:14:38.590 --> 00:14:41.269 specific moral worldview that informs all of 00:14:41.269 --> 00:14:43.330 this, doesn't he? He does. He has this fantastic 00:14:43.330 --> 00:14:46.149 quote about his own beliefs. He said, I want 00:14:46.149 --> 00:14:48.330 to believe in heaven, but I need to believe in 00:14:48.330 --> 00:14:50.809 hell. That is heavy. Need to believe in hell. 00:14:50.929 --> 00:14:53.009 It means he deeply believes in consequences. 00:14:53.149 --> 00:14:55.129 He believes that the universe has a moral arc, 00:14:55.490 --> 00:14:59.509 and if you break it, it snaps back on you. Wrongdoers 00:14:59.509 --> 00:15:02.549 must be punished. This isn't a nihilistic show 00:15:02.549 --> 00:15:05.149 where everything is random. It's a show entirely 00:15:05.149 --> 00:15:08.110 about karma. But it's a very specific kind of 00:15:08.110 --> 00:15:10.309 karma. It's not immediate lightning bolts. No, 00:15:10.409 --> 00:15:14.289 it's slow. But it is entirely inevitable. The 00:15:14.289 --> 00:15:16.490 central question the show constantly poses to 00:15:16.490 --> 00:15:19.210 you is about the nature of evil. Is Walt bad 00:15:19.210 --> 00:15:21.350 because of his actions? Is he bad because of 00:15:21.350 --> 00:15:24.370 his motives? Or was the badness always in him 00:15:24.370 --> 00:15:26.480 just waiting for the right catalyst? There's 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:28.460 the classic comparison to Tony Soprano. Tony 00:15:28.460 --> 00:15:29.840 was born into the mob. He didn't really have 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:32.879 a choice in a way. Tony Soprano was born in darkness 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:36.600 and actively refused the light. Walter White 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:38.919 lived in the light. He was a teacher, a father, 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:41.980 a law -abiding citizen, and he actively chose 00:15:41.980 --> 00:15:44.200 the darkness. He walked into it with his eyes 00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:46.779 wide open. And I think we can pinpoint the exact 00:15:46.779 --> 00:15:48.639 moment he made that conscious decision. It's 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:51.059 not the pilot episode. It's the gray matter offer. 00:15:51.139 --> 00:15:53.399 Oh, absolutely. This is the Rosetta Stone of 00:15:53.399 --> 00:15:55.850 Walter White's entire psyche. For listeners who 00:15:55.850 --> 00:15:58.350 might have forgotten the exact details, in season 00:15:58.350 --> 00:16:00.710 one, his old partners, Gretchen and Elliot Schwartz 00:16:00.710 --> 00:16:03.049 from Grey Matter, they offered to pay for his 00:16:03.049 --> 00:16:05.710 cancer treatment. They offer him a job. It is 00:16:05.710 --> 00:16:08.370 a complete golden parachute. It is the solution 00:16:08.370 --> 00:16:10.889 to every single one of his problems. His family 00:16:10.889 --> 00:16:13.230 is provided for. He gets the best medical care. 00:16:13.330 --> 00:16:15.549 He gets his dignity back in the scientific community. 00:16:15.669 --> 00:16:18.490 He says no. He says no. And that is the exact 00:16:18.490 --> 00:16:21.129 moment the show stops being about a desperate 00:16:21.129 --> 00:16:23.970 man doing what he has to do to survive and starts 00:16:23.970 --> 00:16:27.320 being about an incredibly prideful man doing 00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:29.620 what he wants to do. It was never actually about 00:16:29.620 --> 00:16:32.080 the money or the family. It was always about 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:34.200 the ego. He felt cut out of Grey Matter years 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:36.259 ago, which was his own fault, by the way, for 00:16:36.259 --> 00:16:38.340 walking away, and he just couldn't stand the 00:16:38.340 --> 00:16:41.139 idea of taking charity from them. He would literally 00:16:41.139 --> 00:16:44.080 rather cook meth and kill people than say thank 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.600 you to his ex -girlfriend. That intense pride 00:16:46.600 --> 00:16:49.700 connects directly to the finale. The confession 00:16:49.700 --> 00:16:51.840 scene with Skylar in the kitchen. I did it for 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:54.740 me that line gives me chills every single time 00:16:54.740 --> 00:16:57.559 It's the moment the whole eye collapses. He finally 00:16:57.559 --> 00:17:00.610 admits to her I did it for me. I liked it. I 00:17:00.610 --> 00:17:03.769 was good at it. It brilliantly deconstructs that 00:17:03.769 --> 00:17:07.049 provider archetype that toxic masculinity relies 00:17:07.049 --> 00:17:10.390 on so heavily. Duskfring uses that exact archetype 00:17:10.390 --> 00:17:13.509 as a weapon against Walt. Remember when he manipulates 00:17:13.509 --> 00:17:16.609 Walt by telling him a man provides and he does 00:17:16.609 --> 00:17:18.970 it even when he's not appreciated or respected 00:17:18.970 --> 00:17:22.009 or even loved. It sounds so incredibly noble 00:17:22.009 --> 00:17:24.289 when Gus says it. It's seductive. But it's a 00:17:24.289 --> 00:17:27.029 trap. It's a convenient way to justify absolute 00:17:27.029 --> 00:17:29.750 monstrosity. Walt latches on to that because 00:17:29.750 --> 00:17:31.710 it allows him to feel like a martyr and a hero 00:17:31.710 --> 00:17:34.750 while he's literally dissolving bodies in acid. 00:17:35.809 --> 00:17:38.049 But in the end, Walt admits that the provider 00:17:38.049 --> 00:17:40.269 thing was just a cover story he told himself 00:17:40.269 --> 00:17:42.920 to justify his own massive ambition. And that 00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:46.299 ambition leads us inevitably to Ozymandias. The 00:17:46.299 --> 00:17:48.259 absolute collapse. We have to geek out on this 00:17:48.259 --> 00:17:50.740 for a second because it's so good. The season 00:17:50.740 --> 00:17:53.299 five episode title comes from the Percy Bish 00:17:53.299 --> 00:17:55.900 Shelley poem. They even used Cranston reading 00:17:55.900 --> 00:17:58.720 it in the promotional material. Look on my works, 00:17:58.880 --> 00:18:01.880 you mighty and despair. It's a poem about a traveler 00:18:01.880 --> 00:18:04.460 finding a shattered ruined statue of an ancient 00:18:04.460 --> 00:18:07.099 king in the desert, two vast and trunkless legs 00:18:07.099 --> 00:18:09.430 of stone. The inscription basically says, look 00:18:09.430 --> 00:18:11.089 at how powerful I am, but there's absolutely 00:18:11.089 --> 00:18:13.670 nothing around it but endless sand. The empire 00:18:13.670 --> 00:18:15.789 is completely gone. And that is exactly what 00:18:15.789 --> 00:18:18.250 happens to Walt in that specific episode. It 00:18:18.250 --> 00:18:20.890 is a perfect one -to -one mapping. He has his 00:18:20.890 --> 00:18:23.049 literal barrels of money, his works buried in 00:18:23.049 --> 00:18:25.690 the desert, but what actually happens, Hank is 00:18:25.690 --> 00:18:29.339 killed. Jesse is enslaved. His family is completely 00:18:29.339 --> 00:18:32.180 destroyed and terrified of him. He loses everything 00:18:32.180 --> 00:18:34.119 that gave the money meaning in the first place. 00:18:34.460 --> 00:18:36.619 There's that incredible shot of Walt falling 00:18:36.619 --> 00:18:38.900 to the ground in the desert in slow motion. He 00:18:38.900 --> 00:18:42.259 looks so small against the landscape. He is the 00:18:42.259 --> 00:18:45.539 fallen king of kings. It perfectly encapsulates 00:18:45.539 --> 00:18:48.359 the theme of the futility of hubris. You can 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:51.920 build a massive empire. But time and sand conquer 00:18:51.920 --> 00:18:54.480 absolutely everything. It really elevates the 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:58.079 show from a pulpy crime story to a true literary 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:00.720 tragedy. It really does. Now let's pivot from 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:02.960 the literary themes to the literal mechanics, 00:19:03.319 --> 00:19:06.019 the science and the craft. Section four. This 00:19:06.019 --> 00:19:08.859 is a show about a chemistry teacher. How much 00:19:08.859 --> 00:19:11.740 of the science was actually real? More than usual 00:19:11.740 --> 00:19:13.160 for television, but definitely less than you 00:19:13.160 --> 00:19:15.549 might think. They had a real advisor, Dr. Donna 00:19:15.549 --> 00:19:17.349 Nelson. She's a chemistry professor, and she 00:19:17.349 --> 00:19:19.950 vetted scripts and actually drew the accurate 00:19:19.950 --> 00:19:22.390 chemical structures on the whiteboards. So the 00:19:22.390 --> 00:19:24.569 jargon was right. But what about the blue meth, 00:19:24.910 --> 00:19:27.529 the famous blue sky? This is the single biggest 00:19:27.529 --> 00:19:29.730 scientific liberty they took in the entire run. 00:19:30.349 --> 00:19:33.849 Break it down for us. Why can't it be blue? Because 00:19:33.849 --> 00:19:36.509 pure methamphetamine is a crystal. It should 00:19:36.509 --> 00:19:40.000 be totally clear or white. If it's blue, that 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:42.940 inherently implies an impurity. So if Walt is 00:19:42.940 --> 00:19:47.140 making the purest product ever recorded 99 .1%, 00:19:47.140 --> 00:19:50.559 it should logically be perfectly clear. Exactly. 00:19:51.339 --> 00:19:53.720 The blue color was purely a creative liberty, 00:19:54.119 --> 00:19:56.539 a marketing gimmick by the writers. They needed 00:19:56.539 --> 00:19:59.559 a very clear visual signifier so the audience 00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:02.660 could instantly recognize Walt's meth versus 00:20:02.660 --> 00:20:05.480 the generic street meth. It's brilliant for television, 00:20:05.799 --> 00:20:07.960 but chemically. It makes absolutely no sense. 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:09.619 And then there's the manufacturing method itself. 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:11.480 They actually depict two different methods on 00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:13.619 the show. Which is historically accurate to how 00:20:13.619 --> 00:20:15.799 real -world meth production evolved over time. 00:20:16.119 --> 00:20:18.200 They start with the pseudoephedrine -based method. 00:20:18.380 --> 00:20:21.059 The Nagai red phosphorus and iodine method. Cooking 00:20:21.059 --> 00:20:23.339 down cold medicine. Right. But to scale that 00:20:23.339 --> 00:20:25.160 up, you need hundreds and hundreds of boxes of 00:20:25.160 --> 00:20:27.500 pills. It creates a massive bottleneck for production. 00:20:27.799 --> 00:20:30.720 So they switch to the PDP method. Phenyl 2 -propanone. 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:33.880 The reductive amination method. The heavy barrel 00:20:33.880 --> 00:20:37.009 with the golden moth on it. Methylamine. Exactly. 00:20:37.210 --> 00:20:40.589 Now here's the actual scientific catch. The P2P 00:20:40.589 --> 00:20:43.390 method is much easier to scale up industrially, 00:20:43.730 --> 00:20:46.369 but it naturally produces what's called erasemic 00:20:46.369 --> 00:20:48.309 mixture. Okay, let's slow down for a second. 00:20:48.430 --> 00:20:51.269 Explain erasemic mixture to us. Sure. Chemistry 00:20:51.269 --> 00:20:54.609 101. Molecules can have a handedness to them, 00:20:54.829 --> 00:20:56.910 like your left and right hands. They're exact 00:20:56.910 --> 00:20:58.930 mirror images of each other, and they're called 00:20:58.930 --> 00:21:01.809 enantiomers. Right. In meth, one version gets 00:21:01.809 --> 00:21:04.210 you high. The mirror image version does basically 00:21:04.210 --> 00:21:07.289 nothing or acts like a mild decongestant. The 00:21:07.289 --> 00:21:10.210 PDP method naturally creates a 50 -50 mix of 00:21:10.210 --> 00:21:13.309 both. So it's only 50 % potent by default. So 00:21:13.309 --> 00:21:15.690 Walt's true genius wasn't just cooking it, it 00:21:15.690 --> 00:21:18.170 was filtering it somehow. That's the scientific 00:21:18.170 --> 00:21:20.509 implication, that he found some revolutionary 00:21:20.509 --> 00:21:23.210 way to isolate the good in antiumer using a highly 00:21:23.210 --> 00:21:26.329 specific reduction method. The show smartly glosses 00:21:26.329 --> 00:21:28.829 over exactly how he does that because, well, 00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:31.000 They understandably don't want to give a literal 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:33.259 step -by -step tutorial on how to make super 00:21:33.259 --> 00:21:35.920 potent cartel meth. Probably a very responsible 00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:39.240 choice by AMC. But the show Mythbusters actually 00:21:39.240 --> 00:21:42.220 did step in to test some of the more explosive 00:21:42.220 --> 00:21:44.440 scientific claims. They did. They did an entire 00:21:44.440 --> 00:21:46.859 Breaking Bad special. It was fantastic. Let's 00:21:46.859 --> 00:21:49.259 talk about the bathtub scene from season one. 00:21:49.740 --> 00:21:52.980 Jesse tries to dissolve Emilio's body with hydrofluoric 00:21:52.980 --> 00:21:56.369 acid in a ceramic bathtub. It melts the tub, 00:21:56.690 --> 00:21:59.269 melts the wooden floor, and drops the whole gruesome 00:21:59.269 --> 00:22:01.829 mess into the hallway downstairs. It's an incredibly 00:22:01.829 --> 00:22:05.599 memorable visceral scene. but MythBusters completely 00:22:05.599 --> 00:22:08.839 busted it. Hydrofluoric acid is nasty, dangerous 00:22:08.839 --> 00:22:11.599 stuff, but it is impossible for it to eat through 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:14.119 a ceramic bathtub and a solid wood floor that 00:22:14.119 --> 00:22:15.900 quickly. So it wouldn't happen like that? It'd 00:22:15.900 --> 00:22:18.019 take a very long time, and it wouldn't be anywhere 00:22:18.019 --> 00:22:20.259 near that dramatically destructive to the floorboards. 00:22:20.339 --> 00:22:22.619 Good to know. And what about the Mercury fulminate? 00:22:22.700 --> 00:22:25.099 This is the famous scene where Walt goes to Tuco's 00:22:25.099 --> 00:22:27.359 office, throws a little crystal on the ground, 00:22:27.700 --> 00:22:29.960 and violently blows out all the windows. This 00:22:29.960 --> 00:22:33.900 is not math. Iconic moments. But is it real? 00:22:34.180 --> 00:22:37.500 Bust it again. Mercury fulminate is a real explosive, 00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:40.519 yes. But to get an explosion that completely 00:22:40.519 --> 00:22:42.720 shattered all the windows and blew the heavy 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:45.440 AC unit out of the wall? He would have needed 00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:47.720 a significantly larger amount than that little 00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:50.140 crystal. And the blast radius. Right. Physics 00:22:50.140 --> 00:22:52.480 is physics. If the shockwave was strong enough 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:54.480 to blow out the windows, it would have turned 00:22:54.480 --> 00:22:57.119 Walt's internal organs into jelly right where 00:22:57.119 --> 00:22:59.180 he stood. He would have needed to throw it much 00:22:59.180 --> 00:23:01.140 faster, and it would have killed everyone in 00:23:01.140 --> 00:23:04.549 the room. So Walt essentially has superhero durability 00:23:04.549 --> 00:23:07.150 in that scene? A little bit of TV magic to establish 00:23:07.150 --> 00:23:09.750 Heisenberg. Yeah. But, and this makes me very 00:23:09.750 --> 00:23:11.509 happy, they tested the machine gun in the trunk 00:23:11.509 --> 00:23:14.170 from the series finale. The M60 on the automated 00:23:14.170 --> 00:23:16.930 swivel mount. Yes. Mythbusters tested it, and 00:23:16.930 --> 00:23:20.730 it is actually plausible. You really can build 00:23:20.730 --> 00:23:22.910 a remote -controlled turret that sweeps back 00:23:22.910 --> 00:23:26.089 and forth using a garage door opener motor. It 00:23:26.089 --> 00:23:28.849 is mechanically sound. That is extremely satisfying. 00:23:28.890 --> 00:23:31.009 I really wanted that one to be real. Now, moving 00:23:31.009 --> 00:23:32.990 from science to visual language, let's talk about 00:23:32.990 --> 00:23:36.390 the symbolism. Because Vince Gilligan absolutely 00:23:36.390 --> 00:23:40.349 loves his motifs. The pink teddy bear. It falls 00:23:40.349 --> 00:23:43.190 from the sky into Walt's pool in season two. 00:23:43.349 --> 00:23:46.190 It's missing an eye. It's a brilliant harbinger. 00:23:46.730 --> 00:23:49.289 It represents the innocent lives completely destroyed 00:23:49.289 --> 00:23:52.349 by Walt's actions. The plane crash was a direct 00:23:52.349 --> 00:23:55.549 result of Walt letting Jane die. That bear is 00:23:55.549 --> 00:23:57.869 the judgment of God. It's the universe looking 00:23:57.869 --> 00:24:00.930 down and saying, I see the damage you are responsible 00:24:00.930 --> 00:24:04.180 for. And it's in color. Right. The flash -forward 00:24:04.180 --> 00:24:06.839 teasers in season two were entirely in black 00:24:06.839 --> 00:24:09.420 and white, but the bear was bright pink. It's 00:24:09.420 --> 00:24:11.900 a very direct homage to Schindler's List, the 00:24:11.900 --> 00:24:14.680 little girl in the red coat. It forcefully draws 00:24:14.680 --> 00:24:16.660 the viewer's eye to the tragedy and the loss 00:24:16.660 --> 00:24:18.740 of innocence. And then there's the book, Leaves 00:24:18.740 --> 00:24:20.859 of Grass by Walt Whitman. To my other favorite, 00:24:20.920 --> 00:24:23.400 WW. Gale Buititre gives it to him. It's such 00:24:23.400 --> 00:24:26.380 a small, innocuous prop, but it literally brings 00:24:26.380 --> 00:24:28.640 the whole empire crashing down when Hank finds 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:31.200 it in the bathroom. It's incredibly fitting thematically. 00:24:31.369 --> 00:24:34.549 Walt Whitman wrote Song of Myself. He was a poet 00:24:34.549 --> 00:24:37.569 of the mass of ego, in a way. And the specific 00:24:37.569 --> 00:24:39.490 poem featured in the show when I heard The Learned 00:24:39.490 --> 00:24:42.009 Astronomer is entirely about the difference between 00:24:42.009 --> 00:24:44.430 studying the stars on a chart in a classroom 00:24:44.430 --> 00:24:46.549 and actually going outside to look up at them 00:24:46.549 --> 00:24:49.630 in perfect silence. Which perfectly mirrors Walt's 00:24:49.630 --> 00:24:51.910 journey from the theory of the classroom to the 00:24:51.910 --> 00:24:54.789 visceral practice of the meth lab. Exactly. But 00:24:54.789 --> 00:24:57.309 it's the sheer arrogance of keeping that book 00:24:57.309 --> 00:25:00.609 that ultimately kills him. He couldn't burn it. 00:25:00.670 --> 00:25:02.970 He couldn't throw it away. His pride demanded 00:25:02.970 --> 00:25:05.369 he keep the trophy of his own brilliance. Let's 00:25:05.369 --> 00:25:07.150 also look at the colors. We mentioned the clothes 00:25:07.150 --> 00:25:09.250 a bit earlier with Cranston, but the color theory 00:25:09.250 --> 00:25:11.589 applied across this entire show is borderline 00:25:11.589 --> 00:25:14.410 obsessive. Oh, it really is. There's a specific 00:25:14.410 --> 00:25:16.450 color chart Gilligan and the production team 00:25:16.450 --> 00:25:19.289 used. Wardrobe colors represented characters 00:25:19.289 --> 00:25:23.089 exact states of mind. Walt starts in beige, completely 00:25:23.089 --> 00:25:26.509 neutral, bland, basically nonexistent. As he 00:25:26.509 --> 00:25:29.009 gets deeper into the meth trade, he starts wearing 00:25:29.009 --> 00:25:31.960 dark green. representing money and his dark growth. 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:34.640 And as he fully becomes Heisenberg, he wears 00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:37.460 stark black. And Marie Schrader is almost always 00:25:37.460 --> 00:25:40.480 in purple. Always. Purple traditionally represents 00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:43.299 royalty. But in this context, it's also deception. 00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:46.759 She's a kleptomaniac. She lives in an incredibly 00:25:46.759 --> 00:25:49.279 manicured fantasy world. And Skylar. She starts 00:25:49.279 --> 00:25:53.299 out in a lot of blue. Innocence. Clear sky. But 00:25:53.299 --> 00:25:55.920 as the seasons progress, she moves steadily toward 00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:58.140 darker colors as she gets dragged further into 00:25:58.140 --> 00:26:00.980 the mud with Walt. The wardrobe literally tells 00:26:00.980 --> 00:26:02.799 the story before the characters even open their 00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:04.980 mouths. We also really need to appreciate the 00:26:04.980 --> 00:26:07.579 cinematography. They shot on 35mm film, right? 00:26:07.720 --> 00:26:10.799 Yes, which was robust, relatively economic at 00:26:10.799 --> 00:26:13.599 the time, and brilliantly allowed for 4K transfers 00:26:13.599 --> 00:26:17.240 later on. But beyond the format, it's the specific 00:26:17.240 --> 00:26:20.099 visual style. The POV shots. The classic Breaking 00:26:20.099 --> 00:26:22.400 Bad shot. Looking up from the bottom of a plastic 00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:25.119 bucket. looking out from inside a spinning dryer, 00:26:25.720 --> 00:26:27.559 looking directly through the glass of a coffee 00:26:27.559 --> 00:26:30.680 pot while it's brewing. It's weird. One major 00:26:30.680 --> 00:26:33.539 critic perfectly called it trans -fixing weirdness. 00:26:34.200 --> 00:26:36.940 It intentionally forces you to look at completely 00:26:36.940 --> 00:26:40.519 mundane objects from a brand new, unnatural perspective. 00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:43.420 It makes the world feel slightly alien. which 00:26:43.420 --> 00:26:47.039 is exactly how Walt feels. He is completely alienating 00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:50.180 himself from normal human life. OK, we've completely 00:26:50.180 --> 00:26:52.119 dissected the show's inner workings. Now let's 00:26:52.119 --> 00:26:55.480 look at the blast radius. Section five, reception, 00:26:55.799 --> 00:26:58.380 legacy and real world impact. The footprint of 00:26:58.380 --> 00:27:00.400 this show is just immense. You look at the critical 00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:03.160 rankings from Rolling Stone, Empire, Variety. 00:27:03.640 --> 00:27:05.660 It's consistently ranked as one of the greatest 00:27:05.660 --> 00:27:08.380 TV shows of all time. usually top three, if not 00:27:08.380 --> 00:27:10.400 number one. It actually holds a Guinness World 00:27:10.400 --> 00:27:13.440 Record. Yes, the 2013 record for highest rated 00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:16.200 TV series. Season five hold a Metacritic score 00:27:16.200 --> 00:27:19.099 of 99 out of 100. That is statistically absurd. 00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:21.259 That essentially means every single major critic 00:27:21.259 --> 00:27:23.079 agreed it was flawless. And then you have the 00:27:23.079 --> 00:27:25.279 Anthony Hopkins letter. This is genuinely my 00:27:25.279 --> 00:27:27.700 favorite piece of trivia about the show's reception. 00:27:28.099 --> 00:27:30.000 Sir Anthony Hopkins actually binge watched the 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:32.299 entire show in two weeks. Which is very relatable 00:27:32.299 --> 00:27:35.900 for all of us. And he was so moved, he wrote 00:27:35.900 --> 00:27:39.019 an incredible fan letter to Bryan Cranston. He 00:27:39.019 --> 00:27:42.140 literally said, your performance as Walter White 00:27:42.140 --> 00:27:45.690 was the best acting I have seen ever. Imagine 00:27:45.690 --> 00:27:47.930 waking up to that email from Hannibal Lecter 00:27:47.930 --> 00:27:50.450 himself. He compared the show to Shakespeare 00:27:50.450 --> 00:27:53.529 and Greek tragedy. It really validated the series 00:27:53.529 --> 00:27:56.210 as high art in the eyes of the old guard. But 00:27:56.210 --> 00:27:59.369 art influences life and not always in good ways. 00:27:59.750 --> 00:28:01.630 We have to talk about the cultural impact and 00:28:01.630 --> 00:28:04.410 the controversies, the Breaking Bad effect. This 00:28:04.410 --> 00:28:06.509 is the dark side of that massive popularity. 00:28:07.269 --> 00:28:09.269 Law enforcement actually started reporting blue 00:28:09.269 --> 00:28:12.009 meth appearing on real streets. Real drug dealers 00:28:12.009 --> 00:28:14.690 were intentionally dying their meth blue. Yes. 00:28:15.170 --> 00:28:17.470 They were actively branding it to cash in on 00:28:17.470 --> 00:28:19.589 the show's popularity. It actually made the drug 00:28:19.589 --> 00:28:21.829 significantly more dangerous because buyers thought 00:28:21.829 --> 00:28:25.009 blue meant pure, just like on TV, when in reality 00:28:25.009 --> 00:28:26.890 it just meant some copycat added food coloring 00:28:26.890 --> 00:28:29.269 or harsh industrial chemicals. That is deeply 00:28:29.269 --> 00:28:31.910 disturbing. Life imitating art in the worst possible 00:28:31.910 --> 00:28:34.630 way. And then there were the literal copycats. 00:28:34.750 --> 00:28:36.990 There were actual chemistry professors caught 00:28:36.990 --> 00:28:39.579 running meth labs after the show aired. And then 00:28:39.579 --> 00:28:43.279 there are the slightly lighter but still intense 00:28:43.279 --> 00:28:47.460 controversies. The Toys R Us saga. Oh, the action 00:28:47.460 --> 00:28:49.599 figures. Right. Toys R Us was selling a Walter 00:28:49.599 --> 00:28:51.920 White action figure. He came with a little tiny 00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:54.799 bag of blue crystals and a little plastic duffel 00:28:54.799 --> 00:28:57.319 bag of cash. And a Florida mom was walking down 00:28:57.319 --> 00:28:59.059 the aisle and thought, you know, maybe this isn't 00:28:59.059 --> 00:29:01.579 appropriate for a children's toy store. Which. 00:29:01.900 --> 00:29:04.259 To be completely fair, she has a valid point. 00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:07.380 It's a toy of a ruthless murderer selling narcotics 00:29:07.380 --> 00:29:09.859 next to the Lego sets. She started a petition. 00:29:10.339 --> 00:29:12.619 Toys R' Us quickly pulled them from the shelves. 00:29:13.420 --> 00:29:15.960 Bryan Cranston, being the joker he is, tweeted, 00:29:16.339 --> 00:29:19.039 I'm burning my Florida mom action figure in protest. 00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:22.079 But the fans, the fans are intense. We have to 00:29:22.079 --> 00:29:24.220 talk about the pizza throwing. The pizza on the 00:29:24.220 --> 00:29:26.140 roof. Set the scene for us real quick. Season 00:29:26.140 --> 00:29:29.509 three. Walt brings a massive dipping sticks pizza 00:29:29.509 --> 00:29:32.109 to Skylar as a peace offering. She locks him 00:29:32.109 --> 00:29:35.049 out of the house. In a fit of petty rage, he 00:29:35.049 --> 00:29:37.549 throws the pizza. It sails perfectly out of the 00:29:37.549 --> 00:29:39.750 box and lands flat on the garage roof. And that 00:29:39.750 --> 00:29:43.309 was one take, right? One single take. Cranston 00:29:43.309 --> 00:29:44.970 couldn't have done it again if he tried all day. 00:29:45.309 --> 00:29:46.990 But the fans thought it was the most hilarious 00:29:46.990 --> 00:29:48.849 thing ever. So they started traveling to the 00:29:48.849 --> 00:29:52.680 real house in Albuquerque where a real very normal 00:29:52.680 --> 00:29:55.480 lady lives, and actually throwing large pizzas 00:29:55.480 --> 00:29:58.299 on her roof. It became a weird pop culture pilgrimage. 00:29:58.660 --> 00:30:00.880 It became an absolute nightmare for the homeowner. 00:30:01.240 --> 00:30:03.940 She had to put up a huge iron fence. Vincent 00:30:03.940 --> 00:30:06.079 Gilligan actually had to go on a podcast and 00:30:06.079 --> 00:30:08.759 publicly beg people to stop doing it. He said 00:30:08.759 --> 00:30:10.920 there is nothing cool or funny about throwing 00:30:10.920 --> 00:30:13.819 a pizza on a lady's roof. It really shows how 00:30:13.819 --> 00:30:16.279 the line between fiction and reality blurred 00:30:16.279 --> 00:30:19.019 for people. They just desperately wanted to physically 00:30:19.019 --> 00:30:21.410 participate in the meme. And Albuquerque has 00:30:21.410 --> 00:30:23.589 had a very complicated relationship with the 00:30:23.589 --> 00:30:26.509 show because of that intense fandom. On one hand, 00:30:26.769 --> 00:30:28.930 it brought millions of dollars in tax revenue 00:30:28.930 --> 00:30:32.029 and a thriving film industry to the state. On 00:30:32.029 --> 00:30:34.490 the other hand, it inextricably linked the city 00:30:34.490 --> 00:30:37.029 to meth production in the global consciousness. 00:30:37.250 --> 00:30:38.950 But they did lean into it eventually. They put 00:30:38.950 --> 00:30:41.670 up statues in twenty twenty two. Yes, bronze 00:30:41.670 --> 00:30:43.829 statues of what and Jesse at the Albuquerque 00:30:43.829 --> 00:30:46.430 Convention Center, which naturally caused quite 00:30:46.430 --> 00:30:49.490 a stir. It did. It's important to note the differing 00:30:49.490 --> 00:30:51.940 views here. Some conservative politicians and 00:30:51.940 --> 00:30:55.500 radio hosts strongly criticized the move, arguing 00:30:55.500 --> 00:30:57.920 that erecting monuments to fictional drug dealers 00:30:57.920 --> 00:31:00.799 glorifies crime and sends the wrong message to 00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:04.440 the community. On the other side, the mayor defended 00:31:04.440 --> 00:31:07.359 the statues, arguing that it wasn't about glorifying 00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:10.319 drugs at all, but rather acknowledging the massive 00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:13.000 positive economic impact the production had on 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:15.559 the city, putting Albuquerque on the map for 00:31:15.559 --> 00:31:18.319 tourism and film. It's very similar to the debate 00:31:18.319 --> 00:31:20.960 people have about the statue of Rocky Balboa 00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:23.400 in Philadelphia, just with significantly more 00:31:23.400 --> 00:31:25.700 moral baggage attached. Exactly. It's a complex 00:31:25.700 --> 00:31:27.940 civic issue. And the universe didn't just end 00:31:27.940 --> 00:31:30.900 with Breaking Bad. It expanded into a massive 00:31:30.900 --> 00:31:34.099 franchise. We got Better Call Saul. Which is 00:31:34.099 --> 00:31:36.319 an absolute miracle of television, and prequels 00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:38.819 are almost always bad. But Better Call Saul might 00:31:38.819 --> 00:31:41.200 be just as good, if not better, depending on 00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:43.079 who you ask in the fandom. It's definitely a 00:31:43.079 --> 00:31:45.119 different kind of show. It's quieter, more legal 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:47.619 drama. but it proved the incredible depth of 00:31:47.619 --> 00:31:49.799 that writing team. And El Camino, the sequel 00:31:49.799 --> 00:31:52.579 movie, which finally gave us actual closure for 00:31:52.579 --> 00:31:54.779 Jessie's character. Plus the Spanish language 00:31:54.779 --> 00:31:58.859 adaptation, Metastasis. Yes. So as we hit the 00:31:58.859 --> 00:32:01.190 outter and wrap this up. We've looked at the 00:32:01.190 --> 00:32:04.190 production miracles, the phenomenal acting, the 00:32:04.190 --> 00:32:06.569 science, and the massive real -world legacy. 00:32:07.009 --> 00:32:09.430 We've traced the journey of a desperate chemistry 00:32:09.430 --> 00:32:12.650 teacher turning into a tragic figure of absolute 00:32:12.650 --> 00:32:15.509 hubris. A complete transformation. But I want 00:32:15.509 --> 00:32:17.789 to leave the listener with a final provocative 00:32:17.789 --> 00:32:20.630 thought. We talked about the ending we got. Walt 00:32:20.630 --> 00:32:23.730 dies in the lab. He lovingly touches the stainless 00:32:23.730 --> 00:32:26.970 steel equipment. He falls over, the camera cranes 00:32:26.970 --> 00:32:29.789 up, and the song Baby Blue plays. A very clean, 00:32:30.150 --> 00:32:32.230 structurally satisfying ending. But is it too 00:32:32.230 --> 00:32:34.650 satisfying? That is the ultimate debate among 00:32:34.650 --> 00:32:37.109 critics. The writers actually heavily considered 00:32:37.109 --> 00:32:38.990 an alternate ending, a much, much darker one. 00:32:39.150 --> 00:32:41.099 Tell us about that alternate ending. They toyed 00:32:41.099 --> 00:32:43.480 with the idea that Walt would be the only survivor 00:32:43.480 --> 00:32:46.460 of the entire ordeal, that Skylar would commit 00:32:46.460 --> 00:32:49.099 suicide or be killed, that Walter Jr. would die, 00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:51.480 that the baby would be lost, and Walt would be 00:32:51.480 --> 00:32:54.019 left standing in the ashes, completely alive, 00:32:54.259 --> 00:32:57.119 with all of his bloody money. Oh, wow. That sounds 00:32:57.119 --> 00:32:59.420 unbearable to watch. It would have been a true 00:32:59.420 --> 00:33:01.940 punishing Greek tragedy, the ultimate karmic 00:33:01.940 --> 00:33:04.000 retribution, living forever with the complete 00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:06.759 void he created. Instead, the ending we got lets 00:33:06.759 --> 00:33:09.299 him tie up loose ends. He gets to save Jesse. 00:33:09.460 --> 00:33:12.339 He gets to violently kill the Nazis. He manages 00:33:12.339 --> 00:33:14.579 to leave the money for his son through Elliot 00:33:14.579 --> 00:33:17.480 and Gretchen, and he dies on his own terms in 00:33:17.480 --> 00:33:20.119 the place he loved most, the meth lab. In a weird 00:33:20.119 --> 00:33:23.420 way. Walt won. He achieved his core goals. He 00:33:23.420 --> 00:33:26.119 became a terrifying legend. He felt alive and 00:33:26.119 --> 00:33:28.200 he died right before the handcuffs clicked. So 00:33:28.200 --> 00:33:29.759 the question I have for you listening right now, 00:33:29.900 --> 00:33:32.819 something to mull over, is did the show let Walter 00:33:32.819 --> 00:33:35.720 White off the hook too easily? Did we, the complicit 00:33:35.720 --> 00:33:38.599 audience, get the satisfying action movie catharsis 00:33:38.599 --> 00:33:41.200 we wanted rather than the brutal punishment Walt 00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:43.720 actually deserved for the pain he caused? I think 00:33:43.720 --> 00:33:46.099 that's exactly the question Gilligan wants us 00:33:46.099 --> 00:33:49.579 all to ask ourselves. Is a good death really 00:33:49.579 --> 00:33:53.119 redemption? Or is it just one final brilliant 00:33:53.119 --> 00:33:56.039 manipulation by Walter White? Definitely something 00:33:56.039 --> 00:33:58.200 to think about next time you see a blue crystal 00:33:58.200 --> 00:34:01.079 or re -watch the pilot. Keep an eye out for that 00:34:01.079 --> 00:34:03.700 pathetic dead caterpillar mustache and really 00:34:03.700 --> 00:34:05.940 watch the color theory unfold. It changes how 00:34:05.940 --> 00:34:08.039 you view the whole series. Well, thanks for going 00:34:08.039 --> 00:34:10.539 deep with us today. It's been an incredible ride 00:34:10.539 --> 00:34:13.059 unpacking this masterpiece. A completely wild 00:34:13.059 --> 00:34:15.500 one. We'll catch you on the next deep dive. Keep 00:34:15.500 --> 00:34:17.659 looking up at the stars, not just the charts.