Revisiting Breaking Bad

I have a little valentines post planned which I had hoped to have ready for last week and then for today but time has not been on my side this week. Work, work and more work would sum up my week and with all that work there was very little time left for baking. Today I spent a significant amount of time making another type of desert but I made one mistake that ruined the perfection and I would not subject you to that so instead I offer an opinion that I have been working on the last few weeks.

My boyfriend has been watching through all five seasons of Breaking Bad. It is interesting to watch through from the beginning again. I am not one of those people that enjoy re-watching (with the exception of Gilmore Girls). My whole childhood my sister loved re-watching episodes and it drove me mad but now she's a gifted academic and I wonder whether I was missing something, revisiting brings many more insights than the first time.

During this re-watching of Breaking Bad something potentially controversial occurred to me and I want to share this insight for your consideration.  Everyone hates Skyler, and yet I honestly think Skyler is one of the most important characters in the whole show and the work of Anna Gunn is absolutely pivotal. Ok, now you may be thinking 'Shut up Cat, I hate Skyler!' I'm right there with you, but why do we hate Skyler? Why?

(Below I discuss this further, with spoilers, in white writing. Highlight to read)

If we consider every action taken by Skyler, they are all reasonable. She discovers that her husband has terminal cancer and she throws herself into his care and treatment and we think 'Go away Skyler.' She pushes to get him the most expensive doctors and searches for ways to pay for that treatment and we think 'Just mind your own business Skyler.' She starts to notice that her husband is drifting away from her, leaving his home for long periods of time with no explanation, acting in odds ways that are even affecting his job and she tries to address it with him and we think 'F*** off Skyler.' She sees through his lies and we become more annoyed rather than notice how smart she is. 

Skyler has struggled with the changes and felt understandably felt betrayed and disgusted by Walter's decisions and in many ways reflects how we should be feeling. However I would wager that she actually feels so strongly negatively throughout the show that we rally against her. We project our negative feelings about Walter's decisions onto Skyler, making her a super-ego style figure for us all to rebel against. Even in season five when Walter has jumped right off the edge and abandoned any notion of doing this for his family we continue to cheer for him and boo Skyler and I believe this will continue.

It takes some amazing writing and some wonderful acting to create a character who behaves in such normal rational ways and yet with whom none of us are intended to relate.

 This is just my opinion but it's safe to say that this truly is a brilliant, intelligent and wonderful show and one which has viewers absolutely gripped, if you haven't watched it yet, why not?

All images property of AMC, meme from quickmeme.com