TELEVISION:
Breaking Bad’s Walter White is the Jekyll and Hyde of our generation.
Walter (Bryan Cranston) is a bad man, but his badness is a fascinating journey of reckless benevolence. Walter descends into the drug trade to help his family financially following his lung cancer diagnosis. From a good man, he breaks into bad, one decision after another.
In Walter’s transformation, his alter ego Heisenberg interrupts his life in spurts. Give him alcohol and it’s clockwork. Viewers easily identify with the internal battle of a man divided.
Now that we’ve reached the end of the final seasons first half, Walt’s character is degenerating further with each minute of the series. A character that was once richly complex has been reduced to a two-bit chiseler — a genius, to be sure, but arrogant, petty, and tyrannical nonetheless.
This is who Walt is now: a Jekyll and Hyde. The question is can we still root for him?
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