In praise of … Breaking Bad

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/09/in-praise-of-breaking-bad

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What happens when Walter White, a cash-strapped suburban chemistry teacher struck with lung cancer stumbles upon Jesse Pinkman, an ex-student turned drug-pusher? An extravagant amount of top-grade crystal meth. This is the premise of the US TV series Breaking Bad, now in its final season. From the moment the unlikely duo cook their first methamphetamine batch, the grip of the drug underworld closes in; as their profits soar, their freedom constricts. White's family, where hatred flourishes, falls apart before our eyes. In a devastating scene, his wife coldly tells him that she can only sit and hope for his cancer to come back. Unlike the Wire, the show offers not political lessons but moral ones. We watch as decent men become monsters, even shrugging off a child's death as "collateral". This is where writer Vince Gilligan, a former X Files producer, truly shines: portraying parallel worlds most of us would never dream of.