okay I'm 3 episodes into Breaking Bad and I'm pleased to report that this show is not over-hyped. Some of my favorite things and/or observations so far:
Very realistic depiction of cops --- as someone who has an uncle who is a cop, I can say with confidence that Hank perfectly embodies everything that's wrong with them. Hank walks through the world thinking that people are either Good or Bad and that designation is largely fixed.
This fucks up how interacts with both people he considers Good and Bad. With 'Good' People, he doesn't have to care about making them uncomfortable or upset (teasing Walt about the gun, ignoring how Marie is upset by his crudeness, repeatedly insulting and talking down to his fellow cops in the guise of banter) because obviously they're fine with it or are just overreacting. Additionally, he doesn't have to apply the rules to Good People. He can bring along Walt for a ride-along, can let his belief that Walt Jr. is using weed go unreported, his own wife steals shoes, etc.
With 'Bad' People, he can treat them however he wants. He can harass a woman and insult her to her face and degrade her, because she's an addict and therefore Bad. He scream at people he's detained while he takes a personal call because they're Bad. Basically, he can abuse people as long as they fit into his arbitrary category of Deserving It.
Everything About Krazy-8 --- Krazy-8 is not a good person, and the show never really tries to make you think otherwise. He tried to kill both Jesse and Walt, betrayed his own cousin, and if freed, would likely have killed Walt and his family. And it makes since why: drug dealers rely on reputation, and if your reputation becomes 'guy who chained to a pole with a bike lock' then you're out of the game. The only sure way to prevent your rep get destroyed is a blazing path of vengeance.
And yet, and yet, he is still a person, and killing a person is not something you treat lightly.
In essence, Krazy-8 is proof that Hank's ideology is completely wrong. He wasn't born Bad. He was born in deep poverty and wanted to study music but did the practical thing. And then the practical thing didn't work out and so he did the practical but immoral thing: sell meth.
The trope of 'If you kill me, you become me' is usually over-wrought and untrue. But in this one case, even though no one brings it up, it does apply. Krazy-8 is just someone who, like Walt, chose the practical but immoral option again and again and again.
It's not really about the medical system guys --- as much as I would love a very well-earned criticism of the dumpster fire that is America's healthcare system, this show is not it. It feels more like Walter realized that he has a set death day, and it's soon, so he might as well do what he wants. And what he wants is, for the first time, to stop turning the other cheek and accepting all the unfairness that is hurled at him.
So really, it's instead about how poverty in general destroys and wears down on people until they're no longer able to keep choosing the high road!
