#like. if you want to talk about the mythos of american suburbia and the people who are cast as villains in that story

[apple-of-my-pie]

also, on the topic of racism in the writing: a major theme of brba is the dichotomy between Fine Upstanding Citizens who always get the benefit of the doubt no matter what awful shit they do(like Walt and Hank), and Criminals who deserve nothing but contempt, regardless of whether they actually do bad things(like Jesse or Wendy). In the show it’s usually mild-mannered suburbanites vs. addicts/petty criminals, but irl this double standard is ABSOLUTELY racial. White people who commit crimes and POC who commit crimes are not treated the same way by the American justice system, press, police force, or society at large; you literally can’t have any kind of meaningful discussion on who is considered a criminal without bringing race into it. It’s a really obvious blind spot on the writers’ part—they arguably play into that same type of racism by having all those cookie-cutter Scary Latino Villains who are supposedly frightening because they kill people, even though the main characters also kill people—and it’s honestly really disappointing

Disclaimer this doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to love the show or dick around on the internet ab the show p.s. I’m not the first person to broach this topic p.p.s. I’m white so I’m not the authority on this either but as long as Breaking Bad is having its resurgence I do feel like we ought to just take a moment and acknowledge that yes, Breaking Bad was racist, often, consistently, and at the expense of both its themes and the standards that it set for itself in terms of quality. Like obviously a show shouldn’t need a reason to Not Be Racist other than Not Being Racist but the racism did also make the writing worse. Andrea was the only female character I ever felt that BrBa/BCS did dirty, and specifically in relation to her status as a woman of color. Her death is similar contextually to Jane’s, but unlike Jane, her character is never fleshed out beyond Mother and Girlfriend, and her death doesn’t propel the narrative at all. She is fridged only to pad out Jesse’s misery, as if he hadn’t already been put through enough to evoke the audience’s sympathy ten times over. There was of course the stupid piss-tinted filter they would slap on when the characters were supposed to be in Mexico, the clown car of one-dimensional Latino villains, and while I feel that Nacho’s death served the narrative well, it felt to me at least that he got stiffed on screen time in proportion to the other main characters prior to his being killed off. Also something kind of hypocritical ab having your show act as a deconstruction and condemnation of white masculinity only to then have said show relegate its characters of color to either background fodder or Chick tract villains.

[jesse-pinko]

☝️

Disclaimer this doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to love the show or dick around on the internet ab the show p.s. I’m not the first person to broach this topic p.p.s. I’m white so I’m not the authority on this either but as long as Breaking Bad is having its resurgence I do feel like we ought to just take a moment and acknowledge that yes, Breaking Bad was racist, often, consistently, and at the expense of both its themes and the standards that it set for itself in terms of quality. Like obviously a show shouldn’t need a reason to Not Be Racist other than Not Being Racist but the racism did also make the writing worse. Andrea was the only female character I ever felt that BrBa/BCS did dirty, and specifically in relation to her status as a woman of color. Her death is similar contextually to Jane’s, but unlike Jane, her character is never fleshed out beyond Mother and Girlfriend, and her death doesn’t propel the narrative at all. She is fridged only to pad out Jesse’s misery, as if he hadn’t already been put through enough to evoke the audience’s sympathy ten times over. There was of course the stupid piss-tinted filter they would slap on when the characters were supposed to be in Mexico, the clown car of one-dimensional Latino villains, and while I feel that Nacho’s death served the narrative well, it felt to me at least that he got stiffed on screen time in proportion to the other main characters prior to his being killed off. Also something kind of hypocritical ab having your show act as a deconstruction and condemnation of white masculinity only to then have said show relegate its characters of color to either background fodder or Chick tract villains.