The power of the transformation of Walter white to Heisenberg is the protagonist. That transformation contains the energy of the epic 62 episode masterpiece. One emerges from a dream from that epic of decadence so impeccably told. I live in Bangladesh, I studied and worked in St Louis, MO for 4 years. On a personal level for me, Breaking Bad is a metaphor of the human condition of America. A nation where the pursuit of happiness is supreme, where wealth is abundant, but where individuals are vulnerable too, where decent hardworking people are victims of an economic machine which only favours the few. A nation spread over too sparsely across a huge territory, a nation where the individual and the immediate family becomes prime instead of the collective, a nation which has an education system which deems that 18 year olds like Jesse are good enough to go on their own, a nation which fails to nurture the Society. America is an experimental state, without the glue to forge its citizens lives into a society. This is the direct consequence of the economic and political forces which created a world driven by Maggie Thatchers famous statement 'Society does not exist, only individuals and their families do' . In such a world 30 odd years after Reagan and Thatcher, Vince creates Walter, whom the audience immediately sympathizes with, when the respectable 50 year old teacher is diagnosed with cancer. We almost never ask why a qualified decent teacher cannot receive the best treatment for his cancer. Our passiveness indicates the strength of the propaganda of a lopsided social machine so intelligently built by the few to exploit the majority. BTW, this is true in many other nations too.
The series lives off the power of Walters transformation and self actualization into Heisenberg and the unpredictable relationship between him and Jesse. This work for me is comparable in breadth and depth of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment fused with Lev Tolstoys Resurrection . One emerges wiser and more aware of the true human condition in contemporary times. The stunning empty desert landscapes seem to amplify the current human condition: spectacular, full of vastness, yet grim, futile, raw. As I was watching I recalled Wender's Paris, Texas often. The world has now two groups of people. Those who have not seen Breaking Bad and those who have.