风骚律师 第五季

I just finished watching Breaking Bad, which undoubtedly is a pinnacale of modern English TV series. Interestingly enough, this show bears a cardinal resemblance to Better Call Saul in its theme, namely, the incompatibility of different social forms.

Walter White, Jimmy and Kim are all what we would refer to as “marginalized people”, who generally are not being accepted by the elite types, let alone respected.

So they choose to go to another underworld where there is a different set of value structure, is this decision a pointer to evil? To me, not necessarily, since the division between good and evil has never been and will never be crystal clear.

For Walter White specifically, Hank described him pretty well, namely underachiever. He's bright, gentle, having a lovely family, yet he's constantly overlooked. At school he's but an ordinary chemistry teacher, and he had a part-time job in a car washing company, where the boss didn't like him quite much. What's even worse than that, he's witnessed by two students of his, who laughed at him and even took a picture of their industrious teacher. These scenarios of Walter's life illustrate how frustrating his life is, especially when he knows full well that he could've been a lot more successful.

So he decides to be on a different road, on which he won't be a member of the mediocre group, rather, a man who has got pride and ego, who does what he likes, and above all, who lives a real life.

The road to be himself as a meth cook is challenging, yet given Walter's talents and intelligence, he can always handle things quite well. But still, it's a step toward breaking bad. He willed himself towards a underworld, where he quited his previous identity as a marginalized man, and strived to be someone of power in another value structure. The rationale for that is, different social forms barely co-exist harmoniously, hence incompatible. This leads to a certain degree of instability to the current order, which is maintained by the mainstream elite and benificiaries of this veritable system.

It could be the case that societies have their own ways of settling those marginalized people who're mistreated by the system, not because they're not conscientious, but due to the fact that the system fails to favour all kinds of talents, since it's not inclusive no matter how it is so they purport. Anyways, societies have machanisms by which they appease those that are excluded in the major discourse, thereby maintaining the current order. Yet, when push comes to shove, those reimbursing tricks won't satisfy some people who are seriously underrated by the milieu they are situated, which, in consequence, rendered them to be raged and breaking, no longer capitulating to the identity as the marginalized, trying to figure out an alternative that serves them the best.

This, incidentally, is exactly what Walter White, Jimmy and Kim did. Their verdict to the order they're surrounded by is simple as such: it's not for me, would've been better had we created a game of our own. This once again brings us back to the theme of these two outstanding TV shows—culture is a category, so is socital system, wherein people should be roughly the same, by same it implies they need alienate the very existence of their ego, including their personalities, knacks, temprament ans so forth. To assmilate into the vibe they want to be part of, they should take this process as a given. And the very purpose to catalog people into the same category is to set up an order of peace and stablity, presumbly. Since otherwise the society would risk getting a bunch of different sets of cultures, beliefs, morals and values, all of which could in all probability conceive a new social formation, and it's true that they would be somehow a bunch of contradictory axioms, for the simple reason that the overarching structures for different values must be, if not mutually exclusive, conflicting. After all, it's difficult for anyone to be one thing and another without concession, the same goes for a group.

So for those marginalized people, if they are not happy with the status-quo to the extreme, they will do something, and quite understandably. But the tricky and ironic part of being something else is, it's going to be pilloried by people who have been acclimated to this system. What's more than that, if they dare to go a little further, they will be considered breaking, like Walter White, taking a metamorphosis in his life from a mundane chemistry teacher to a formidable drug cook, in which case, not only is he deemed as breaking, but breaking bad. Nonetheless, who decides bad? To me this is an essential question.

The answer could this one, it's those people who made the rules and stay on top of that hierarchy that decides what's bad, and they are virtually entitled to determine what's good and evil. But as I mentioned in the very beginning, the line between these two concepts is constantly moving, for individuals and society alike. It's therefore incumbent upon the society and people with power to mediate people's various desires of living real lives of their own, since the very pursuit of leading a true life that makes people feel alive seems to be a natural right, so long as it doesn't do other people harm. If such leeways are not provided, it's no bloody wonder that extremely unhappy underachievers will pose challenges to the order at hand, which in their estimations is sterile and needs reanimation by turning that into chaos in the first place. Unfortunately, in the current evaluation system, that's a sin, partly due to they don't any othe alternative to be genuinely accepted and respected by the majority, partly because of the inadequacy of this exclusive system renders them to reveal their dark side, where their true talents is to be found, and believe it or not, revealing the dark side of oneself and accepting it readily can be a pleasant trip, since it means it's okay to be a dark, yet true human being. You like it, you're good at it, and on top of that, you're alive.

Despite the temptation of breaking bad, and my attempt of justifying that try, it shall be noted that in the final analysis, this process of being evil is not good, everything could be at the cost of, and even if Jimmy, Kim think they can get away with what they do, the reckoning always comes, with the exception of Walter, who did get away with what he did. But mostly, people are going to be tortured by the wrongdoing of theirs, even though it shouldn't be completely laid at the feet of their own, as aforementioned, the incompatiblity of diffrent social forms has its fair share in this. However, breaking bad does hurt people around. So I really feel sorry for this parodox. Being real and alive is good, but it's sometimes just unacceptable. Being dark and evil for someone is happy, but it hurts people. Maybe this very parodox won't be solved in a very long time.

Luckily, there might be an antidote to that dilemma, which is love. Flawed as you are, you're accepted; evil as you have been, love makes you head towards goodness. More importantly, it tells you it's okay to be beautiful in the dark, since love will help you grow in the dark, yet strive to seek the light.