Breaking Bad
Stories operate within a moral framework. In the classical world, the hero was tested by overcoming a set of challenges and defeating a monster. In the Christian world, the hero was in a fight of good against evil. In the age of exploration, the hero explored new lands in the quest for discovery and treasure. In the social justice story, the hero fights injustice and repression. In the American story, the patriot defends American values and gets rich quick.
What moral framework do today’s protagonists fit into?
It’s probably an over-simplification to think that economic boom times produce lighthearted, optimistic heroes and recessions create darker protagonists coping with fearful environments. In reality there’s a lot of variety at any one moment. This reflects the different genres and audience segments.
The actual trends in storytelling are more about writers trying to replace stale and formulaic stories with something fresh and exciting. Audiences want emotionally exciting entertainment that meets their expectations while also showing them something ‘new’.
Stories change according to fashion and the cultural zeitgeist. They reflect the world at any one moment – the 1960s Counter Culture, Watergate, the internet, geo-politics, acts of terrorism, and so on. In more recent times there’s been an emphasis on feminist storytelling, anti-racism, and diverse casting.
Fictional characters operate in fictional worlds. Viewers give them greater moral leeway than they would a person in their own life. This is especially true when characters are fighting monsters, brutal criminals, or protecting their family and community.
Characters function as metaphors to illustrate ideas and to make social comments. Tony Montana’s moral decisions in Scarface (1983) are a parable about greed and capitalism, the American ‘get rich quick’ dream turning into a nightmare. Characters also have fantasy elements to them – wish-fulfilment and extreme competence. They are cyphers to explore moral choices, grey zones, and ethical dilemmas.
Popular characters like James Bond, and Don Draper in Mad Men (2007-2015) combine the allure of charisma, power and competence with negative traits like arrogance and philandering. Walter White in Breaking Bad (2008-2013) transforms from being a meek teacher man into a criminal drug overlord. He goes from being a downtrodden nobody into a feared criminal who shapes the world around him. He represents the ordinary person surviving in a hostile world. His criminal activities are in part justified by his need to provide for his family.
Many of the character ‘swaps’, ‘inversions’ and ‘switches’ in contemporary movies come from writers trying to do something different. When a superhero villain is humanised into an anti-hero, the character’s morally dubious behaviour is a metaphor for behaviour in society. This happened with the glamorisation of gangsters in 1930s gangster movies. The big screen reflected the notorious criminals who appeared in the national newspapers. Fiction is there to explore emotional observations about the real world, ones the audience are unable to express in their own lives.
The question is, does the audience want to look in the mirror and see hopeful, idealistic heroes looking back at them… or do they want to see their own moral confusion and doubt?