I continue to watch Breaking Bad from my writer's perspective and with increasing awe. The point I'm belaboring with myself, and with my 19 year old son, is how do the writers (and actors) manage to keep us entranced with a bunch of people who are rotten to the core? There are no truly decent people in this show - even the *good guys* have some pretty serious flaws. Generally, it's easier to be captivated by characters for whom there can be some redemption and who experience feelings that the reader, or viewer, can attach or relate to.
I don't know about you, but I sure can't find anyone I can relate to. I know I'm not perfect, and I don't pretend to know how low I could sink if I was desperate enough - but I'm not in that place so I can't relate at the moment. I also don't typically like shows about crime or drugs. I never watched the Sopranos because criminals just don't interest me - and I hate shows about drugs or addictions and high risk life styles (I'm the mom of 14 so really, is there anything riskier than that?). So, what keeps me racing to the tv for each new episode.
My son, who has spent the last 3 years just communicating with me through grunts, has recently rediscovered his verbal skills and his articulated opinion is that it's the relationships that pull us in. He finds the complex dynamics between Walter and Jesse fascinating, as well as the relationship between Walter and the man who is going to kill him. Yup, I can see that, but for me, I know I should be turned off the show by the rest of the story.
I've written in a previous blog about how impressed I am by the lack of limits in this show. The writers are fearless in where they will take the viewer, and perhaps that's what I'm getting out of this . Maybe I can learn to break past my own boundaries in writing and find some darker places within my creativity and within myself. Don't get me wrong, some of my stories go to some pretty intense and emotionally scary places, still, it just might be that I can go further, and darker, than I have so far. Time to find the door to my own dark places.....
Have your best day possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment