Walter White: Boring Lame Chemistry Teacher to Bad Ass Meth Cook

Let's be real here; for those of you who have seen Breaking Bad, you know why it's such an amazing show. For those of you who haven't seen it, just stop reading this post and go on a binge watch right now.
Character development is such an essential item for all films and television shows. There's nothing better than to see characters grow and change. And to be honest, in the words of Yeezus himself, "Imma let you finish, but Walter White had the best character development of all time."



Breaking Bad first came out in 2008, but the show wasn't buzzing at that time. It only got hyped up and became the most watched show on American cable when it was approaching the season finale. People were starting to go crazy with every episode being a cliff hanger. As the show started to get more noticed and recognized, everyone just knew Walter White as the bad ass, bald chemistry teacher suffering from Stage III lung cancer who could also cook some high quality blue meth. At least, that's who I knew Mr. White to be when I started hearing about Breaking Bad. But Mr. White was never anything close to being Heisenberg at the start of it. Instead he was the socially awkward, boring chemistry teacher.

He had hair on his head too. Weird.

How did he become such a bad ass you're wondering? It's obviously because of Aaron Paul's character, Jesse Pinkman.

Pinkman, bitch!

Yeah, Pinkman. I mean, just look at this: Walter starts doing the famous 'grab crotch' motion to anyone that makes him angry, just like Pinkman. 

Okay...so maybe that's not entirely the reason, but if we really want to explore this development, it all goes back to the man who plays the genius: Bryan Cranston. The writers never really developed a back story as to who Walter White really is when developing the show. So, Cranston made his own past. He gained weight for the show and dressed in bland and boring colors like green and brown. He also took some attributes that his father had like being slightly slouched over to make it seem like the character had so much weight on his shoulders. He starts off like this, being the protagonist in the show. But later on, we start to see how he becomes the antagonist and we as the audience start to question his morality in choices as well.

Some have suggested that Walter White actually adopts some traits off of the people he's murdered, and maybe that's what has led to him being such a bad ass. And it's a pretty accurate theory. Gus was probably the most irritating character of all for Mr. White; he was always ahead of Mr. White's plan and just knew exactly what to do. Later on, Walter would adopt the same concept. We even seen a little bit of Mike's personality in Walter, especially in the season finale. Mike had a non-sense attitude, kind of serious humor, and Walter would eventually develop the same personality, which can be witnessed here:

He pulls off some smooth tricks that really do make him the bad ass that he is. For example, he pulls of a stunt when selling meth to one of his "bosses" early in the season:

And other pretty sneaky stunts like when he finally got rid of Gus:

Whether or not you think Mr. White is the bad ass bad guy at the end of it all, he did start out pretty lame. But to become this genius meth cook that happens to be two steps ahead of his enemies is still pretty awesome if you ask me. We even witness in the beginning of the season how he ends up being the one pursued all the time. But eventually towards the fourth season, he becomes the pursuer. He's no longer Walter White at the end of it, but instead he finally becomes Heisenberg. 

Always in style.

I Can't Wait For Breaking Bad!

It's been a few months since part one of season five of Breaking Bad concluded and I just cannot wait to see the final eight episodes. I began watching Breaking Bad this past summer on Netflix and I was instantly hooked. I watched episode after episode and could not stop hitting the "Next Episode" button. Instead of crystal meth, my drug was Breaking Bad. I must have watched the entire series in a couple of weeks.

Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who finds out that he has terminal cancer and begins making crystal meth to provide for his family is the main character of the series. All of the characters are incredibly well developed and intriguing but my personal favorite is Walter's meth dealing, drug addict, high school dropout, Jesse Pinkman played by Aaron Paul. The way that the character Jesse has developed and evolved throughout the series is truly amazing. He goes from a low life drug addict in season one to a drug kingpin and badass by season five.

I think the final eight episodes are going to be exhilarating and suspenseful. Although no one knows exactly what is going to happen in the final eight, I think Hank Shrader, Walter White's DEA Agent brother-in-law, is going to find out that Walt is the drug kingpin he has been searching for all along. There are bound to be many twists and cliffhangers and nothing is for certain. But one thing for sure is that the final eight episodes of Breaking Bad are going to worth watching.

Breaking Bad

In my media A&A we recently finished watching the pilot episode of Breaking Bad.  I thought it was amazing.  The story is very unique, the acting is out of this world and the show just draws you in.  I am still only five episodes in,  but every minute I am excited to see the development of Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul's characters.  Despite both of their characters huge flaws, I can't help but be attached to them and want to see them succeed.

As you can see from the above picture they have both been rewarded for their portrayal Jesse Pinkman and Walter White.  I think that the strongest part of the show is the character development.  Where Walter White starts out to where he ends up even after five episodes is amazing and very believable.  I don't think that this show can work without these two actors.  I think if there were other people in the role the show would not be as successful as it currently is.

They are simply the team that cannot be beat.