Despite the fact that ‘Breaking Bad’ concluded almost 10 years ago, there are certain questions that Vince Gilligan continues to think about. Specifically, the disproportionate hate that Skyler received in comparison to the idolatry towards Walter who, he confesses, he likes worse and worse.
Walter’s “good”
‘Breaking Bad’ aired between 2008 and 2013 but left a clear mark on the collective seriéphile imagination. Years later, its creator is still reflecting on many aspects of the celebrated series, especially on the amount of insults that the character of Anna Gunn received unfairly.
Even at the time, Gilligan found it difficult to understand the visceral hatred of Skyler and, with the passage of time, it seems even more incomprehensible in relation to the furor caused by Walter White:
When the series began to air, Skyler did not like it at all. I think this always worried Anna Gunn. I confess that it is something that also disturbed me because the character of Skyler did nothing to deserve it. And Anna definitely did nothing to deserve it. She played it beautifully.
Gilligan realizes that part of the animosity toward Skyler has to do with the narrative: Walter is the protagonist, although what he does is morally questionable, and they tell us the story from his point of view, so the viewer tends to empathize more easily with him. Even so, it seems disproportionate if you compare it with the rest of the characters:
Looking back, I realize that the show was rigged, in the sense that the narrative is always through Walt’s eyes, even in scenes where he doesn’t appear. Even Gus (Giancarlo Esposito’s character), his archenemy, didn’t suffer the same animosity that Skyler did. He is very strange. I’m still thinking about it, years later.
Walter White has become a idolized figure within the fandom of the series, something that Gilligan himself does not share:
The further I get from ‘Breaking Bad,’ the less sympathy I have for Walter. From the start, they threw a lifeline at him. If he had been a better human being, he would have swallowed his pride and taken the opportunity to treat his cancer with the money offered by his friends. In the end he came through on his own terms, but he left a trail of destruction in his wake. I see it more clearly now than at the time.
According to Gilligan, the fascination that can wake up in the beginning Walter fades away as his true personality is revealedin a similar way to how Skyler realizes it:
It’s kind of like…wait, why was this guy so cool? He was very prudish and too full of himself. He had an ego the size of California and always saw himself as the victim. He constantly complained about how the world let him down, how his genius never received due recognition from him. When you think about all this you end up saying: “why was I supporting this guy?”.
After expanding the ‘Breaking Bad’ universe in the movie ‘El Camino’ and the recently concluded ‘Better Call Saul’, Gilligan has stated that he is ready to leave it behind and launch into new projects. In Spain, he can be seen through Netflix.