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The Manichean Dimension of Vince Gilligan’s
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad has been hailed as one of the best TV series of all
time, and perhaps rightly so. The six-year series was brilliantly
conceived and brilliantly acted, and many in the TV audience cheered
Walt White as he left his position as a high school chemistry teacher to
become the creator of the purest crystal meth in the American Southwest.
His initial motivation seems clear: diagnosed with inoperable lung
cancer, he channels his oft-overlooked brilliance into the production and
sale of a drug, the income from which, upon his death, will provide his
family with a very comfortable nest-egg to live on.
Other motivations, not so praiseworthy, emerge as Walt Wliite
bec