 |
Actscelerate.com
Open Any Time -- Day or Night
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Message |
Author |
 Breaking Bad... |
Quiet Wyatt |
I have heard the rave reviews about this show for years, but have never really been interested in watching it until recently. While I have only watched the first few episodes, and I can't recommend it for anyone really, I have found the basic premise interesting morally, and thought it might engender some discussion here.
Basically, a fairly straight laced high school chemistry teacher finds out he has stage III inoperable lung cancer, and does not have long to live. He decides that, in order to make a lot of money to provide for his wife and disabled son after he's dead, he will become a meth cook and dealer.
Whether you watch or have watched the show or not (like I said, I really can't recommend the show to anybody), what do you think of the basic premise? Is it ever justifiable to pursue wealth as an end regardless of the means, even if your motive is to help your family avoid poverty? |
[Insert Acts Pun Here]
Posts: 12804
1/20/16 3:51 pm
|
|
|
|  |
 |
|
|
| QW... |
Aaron Scott |
Sometime back, I binge watched the whole series. For me, Walter White was always the good guy. Of course, you never saw the negative effects on the meth users, etc. He killed, but only in what can be called self-defense or otherwise being protective. Down deep, we are all rooting for him to somehow, someway, make it through all these trials and win the love and admiration of his family, etc.
It doesn't work quite that way, but Walter still does good by his family in many ways.
During the first episode, when he is humiliated by students that drop by the car wash and chuckle at him having to clean their care (he was working a second job), you can feel the burn of anger and pain that drove him to think, "I've tried to make it the legal and honest way, but it has failed! I'm done with that."
Of course, over the seasons, he becomes like a bumbling godfather, of sorts. He is super smart (much smarter than you thought at the beginning, it turns out), but he also has a core that is decent. His wife, going from acting distant and cold, to almost becoming a partner, creates great suppressed anger in him. His brother-in-law, a decent drug agent who he knows would never have a single bit of mercy, is also in the mix.
But, to your question: Of course it's not alright to do anything to keep your family from poverty. Poverty is bad, but it's neither evil nor insurmountable. Now, if the equation were varied so that the question was if it was alright to do anything to keep your family from being murdered, I think the answer is very different. |
Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology
Posts: 6036
1/20/16 4:06 pm
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
Quiet Wyatt |
| I didn't find myself rooting for him at all. I found him, at best, pathetic and repugnant. |
[Insert Acts Pun Here]
Posts: 12804
1/20/16 5:01 pm
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
c6thplayer1 |
about 30 years ago I thought I was at my end with a false diagnosis. I then realized that I had not made preparations for my family to continue in their accustomed lifestyle. This really scared me more than my diagnosis.
Thank God it was a false Diagnosis. I immediately started making future preparations should something like this ever happened for real. Now they are set if something does happen.
As far as doing something like the movie depicts , I'm afraid that I would have to say no and I know that my family would respect that decision. Sometimes life deals you a bad hand. You play the hand your dealt the best you can with faith. |
Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology
Posts: 6385
1/20/16 5:09 pm
|
|
|
| |
|
| QW...really? |
Aaron Scott |
You didn't feel a bit of compassion that this otherwise benign chemistry teacher who is struggling financially, is dying, is not respected, feels humiliated, etc.?
And then, after seemingly no way forward, he finds something that he does better than anyone else on earth, and that doesn't make you want to cheer just a little for the guy?
Well, I know it's different strokes, etc. And I may just be twisted on this, but I found myself WANTING him to succeed. NOT as a dope dealer, but because he, being fundamentally decent, is taking down people that are truly evil.
Yeah, he's a bad guy. But with the exception of one killing--one he was FORCED to do to survive--it seemed every death was deserved. Just my thinking. |
Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology
Posts: 6036
1/20/16 8:05 pm
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
Quiet Wyatt |
Like I said, I have only watched the first few episodes, but no, I have no sympathy for a schoolteacher turned meth cook/drug dealer. No one made him become a criminal and a murderer. And no, I cannot imagine rooting for him to succeed in his chosen path of evil.
In my view, the end does not justify the means. |
[Insert Acts Pun Here]
Posts: 12804
1/20/16 9:03 pm
|
|
|
| |
|
| Re: QW... |
Old Time Country Preacher |
| Aaron Scott wrote: | | Poverty is bad, but it's neither evil nor insurmountable. |
Woffie theology calls poverty a sin. That would make it evil. |
Acts-pert Poster
Posts: 15570
1/21/16 12:18 am
|
|
|
| |
|
| SPOILER ALERT |
UncleJD |
| Quiet Wyatt wrote: | Like I said, I have only watched the first few episodes, but no, I have no sympathy for a schoolteacher turned meth cook/drug dealer. No one made him become a criminal and a murderer. And no, I cannot imagine rooting for him to succeed in his chosen path of evil.
In my view, the end does not justify the means. |
QW gets it after only watching a few episodes. "the ends does not justify the means" is indeed the theme of the whole series. No matter the intentions, no matter how much you wanted to do right, in the end dealing with that much dirt just gets you dirty. Aaron's right about wanting to like Walter White at least the first season or so, but then you learn that Walter White was no hero at all. He lost his family, his wife left him, his son hated him, he caused the death of his brother-in-law, he lost everything, even the money in the long run they ended up worse off than if he'd just died in peace with nothing but his family. He did have somewhat of a redemption at the very end but not enough to counter what he'd done, it did not justify the means at all. The whole point of the show was about Walter White becoming the Hisenburgh persona, the ultimate bad drug kingpin that he was just pretending to be at the beginning ("Say my name!".
Conversely Jesse Pinkman, a kid who started life on the wrong foot did eventually see the light and found redemption. He was always slow to kill or take vengeance or plot ruin for someone unlike White, and in the end he was saved.
I thought the series was great, Bryan Cranston was phenomenal, it was so well written, and I too binge watched it in about 2 weeks LOL. "Better Call Saul" is the new one from Vince Gilligan. We stopped by the Walter White house in Albuquerque this summer and took pics (but we did not throw a pizza on the roof) |
Golf Cart Mafia Consigliere
Posts: 3145
1/21/16 12:25 am
|
|
|
| |
|
| OTCP... |
Aaron Scott |
Then I guess that's even more proof that I'm not a woffie. I came to my conclusions through my own study of scripture.
At the same time, while I don't believe poverty is a sin, I also don't believe that is what God wants for His children. Nor sickness. We may be poor, we may be sick, but God is wanting to help us and change us. |
Hon. Dr. in Acts-celeratology
Posts: 6036
1/21/16 5:46 am
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
