Breaking Bad came out in the late 2000s and this was a time when being "politically incorrect" was epic - and by politically incorrect I mean just punching down and being hateful. Slurs for disabled people were used without any meaningful pushback, and at least in my experience, kids were happily reciting lines from South Park and Family Guy at school and mocking kids from SpEd classes. These things still obviously happen today, but now there seems to be more criticism of when it happens and even the "anti pc" crowd will hesitantly shut up if called out.

Anyway, Walt Jr. has cerebral palsy, but unlike much of the media of the time, he isn't the butt of the joke (aside from that one scene in the store but the bully got his ass kicked) or made cynically by someone who doesn't care or know anything about the disability to get a cheap emotional response from audience. Obviously he doesn't have an identical life to someone who is fully able bodied, but overall he's just a kid with his own angst and goals who just happens to be different. Sometimes he needs assistance, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes his parents struggle to relate and help him (both for his disability and puberty in general) and that's just life, especially for a lower income family that doesn't have access to all the resources or free time to discuss problems.

I'm not surprised that they made :dean-malice: racist because he's a DEA agent, but rewatching it I'm surprised they didn't make Walt Jr. a caricature because most people wouldn't have bat an eye.

  • spring_rabbit [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    It was a real strength of the show that even characters who were primarily comic relief (like Badger and Skinny Pete) had levels of depth and realism to them. If Walt jr was portrayed as anything other than an ordinary teenager with a physical disability, it would feel very incongruent with the rest of the series.

    I owe this show a rewatch.

    • Shoegazer [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      There's this one scene in BB where Badger and Skinny Pete are in a music store trying to buy gear for the fumigation meth lab, and Skinny starts playing this classical piece on a piano. It's subtle and over quick, but it showed what untreated addiction can strip away from a person

      • Dingus_Khan [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Have you seen El Camino? I always liked Skinny Pete, but his goodbye to Pinkman had me in tears. I feel like I definitely got lulled into a certain perception of his character and had it shattered.

      • A_Serbian_Milf [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        They also get into really in-depth stoner discussions of Star Trek canon in one episode, shows they were just normal nerdy teenagers before the meth and poverty

    • Coca_Cola_but_Commie [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I agree with this, but it makes the uber-edgy twin Mexican hitmen from season 2 all the more ridiculous. It’s like they are holdovers from when the show was supposed to be much more comedic, but the writers forgot to put in the punchline.

      • fox [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        That's just Gilligan leaning hard into the wild west film tropes that BB is built on top of. Kind of comedic but the Salamanca cartel would definitely have Salamanca muscle. Gilligan specifically requested the actors try to move in tandem as much as possible, so they'll have the same gait and pace when on screen. The villainous skull-tip boots. The matching suits. The ominous soundtrack whenever they're on screen. The iron determination to kill their target. Nobody else in the show is anything like that.

        Frankly, they were much worse in BCS since they had plot armor and used it to kill dozens of people by themselves to show how formidable they are to the point of parody.

      • Weedian [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        The writers were like, What if the terminator was Mexican and there were two of them

      • Sen_Jen [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        That and the 6 degrees of separation plane crash right over Walter's house make season 2 very silly

        • Weedian [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I found it really funny when the ATC guy complained about new hires with no experience, motherfucker how do you get experience being an air traffic controller outside of the military

          These new kids don’t know what they’re doing!

          Proceeds to fail at his job catastrophically

        • A_Serbian_Milf [they/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Yeah that was a bit eye rolling, too much of a coincidence for a serious drama. If it was a sitcom or something that would be different, but there’s supposed to be dramatic weight to the guilt Walt feels for being indirectly responsible and it’s just a bit hard to take seriously. How could Walt have possibly known the Rube Goldberg machine he set off?

        • star_wraith [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          My hot take on that: Gilligan decided to start season 2 with an allusion to the house blowing up in a meth explosion but decided halfway through to make it about the plane crash instead.