FEELING BAD
The narrative line of Walter’s and Skyler’s relationship follows a complex and exponentially expanding range of characters’ feelings, of emotional expressions and actions in response to the other’s feelings, of attempts to make his or her counterpart feel certain ways, and of blaming the other for the way one feels. Such emotional action is not limited to Walter’s and Skyler’s relationship but permeates the series. Arguably, it is not solely Walter’s physical actions (although certainly these too) that render the series such compelling drama. Equally, Breaking Bad’s heightened sense of excitement and suspense are created by the rationalizations and motivations for Walter’s actions, the basis upon which he decides it is necessary, or even his right, to commit the actions he undertakes.
It may well be that relations of power conducted through emotional strategy are more visible in instances of characters ‘feeling bad’ and, reciprocally, working to make other characters feel bad. However, emotions that we may perceive as more positive—cases of ‘feeling good—also involve relations of power. For example, in Foucault’s list of social circumstances in which relations of power are present, he includes “amorous” as well as “institutional” and “economic” relationships. To love another or to be loved involves ongoing emotional transactions, working to ‘make’ another feel certain ways.
Such efforts expended to ‘make’ others feel in specific ways are intended to affect others. As I argued at the beginning of this chapter, working to ‘affect’ others may be a more useful way of understanding the productivity of power relations in contrast to Foucault’s vocabulary of attempting to “control” the conduct of others, precisely because so many ongoing, mundane acts of sociality are not accomplished through coercion but through emotionality. For social relations to exist, emotions must be transmitted and received, whether they are accepted, rejected, or amended. Such emotional negotiation and exchange produces the constant play of and modification in power relations.
In this reading of Breaking Bad, I have rather artificially distinguished between emotional action and physical action, although they are interconnected narrative processes, normally operating in tandem. I have made this distinction in order to examine the centrality of the representation of emotions to narrativity as a whole. Substantial value exists in bringing a more developed understanding of the functions of emotions into the critical analysis of narrative, from which they largely have been absent. Considering narratives within the framework of both emotional and physical action opens them up to new interpretations. The more typical approach of psychological readings based on characters’ motivations and feelings tend to locate emotions as, and limit them to, internalized experience.
In contrast, thinking in terms of emotional action works to externalize characters’ emotional feelings, expressions, and behaviors, rendering them eminently social. Through the intimate interaction of emotions, meaning, and power, ongoing social transactions of negotiation and exchange occur at all levels of the social spectrum, from the most routine to the grandest. Finally, I began with Foucault’s anecdote about age and intimidation not because of something he explicitly states but, rather, due to that which he leaves out: the vital role of emotions in relations of power, that is, in all human relations.
WORKS CITED
D’Acci, Julie. Defining Women: Television and the Case of Cagney and Lacey. Chapel Hilclass="underline" University of North Carolina, 1994.
Foucault, Michel. “The Ethics of the Concern for Self as a Practice of Freedom.” In Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, Volume One, edited by Paul Rabinow, translated by Robert Hurley. 281-301. New York: New Press, 1987.
Pribram, E. Deidre. Emotions, Genre, Justice in Film and Television: Detecting Feeling. New York: Routledge, 2011.
Breaking Bad: Main Cast, Production History, and Episode Guide
Main Cast
Walter White — Bryan Cranston
Skyler White — Anna Gunn
Jesse Pinkman — Aaron Paul
Walter White, Jr. — R.J. Mitte
Hank Schrader — Dean Norris
Marie Schrader — Betsy Brandt
Saul Goodman — Bob Odenkirk
Mike Ehrmantraut — Jonathan Banks
Gustavo Fring — Giancarlo Esposito
Steven Gomez — Steven Michael Quezada
Production History
Original broadcast channel — AMC Network
Original run — January 20, 2008 — September 29, 2013
Series creator — Vince Gilligan
Executive producers — Vince Gilligan, Mark Johnson, Michelle MacLaren
Producer — Various Producers
Cinematographers — Michael Slovis, Reynaldo Villalobos, Peter Reiners, Nelson Cragg
Editors — Kelley Dixon, Skip MacDonald, Lynne Willingham
Series original music — Dave Porter
Season One
Writer — Vince Gilligan
Director — Vince Gilligan
Krazy-8 — Max Arciniega
Emilio — John Koyama
Writer — Vince Gilligan
Director — Adam Bernstein
Ben — Jason Byrd
Emilio — John Koyama
Ob-Gyn — Shane Marinson
Backhoe Operator — Anthony Wamego
Writer — Vince Gilligan
Director — Adam Bernstein
Krazy-8 — Max Arciniega
Emilio — John Koyama
Writer — Vince Gilligan
Director — Adam Bernstein
Mrs. Pinkman — Tess Harper
Mr. Pinkman — Michael Bofshever
Ken Wins — Kyle Bornheimer
Writer — Patty Lin
Director — Tricia Brock
Elliot Schwartz — Adam Godley
Gretchen Schwartz — Jessica Hecht
Writer — George Mastras
Director — Bronwen Hughes
Skinny Pete — Charles Baker
Hugo — Pierre Barrera
Tuco — Raymond Cruz
Mrs. Pope — Vivian Nesbit
Office Manager — Judith Rane
Carmen — Carmen Serano
Writer — Peter Gould
Director — Tim Hunter
Tuco — Raymond Cruz
Realtor — Beth Bailey
Gonzo — Cesar Garcia
Season Two
Writer — J. Roberts
Director — Bryan Cranston