Explore representastions of issues in "Breaking Bad"

The Tv programme "Breaking Bad" covers a range of issues in modern day life, ranging from drugs in society to how morality is challenged by an individuals mortality. "Breaking Bad"has a varied demographic, with audiences ranging from teenagers up to adults in their 50's. The preffered reader would be a male audience, aged in their 20's to 30's, from a lower to middle class. They would work in manual work or bureaucratic office work, as the programme's plot and genre would appeal to this demographic.

"Breaking Bad" uses an unusual Protagonist with Walter White played by Bryan Cranston. Walter White is a middle aged man, teaching Chemistry at the local secondary school while also having to work at a car wash in order to make ends meet. He is then told he has cancer of the lungs, which is operable. This now brings the idea of morality into play. In order to provide for his disabled son and pregnant wife, White turns to making Methamphetamine with an old student. White is not the archetypal protagonist the audience would expect. There are scenes with White dressing in nothing but his pants, showing an average body, with no rippling muscles to be seen at all. He wears glasses, checked shirts and trouers with a high waist line. He represented as the stereotypical nerd, however when faced with danger and adversity, we see what White is capable of. This also coupled with his cancer and his frequent coughing again shows how vunerable he is, which contrasts to the stereotypical action hero we would expect, with no limits or physical ailments. Even when White is confronted by the antagonists, he is constantly shown as less physically impressive, with no experience of firearms or violence. However, using intellect over violence, White escapes alive with the antagonists suffering at the hands of the "nerd".

This ideology of what humans are capable of if put in certain circumstances is apparent in "Breaking Bad". The scene in which White cripples a thug bullying his son using his knowledge of the body shows what he is capable of when confronted.