What's the Matter with Walter? The Privatization of Everything in Breaking Bad

Abstract

Television is the quintessential medium of popular culture. As such, its content can provide an important window into the cultural dynamics in a given period for a given society. Vince Gilligan’s award-winning Breaking Bad is one of those shows that powerfully engaged with its moment. Gilligan created a compelling protagonist in the deeply flawed yet charismatic genius Walter White. He had Walter build an illegal drug business at which he had savant-like skills, and situated Walt in a family characterized by dysfunction. In showing how and why Walter traded a quiet but economically marginal existence as a high school chemistry teacher for a violent but wealthy life as a drug lord, Breaking Bad offered a compelling critique of one of the most insidious economic policy initiatives of late-20th/early-21st century America: neoliberalism. Neoliberalism refers primarily to the 20th century resurgence of 19th century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism. These ideas include extensive economic liberalization policies such as privatization, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, reductions in non-defense government spending, and dismantling of the welfare state in order to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy. The insidiousness of the policy initiative lies in the manner in which neoliberalism has influenced behavior in almost every facet of life. This thesis locates and analyzes three spaces in society where Breaking Bad offers its critique of neoliberalism: gender roles, law enforcement, and business. The thesis examines how the show reveals neoliberalism to be ineffectual and destructive in the domains in which it claims to be most efficient.