Breaking Bad, the phenomenal success that took the world by storm and concluded last year. It was an outstanding show with class acting, great cinematography and a killer story following a chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with cancer and decides to provide for his family by joining the meth-cooking industry, working his way up from local dealer to drug kingpin, Breaking Bad is a show you won’t forget for a long time. Hidden beneath all the action and meth-heads lie a variety of different connotations and morals we can gather from the series, cleverly worked in across the seasons by writer Vince Gilligan. Today, I’m going to run through five valuable life lessons we can learn from the show. Hope you enjoy!
1. Actions Have Consequences
Perhaps the biggest lesson of them all, this is one which we see over all five of the super-popular seasons. Everything Walt does has consequences: some beneficial, but in the most part, disastrous. For example, the whole ‘Risen’ debacle gets Walt into poor terms with Jesse which, without spoiling too much for those who have been hiding under a rock for the last few months, eventually leads to some ‘interesting’ things happening. This is a very important lesson to learn, everything you do: no matter how big or small, will find it’s way back to you, so be careful.
2. Family is Important (But Don’t Lie to Them!)
Throughout the show, Walt justifies his actions as “for his family”, which is true in some sense of the term, but ultimately, deceiving his family lead to the strained relationship with Skyler and the deterioration of his relationship with his son Walt Jnr. Season three is a big turning point where Walt continues to cook meth even after Skyler leaves him, as Gus manages to convince him to stay on. This is important as from here on, it ultimately becomes more of a ‘selfish’ which he is doing, despite his wife leaving him, he continues to partake in the actions which caused the breakup. So remember, do try and provide for your family, but try not to lie to them about your illegal actions.
3. Don’t Judge a Book by It’s Cover
To anyone, Walter White is just your average father/chemistry-teacher who is sadly diagnosed with a life threatening disease – possibly the last person you would expect to run a drug-empire and murder those who stand in his way (occasionally). This is important to learn as throughout life you will meet someone who is typically the quiet one, who doesn’t interact much, when really, they have the biggest story. So just remember, next time your sat in a lobby waiting for your job interview with a few other candidates, keep an eye on the quiet, withdrawn one, he may just win the job over you. Not everything is clear straight-away, something that made Walter so elusive.
4. If You’re Good at Something, Never do it For Free
Now, I’m not suggesting that you go home from work or school and instantly start cooking crystal meth because you may be talented at chemistry, but Walt had a talent. Not the best talent to have – but he had it, and he made a fine dollar off of it – so if you have a talent, may it be sport, painting or coding, never do it for free unless you have no ambition in life. Walt knew this and despite everything thrown in his way, he still continued to cook meth and ultimately, despite it not quite working out how he might have expected, at least he made quite a bit of money.
5. In the World of Work, Stay as Important as you Can
Walt escapes death a few times… when I say a few, I mean a half-dozen time for one pure reason – the fact that he is so important. This saves his life on many occasions when dealing with Mike, Gus and even Tuco. When he fears for his life most, Walt makes a big deal of the fact that he has more knowledge than everyone else and is therefore pretty much indispensable to the business. Now I’m not saying that your boss wants you dead, but it can definitely help you, if rumours of possible sackings are going round, if you stay as important as you can to the company you are working for.
Thanks For Reading!
Yet again, this article is dedicated to Katie
CynicalSurvivor's Writing Hub 