10 TV Characters Who Changed In Unexpected Ways

3. Hank Schrader (Breaking Bad)

Sopranos Before After
AMC

The story of Breaking Bad's Hank Schrader can best be summed up with the term "percussive maintenance", where you beat on a broken piece of machinery until it decides to work.

Hank Schrader started off as the swaggering tough guy brother-in-law to main character Walter White. A walking talking statement on the most obnoxious aspects of masculinity, he made an easy to hate foil for season 1 Walt. But as the show went on, and Walt became harder and harder to root for, the more likable and compelling Hank became at the same time.

Most of this comes from the story constantly meeting his casually racist and sexist attitude and reckless braggadocio with swift, HARSH punishment. Fortunately, Hank IS smart, and only when he stops getting in his own way and letting his vices control him does he start really getting on Heisenberg's trail. Unfortunately, that very growth is arguably what leads him to his death.

The Hank we leave in Ozymandias is continents apart from the one we met in the first episode of season 1. And it's definitely nowhere we thought he would go when we first saw him.

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John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?