1. Character Arc - Believing The Protagonist's Journey
How Breaking Bad Has Got It Right - Hand on heart, I don't think I've watched a character arc more compelling that Walt White's, on TV or Film... ever. It is THAT good. Its this character arc, that serves as the driving force of the show. Drugs, deaths and exploding wheelchairs aside, its Walts journey that interests us and with it, the parallel arc of Heisenberg the psychotic, reckless alter-ego the foil to the good-natured, fully-haired, car washing Chemistry Teacher of Season One. Visually, Walt's arc is clear. You can trace the key points in his story by the amount of hair on his head and the size of his kick-ass goatee. This is a clever technique used by the Breaking Bad team and executed to damn near perfection on Cranston's part. The audience can see, in front of them, the transformations that their protagonist goes through as he descends further and further into darkness. What's more (somehow) the story line remains believable. Whether its through Gilligan's ideas, his team's writing, Cranston's abilities as an actor or a beautiful combination of all three, Breaking Bad never loses sight of it's origins. What works in its favor is that the qualities we see in the pilot episode, can still be seen as we reach the end of the final season. Yes, aspects of Walt's personality have grown and been somewhat... embellished - but the basic instinct to protect and provide for his family, is still a driving factor of his arc. Another well judged move is Breaking Bad's pacing. It's clear they have a story to tell and they'll be damned if anybody rushes them on it. It was certainly a risk - Season One - as it's story-lines eased themselves into gear without song or dance. The cogs of the machine began to turn, not lethargically, but with a sense of control and a reliability that before long, they would reach optimum functioning. The risk paid off has it gave time for detailed character development that holds together the relationships that have been formed as a result, five years down the line. When a show's focus is on the transformation of a man to a monster, it's paramount that the audience invest in the journey between points A and B and its an aspect of the show that Breaking Bad achieves on all fronts. Why The Walking Dead Is Not As Good - It does exactly what Breaking Bad does not do. It rushes Rick. Rick, as a protagonist, is largely dull throughout Seasons 1 and 2. If we were to think of The Walking Dead as a Comedy briefly, we would find the same old formula - Rick is the every day man that is in fact, not very funny. Instead, its how the normal bloke (the one we can all relate to), deals with his immature, rude, slacker, racist, sexist, incompetent and ultimately funny, friends. As a tried and tested formula, this works for The Walking Dead. It's during Season 3 that they stray from this path and give Rick a bit of edge. And it fails miserably. In the space of 16 episodes, Rick goes from hardened leader to supreme dictator, to grief stricken hubby, to paranoid wreck, to nihilistic badass and ultimately, to caring, all-welcoming county sheriff again. That's a lot to deal with for audience, writers and actors - but fair play to him, Andrew Lincoln generally nails the weeks latest unannounced attitude towards life with relative conviction. Unfortunately, I think they tried to achieve too much in one Season. The visions of Lori were needless (who knew she'd be more annoying dead?) and the sudden change of attitude - from leaving a hitchhiker to die on the side of the road to welcoming the entire residence of Woodbury back to the prison - within the space of three or four episodes, was a leap to far in my book. Instead of a smooth parabola of character transformation ala Breaking Bad, Walking Dead sees Rick Grime's arc oscillate with varying degrees of severity, leaving it harder for the audience to engage with the unpredictable and unrealistic mood swings that he experiences.... ... at least with Walt White, we can rely on his unpredictability.