7. Walter White
Blacker than White. Its Walter White a.k.a. Heisenberg. This guy is grim. He lives a bafflingly mundane suburban life. He is a teacher, a family man and a provider. Then what creates his monster? Cancer. Walters character begins to mutate as soon as the diagnosis of the mutating cells in his body reaches him. Unable to sustain his family as a retired teacher he turns to crystal meth cooking and a snowballing criminality to fulfil his reson detre. So, a troubling past is created, where he treads the line of justifiable action, trading on his illness on the one-hand and fuelling his stunted sense of ambition on the other. We also learn through flashback that he was shafted in a business transaction that would have made him very rich and he harbours a well-concealed resentment and simmering hankering for vengeance. Perhaps taking a leaf from the comic book, where superheroes are generated from genetic mutations from radiation experiments, or accidents, cancer performs as a realist alternative. He is a modern day mutant, vigilante and ante hero. The themes are strong in this one. Creator Vince Gilligan claimed he wanted to create someone who the viewer would fall out, not in, love with. The White exterior masks a black interior. As Mr. Jekyll is subsumed and then actually becomes evil Mr. Hyde, so Walter becomes the Heisenberg he fictionalised. As with Stevenson, as of yet Breaking Bad has not provided any answers to the moral darkness it proposes. Perhaps it will, this article being written after Season 5, episode 12. Bryan Cranston is key in realising the mystery of his character. He blends the White/Heisenberg division so closely that by season 5, it is impossible to see the seam. Of course, as with most of these alter egos, family is Waltonbergs weakness. If they are threatened he reacts and of course they are the excuse for his escalating violence. It is the only source of empathy towards him. The curiosity lies in the endless obscurity. Breaking Bad is an exercise in morbid fascination.