For those who don’t watch Breaking Bad, sorry you missed it. When I turn this idea in to the Pop Culture Association I hope they don’t mutter, ‘too late’. I am too late to catch the tidal wave that was Breaking Bad. In truth I’ll be watching the series finale on Thanksgiving and giving out a review the moment I can compose myself. However, I wanted to get this one thought down on the web before I find out what happens to Walter and my brain becomes consumed by that. I want to talk about the colors people wear. Breaking Bad is outstanding for more than just its dialogues and situations. The use of color to tell a story is a breakthrough that Vince Gilligan et al should be proud of for decades to come.
What they wear matters. From the first episode it is clear that certain characters are known by color. Jesse is the red of chaos. Skyler is the green of envy, Hank and his wife are the purple of royalty and pride, the Greymatter folks are the beige of wealth, and Walter, well he changes as the story goes on. I became obsessed with spotting these colors and defining what they meant almost as a way of foreshadowing and sometimes reflecting situations as they were happening. White and Blue are particularly interesting color themes in Breaking Bad. White, it can be argued, is the absence of color–a clean slate. The protagonist, Walter White is essentially a clean slate at the beginning of the show. Likewise, this substance he creates is clear (clean slate) at the beginning of the show. Over time it begins to become tainted by his manipulations and he tainted by the power it creates. The meth becomes blue and the color blue becomes a dominant color on all the characters and items and locations benefiting from the meth.
I want to write more about this, but ten minutes only allows me to get this little bit down. Black is another hugely thematic color and a lot can be said about the way the characters layer colors and how those colors reflect allegiances throughout the seasons.
Some Thoughts:
- I bought two wonderful cat toys thinking they’d entertain my cat for hours. The Yorkie wont stop playing with them.