Like everyone, when I watch movies and television shows, I'm willing to suspend disbelief and accept the convenient timing and unrealistic story arcs and conclusions that they use. I understand that in order to make a movie last merely a few hours or a TV episode just 30 minutes, the traditional, real-life concept of time must be manipulated to make stories with satisfactory conclusions.
Once in awhile, however, the plot resolutions and pacing of certain onscreen storylines seem to take liberties in their writing that simply seem absurd and unrealistic or have characters do or say certain things that are contrary to their beliefs and values simply to serve the plot.
I will be using a scene from the hit series Breaking Bad to illustrate my point.
Don’t get me wrong; I love Breaking Bad. But despite all its positive qualities (writing, acting, cinematography, etc.), it still seems to fall victim to the limitations of the standard television series story arc.
In “One Minute,” the seventh episode of the third season, the protagonist, Walter White (codenamed Heisenberg), offers drug manufacturer, Jesse Pinkman, to work with him again with the promise that they would make over a million dollars each as a result. Jesse—who had just recently taken a severe beating from DEA Agent Hank Schrader for tricking him out of pressing charges—declines the lucrative offer.
“Let me understand this,” Walt replies. “You’re turning down one and a half million dollars—”
From his hospital bed, Jesse then interrupts him and responds, with growing lividity, “I am not turning down the money. I am turning down you. You get it? I want nothing to do with you. Ever since I met you, everything I’ve ever cared about is gone. Ruined, turned to shit, dead, ever since I hooked up with the great Heisenberg! I have never been more alone. I have nothing! No one! All right? It’s all gone! Get it? No, no, no, why—why would you get it? What do you even care, as long as you get what you want? Right? You don’t give a shit about me. You said I was no good. I’m nothing. Why would you want me, huh? You said my meth is inferior, right? Right? Hey, you said my cook was garbage! Hey, screw you, man. Screw you!”
Walt then makes a feeble attempt to make amends by claiming he was wrong about Jesse before leaving the room. By the time Walt returns home, Jesse calls him and says (after making sure they split the money fifty-fifty), “Okay, partners.”
The problem I have with this is that a character’s decision at any given time should not inexplicably and abruptly contradict his/her previous motivation. In this example, Jesse makes the choice to work with Walt again, which completely contradicts and devalues all the passionate statements he made earlier—in the very same episode, no less. He had just finished delivering a cathartic, almost pitiable, sympathy-evoking speech in which he finally expresses his independence from and contempt towards Walt when, a few minutes later, he abruptly changes his mind—with absolutely no explanation.
I disagree more with the manner in which this scene was written than with the decision itself. If the writers had made it clearer why exactly it was that Jesse had changed his mind, I as a viewer would be more comfortable with his change in position.
In the way portrayed on screen, however (especially when taking into account that Jesse’s change of heart happened while we were in the car with Walt the whole time), the choice was not made clear enough.
We didn’t even get to see Jesse’s inner conflict—a few simple shots of him crying or making a dramatic choice to pick up his phone would have done the trick. It seemed rushed and a flimsy excuse to continue on with the series rather than fleshed-out character development.
Because of this, I finished watching the episode confused and under the impression that the writers made Jesse change his mind solely for plot convenience—a lazy technique that I see all too much in film and television.
