“I just rewatched the whole of Breaking Bad and I don’t like Walter White anymore,” says the creator of this television series, Vince Gilligan, in one of the latest issues of The New Yorker magazine.

Ever since Breaking Bad first aired on AMC in January 2008, the series has become one of the most iconic works and phenomena of modern pop culture. Viewers are introduced to lowly chemistry teacher Walter “Walt” White (Bryan Cranston) and his young friend – a former student, and a current drug addict – engaged in the production and distribution of methamphetamine Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Albuquerque, New Mexico.

White transforms “Ovidian” from a law-abiding, downtrodden family man and school teacher into a common criminal. This is what the name Breaking Bad is about: a radical, subversive transformation of a man who, based on his most creative, talented side (he is a brilliant chemist who could have become a wealthy businessman, but was held back for personal reasons – hence repressed) into his At fifty, he turns into a drug dealer who in many places becomes ruthless and cruel. His transformation comes when he is diagnosed with lung cancer, and his first motivation to get into drug production (and trade) is to provide for his family. But is that his only motive? Or is it something deeper, darker?

The hint in the series is clear: the dark side was already there, in Walter, looking for the right opportunity to come out. “Had he been better, he could have swallowed his pride and taken the opportunity to cure cancer with the money his friends offered him,” Gilligan now tells The New Yorker, emphasizing: “He goes out of life for his own terms, but leaves destruction behind. I’m focusing on that aspect of the story more than before.”

So, the charm that the “anti-hero” Walt has on Gilligan fades. “Why was this guy so great? In fact, he was a pseudo-ethicist with an exaggerated ego. He always considered himself a victim and complained that people did not appreciate his abilities as he deserved. And in the end, you wonder why you loved this person.”

The desert scenery of Albuquerque, with its underground world directly connected to the Mexican border, is a reference to the modern Wild West. “If someone lived in a place where there was no organization, law and order, he would have a duty to seek improvement in the situation,” Gilligan says in the same interview. “In the old John Wayne westerns that I love, Duke is the ‘good’ guy who enforces law and order in a lawless country. But the “bad” guy could do it too, which would probably be more interesting. In any case, the idea that the main character cleans up in his own way is very interesting to me.”

The hint in Breaking Bad is clear: Walter’s dark side was already there, looking for the right opportunity to come out.

The Breaking Bad universe was expanded upon by the spin-off (or prequel) Better Call Saul, which premiered in 2015 and most recently concluded with its sixth and final season. This series goes back to the time before the events of Breaking Bad and shows us yet another dark transformation of Jimmy McGill. From a lawyer suffocating in the shadow of his big (and big lawyer) brother, Jimmy even changes his name: he becomes Saul Goodman, the immoral, cynical lawyer for the Albuquerque mob, as well as almost every drug dealer in the state, to end up with a different name in the final – and now wanted – like Gene Takavich.

Just like White is a brilliant chemist (and produces the best blue meth in all of New Mexico), Soll is a born lawyer, but with an irresistible desire (and improvisational talent) to break the law. Like White, Saul also engages in unacceptable proliferation practices, especially in the latest cycle, of destruction.

As Gilligan explained, the latest season of Better Call Saul changed a lot from what we saw in Breaking Bad, showing how the parallel but different lives of McGill and White “cling” together simply because Jimmy did what that he always did this, namely, he did not listen to anyone and was stubborn in his way of thinking. Jimmy McGill may have lived a different life before becoming Saul Goodman, but he certainly wasn’t a good person before or since.

The way we perceive the characters of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is of particular interest. “Their characters are not as well defined as in classic 1950s westerns or even later genre films,” says Gilligan.

Right. Highlighting the element of contradiction as a key component of the human psyche is of public concern, especially in an era when social media is highlighting one-dimensional (and fiery) judgments of good and evil. On the contrary, in the Gilligan universe, White and Goodman have many tender moments, they do good deeds, sometimes have good intentions, but always lie in wait for deviations. In the latest episode of Breaking Bad, White (finally!) admits to his wife, “I did it for myself.”

From this point of view, Gilligan’s two “sister” television series run counter to the spirit of an era that seems to be dominated (largely) by the missionary didacticism of social media. In other words, television, at least here, seems much closer to real life than the social networks that ordinary, ordinary people supposedly “write” …