SPOILERS FOR BOTH "DEXTER" AND "BREAKING BAD." BE WARNED.

A cafe review, of sorts, of the last episode of "Dexter," and the
next-to-last episode of "Breaking Bad."

On one level, you can contrast the two as "Hollywood Ending" vs.
"Anti-Hollywood Ending." In Hollywood, image reigns supreme. Even the
most evil characters can die relatively happy if they manage to escape
the real-world consequences of their actions. In the world of anti-hero
cinema, often the anti-heros get away Scot-free, and never have to "face
the music" of their carefully-constructed projected image being revealed
as the sham it is.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the whole "Dexter" series, I honestly feel
that its creators took the Hollywood "low road" when ending the series.
They went for "the ending that will make the most people 'feel good'
while at the same time satisfying their 'moral' desires for a 'moral'
ending." In other words, they chose the fantasy ending, not the
real-world ending.

"Breaking Bad" is taking that cliche and turning it on its head,
allowing Walter White all the agony of Having Been Found Out, And In
Public. It's showing -- both to him and to us in the audience -- all the
real-world consequences of his actions, and the karma those actions have
wrought, for both him and his family. The series' creators are allowing
Walt and Jesse not only to FEEL the consequences of their actions, but
to wallow in them.

The Mighty Heisenberg is holed up in a cabin in the Granite State (in
more ways than one) reading month-old newspapers brought to him by his
only human contact, and learning that his son hates him, that his wife
is being harassed by the cops, that he can't even control *Saul* any
more, that his former drug empire is now being run by Todd (the 'kid' he
treated as his inferior, just as he had treated Jesse) and by his
relatives Uncle Jack and the Nazis, that they're still cooking his
signature blue meth, that they and Lydia are not only still marketing
it, but marketing it abroad, and that the *first* fantasy of his
extraordinary fantasy life (being the co-founder of a
multi-billion-dollar company) is being dismantled in front of his eyes.

This is Walter White Hell. In "Dexter," we only get to see a glimmer of
his. But in "Breaking Bad," we get to see Walter snap! and finally drop
all the pretense, all the Narcissistic Personality Disorder lies and
posturing, and give up. Walter White is dead. And then the last
"learning" above happens, and he snaps! again.

Seeing his former lover and former business partner dissing him on the
TV causes the second snap!, and that the Walter White they knew is dead.
And at the bar where Walter White was sitting only moments before, ready
to give everything up, now there is only a partially-finished drink.
Walter may be dead, but Heisenberg is not.



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