Film #5 (Dead Freight / Part 2)

More on "Dead Freight."

Gun deaths of children in the US is perpetrated rarely, and typically by unbalanced peers, a la Kip Kinkel or someone of that ilk.  Sure child gangs exist in Brazil (City of God link) and other third world countries, but things don't get that out of hand in the U.S., do they?  

The most brilliant thing about Breaking Bad is the sense of morality blindness it causes.  It's not that it makes you forget that there is a right and wrong, but that layers so many possible outcomes/potential reactions/unforeseen wrinkles that, if pondered thoroughly, raise more questions than they could possibly answer.  It was very hard to buy into the show.  I watched the first episode several times before I finally decided to suspend my belief enough to accept Walt's chosen path.

Quoting from an imdb reviewer upon seeing the episode:

"I suppose I could just borrow from our very own Mr. M--- who, at approximately 10:07 last night, sent me a text that simply, yet eloquently, read, "FFFFUUUUCCCKKKK!!!!" Really, that's probably the best method of summing it all up, anyway."

Not sure if that's the proper precis, but it gets at some of the difficult ground covered here.  Another reviewer, talking about one of the main characters (Jesse):

"And despite the fact that he's committed his fair share of crimes, and has, just as the others, murdered, he still remains very much in touch with his moral center, and I find that to be quite the fascinating aspect of his character."

That's a good way of explaining the crux of the show.  The morality blindness it fosters makes us question our moral center.  I am reminded of the concept of Arthur Rimbaud systematically deranging his senses to make these synesthetic poems where everything is conveyed in an incredibly warped way.  Breaking Bad is, at its best, a Rimbaud poem, in which not our senses but our moral lens is warped to the point of confusion.  In the end, Walt is trying to help his family, but the relatedness of his every day actions becomes more and more strained and blurry.  Can he really justify these things he's doing?  His wife has grown to fear him incredibly, and so despite the fact that she's won his parental investment, her genetic fitness is nonetheless in jeopardy, as his choices may have huge ramifications for this.

More on all of this later.