"I am the one who knocks!": What It Means to Be a Man in Breaking Bad

Abstract

Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008-2013) dramatizes the rise and fall of Walter White, a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher who, through a series of misfortunes and freak opportunities, is transformed into a notorious, brutal drug kingpin -- a trajectory described as "Mr. Chips" to "Scarface." I contextualize and conduct a textual analysis of this acclaimed television series as a case study that demonstrates the increasingly complex construction of masculine identity in contemporary television. This study examines the reception of specific characters among critics and audiences, as well as investigates the ways in which the setting and depiction of ethnicities influence representations of masculinity. Calling for attention to the apparent lack in masculinity studies on television, the complex male representation in Breaking Bad suggests that men are not merely experiencing a crisis of their masculinity in contemporary society, but demonstrates that there is a problem with uniform white, hetero-normative representation of masculinity on TV.