MovieChat Forums > Breaking Bad (2008) Discussion > Every woman on this show was beyond irri...

Every woman on this show was beyond irritating

posted 6 years ago by AngularTurnip (3334)
21 replies | jump to latest

Not a single female character was well-written, interesting, or something other than a loud, shrewish, obnoxious idiot.

I disagree. I don't think the women were any more annoying or reprehensible than the men were, and most characters on the show had a lot of depth and nuance.

Jane's struggle with addiction is nuanced. Skyler's love for her family is nuanced. And if anybody thinks Marie's character has no depth, nuance, or subtlety, I would encourage that person to rewatch the talking pillow scene - hilarious for its premise, but how wonderful is the moment when Marie goes against the intervention and just says, "I think we should do what Walt wants." That's a lot of caring and bravery displayed by a deep character.

Everybody on the show could be very bad and very good. I have met people in real life who display similar character traits, and I think they're written as real people are: complex, annoying, evil, and lovable.

[–] AngularTurnip (3334) 6 years ago

Well said.

[–] MuffCabbage (406) 4 years ago

Sounds like most women I know tbh

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

You don't expect a sci-fi nerd like Vince Mulligan or whatever, to be able to write good women do you?

(he wrote X-files episodes in the 90s in case you didnt know.)

He writes women the same as he finds them in real life: Impenetrable... unapproachable...

[–] Kowalski (62699) 4 years ago

LMAO

[–] Jinx (3068) 4 years ago

Because the female characters and storylines were primarily written by men. If a female wrote all of the dialogue, development and personalities of male characters you would notice that as well so I am not saying that it’s in any way misogynistic. It’s just the perspective of the show to have the females as secondary characters and they didn’t spend the time collaborating or working with female writers to take over ownership of the female perspective because at some point the storyline has to be told by one creator if that makes sense.

[–] Ace_Spade (9440) 4 years ago

I fundamentally disagree with this statement. To say men can't map out fully-formed female characters and give them meaningful arcs is to forget that the Coen Brothers, Woody Allen, and Quentin Tarantino exist. It's to ignore the history of male writers like Dickens, Shakespeare, Terry Pratchett, and innumerable others. I don't believe it's impossible any more than I believe it to be impossible for a woman to write a man, an adult to write a child or teenager, or different nationalities to write about one another. Mistakes get made the more somebody doesn't understand subject matter, sure, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that one need not literally be a thing to write it authentically.

As for Breaking Bad specifically, I think they gave short shrift to no one. Every character is flawed, some more, some less, and each character receives the amount of screentime and depth they deserve. Nobody complains that all the men in the show are portrayed as selfish d-bags. Nobody complains that Uncle Jack didn't get enough of an arc. I don't think the women of the show were written to a lower standard than the men.

Maybe this is because i diverge from a lot of fans inasmuch as I didn't loathe Skyler. She was horrible in the first couple episodes, but they rounded her out more and more, just as Hank started out a textbook bro loser and got deeper. The most sympathy, screentime, and care went into Walt and Jesse. But they're the leads, so that was bound to happen.