In recent years, the antihero trend in contemporary television is one of the most debated and argued issues. The vicious, morally reprehensible, unreliable characters like Walter White from the hit Show Breaking Bad which are called antiheroes, gained popularity in contrast to other characters. Television series like Breaking Bad show the dark sides of humans and they are often considered as violent gangster dramas. Even though the criminality and moral imperfection are the main elements of these kind of shows, people tend to sympathize with the antiheroes like Walter White. This sympathetic identification with the antihero compromises the sense of morality and changes people’s understanding of violence.
One of the most memorable TV shows…show more content… We described him as a victim of circumstance because he was an underachieving teacher with brilliant ideas and he was passionate about his job as a chemistry teacher. Moreover he has a child with cystic fibrosis and his wife is pregnant unexpectedly. On top of all this he found out that he has lung cancer. Having money problems were difficult for White who washes cars after school as a sideline, catching a fatal disease just rubbed salt into the wound. It’s easier to understand and empathize with a person who has nothing to lose. Walter White himself thinks that living with honor didn’t give him anything but a terminal lung cancer. This protagonist who has nothing left to lose starts taking huge risks and doing everything that he can otherwise he wouldn’t. He shows us how far a man go if he has nothing. Walter is a man who blames the circumstances for his crimes and violence. He gives his audiences the sense of ‘the right thing’ when he actually harms people, cooks meth, kills people and transforms into Heisenberg. Despite everything that Walter White and other antiheroes have done, people tend to sympathize with them and by being disappointed by their failures, the viewers of these shows they can be considered as complicit in their violent