LEWISTON — Billy Cote doesn’t need a room full of people or a philosophy professor to tell him what “Breaking Bad” is all about. Cote has the entire series on DVD, after all, and he’s drawn his own conclusions.
“The show speaks to me,” Cote said, “as a great and grand and sweeping love story. It’s all about the many aspects, the many faces and guises, of love. Love that can be vicious and violent and fearsome.”
Of course, that’s just one man’s opinion.
At She Doesn’t Like Guthries on Thursday night, opinions about the show were as abundant as beers and french fries. More than three dozen people were on hand for a Maine Humanities Council presentation that attempted to break down the show into its finest parts.
Because, let’s be honest: “Breaking Bad” has never been just another television show.
“This is the kind of show that people obsessively discuss,” said University of Southern Maine philosophy professor Jason Read. “Not just for the show, but for the issues.”
Ah, so many issues. The show, after all, is about a mild-mannered chemistry teacher who, after being diagnosed with lung cancer, turns to cooking and selling crystal methamphetamine to provide for his family. It’s a show in which the hero is also the villain, undergoing a transition from “Mr. Chips to Scarface,” Read said.
“He becomes a fundamentally different person,” Read said. “Morally and everything else.”
He didn’t have to tell this to the crowd, made up of young and old, men and women. The majority knew the show inside and out and had long ago — the show ended in 2013 — made up their own minds about things. The cult-like fandom around “Breaking Bad” is well-known. There are online discussion forums, T-shirts, show-themed rain suits, action figures. There are stores where the entire inventory consists of “Breaking Bad” bling.
But the reason behind the show’s immense popularity was the thrust of Thursday night’s discussion and several theories were afloat.
“Breaking Bad” appeals to human nature, Read offered, in “the way that it deals with the anxieties people have about work, and about finding meaning in work.”
To assist the group in its analysis, Read played several clips from the show on a big screen. For the most part, the men and women in the audience began nodding and smiling before the clips were even shown. They knew every episode, every character, every nuance. They loved Walter White and his badass persona, Heisenberg.
Or, you know. Hated him.
“I loathed Walter White,” said Claudia Watson of Damariscotta. “I mean, I loved to hate him.”
Watson works in Lewiston and popped into Guthries when she learned about the “Breaking Bad” discussion. When she spoke about White’s narcissistic tendencies, Watson wasn’t just making small talk. She spoke with force and emotion. She really despises the character who so enthralled the TV-watching world.
There aren’t many “Breaking Bad” fans like her.
“My friends are all like, what? You’re crazy. He’s awesome,” Watson said. “It’s a small club.”
The monthly presentation: “Hooked: A Critical Look At Shows We Love,” aims to dissect the TV shows that galvanize viewers, including “Orange Is the New Black,” “The Wire,” “The Sopranos” and “Mad Men.”
“There used to be long conversations about movies,” Read said. “Now people do the same thing with TV.”
To bolster this observation, the group at Guthrie’s engaged in rapid-fire commentary about the joys and complexities of “Breaking Bad.” For the most part, these were not casual viewers.
On man argued that Walter White’s transformation from meek schoolteacher to gritty drug trafficker was a slow evolution, one that happened bit by bit.
A younger man observed that White was, like so many of us, under-appreciated and simply responded when he saw an opportunity to overcome that condition. The result, of course, was over-indulgence and greed.
“I see it as a real education,” that man said, “for any of us who have these kinds of insecurities.”
One man never saw White as a villain. Another suggested that “Breaking Bad” was just an allegory for the concept of fate. A woman seated in the middle of the room asked perhaps the most compelling question of all: Since White had become a hardcore drug trafficker, a sociopath and a killer, why did so many people remain hooked on the show? Why did they continue to cheer for the man?
“Maybe,” suggested a man at the back of the room, “none of us knows as much about ourselves as we’d like to think.”
Uncomfortable murmurs of agreement rippled through the room.
“Do we identify with his goals?” Read asked them. “Or with the anxieties?”
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