In which I look at Channel 4’s flagship “issue drama” and its lessons for L&D. Stories are moral, but you don’t always have to draw them to a conclusion. Your message is strongest when you make your audience work to make meaning. Plus, how to dramatize exposition.
Episode 6, Breaking Bad
In L&D there is a widespread misconception that if you make a character bland, uncharacterised,or even not there, (by dint of putting the camera in the position of the protagonist), this willmaximise empathy. That isjust wrong. In this analysis I show how the Breaking Bad pilot episode creates a drug-dealing killer who isa sympathetic human being.