Breaking Bad offered lessons on life and storytelling.
Trust is fleeting. Does anyone ever know who they can trust? Trust entails imagining what others say and think about you. Imagine the worst and then how they might describe you to others, whether they will will stop to listen or interrupt what they're doing to lend a hand.
What’s left unsaid can shape opinions as much as what’s said.
Any individual character has the potential for surprise. Do not make the mistake of dismissing others. They can guess what you’re thinking and will react.
You can’t escape family. The bonds may vary, and the attachments will annoy, even enrage others who don’t have similar bonds.
Characters are invincible when they are calm and stop caring.
The ordinary can be extraordinary, and it’s up to you not to overlook it.
Your life is a story and, believe me, you want to shape the telling with the choices you make every day. Stories can go awry when choices are no longer made, when characters stop living deliberately and let events slide out of control. Confidence can slip into panic and resignation and back again. Yet characters who practice observation, patience, secrets, and other forms of cautious deliberation, their stories are suspenseful and no less meaningful.
Photo of Bryan Cranston as Walter White, courtesy of AMC's Breaking Bad and Wikimedia.
