Introduction
“You don't understand! I have a daughter and she's sick! That makes it okay for me to break the law! I am not a bad person.” (Spider Man 3, 2007) This is considered to be somekind of a trope when it comes down to an indiviudual turning into a criminal for the reason that of socio-economic motives, or just basic horrible conditions. Essentially, a group or a person of individulas are in dire straits and really need currency directly and develop into drug dealer and bank robbers, out of necessity. This kind of trope normally happens a lot of crime dramas (precisely drams that are urban). Likewise may be looked at Truth in Television. And a lot of the times it is normally overlapped with Overabundance Of Mistakes. Also it can be a case where a hero has to select to do what is correct in spite of being unlawful. Or then again it could be something ethically uncertain for a greater good. Many people actually do look at some televesion progrmas as justified as the right type of killing. With that said, this will give an analysis of films and shows.
As rime has gone on, there have been a lot of different shows that have revered from the good guys killing for good reasons to the criminla guys that are bad killing for good reason. One of the television shows that are highly popular is Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad — is AMC's first considerable achievement with programming that is considered to be original, after Mad Men — came on the scene in 2008 with a seven-episode season (reduced for the reason that of the writers' strike) and soon the television show had found being renewed again for a second, full season. Why? Partly because they liked the killing that was done in the show because they really thought that it was justified. The audiences are the ones the make the decision on rather or not a show is justifiable or not because if it is then they will keep watching and if it is not then they will turn to television off. Breaking bad was a show that showed the violence bit then made it appear as though it was what people would call the “necessary violence”.
The person in the one hour drams shows how one man is responsible for this criminal killing that is justified. In the Albuquerque, New Mexico high school, there is a chemistry teacher named Walter White who gets a gets a diagnosis from the doctor that he has a very serious lung cancer after a measly generation of playing it safe. This man’s world starts to fall apart when he starts to understand how the bill which is medical will put some kind of a cripple in the moneys for his family. His wife is pregnant and they have a son which is afflicted with Cerebral Palsy. The criminal part of the show starts right after going on a ride-alongside with his endearing DEA agent brother-in-law. During this ride, Walter start learning of ways that he can makes some money. He realized that his world is about to fall apart and in his mind; he decides to do something that will shake things up. Now of course he tries to justify everything because of his condition and not to mention that he has a wife that is at home pregnant.
With that said, Walter decided to take things up a notch by entering into what is considered to be an extremely hazardous world of unlawful methamphetamine. Later, during the same night, Walter goes out to find him some help in order to help pull off his heist. So, Walter enlists the aid of one of his previous students who was able to get away from the DEA raid by just being lucky and entrances a plan to create and sell some drugs such as crystal meth in order to make ends meet for his family. Walter can be looked at as man that was down on his look that did what he had to do.
However, there are many that watch the show and understand what he was going through. Psychologist for years has been trying to answer the question, why are individuals commit crimes and what is a ‘classic criminal’? Could Walter be looked at as being that classic type of criminal? Well, he could be by some and not by others. He would be looked at as less by other due to the fact that some people have probably been in the same situation as Walter.
According to the research, there is little doubt that some make the decision to commit a crime for instance shoplifting out of being desperate to make ends meet, particularly when food is involved. On the other hand, the same crime also entices the care of organized gangs who are out there going after things like stealing in order to take care of the family. This would be considered the same crime but carried for various motives; one of those reasons would be considered for survival, which is sort of what Walter is doing on the sitcom. Psychologist mentions that people that are backed into the corner with situations like Walter do not do very well especially if they have to feed a family. Like Walter, many of them are good hardworking people that do not have any kind of criminal record. These types of people normally do very good in society and actually are raised in good homes and have really nice steady jobs. However, according to some experts, when life gets in the way, people will start doing whatever they have to do in order to justify the means.
In Breaking Bad, as Walter's journey starts to push even more forth, dead piles of bodies start to stack up everywhere, and dark, violent Hilarity starts coming after him. Walter then becomes recognized as the high-level drug dealer that goes by the name as Heisenberg. However, at the start nobody actually knows who he is, or what he looks like. They are not even aware of where this man is producing his product, or even if his location is somewhere in the Albuquerque area. However, this kind of life pushes him to become very arrogant. According to Psychologist even when people like Walter start to justify their crimes, after a while, they become very haughty. They start to think that what they are doing is not really hurting anybody even though they are getting tons of people killed or even hurt. This type of people can sometimes crosses over and become more violent and senseless than what they were before they even started.
However, other theorist has different takes on what would make a person like Walter do the things that he has done. Sigmund Freud takes on this question because had his own suggestions on what he believes makes a criminal. Freud was the person that proposed that a lot of deviation stemmed from an unnecessary sense of guilt as a result of an ego that is considered to be overdeveloped (Durnal, 2010). Some people that have this overdeveloped superego are those that really feel guilty for no reason and really wish to be punished for what they have done with the aim of making this responsibility go away they are committing crimes is a technique of gaining such wanted chastisement and discharging guilt (Yanich, 2004). In effect, an individual that does the crime so that they can get punished helps them to relieve that guilt of whatever it is that they are dealing with. As said by this assessment, crime is not the outcome of a criminal personality, nonetheless of an unwell integrated consciousness.
Walter at first does want to get caught. He ponders if it is even worth it. The money is coming in strong but people are also dying in the process. How does he justify this? Walter is able to just look away and mentioned that this is all for his family. After all, in the beginning, he has no intention on living this lifestyle forever, what kind of a role model would he be for the kids? He started off as a good man that just wanted to get in the game for a little bit, makes some money and the creep back out again. However, things did not work that way for him because as mentioned earlier(Durnal, 2010). He got way to over his head and things started happening or should it be said that people started dying. With death now coming on the scene does that make a difference in how Walter will now approach the assignment? Does death scare him enough to step back and take another long look at using he means to justify the ends? Apparently, according to the show it did not. It was obvious that the show is able to stay on because they like the fact that Walter was an everyday gut doing everyday thing that got caught up into illegal activity. Many would defend him and say that it was all in the name of love for his family or that he did what he had to do in order to make sure that his family was well taken care of (Durnal, 2010).
On the other hand, Walter does start to believe that he cannot get caught and that he has actually outsmarted the DEA. Walter is somewhat amused at the idea that they cannot even find him, mostly when his naive DEA Agent brother-in-law gives him an update on that fact that he is being investigated and possibly on the most wanted list (Durnal, 2010). However, because Walter knows that he has gotten way over his head in his crimes, he just shrugs it off. At this stage in the game, it really becomes a game of survival because he knows that he has to take care of his family (Yanich, 2004).
Walter White, as already mentioned earlier, was a chemistry teacher that has started cooking meth in order to pay for cancer treatment and leave a legacy for his children and wife. All through the series, his justification slowly starts to falls apart, and it becomes very obvious that Walter starts doing this out of pride of his own actions basically for the most part. Walter decides that he does not want to get "pity money" from a previous partner of his, who mysteriously makes some suggestions to share his fruitful business with Walter, quoting that they intended to start the corporation in college years ago anyway but things had gone south with them. Walter rapidly at one point, and time, figures out that his wife was the one that had told this guy about his cancer (Durnal, 2010). Yes, Walter would rather make drugs and then kill individuals than take money from what he considered to be a friend.
There are other sitcoms out there that are just like Walter but it goes by the name of Dexter. This is a hit Showtime series that has been airing for the past eight seasons. It is very popular and known for its blood splattering and intense drams (Yanich, 2004). The main character is Dexter Morgan, who During the daytime is a blood spatter forecaster for the Miami Police Department's Homicide Unit, nonetheless when the sun goes down and night falls upon the city, he turns into this serial killer who slaughters other serial killers.
Dexter of course justifies this because he says that it comes from the “Dark Passenger”. The Dark Passenger happens to be his alter ego the other side of him that is kind of like a monster. Unlike Walter in breaking bad whose motives to participate in crime were to help out his family, Dexter’s is just the opposite (Durnal, 2010). His motive is to get rid of bad people off the streets. He believes that he is actually doing society a favor by getting rid of some of the most notorious drug dealers and murders ever.
Dexter is very skilled at what he does and je knows how to makes sure that his murders are left a mystery, on the other hand, another serial killer who was called the Ice Truck Killer is trying to stalk him. This is a real evil killer that does it because he is very sick men. People that watch the show justify in the favor of Dexter because they really believe that he is doing everybody a favor (Yanich, 2004). They actually root at the fact that Dexter is taking menace to society off the streets. However, even though both men in the show are doing the killing, the audience takes sides with Dexter. To throw more confusion into the pot. It is found out that both of the men are actually brother but never knew it. This killer goes around leaving Dexter notes and at times rips up Barbie dolls and leaves then at the crime scene. However, Dexter not only kills his victims but h cuts them up and throws their body in the river. To ass more craziness, he keeps a slide of blood from them as a trophy. What some audience do not like as the fact that he is seen as a hero after he takes their blood and stores them up behind a freezer somewhere. They appear to root for Dexter on up to the point where he does this scene every episode. However, unlike Walter who did grow up as a criminal, Dexter did and was taught by his dad who was out doing the same thing. Yes, it can be said that Dexter really did clean a lot of bad guys off the street but was it really justifiable? Many would say yes because it is better than watching a show that pictured a serial killer that was going around killing people because they really believe that this is some kind of sick game.
Dexter kills but he claims he does not enjoy it. In fact in his mind, he really believes that he is doing service for everyone. In the show, he has gone after every type of person imagined. He is like a snake that keeps the rats out of the garden. Dexter, however blames his killing on this urge that is inside of him. He believe s that it has to be fed almost like an urge that is juts grabbing at him. There were times when he tried to pull away from this type of killing but he really believed that he could not stop killing so he did not stop. He just continued doing what he was doing. He never let anything take him off course.
Dexter was finally caught by his sister and of course she did not agree with method. He did not agree with his sister when she ordered him to stop because she was a cop and was going to have him arrested. Dexter ignored his sister and kept on killing. It appears even when others found out about what he was doing, they still did not justify his actions for him. In the end, Dexter had to make changes and he did not want to do that.
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Yanich, D. (2004). Crime creep: Urban and suburban crime on local TV news. Journal of Urban Affairs, 26(5), 535-563.
