Moral Sympathy and the “Lucifer Effect”. Evil and Redemption in Breaking Bad

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2019-1336

Keywords:

Television, Breaking Bad, TV-Series, Emotions, Antihero, Morality

Abstract

Introduction. We analyze the dramatic and cognitive mechanisms that activate the emotional identification with antiheroic protagonists of serial fiction, taking Breaking Bad as a case study. Methodology. This identification is examined through the lens of Media Cognitivism (Carroll, Plantinga, Smith), and is reinforced through Media Psychology, applying a “close reading” to the last season of the series. Theoretical Framework. Starting from the notion of "structure of sympathy" (Smith), we spot four dramatic strategies that modulate the spectatorial moral judgment contrary to the antihero and relate the "familiarity" that is woven with him from the notion of "expanded narrative". Discussion. In its fifth season, the story breaks the moral sympathy of the viewer towards the character, but it recomposes it in the last episodes of the series, by using the four dramatic strategies previously studied. Conclusion. We propose the concept of moral sympathy as a synthesis of narrative familiarity and moral modulation of the ethical perspective.

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Author Biographies

Alberto Nahum García Martínez, University of Queensland

Alberto N. García Martínez is Full Professor of Audiovisual Communication at the University of Navarra. Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland (Australia), where he is researching television aesthetics (2018). He has taught at the University of Stirling, Arizona State University and the University of the Andes. Visiting Professor in the MA programme in Scriptwriting of the Pontifical University of Salamanca. Former Visiting Scholar at Fordham University and George Washington University.

Co-editor of Landscapes of the Self. The Cinema of Ross McElwee (2007) and author of El cine de no-ficción en Martín Patino (2008). In the last decade, his academic work has focused on English-language television and has published articles on the nature of the television narrative, the evolution of the zombie, Breaking Bad, The Wire, The Shield, In Treatment and Supernatural. Author of articles published in journals such as Post Script, Palabra Clave, Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, Zer and Comunicación y Sociedad. His last book has been published by Palgrave McMillan: Emotions in Contemporary TV Series (2016).

Pablo Castrillo Maortua, University of Navarra

Pablo Castrillo Maortua holds a BA degree in Audiovisual Communication and Postgraduate Diploma in Art Studies from the University of Navarra (2009), winner of the National Award for Excellence in Academic Performance. Fulbright scholarship granted by the Ministry of Education for the extension of studies in the United States (2010-2013). Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting by Loyola Marymount University (2013). PhD degree in Communication from the University of Navarra (2017).

During his stay in the United States he developed internships in companies such as The Combine (Kill The Messenger, The Founder) and Kurtzman & Orci (Sleepy Hollow, Now You See Me). Scriptwriter for short and feature films, and teacher in the BA bilingual programme in Audiovisual Communication at the University of Navarra, where he is also Deputy Director of the MA programme in Screenwriting.

His doctoral thesis examines the American political thriller, on which he has published articles and book chapters on both film and television.

Pablo Echart Orús, University of Navarra

Pablo Echart Orús holds a PhD degree in Communication from the University of Navarra, where he teaches in the area of scriptwriting in audiovisual fiction since 1998 and directed the MA programme in Screenwriting between 2010 and 2015.

Author of more than thirty research works on the dramatic construction of audiovisual fiction stories. He has focused on the narrative universes of filmmakers such as Alexander Payne, Woody Allen, Hirokazu Koreeda, Kelly Reichardt and Clint Eastwood as well as the serial narrative (Fargo, Homeland and Breaking Bad). A considerable part of his research has revolved around comedy, on which he has written the book La comedia romántica del Hollywood de los años 30 y 40 (“Hollywood’s romantic comedy in the 1930s and 1940s”)(Cátedra, 2005).

He completed a training stay in UCLA Extension (United States), he has researched at the University of St. Andrews (Scotland) and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Italy), and has carried out educational collaborations at the University of Los Andes (Chile) and the Università degli Studi di Perugia (Italy). In 2017, he won a Leonardo scholarship granted by the BBVA Foundation to write a screenplay for a feature film.

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Published

2019-01-31

How to Cite

García Martínez, Alberto Nahum, Pablo Castrillo Maortua, and Pablo Echart Orús. 2019. “Moral Sympathy and the ‘Lucifer Effect’. Evil and Redemption in Breaking Bad”. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, no. 74 (January):383-402. https://doi.org/10.4185/RLCS-2019-1336.

Issue

No. 74 (2019)

Section

Miscellaneous
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