The (Anti-)Hero with a Thousand Faces: Reconstructing Villainy in The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul

Abstract

The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul exemplify what Martin Shuster calls “new television.” Following 9/11, the playful irony that had defined shows such as Seinfeld, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Simpsons was gradually replaced with more morally ambiguous characters. Questions about one’s moral standing operated at the forefront of such television, where previous idols of goodness on the right side of the law, such as Agent Dale Cooper ( Twin Peaks), Agents Mulder and Scully ( The X-Files), and Buffy Summers, gave way to characters whose moral dubiousness and criminal behaviour utterly destabilized long-standing characteristics of television, asking viewers to sympathize with imperfect, often unscrupulous individuals. In this article, I discuss the moral trajectories of a number of key characters, including Tony Soprano, Walter White, and Jimmy McGill. White’s and McGill’s alter egos (Heisenberg and Saul Goodman, respectively) represent two very different moral compromises in a world defined by white-collar corruption, self-sabotage, and a questionable judicial system that simultaneously protects criminals as it reprimands them. These two characters in particular exemplify a radical break with traditionally morally upstanding characters and have taken audiences into a new frontier of morally ambiguous television that celebrates the complex world of the anti-hero.