Do we like Walter White?
A character from Breaking Bad (2008–2013)
Our score: 2 out of 10. We'd back the Mr. Chips of the pilot, not the man he turns into. His excuses wear thin fast, and the people around him pay for his pride.
Walter White is a brilliant but underachieving chemist who teaches high school chemistry and works a second job at a car wash. After a lung cancer diagnosis, he partners with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, to make and sell crystal meth. He wants his family to have financial security once he's gone. Breaking Bad follows what that choice costs him.
Early on, we're with him. He's a put-upon, underpaid, underappreciated man in an awful situation, and his first moves come from desperation. Over time it becomes clear that his stated motive, providing for his family, is increasingly a cover for pride, ego and a hunger to be respected and feared.
He is smart, resourceful and capable of real loyalty, which is why he's so compelling. But he lies constantly, manipulates the people who trust him, and ruins or endangers many of them, including his family and his partner Jesse. The score reflects how far he strays from his sympathetic starting point.
By the end he has become the show's central villain. He admits that he did it for himself, not for his family. A last-ditch effort to put some things right gives him a sliver of redemption, but it doesn't undo the damage.