The ‘one who knocks’ and the ‘one who waits’: Gendered violence in Breaking Bad

Abstract

This article provides a cultural criminological analysis of the acclaimed US television series, Breaking Bad. It is argued here that – as a cultural text – Breaking Bad is emblematic of an agenda for change surrounding criminological theories of peoples’ propensity to do harm to one another. To exemplify this, the show’s central (male) protagonist is revealed to undergo a complete biosocial transformation into a violent offender and, as such, to demonstrate the need for criminological theory to recognise and further reflect upon this process. However, at the same time, the (re)presented inability of the show’s female characters to do the same is indicative of a number of gender-related questions that progressive criminological theories of violence need to answer. In considering these two fields in tandem, the show’s criminological significance is established; it is symbolic of the need for criminology to afford greater recognition to the nuanced intersections of both biological and sociological factors in the genesis and evolution of violent human subjectivities.