How ‘Breaking Bad’ Explains America

The exceptionalism of the United States has been invoked by many since Alexis de Tocqueville coined the concept in 1835, including by politicians across the political spectrum, like Barack Obama (“I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being”) and Ronald Reagan (“shining city upon a hill”), usually as an appeal to high-minded ideals about democracy, liberty and free markets.

The TV drama “Breaking Bad” does an exceptional job of capturing America’s other exceptionalisms.

Walter White, the show’s protagonist, is a high school chemistry teacher who studied at Caltech — a stellar university in the exceptional higher education landscape in the United States, a country that has won more Nobel Prizes than any other. Walter even participated in research that would contribute to one.

Yet Walter is so underpaid as a public school teacher — despite being highly qualified — that he takes a second job at a car wash. His family, expecting a second child, is mired in debt.

When Walter learns he has advanced lung cancer, he looks for more lucrative moonlighting opportunities to pay for his treatment because of another point of U.S. exceptionalism: Unlike every other wealthy nation, the United States does not have universal health care.

So Walter turns to yet another American institution that stands out among the nation’s peers: a vast and violent drug trade. He brings his advanced chemistry skills to the production of meth, and to navigate his new, violent world, he eventually obtains guns, which he is able to do very easily — another U.S. exception, with more children dying by guns than by car accidents or illness.

Walter worries about his family’s future — especially that of his son, Walt Jr., who has cerebral palsy. But Walter Jr. is talented: In an episode that aired one year before the crowdfunding site GoFundMe was founded, Walt Jr. designs a website to solicit donations to help pay for his dad’s cancer treatment. (Perhaps Walt Jr. is slated to join the exceptional American tech industry.)

Ordinary Americans are, in fact, exceptionally generous, one of the most generous, according to the World Giving Index. Medical fundraisers are the biggest category on GoFundMe, which makes sense, as medical debts are the No. 1 cause of bankruptcy in the United States. But U.S. generosity is broader. Last month, in just a few days, people raised almost $2 million for a 6-year-old boy who lost his entire family — mom, dad and 3-year-old brother — to yet another mass shooting in a mall committed with an AR-15-style rifle, which has been called America’s rifle. When challenged, the National Rifle Association points outs that it is the most popular rifle in America. Only in America!

Just as Walt. Jr unveils his donation website, Walter’s daughter is born. But Walter already has piles of drug cash that he shows her. “Daddy did that for you,” he softly says.

Later in that episode, he walks in on his accomplice’s girlfriend just in time to watch her choke on her own vomit and die while passed out on drugs. Just another overdose death, which America has many, many more of than any other wealthy country. Along with Covid-19 and gun deaths, overdoses caused U.S. life expectancy to plummet — a drop unmatched by any peer. We spend more per capita on health care than anyone else and get less for it.

So “Breaking Bad” sums up so much about what else makes America exceptional: no universal health care, lots of guns, a violent drug trade, voluminous drug overdose deaths and middle-class jobs that allow skating by, as long as people don’t get sick. And yes, of course, the innovation and science, along with the entrepreneurial spirit and the individualistic drive Walter White marshals, which he uses to try to save his own family — at the cost of many others.