ghostrunner wrote:It's weird going back to that first season and seeing how Skyler, Hank, and Marie are written. Probably the biggest flaw early in the show. It's a credit to the actors that you buy the transformation.
I agree completely. Skyler was just kind of a bug on Walt's windshield, Hank was meant to be the comic relief, and Marie was... just... there. By the end of the show, they had all been changed by Walt's bull [expletive].
It also helps that the writers did a great job of giving those characters meatier roles. And whoever cast Odenkirk as Saul Goodman did Dean Norris/Hank a gigantic favor because it freed him up to be a real character and not just a meathead punchline.
33anda3rd wrote:"Don Draper" has spent a lifetime/a whole TV show screwing up every woman he comes in touch with, especially Sally. For Sally to end S07E02 with "I love you" casually but with intent--after she's the one woman in his life he's been the most disonest with and probably screwed up the most yet has ultimately been the most honest with in his convo this week and his whole 'this is where I grew up' at the end of last year--and for him to not be able to deal with it is pretty awesome television.
And then just to [expletive] knock it out of the park, the best Zombies song (and one of the best pop songs ever) comes on:
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Between that, Don's Hershey monologue, and "This is where I grew up," Mad Men is shaping up to break through to an unexpectedly optimistic final stretch. I hope it does, anyway. It'd be great to see a show end as something other than a bummer, and Mad Men will have earned it if that's the route it takes.
Hank was a bigger a-hole in the pilot--he is emasculating towards Walt in a way he wouldn't be later--but other than that I can't agree that the characterization was different.
It wasn't that Hank was a worse person, he just seemed stupid. The guy watching TV at Walt's house in the pilot is not the guy at the table in the Mexican restaurant. It goes behind character development and the things that happened to him, the show treated him differently. That seems to be borne out here
NPR writes of his character's evolution "Hank Schrader has evolved from a knuckleheaded jock into a complex, sympathetic and even heroic counterpoint to the show's anti-hero, [...] Walter White."[1]
Mary Kaye Schilling of Vulture opines "It's thanks to [Norris] that Breaking Bad 's Hank Schrader has gone from a cliché-spewing booya DEA agent — essentially comic relief — to a savvy, vulnerable mensch who could be the show's ultimate hero." Dean Norris notes the realism of Hank's "tough cop" and "cliché machine" persona, comparing his mannerisms to his best friend growing up, also a cop.[3] Norris explains that people with jobs in law enforcement have to put on a bravado facade because they have to deal with unscrupulous people all day. The only other option would be to get eaten up by the job, and thus they wouldn't be good cops.[5]
Gilligan says Hank was supposed to be a "hail fellow well met and a figure of worship for Walt, Jr.," but developed him when he realized how "smart, sensitive, and well educated" Norris was. Norris and Gilligan both wanted Hank to be smart and capable; Norris says "Otherwise he’s just a doofus and you'll dismiss him." Norris notes that Hank was more mean to Walt in the pilot and the first season. His racism, especially toward his DEA partner Steven Gomez, was also more prominent earlier in the series. However, his racist jokes toward Gomez were toned down as the series progressed and were turned into good-natured ribbing.[3]
Sean Collins of Rolling Stone considered pilot-era Hank an "obnoxious blowhard." Show creator Vince Gilligan had not considered the character as much more than a foil to Walt at first. However, as Gilligan got to know Norris, Hank began to grow into a "more nuanced and complex character" who has dealt with both "personal and professional growth."[5]
Frazier Moore of The Associated Press writes of Hank's introduction in the pilot; "Hank seemed a potentially problematic character. With his cocky, macho style, he was perilously close to a stereotype"; however, he has said "Norris has brought depth and nuance to his character, emerging as fully the equal of his fine fellow cast mates [...] as he displayed not just braggadocio but also emotional trauma." Norris and Gilligan admitted that Hank began as a "mechanical construct" whose main purpose was to provide comic relief.[4]
