Broken But Not Necessarily Bad

I had a difficult year in 2013.  Not for any terrible reason I hasten to add but because that year the final episodes of the amazing US series Breaking Bad were aired. If you're not familiar with this excellent drama take my advice; go out and buy yourself a box set, catch up on Netflix or stream it off the internet.  

Believe me, it’s absolutely outstanding.  In a nutshell: it’s the story of Walter White (brilliantly played by Bryan Cranston), a talented scientist, living a moribund life in New Mexico. He’s an underachiever eking out a living as a high school chemistry teacher which just about supports his family. When he's diagnosed with terminal lung cancer he decides to use his remaining time and exceptional skills as a chemist to make some serious money for his loved ones. He does this by secretly becoming a crystal meth manufacturer and salesman. 

As the story unfolds he becomes more and more conflicted as his initially ‘admirable’ venture leads him into the murky criminal underworld and he becomes increasingly like the dubious characters he has to deal with as he plies his new trade. Once you get into it you’ll find it as addictive as the subject matter itself. Soon, like me, you’ll be overdosing on back-to-back episodes desperate to see how it all plays out as you watch Walter on his slow descent into irredeemable decadence.  Sound good?  Yes it does some of you might think. Others, who are already watching, will agree with me I hope.

My interest here is the cars used in the programme. Throughout the majority of the first four seasons Walter drives a Pontiac Aztek. For those not familiar with this US only vehicle it is a car that has consistently been voted as one of the ugliest vehicles ever manufactured and regularly makes the top-ten of virtually every 'worst cars ever made' listing. What’s more, the Aztek helped to hammer nails into the coffin of GM as an independent car manufacturer. Designed by committee, seemingly styled by monkeys it was a travesty of a vehicle to rival the Allegros, Morris Itals and Montegos that heralded the death rattle of the British motor industry.

It was designed to serve what GM saw as a market gap to be filled with what they dubbed a ‘mid-size, cross-over SUV’. Basically; part road-car, part off-road utility vehicle and part people-carrier.  But when looked at as a whole the Aztek was at the time deemed to be entirely rubbish. Its sales figures confirmed that it was a ‘Frankencar’ that failed to capture the imagination of its intended audience, helped to put GM into a financial tailspin and deeply undermined the Pontiac brand. Conversely, when looked at objectively and functionally, it was apparently a pretty good motor and did what it was designed to do quite well. It was safe, stable and very practical in varied scenarios; if you could forgive its indifferent, plastic-clad looks. 

It seems clear that the makers of Breaking Bad gave Walter an Aztek as a metaphor for the man himself: Of high ideas that fail to flourish, life crushingly beige, good and bad in equal measure, increasingly desperate and ultimately doomed.  And yet, despite his ballooning wealth as a drug dealer, Walter keeps his Aztek through the following four series and it serves him well. He abuses it in car chases, races it on urgent missions and uses it as a weapon all without  issue.  

Perhaps that’s why Walter has kept faith with his conflicted conveyance. Interestingly, I wonder if this series has given some late-onset street cred' to a car which had been written off as an example of cynical and, in the end, futile car design from GM. So, if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then the Aztek may be one of the most extreme examples of the notion that not all ugly cars are necessarily bad ones. Function and form are not always related in spite of what our instincts may be telling us.

              

It doesn’t stop there for the cars of Breaking Bad. Walt’s wife; Skyler (Anna Gunn) drives a pretty horrendous 1989 Jeep Grand Wagoneer in red, with faux wood panels which I suppose serves to distract attention away from the Aztek. Walter’s son eventually acquires a Chrysler PT Cruiser which is one of those cars that initially you think is cool and then you don’t. 

Overall, the White family has pretty indifferent taste in transport. However, the most sinister vehicle featured is that driven by the dangerous drug lord Gustavo Fring (played with studied menace by Giancarlo Esposito). He uses a ten year old Volvo 740 estate: one of the most practical and inoffensive cars as you’re likely to see, one that doesn’t attract undue attention and which stands at a polar opposite to the power, malice and wealth of its owner. Now that’s car casting at its most effective and subtle.

As a coda readers already familiar with Breaking Bad will know that Walter, in series five, sells his Aztek for a mere $50 and buys a suitably muscular, Chrysler 300 SRT8 – that’s more like it! Whether this upgrade does anything to improve Walter’s outlook is something you’ll have to put in the viewing hours to discover if you haven’t already.