Ever since watching Breaking Bad I have noticed a shift in much television storytelling, A character who is a protagonist becoming an antagonist through a 5 season television show is a breakthrough. I am starting with this story analysis particularly because traditional storytelling has a protagonist and antagonist who typically not the same character throughout.
Not only do we see the story through the eyes of Walter White but we also see it through Jesse Pinkman and other characters such as Hank Schrader. In a television show there is the opportunity to observe different character backgrounds, how the character has developed and connection to other characters from different angles. Through these different methods of conveying story it brings us the audience context and a connection from a character we as the audience individually or as a group relate to.
In multi plot stories like Lost we see this clearly and what makes it addictive is seeing a main story developing these characters and how each of their own development of the main story affects and changes the relationship between each other. This is why some TV Shows are generally very successful.
Since Breaking Bad, switching the roles of the 'good guy' to the 'bad guy' and visa versa with Pinkman (is what made it groundbreaking) has made more modern storytelling from the antagonist's perspective more common today but in a television series. There has previous stories before Breaking Bad such as Scarface or the Godfather however these are not protagonists becoming antagonists these are characters who are neither but become an antagonist.
Many Marvel series including Arrow, Luke Cage, Daredevil, and others, are good examples of characters who do bad things in order to a good thing or result. These characters abilities or powers are seen as limited choices through their own histories and have developed a reason to do good but through a means to be violent. This point is relevant to suggesting that a protagonist may have antagonistic attributes which is giving more depth to the character in order for different audience members to possibly relate to which may not be intentional by the storyteller.
There are movies like Scarface, The Shining, Goodfellas, The Usual Suspects, American Psycho, Despicable me but the difference is the length and the fact that quite often these are just examples of stories where we see from the perspective of the antagonist not a switch from being a protagonist to being an antagonist. Also unlike movies with a television series in general we can build more relationship with a character or even change the person we are rooting for like in Breaking Bad because each episode shows how Walter or Jesse relationship develops changes according to different scenarios.
Until my next blog, think about why you are addicted to tv series, movie or even a video game.
Not only do we see the story through the eyes of Walter White but we also see it through Jesse Pinkman and other characters such as Hank Schrader. In a television show there is the opportunity to observe different character backgrounds, how the character has developed and connection to other characters from different angles. Through these different methods of conveying story it brings us the audience context and a connection from a character we as the audience individually or as a group relate to.
In multi plot stories like Lost we see this clearly and what makes it addictive is seeing a main story developing these characters and how each of their own development of the main story affects and changes the relationship between each other. This is why some TV Shows are generally very successful.
Since Breaking Bad, switching the roles of the 'good guy' to the 'bad guy' and visa versa with Pinkman (is what made it groundbreaking) has made more modern storytelling from the antagonist's perspective more common today but in a television series. There has previous stories before Breaking Bad such as Scarface or the Godfather however these are not protagonists becoming antagonists these are characters who are neither but become an antagonist.
Many Marvel series including Arrow, Luke Cage, Daredevil, and others, are good examples of characters who do bad things in order to a good thing or result. These characters abilities or powers are seen as limited choices through their own histories and have developed a reason to do good but through a means to be violent. This point is relevant to suggesting that a protagonist may have antagonistic attributes which is giving more depth to the character in order for different audience members to possibly relate to which may not be intentional by the storyteller.
There are movies like Scarface, The Shining, Goodfellas, The Usual Suspects, American Psycho, Despicable me but the difference is the length and the fact that quite often these are just examples of stories where we see from the perspective of the antagonist not a switch from being a protagonist to being an antagonist. Also unlike movies with a television series in general we can build more relationship with a character or even change the person we are rooting for like in Breaking Bad because each episode shows how Walter or Jesse relationship develops changes according to different scenarios.
Until my next blog, think about why you are addicted to tv series, movie or even a video game.
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