Why Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman in 'Breaking Bad' is one of TV's best-ever characters
Aaron Paul delivered one of TV's best-ever performances
Paul's performance as Pinkman ranks as one of the very best when it comes to the television medium. Since Pinkman was often your average junkie and layabout, it seemed easy. It was anything but. Paul made it look easy. He was somehow even better in 'El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie', the spinoff prequel movie.
Jesse Pinkman was our perspective towards Walter White
Jesse served as audience surrogate in 'Breaking Bad'. We learned a lot about Walt through his conversations with Jesse.,
Jesse Pinkman was a complex, well-rounded character
When we were introduced to Jesse, he was a crystal meth junkie and a small time drug dealer. But as we came to know him, more facets of his personality emerged. Turns out, he was not a bad human as far as characters from the so-called 'Breaking Bad' universe went. He was good at heart.
Jesse Pinkman tried to stop Walt from going full Heisenberg
Jesse often tried to play spoilsport for Walt's devilish schemes. He tried to stop him from killing the worst version of himself. He was ultimately unsuccessful in his endeavours, but at least he tried.
Jesse was a comic relief
He was brought in much-needed comedy in what was a mostly grim world. He, along with Saul Goodman, would have fitted nicely in a sitcom -- they could be that funny.
He loved children
Whatever Jesse's flaws, he loved children. We saw numerous examples of this throughtout the series. Once we saw him entertaining the unfortunate son of Spooge. To cheer him up he plays peekaboo with him. It was a sweet and heartbreaking scene.
Jesse Pinkman got the better dialogue among the two
While Walt was clearly the smarter one, Jesse had a way with words that Walt could not match. In one scene he says, "What if this is like math, or algebra? And you add a plus douchebag to a minus douchebag, and you get, like, zero douchebags?" And while introducing Saul Goodman, he tells Walt, “You don’t need a criminal lawyer. You need a criminal lawyer.”
Jesse had a redemption arc
While Walt did not have any redemption story, and perhaps he was too far gone to be redeemed, Jesse's story continued in 'El Camino'. He shook off the now metaphorical shackles of his torment at the hands of Neo-Nazis and built a new life for himself in Alaska.
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