walter white, the irreducibility of human character, and judgement in the la review of books

“Once we define human experience as individual and free, that is, Breaking Bad warns us that we can’t retreat into quasi-religious categories of good and evil to wish punishment on the people who scare us. Self-determination means that no one can be essentially good or evil, and this in turn precludes any kind of metaphysical punishment. If biblical categories of good and evil no longer apply in Breaking Bad or in a culture like ours that’s similarly built around the irreducibility of individual experience, does any space remain for moral judgement?”