The Freakier "Breaking Bad" Gets, The More Accurate It Becomes

The paradoxes of BrBa (h/t, Kate):

So it’s somewhat surprising that in depicting the mechanics of the meth business, “Breaking Bad” is so notably realistic. I spent the past six months interviewing drug traffickers and D.E.A. agents for an article about the business side of a Mexican drug cartel, and, having been an ardent fan of “Breaking Bad,” I was startled by how much the show gets right.

...[I]n a clandestine industry, having a quality product isn’t enough. You need distribution. Selling drugs on the street is a risky job, and generally falls to the most dispensable folks, in this case Pinkman’s knucklehead associates Badger, Skinny P, and the portly, mohawked Combo (R.I.P.). ... As Walter’s business grows, his needs outstrip the limited abilities of his sales force. This is a constant problem for drug runners. I spoke with one longtime trafficker who told me that a recurring liability in any scheme is the inclusion of some friend or cousin who invariably turns out to be a drunk or a junkie.

...“We need a proper infrastructure,” Walter eventually concludes—a buffer that will insulate them from the dangers of the street. (“Layered,” is how Pinkman characterizes this arrangement. “Like nachos.”) For help in this regard, they turn to Saul Goodman (J.D., University of American Samoa), no mere criminal lawyer, Pinkman points out, but a criminal lawyer. ... But believe me when I tell you that I have met lawyers like this. It takes a special brew of amorality and pluck to represent a drug lord, and Saul is an only slightly exaggerated version of some very real attorneys who ply our Southwest border.

By Season 4, Walter is earning seven million dollars a year, and how to launder large amounts of money is a perennial challenge for narcotics professionals. ... So when Walter’s wife Skyler suggests buying the car wash where he used to work, she definitely has the right idea.

...Saul also introduces Walter to Gus Fring, the brilliantly realized and also surprisingly realistic meth-king proprietor of the Los Pollos Hermanos chicken chain. Flashy drug dealers in the Scarface mode make for enjoyable movie villains, but in real life they don’t tend to last long in the business. Quiet businessmen like Gus, on the other hand, often thrive.

...The one feature in the show that is most glaringly off is the gleaming subterranean mega-lab that Gus constructs for Walter. To be sure, labs like these exist—just not in the United States. One major challenge for any meth producer, which gets scant attention on the show, is how to source adequate precursor chemicals, which are heavily regulated in the States. In real life, it would be impractical to undertake the sort of industrial-scale production that Walter does (two hundred pounds a week) inside this country, because of the difficulty of acquiring the necessary chemicals.

...Otherwise, the show’s portrayal of Mexican cartels is devastatingly accurate. It has been suggested that Vince Gilligan has a sick mind, but nothing he could dream up, even the unfortunate fate of Tortuga, can rival the creative barbarism of the cartels.