to talk about how people feel they have to sympathise with a character. Walt's done some bad things, like poisoning children, and a lot of viewers have said they lost sympathy with him at certain points, like with Jane or Brock or whatever. Do you always have to sympathise with him? BC: I don't judge him. I shouldn't; I'm too subjective. It's just a guy trying to get along and do the right thing. We've all done that. Even as children, remember when you told a lie to your parents and then you realised you were in trouble? Then you have to back up that lie, and now you're in deeper. That's what Walter White's life is now. And interestingly enough, that's what, historically, television watchers have been told: we need to like, and root for, the lead character. It's embedded in our psyche. And now it's different. All the rules are different. But I'll even have older journalists saying, almost aggressively, anxiously: "How are we supposed to like him?" And I'll say: "Are you supposed to?" Where's the rule that says you're supposed to follow some edict? You can go anywhere. Still, structurally, Vince Gilligan knew that he had to plant the hook. If we didn't plant the hook, and initially sympathise with Walter White, the viewer would never feel this anxiety. So if someone tunes in at season two or three, they won't have the same sympathies as someone who started at the beginning. And it's easy to