Aaron Paul is good, he’s a popular actor, and he’s definitely been anticipated when it comes to El Camino, but it would seem that he might need a little more work and a little more support if a show called Pinkman was bound to come forth and be a worthy successor to Breaking Bad. Even if that’s not quite the plan, Jesse on his own is going to need someone else there, at least in the background or in the wings, to really keep him stabilized. Why? Why wouldn’t Jesse be enough? Well to be honest he kind of would be, but a show that features just him as the main character and the whole reason it exists would be kind of hard to get behind largely because Jesse was part of a two-man team for a long time, and even when he and Walt finally had their falling out, Jesse was still a popular character, though it’s almost in conjunction with the same fame that includes Walter White. That’s a ghost that Jesse isn’t going to shed any time soon in the minds of the fans since the two of them started out together, and after everything that has happened it’s still a little awkward to see Jesse without Walt.
Could he do it? Yeah, he probably could. Should he do it? Well sure, why not? Will he do it? That’s kind of a hard question to answer seeing as how El Camino just came out and the ending seems as though it might see Jesse trying to start a new life where meth isn’t the biggest concern and staying alive is a matter of getting up each day and doing his best. As Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone says, this movie is a resurgence of Jesse Pinkman that people have been waiting for, and the idea of a new show at this point is kind of premature. Pinkman would certainly need some kind of conflict since without it the show seems as though it might be kind of boring. Let’s face it, Jesse had kind of a problematic life before meeting Walt, and it’s one reason why he was such a popular character, as he came with a lot of baggage that continued to build the story as things went along. After a while it became more Walt than Jesse, though to be honest Jesse held on through everything and despite going through hell and back again he did manage to remain a popular and favored character, more so than Walt in some cases. His story line was all over the place at times and then pulled back into true at others since he was still needed and he was still one of the only ones in the show that could keep the meth flow going. How he ended up chained and broken eventually near the end was hard for some people to see since no matter how he started out a lot of folks didn’t think he deserved it. But Walt’s final act was one that was obviously meant to give Jesse a chance as Ani Bundel of Think might agree with, even at the risk of his own life. It’s a bit hard to feel sorry for Walt since the entire show it was seen that he became more and more willing to do what was needed to insure that things went the way he needed them to.
So could Jesse make his own show work? Could Aaron Paul pull this off? Yeah, but with help. It’s hard to say just who he would need and in what capacity, but someone else would need to be there since Jesse Pinkman is a young guy that’s learned a lot in his time but he still needs someone there to bolster him at times since he’s not entirely stable, and after the ordeal he went through he’s definitely not bound to be one hundred percent stable for a long time. It might be an interesting show, but it would never be another Breaking Bad, not even close. That show broke so many boundaries and went in so many different directions that it was hard to keep up at times. If Pinkman ever did become a show it would need to focus on a formula that was something far different from Breaking Bad and therefore make its own reputation without having to constantly lean on the original show. Otherwise it would be nothing more than a spin-off that was taking up where the first show ended, and while it might do that anyway it still feels necessary to let Jesse have his own show, apart from the legacy of Walter White, and definitely apart from anything that associated with Breaking Bad. Alluding to the show might be a good idea and taking a few bits and pieces from the show might not undermine the attempt, but Pinkman would need to be its own entity, and at this point it seems as though it’s too soon to consider such a thing. There’s a time and place for everything after all.
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