Walter White’s legacy lives on: Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV+ reimagines Breaking Bad’s defining moment

Walter White’s legacy lives on in surprising new ways as Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV+ taps into that iconic Breaking Bad energy with a clever reimagining of one of the show's most defining moments. Friends and Neighbors also explores the psyche of an ordinary man crossing a moral line and liking it.

After spending much of Season 1 stealing from his wealthy neighbors, Andrew Cooper nearly loses everything — his freedom, his job, his family’s trust. This is when he’s implicated in a murder. But in the finale, he clears his name, restores his reputation, and seems ready to leave his criminal activities behind.

Life indeed gives everyone a chance to be better. Walter got it, so did Cooper. But here is the catch. Just like Walter, he makes a choice. He chooses the life of crime. Read on to know more about this pivotal moment.

Cooper from Friends and Neighbors chooses to stay in the crime, just like Walter White

Cooper chooses the criminal life as he sees the opportunity not just to return, but to elevate his outlaw status. The thrill of having power in a world where he was once non-existent was kind of tempting for him.

Where Walter’s return was about scientific mastery and ego, Cooper’s is rooted in class resentment, envy, and the intoxicating feeling of beating the system from the inside. Unlike Walter, his return to the crime world is not for a Superlab but for validation and superiority in a community that looked down on him.

The crime, the status, and the power it brings make the character feel seen. Where Walter White's journey was about ego, desperation, and power, Friends and Neighbors explores complicity in community dynamics. Instead of a clear pivot like Walter White's, this transformation is more subtle, collective, and unsettling. The Apple TV drama portrays not just a single flawed character but an entire neighborhood that can fall under the sway of secrecy, power, and self-interest.

Will Cooper evolve to be a more sinister figure than Walter in Friends and Neighbors?

So far, Cooper's moral decline has been gradual and subtle as compared to that of Walter's, which was an explosive spiral. The character has not even crossed any gruesome lines like how Walter does yet, but the show might take that turn if it suits the tone of the story. Cooper is hungry for control, and this makes him return to crime. He is thirsty for recognition and power.

Moreover, Walter needed Gus to stoke his ego and offer him a sense of purpose. Cooper, in Friends and Neighbors, by contrast, needs no convincing. He notices the opportunity and still chooses to enter the game again despite being aware of the risks. This suggests a deeper danger when darkness is entirely your own with no external provocations.

While speaking with Collider, Jon Hamm, who plays Cooper in Friends and Neighbors, says the show doesn't want his character to transform like Walter White.

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"We don’t want this to turn into a Breaking Bad scenario where Coop turns into a criminal mastermind and runs an empire. We knew that, at the end of the day, the particularities of his choice to go into thievery would probably also have to dovetail with his maintaining a life that is presentable in this world. I think we did a very nice job of balancing those two necessities."

If Season 1 was about testing the waters, Season 2 could be where Cooper truly dives in. Cooper's journey has a long way to go. Whether he will evolve into a more sinister figure than Walter White in the coming season, only time will tell.

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