re: Stories where the "good guys" are actually the "bad guys"

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I mean you’re not supposed to really root for Walter White

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That’s the reason I say it should be at the top of the list. It practically seems like a primary theme of the show by giving you many reasons to pull for him (shite life, cancer, arrogant and condescending SIL/BIL, poor, underdog) but then there’s the whole meth manufacturer/distributor thing.

As we go along, the sympathetic factors are gradually decreased, but you still come back to pulling for him because there’s that likeable element, portrayed masterfully by Cranston.

My nomination comes from throughout the series, and even now, I too kept catching myself pulling for him, then having to remind myself that he’s actually a pretty awful person. Of course during that time we see how he’s kind-of trying to do the right thing, sort of, and does do some things that are at least his version of the right thing.

BB even demonstrates how difficult it is to pull off the “protagonist who is actually an awful person” angle. It’s tricky because if you try and fail, ie, viewers just hate the protagonist, seems like it could kill the show.

Sopranos should be top 2 or 3. Just not sure how to measure it. Tony’s a complete monster, far worse than White, but IMO we don’t become quite as endeared to him as we do with White, we just kinda accept the good with the bad.

Another top 5 would be Mad Men. Draper is a reprobate, at least when it comes to marital fidelity. But I don’t recall much other in the way of negative traits, other than being kind of a dick at times. Strangely, I don’t think we like him as much as White or even Tony, even though he isn’t nearly as bad of a person as they both are.

Good topic btw.