Breaking Bad is generally considered one of the greatest modern TV shows of all time (and for good reason). With that, series lead Bryan Cranston still fields questions about the show over a decade after its conclusion. The crime drama came up again while Cranston was promoting the well received Malcolm In The Middle: Life's Still Unfair. And, funny enough, Cranston found himself in the position of defending the Skyler White character from co-star Frankie Muniz.
Muniz, who played Cranston's titular TV son on Malcolm in the Middle, appeared alongside him during a recent Hot One Versus interview. During the interview, Muniz asked Cranston which of his most well-known TV wives was a better spouse, Lois or Skyler. From there, Muniz talked about how much he couldn't stand Skyler when he watched Breaking Bad, but Cranston stepped in and shared his take on it:
Now, see, she got a lot of blowback from that. First of all, Anna Gunn is a superb actor, but she got like, 'Oh, why don't you get off his back?'...Let me understand this. Her husband leaves without any explanation. She's pregnant. He's making crystal methamphetamine and people could've died and she's the bitch? Like, we couldn't understand.
That response got Muniz to back off his comments, and I can't help but wonder if the former child actor sensed he wasn't going to successfully convince Cranston that Skyler was a bad person. Regardless of that, the conversation went subsequently flowed right along with no further back-and-forth about it.
Frankie Muniz's view of Skyler White being awful is hardly unique, as actress Anna Gunn has talked about receiving fan backlash over playing her character. A portion of the fandom seems to view Skyler as the villain in Walt's story, given he initially took up drug dealing to help his family amid his terminal cancer diagnosis. However, toward the end of the series, it became clearer that Walt's motivations were less about ensuring his family's future after his passing and more about attaining power.
Fortunately, more viewers have come to see Skyler as sympathetic in the years since Breaking Bad. I would also argue that I've seen more people readily view Walter as the real villain of the series, despite his goofier, unassuming moments (including the pizza incident with the roof).
With all that said, I still don't think it's hard to understand why Bryan Cranston picked Lois over Skyler as the better fictional wife. There's just something sweet about seeing Hal and Lois' relationship on Malcolm, specifically the way they remain close despite juggling the chaos brought on by their sons.
Then again, how can one measure the love a spouse has when comparing odd shaving rituals with laundering money for a drug cartel? Skyler White certainly has her flaws, but I think it's clear enough at the end of the day that she genuinely cares about Walt despite the wild circumstances that he put the family in. Would Lois do the same for Hal? I have to wonder.
Malcolm In The Middle: Life's Still Unfair is available to stream with a Hulu subscription. Anyone looking for something a bit more intense, though, can check out Bryan Cranston's Emmy-winning turn as Walter White by streaming all five seasons of Breaking Bad with a Netflix subscription now.
