Most of the Skyler hate is misogyny, that much is plainly obvious.
People say no, it's because they found Walt's schemes interesting and exciting and she was the "buzzkill", but really... even if you consider that angle, there would be very little, or at least far less, tension without a foil like Skyler, so it doesn't make sense.
It reminds me of the hate Rita got in Dexter. That shit was crazy too, because Rita was actually a sweet, caring, good person. Skyler was a bit more "grey" and flawed, though still a much better person than Walt, but Rita was almost a saint really. And yet she got hate because she'd "nag" at Dexter and question him (100% rightly so) and "get in the way" of his serial killing.
And yet, Doakes served a similar purpose (albeit in a different way) in S2 of Dexter. He was the foil, he was the one who was there to create the tension for Dexter. Did people hate him? Nope, he was a popular character in my experience. Because he was a badass male, not a "nagging girlfriend/wife".
I saw a lot of internet hate against Jessica Brody in Homeland too, despite her being a far better person than her piece of shit husband. (Now the Brody family subplots just sucked in general, especially when the kids got involved, but that's different, I'm talking about the hate Jessica got just for being "the wife").
Someone else brought up Boardwalk Empire. I stopped watching that some time into S2 or 3, but I'm sure there's that double standard again.
One "annoying wife" character that deserved the hate she got, IMO, was Lori in The Walking Dead. But it's because her decisions were actually stupid and irrational most of the time, and she was not written in any believable way, unlike Skyler, Rita and Jessica.
I don't really get the Skyler hate either. Her actions make sense in the context of the show, plus I found her character development to be interesting.
The character I didn't "get," was Marie. She didn't add much to the show and it felt like her kleptomania never went anywhere.
Yeah Marie was a bit weird, not sure how I felt about that character.
I didn't hate Skyler as such, but I just couldn't like her. As mentioned already, she's a buzzkill. Walt only started cooking meth to earn money to look after his family in the event the cancer killed him. Yet, for some reason, he was looked upon as an evil, scumbag husband for lying to his family. Yes, he did lie, but did so to protect them. And what does Skyler do? She treats him like shit. Walt should've left her to scrape on by with what they had.
That's what I said, yes. Argue it as much as you want, Walt did what he did for his family, to ensure his family were looked after if he died. He cooked meth, he killed people, he blew people up, he threatened people, he destroyed lives - all for his family. It seems like a really fucked up thing to do, but he did it all out of desperation to provide for the ones he loves. He literally put his life on the line to make sure Skyler and Walt Jr were looked after after his demise. And, yet, that's not enough for Skyler. She constantly treats him like utter shit. As I said, I would've left her with nothing out of spite.
I never called him a hero or a saint. I know full well that Walt is, in fact, evil. But he did what he did for his family.
Holy shit. Wow. Never have I seen someone miss the point so badly.
I hate it when writers write that a woman will "get back" at her piece of shit husband /boyfriend by doing something equally as shitty. To me, that undercuts any character that we're supposed to have sympathy for immediately.
Gunn herself is amazing in the role, she sells Skylar's emotional plight incredibly well, but Skylar did some dumb shit and went back and forth on being cool with Walt's activities and being against it too often to be a consistent character I could understand. After a while, I just wrote off the character and got behind Hank.
So Skyler being a flawed human being means she's badly written? No. A lot of otherwise decent human being will sometimes resort to petty, shitty behaviour when they are hurt. It doesn't make their pettiness "right" or "good" but it's not necessarily evil either, especially when it's tame compared to the hurt they received. If Skyler, say, poisoned her child (heh) as retaliation to something Walt did that pissed her off, then she'd be a complete monster and you'd have a point. But nope, Walt is the one who poisoned kids, and not even as a lashing out after being hurt, but simply to manipulate Jesse into doing what he wanted. The hate Skyler gets for her flaws is disproportionate.
As for Skyler's so-called inconsistency, I don't see it. She was not okay with the drug dealing, but at some point she resigned herself and decided to make the most of it, and got exasperated when Walt kept screwing up.
Vince Gilligan was asked about this by Vulture. Here's his response.
http://www.vulture.com/2013/05/vince...aking-bad.html
Completely agree with Gilligan there. Of course it's no surprise he'd get his own character. ^^
If Skyler had let her husband function as a normal human being maybe he wouldn't have done any of it at all. It's her fault more than his, imo.
....
I'm speechless.
She was awesome before even saying a word in the show because Legacy of Kain.
Yesss. Glad someone else remembered her from LoK!
Anna Gunn is a great actress.