Was Frings' drug operation in Breaking Bad unrealistic?

[John Doe]

I'll fully admit I'm not an expert on the drug world. But it felt like Fring was exposing himself on all three fronts of the drug trade. I feel like normally the manufacturing, distribution and then the sales aspect were all kept separate or at least if you're a kingpin you'd do two out of the three.

But Gus' operations encompass all three. He has Walt and Jesse making the stuff, he has his own distribution network and then he has street-level dealers selling the stuff and bringing in the money. These guys are a part of his organization.

When you reach the level that Gus is at, wouldn't it be better to simply manufacture the stuff, then let someone else take the risk of distributing it and selling it as well?

 

[collige]

1. Everything in the universe is slightly unrealistic in that it takes concepts that are just a little too outlandish for real life and rolls with them. If you have seen any of BCS yet there's a lot of that
2. Fring was only doing two out of the three for a while, but he had lots of reasons to not want to rely on on the cartel.

When you reach the level that Gus is at, wouldn't it be better to simply manufacture the stuff, then let someone else take the risk of distributing it and selling it as well?

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He didn't have the resources, so he did it the other way around. He had distribution on lock down already and only dipped his toes into manufacturing once he had a perfect setup. The issue is that Walt's extremely unstable ass popped up and ruined all his plans.

 

[andrew]

yeah idk about the realism level. but it's always been dramatically/narratively satisfying to me that this very logical, business-minded ruthless-profit-motive guy basically took the lessons of conglomeration and vertical integration that he gleaned from founding los pollos and being acquired, and applied them to the drug business.

as was said it would probably be safer for him to have stayed in distribution and sales only. he'd have made bank and would only have to worry about staying in the cartel's good graces. but he got into the drug business by trying to start things up with his boyfriend's product and that got max killed, so from them on his goal was always to fuck over the cartel and get to a point where he owned everything, even if it took 30 years. realistic from a character standpoint for sure.

 

[Pandaman]

He was just the distribution guy, in Better Call Saul he starts clearing out the salamanca's to get control over the dealers and his deal with Walt in Breaking Bad was likely the first time he started production since the superlab was still being unpacked when Gus shows it to Walt.

So really, things fell apart for Gus really quick once he took over all aspects of the operation.

 

[hydruxo]

There's a lot of unrealistic stuff in BrBa, but Gus is such a thorough and detail oriented person that being able to run a multi-faceted drug business alongside his restaurant doesn't seem that far-fetched. For the most part he's on top of everything that could potentially go wrong until Walt starts screwing up everything.

 

[collige]

He was just the distribution guy, in Better Call Saul he starts clearing out the salamanca's to get control over the dealers and his deal with Walt in Breaking Bad was likely the first time he started production since the superlab was still being unpacked when Gus shows it to Walt.

So really, things fell apart for Gus really quick once he took over all aspects of the operation.

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He was grooming Gale for the job well before Walt showed up and when he did show up it was by disturbing street level operations anyway so it made sense for Gus to make a deal at the time.

 

[andrew]

He was just the distribution guy, in Better Call Saul he starts clearing out the salamanca's to get control over the dealers and his deal with Walt in Breaking Bad was likely the first time he started production since the superlab was still being unpacked when Gus shows it to Walt.

So really, things fell apart for Gus really quick once he took over all aspects of the operation.

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before even that though he tried to be a producer. the reason eladio and hector have Max killed is because the two had begun making meth and were giving samples to cartel members as a way to get a meeting with the bosses.

So he stopped production of meth then but from BCS it's clear he had been planning on independent production for decades as his way of dominating the cartel and getting revenge for them killing the man he loved.

 

[Euphoria]

Gus did well until I came on board.

 

[Septimus Prime]

He's no Avon Barksdale.

 

[BrassDragon]

I work organized crime cases and the lines between those activities aren't as clear-cut at the super profit level. For example, if you manufacture at scale, you need some very intricate logistics to get your precursors and raw materials and if you have that set up (with covers, drivers, stash houses etc.) you might as well use those assets to distribute and many criminals do.

The unrealistic thing in Breaking Bad is how hands-on Fring is and how few people he appears to have around him. Operations like that require so many people, with dozens of middle managers to keep it going. From a standpoint of practicality and to avoid single points of failure (as in, one arrest can disrupt your whole enterprise), you probably want lots of Frings who maintain minimal contact with one another.

 

[Pandaman]

He was grooming Gale for the job well before Walt showed up and when he did show up it was by disturbing street level operations anyway so it made sense for Gus to make a deal at the time.

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The deal made perfect sense but taking over the street level work is also indirectly what led to the falling out between Gus and Walt. If Jessie had wanted to kill some random Salamanca dealers as revenge for killing that kid, I doubt Gus would have made as big a deal out of it as he did in BB.

 

[Robin]

I work organized crime cases and the lines between those activities aren't as clear-cut at the super profit level. For example, if you manufacture at scale, you need some very intricate logistics to get your precursors and raw materials and if you have that set up (with covers, drivers, stash houses etc.) you might as well use those assets to distribute and many criminals do.

The unrealistic thing in Breaking Bad is how hands-on Fring is and how few people he appears to have around him. Operations like that require so many people, with dozens of middle managers to keep it going. From a standpoint of practicality and to avoid single points of failure (as in, one arrest can disrupt your whole enterprise), you probably want lots of Frings who maintain minimal contact with one another.

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This makes a lot of sense and is something we hear a lot about in fiction, even when the stories are more down to earth we typically see named characters taking on the roles of teams of people so that our lead characters can have more things to do (and get enough time to go through a complete character arc or story) and you don't have to hire additional actors.

And honestly, I think this is a very reasonable concession to make.

 

[shem]

The fact that he was able to run his operation so efficient and tight for so long beguiles the fact that he would put up with Walter for more than 5 minutes. Walt would have been dead in two episodes of BCS.

 

[808s & Villainy]

He's no Avon Barksdale.

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He didn't have a Stringer to help out

 

[Valiant]

Pablo Escobar did something similar. It's most likely a modern take on how someone would handle end to end.

 

[WellbornWarrior]

I think the reality is far stranger than fiction if we would know about all the crazy shit the cartels all around the world do.

I mean many are transporting their drugs around the world in fucking homemade submarines for starters.

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

It's not trying to be the most realistic show!

 

[Praetorpwj]

I find it interesting that Better Call Saul shows that his position and plan was a lot less uncertain than we might have assumed watching Breaking Bad.

 

[blame space]

it's not a realistic universe.

 

[blame space]

even walt and jesse's p2p cook early on is not nearly as novel as it's presented to be.

Science Fact vs Fiction: Breaking Bad Edition

Does the chemistry behind Walter White's incredibly pure blue crystal methamphetamine measure up?

www.popularmechanics.com

just accept the show as it's presented to you.

 

[Powdered Egg]

Breaking Bad gives off comic book vibes early on, it's not supposed to be realistic.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

Nothing in Breaking Bad is realistic. Please do not seek to inform yourself about drug trade or drug use in the country by watching it.

 

[Min]

I mean the second season ends with an air traffic controller being depressed and causing two airplanes to collide over the town... realism was thrown out the window long before Gus Fring.

 

[blame space]

heavy spoilers for all bbverse

Spoiler: don't click if you haven't watched everything

Spoiler: mike

we had a good thing, you stupid son of a bitch! we had fring, we had a lab, we had everything we needed; it all ran like clockwork. you coulda shut your mouth, cooked, and made as much money as you ever needed. it was perfect. but no, you just had to blow it up. you, and your pride and your ego. you just had to be the man. if you'd have done your job and known your place, we'd all be fine right now.

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this needs to be true. for the show to exist, gus needed to have all of what you mentioned. he needed to be the solution to what walt claimed he needed.

 

[Sacrilicious]

even walt and jesse's p2p cook early on is not nearly as novel as it's presented to be.

Science Fact vs Fiction: Breaking Bad Edition

Does the chemistry behind Walter White's incredibly pure blue crystal methamphetamine measure up?

www.popularmechanics.com

just accept the show as it's presented to you.

Click to shrink...

P2P itself wasn't presented as novel, Hank introduces it with " P2P? They're cooking old-school biker meth. Who the hell still does that?"

What made Walt's method stand out, though, were the purity and blue color. Both were just artistic license with no real basis in anything.

 

[blame space]

i guess novel wasn't the right word. it was novel for its time period, but it wasn't the superior cook like they made it seem. it would have left them with 50% unsalable product.

like many things in the show(s), it serves multiple functions: it allows jesse to not have to acquire pseudo, it allows the two to make off like bandits with a huge payload that enables them to cook at a much higher volume, and it allows the meth to be "special" in some way, even if it's unrealistic.

 

[captive]

Gus Frings operation is probably the most realistic part of breaking bad.

Having fast food with distribution of said fast food as the front of his operation is pretty realistic I'd say.

 

[Deleted member 16136]

Probably not, I assumed it came from some of the creative stuff the cartel's get up to, but in an extreme way. Fun to watch though.

 

[The Crimson Knight]

It's a tv show, and this is the plot within the broader story where there is a man handling all three parts of the process because he believed that was the only means to achieve his goals. It's an entry point into a narrative that can expose how his capabilities, fears/motivations, world view, and ego is intrinsically linked to the decisions he makes... eventually becoming a personal discourse to accepting and challenging fate, the character's own curiosity existing in how he would inevitably become undone, and what values would still remain to the end.

It becomes a problem when our expectations of media are for it to play out realistically. The content is still fiction. Fictional narrative is built and made on the 'magic if', and compelling fiction contains high stakes, and effective story-telling (even non-fiction) eliminates the mundane. It can, and will be built on the exception to the rule, and probably wouldn't exist with such complexity or long-range effort if it weren't to some extent unrealistic, and didn't serve to develop a narrative and a plot, which is in most situations, more important than accuracy, because that becomes our emotional and honest intellectual investment (conscious or subconsciously) in the journey, along with the actor's truth.

 

[Rad Bandolar]

even walt and jesse's p2p cook early on is not nearly as novel as it's presented to be.

Science Fact vs Fiction: Breaking Bad Edition

Does the chemistry behind Walter White's incredibly pure blue crystal methamphetamine measure up?

www.popularmechanics.com

just accept the show as it's presented to you.

Click to shrink...

It's a pretty good exploration into many of the challenges a small business faces getting off the ground, as well as scaling up to meet demand.

They have limited capital, raw material issues, production bottlenecks, distribution problems, and lack of access to the market due to competitive entrenchment.

It also shows that the main reason the drug scene and most other criminal enterprises are so violent is because they lack access to legitimate means of enforcing contracts and moving money.

 

[Z-Beat]

Drug dealers have tried pretty much everything so if you haven't heard of it it's probably real and effective

 

[The Crimson Knight]

Drug dealers have tried pretty much everything so if you haven't heard of it it's probably real and effective

Click to shrink...

Hahahahaha so true.

 

[blame space]

he seems like he runs a tight ship tbh