| Summary: | Introduction. We analyze the dramatic and cognitive mechanisms that activate the emotional identification with antiheroic protagonists of serial fiction, taking Breaking Bad as a case study. Methodology. This identification is examined through the lens of Media Cognitivism (Carroll, Plantinga, Smith), and is reinforced through Media Psychology, applying a "close reading" to the last season of the series. Theoretical Framework. Starting from the notion of "structure of sympathy" (Smith), we spot four dramatic strategies that modulate the spectatorial moral judgment contrary to the antihero and relate the "familiarity" that is woven with him from the notion of "expanded narrative". Discussion. In its fifth season, the story breaks the moral sympathy of the viewer towards the character, but it recomposes it in the last episodes of the series, by using the four dramatic strategies previously studied. Conclusion. We propose the concept of moral sympathy as a synthesis of narrative familiarity and moral modulation of the ethical perspective.
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