Not at all. He’s an offensive character, and I think he’s meant to show us something bad about ourselves that’s lurking there when we get frustrated or despair. I think there’s a certain audience today, as there was then, whose not sure he’s the villain at all, but they’re wrong.
I think there’s more there though, especially about fragility and violence, weakness and hate. A morality tale that some will mistake as an elegy, which I believe the film makers did by design. But it’s a nice counter point to Tony Soprano and Walter White for me. For some reason, even as I enjoyed both those characters immensely, there were many points in both those series where I could hear Bill Fosters question, “I’m the bad guy?” Tony and Walter similarly don’t always know they’re the bad guys, they’re both self pitying, they’re both aware of it at times, or repressing it, and rediscovering it as they evolve and neither can escape it.
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