I liked Skyler through most of the original run. When she was irritable, she had excellent reasons for being so, and neither her acting nor her writing pulled any punches. We've gotten so accustomed to the trope of the perfect wife that when we see realism, it feels like a horror show. She didn't start off terribly introspective, but after the full run, the reasons for that came clear -- she married a genius and he never let her forget it, so she learned to stop digging into herself because mining that vein made surviving too difficult.
The White marriage was a master-class in toxic passive aggression. Both Walt and Skyler started out with a degree of passive aggression*, but they elevated it in each other because they spent 15-16 years in a marriage for the sake of their child, (and avoiding abject poverty). Poor Flynn. But on rewatch, with the knowledge of how narcissistic and arrogant Walt is when he has even a little power, it's easy to see how he would take out his aggressions on someone he perceived as even less powerful. He wouldn't be direct; he'd undermine another person's sense of self and then blame them for failing to thrive without a foundation, while considering himself perfectly innocent and righteous.
Marie is difficult at first, but she grows and became one of my favorite characters over time. She benefited from therapy in a way that's seldom shown on television. Given that the major viewpoint character is Walt, and that in his perspective, everyone is beneath him, it's not that surprising that we start out with his perspective of his wife (note the possessive there -- she's an extension of him, not an independent entity) and her annoying sister.
But I do think the writing team has benefited from learning to write these characters in this world, and some of their fresh writers are just brilliant. Knowing the ultimate end-game gave them freedom to explore this world's now. And yes, Kim is a rockstar. I want more of her backstory.
All television seems to be suffering from attention-deprivation this spring. I think it's not the fault of this series, or of anything that's currently running. It's just... the people who normally watch are cutting into their entertainment time to be horrified and politically motivated, and when they do have time for something, a master class in story-telling takes a lot of work. Yet something else to lay at the GoOP's feet.
*Because Marie is also passive aggressive, and siblings grow up in the same environment, usually latching on to similar survival strategies.
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