Why do iconic male TV characters have horrifying birthday parties?

Paste Magazine

"It only makes sense that episodes of TV shows that center around a birthday tend to be… intense," says Aurora Amidon. "(I’m assuming I’m not the only one who physically recoiled at the news that tortured golden boy Kendall Roy was throwing himself a birthday bash in the newest season of Succession). Within these episodes, revelations are typically made about a characters’ descent into corruption, or their ruin via external forces. And more often than not, they’ll also reveal something unseemly and sinister about the world itself. Given the weight they carry, it is unsurprising that many of TV’s beloved prestige comedies and dramas have important birthday episodes of their own. From Succession’s already-iconic luxury soirée from hell and The Office’s Michael Scott’s (Steve Carrell) big day that is overshadowed by a coworker’s cancer scare, to Mad Men’s uncomfortable surprise party and the three (three!) birthdays that stamp the sinister arc of Breaking Bad’s Walter White (Bryan Cranston), the birthday episode has the ability to affirm a show’s thematic material in a way that no other episode truly can."