Credit owed is now being placed properly and righteously at Breaking Bad's feet. Although, feet is not the correct ending to this sentence, but 'brain' does not sound nearly as sleek. Vince Gilligan has recently received CableFAX Program's Award for best writer. Good job, CableFAX.
CableFAX is a program that ranks and awards quality cable television, something that should be done more often. In my opinion it would make programs become more ambitious and write overall better shows. If these cable dramas didn't get an automatic disregard to premium channel shows, then they would be more motivated. This season of Breaking Bad has pushed more limits, in context of cable and gore, than even showtime's Dexter. This is worth pointing out, since Dexter IS about a serial killer.
Gilligan took on fellow AMC writer, Matt Weiner, of Mad Men. This award, is added on to Gilligan's already six Emmy Awards for Breaking Bad. After the awards, Vince Gilligan sat down with the Irish Film & Television Network for an interview. The interviewer posed some great questions that I was very excited about:
(source: http://www.iftn.ie/broadcast/BroadcastNews/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4284389&tpl=archnews&force=1)
Q. Why are you ending Breaking Bad?
A. A big part of me does not want to end ‘Breaking Bad’ because I suspect and feel that it will be a definite highlight of my life and I’m having a wonderful time doing it. My crew and my cast are like family to me and I have such a good time doing the shows so a big part of me indeed, does not want the show to ever end. I’m ending it ultimately because it was always intended to be a very finite story. It’s a story about a man who starts off as essentially the good guy and, by force of will, chooses to become the bad guy. At a certain point, we run out of story. I want to leave the audience satisfied and perhaps, wanting a little bit more. But that is always preferable to me than to have your audience saying “Oh My God, is that show still on the air? End it already, put it out of its misery.”
Q. When you wrote the final episode of season 4 you were still in negotiations with AMC, so there was a chance that this could have been the last episode of the show. Would you have been comfortable or happy with that episode to have been the final ending?
A. That’s a very good question and a part of me thinks that the answer to that is yes. I am very proud of the last episode of season four and I feel like that would not have been a bad ending of the entire series.
I have to admit that while negotiations were ongoing during the writing of that episode I sort of suspected that AMC and Sony – our two partners in producing this show – were not going to let the show die. I really suspected that the last episode of season four would not be our final episode.
In a sense you suspect what the outcome will be, but you have to protect against the possibility that the episode you are working on will be your final one and you desire to leave the audience satisfied on some level. You try to do double duty as a writer.
I have to admit that while negotiations were ongoing during the writing of that episode I sort of suspected that AMC and Sony – our two partners in producing this show – were not going to let the show die. I really suspected that the last episode of season four would not be our final episode.
In a sense you suspect what the outcome will be, but you have to protect against the possibility that the episode you are working on will be your final one and you desire to leave the audience satisfied on some level. You try to do double duty as a writer.
I guess I try to make the end of every season as satisfying as possible, just on the off chance that god-knows-what – a meteor strikes the earth or something and that’s the last episode we ever do! We try to end on a high note with every season and season four was no exception.
Q. Was it particularly difficult to say goodbye to the character Gus and Giancarlo Esposito?
A. It was very hard. I took Giancarlo Esposito into my office in Albuquerque probably about two or three months before we killed off his character, just the two of us and I was very nervous. I had to say it to him; I had to give as much advanced warning as possible and I told him, unfortunately, at the end of this season, we are going to kill off your character. I was so nervous about it. I was humming and hawing and stuttering and he just sort of sat there and very politely listened to me.
The best way I can put it is – sometimes the story dictates what it needs from the writer. In ‘Breaking Bad’ season four it was very much a situation of, “This towns not big enough for the two of us” and then that was sort of the situation with Walter White and Gus Fring. They were very similar in a sense – they were both very brilliant and ruthless men and one couldn’t succeed unless the other one failed. They were playing something of a zero sum game all through season four. Bryan Cranston was really sad that we were loosing Gus Fring but we all kind of knew that on some storytelling level, it was best to kill off the character of Gus so that Walt could come back. The town wasn’t big enough for the two of them. Or if you like the movie ‘Highlander’ – there can be only one!
A. It was very hard. I took Giancarlo Esposito into my office in Albuquerque probably about two or three months before we killed off his character, just the two of us and I was very nervous. I had to say it to him; I had to give as much advanced warning as possible and I told him, unfortunately, at the end of this season, we are going to kill off your character. I was so nervous about it. I was humming and hawing and stuttering and he just sort of sat there and very politely listened to me.
The best way I can put it is – sometimes the story dictates what it needs from the writer. In ‘Breaking Bad’ season four it was very much a situation of, “This towns not big enough for the two of us” and then that was sort of the situation with Walter White and Gus Fring. They were very similar in a sense – they were both very brilliant and ruthless men and one couldn’t succeed unless the other one failed. They were playing something of a zero sum game all through season four. Bryan Cranston was really sad that we were loosing Gus Fring but we all kind of knew that on some storytelling level, it was best to kill off the character of Gus so that Walt could come back. The town wasn’t big enough for the two of them. Or if you like the movie ‘Highlander’ – there can be only one!
Thanks Again!
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