I think it’s safe to say at this point that Breaking Bad will go down in history as one of the best TV shows of all time. It’s somehow been almost 13 years since that harrowing series finale, and there are still dozens of Breaking Bad moments that blow our minds. So it’s hard to imagine that anyone — even creator Vince Gilligan — could ever have doubted whether the series was “good enough,” but according to Bryan Cranston, that’s exactly what happened.
Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul — who famously starred as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, respectively, on Breaking Bad’s five seasons — sat down with the Friends Keep Secrets podcast, and Cranston recalled Vince Gilligan always fretting about making the show better — a trait the actor says all of the best in the entertainment industry share. Cranston said:
The one common denominator that I’ve noticed with anyone who is a director, writer, producer, is that ‘good enough’ is never good enough. Vince Gilligan, when he was directing several episodes of Breaking Bad … he would literally take his forefinger and middle finger and touch his forehead, like, ‘What else? What am I missing?’ So he agonized over it.
Knowing what resulted from his efforts, it seems like Vince Gilligan had no reason for such concern, but he undoubtedly was under pressure from naysayers — including the TV exec who called his Breaking Bad pitch “the single worst idea I’ve ever heard” — and maybe if he hadn’t pushed so hard, the show wouldn’t be what it is.
Aaron Paul noted how Vince Gilligan complicated his characters’ circumstances in ways that made it challenging to figure out how Walt and Jesse were going to continue to get away with their operation. He said:
He loves writing himself into a corner so it is incredibly hard to get out. So the audience goes through that experience. Like, ‘How am I gonna get out?’
Bryan Cranston credits Vince Gilligan’s dedication to his craft for making Breaking Bad as good as it is. His efforts were worth all the struggle, because the series they created is going to live on:
The only way you’re going to go beyond ‘That’s good enough, right?’ is because you have a passion for it, a love. You gotta make it better. You gotta keep slugging it in the face to make it better somehow. Because this moment of just being, ‘I don’t know,’ is just now, but what you’re making — forever.
Breaking Bad’s legacy appears to be safe, and Vince Gilligan is no one trick pony, either. His prequel/spinoff Better Call Saul was arguably better than Breaking Bad, running for six seasons on AMC. Now Gilligan’s doing great things with Pluribus, which stars Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn and has been a must-watch since its gripping pilot episode. That series can be streamed with an Apple TV subscription, and you’ve probably got plenty of time to catch up as we wait for Pluribus Season 2.
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, meanwhile, are two of the best shows to binge on Netflix right now, so fire up that Netflix subscription to watch (or rewatch) these series that hopefully Vince Gilligan knows by now are more than just “good enough.”
