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Hi, guys. I know fans of “Breaking Bad” are sad about the show ending, and I am too. “Breaking Bad” was a defining moment in my career and my life. But it’s over now, and we all have to move on.
Which is why I’m pleased to announce that I actually have a brand new idea for a show. It’s about a cancer-diagnosed chemistry teacher who teams up with a small-time drug dealer to cook meth.
I know what you’re thinking. Where’d this crazy idea come from, Vince?! Please, stick with me.
The idea is that he’s doing this in order to provide for his wife and son, the latter of whom has cerebral palsy. To make matters a bit more complicated, his brother-in-law also happens to be a DEA agent. Oh, and I almost forgot. That small time drug dealer is also his former student.
Though it’s definitely a departure from “Breaking Bad,” I’m really excited about exploring these new characters and charting the course for what should be a pretty exciting story, if for no other reason than the fact that it completely diverges from all the stuff we did on “Breaking Bad.” Stuff that was great and stuff that I’m really proud of. But this new show is a completely different animal.
When “Breaking Bad” ended, I thought, “Man, I really want to do something new.” Something really character-driven and totally unexpected. Then one day, I got this idea for a character who starts out as a law-abiding citizen, but is driven to lawlessness by the circumstances he has been placed in: in this case, a terminal cancer diagnosis and the subsequent realization that he is utterly powerless. At first, I was hesitant about it. I thought to myself, Vince, you’re the guy who wrote “Breaking Bad,” and that’s the kind of show people are expecting from you, not whatever this thing is. Just give the people what they want!
Well, I’m sorry. But I’m not going to be defined by one show I wrote that happened to be successful. There’s a lot of stories I want to tell, and this is one of them. Even if it seems like it’s coming out of left field.
Despite the obvious differences, Walter White and this new character actually have one thing in common: they’re both the kind of character you only get to write once in a lifetime. The kind of character that enables you to force an audience to constantly re-evaluate their feelings towards him. As fun as it was to write Walter White, I think this character is going to lend himself to some pretty exciting storytelling, especially considering his relationship with the younger, almost Jesse Pinkman-esque, protégé character.
I know some people wish I would just keep making “Breaking Bad” over and over again for the rest of my life, but that’s just not what I’m interested in doing as a writer. What does interest me is exploring this new world that is the liminal zone straddling suburban Albuquerque and the Southwestern drug trade. Oh, I forgot to mention that we’re actually going to shoot the show on location in Albuquerque. Hopefully that will lend the show an authenticity of place that “Breaking Bad,” which we also shot on location, was often praised for.
Sorry that there’s no official show title yet. So far “Breaking Bad” and “Breaking Bad” are tied for my favorite. My only reservation with both of them is that I don’t want to be known as the two-word title guy, know what I mean? Definitely not a stigma I want associated with me.
