'Breaking Bad' creator gives masterclass in Barcelona

It's been a full five years, almost to the day, since the series finale of Breaking Bad. And on Thursday in Barcelona, show creator Vince Gilligan gave a talk providing insight into his writing and what went into making the iconic show.

The creator of 'Breaking Bad' and co-creator of 'Better Call Saul' spoke during the Serielizados Festival at the Blanquerna University in the Catalan capital. During the masterclass Gilligan gave writing tips such as the importance of allowing a character to evolve organically, and not to "try too hard" to dictate what they have to do.

And, if you've always felt like 'Breaking Bad' wasn't like other shows – this wasn't by accident. "It seems to me," expressed Gilligan,"that there's no point in doing something that feels like everything else that came before it."

"A big part of what we were excited about," he continued, "was creating a TV show that felt different." To achieve this, the writer recalled that "sometimes, it was fun" to point out the ways that a TV show "might normally do something…and then go the other way."

Gilligan also revealed the emphasis he and his colleagues placed on the consequences of the characters' actions – be they good, or bad. In fact, Gilligan explained that what he "most enjoyed" about the neo-western crime drama was the fact that what people in the plot did "had to have consequences."

The writer also spoke of how many people contributed to the richness of a character and its dimensions. The only time he wrote an episode alone, he said, was for the first one. The following 61 all had the help of colleagues, with actors who added "more richness" to Walter, Jesse, and more.