I’m delighted to welcome my friend, the talented writer Thomas Kaufman, to the Prime-Time Crime Review to talk about one of our favorite TV shows.  Check out Tom’s terrific new collection of short stories, ERASED.  And enjoy his guest post!  — Allison

If you watch the series BREAKING BAD, you know it’s terrific. Series creator Vince Gilligan has assembled a lot of talent, both in front of and behind the camera, to make one of the best shows on TV. If you break the series down, it’s not that different from dozens of other shows — BREAKING BAD has its share of murders, chases, gun fights, and explosions. So what makes it so good?

For starters, the show is like an extraordinary chess match, particularly the last two seasons, when the protagonist, high school chemistry teacher and meth cooker Walter White, gets involved with a drug lord named Gustavo Fring. At one point, Walter tells Fring, “I think your game goes deeper than that.” And the game they play in BREAKINGBAD is deep indeed.

Then there’s the suspense. One of the techniques Gilligan and his writers use is uncertainty – often the audience, along with Walter, is in the dark as to what dangers may be lurking. In fact, when Walter has to adopt an alias, he calls himself Heisenberg, a reference to Werner Heisenberg, a physicist whose uncertainty principal won him the Nobel Prize. This uncertainty helps make the show suspenseful. Imagine plying a chess game where you cannot see your opponent’s moves. That’s what it’s like to watch BREAKING BAD.

Another part of the joy of BREAKING BAD is the dialogue. Now, when people talk, they might mean what they say, but they also have a deeper meaning, a subtext to their words. Actors need subtext to make their work believable. And one of the best actors on the show is Anna Gunn, who plays Walter’s wife, Skyler.

Skyler knows Walter is in a battle of wits with Fring. She is of course worried, for Walter, and for their family. But she’s also worried about Walter – he is changing in ways that confuse and frighten her. Vince Gilligan said he wanted to take Mr Chips and turn him into Scarface. This transformation is clear to Skyler.

At one point during Walter’s conflict with Fring there’s an explosion and three people die. Skyler speaks with Walter on the phone and nearly whispers, “What happened?” On the first level she’s referring to the explosion, but on a deeper level she’s asking Walter, what happened to you? How did you become this way? That’s why BREAKING BAD is so damn good.

When I was growing up, crime shows were always from the point of view of the police. Shows like BREAKINGBAD or THE WIRE would’ve been unthinkable back then. Today, as we explore the dark side of a Walter White or a Stringer Bell, we see ourselves. Granted, we would not do the things they do, but through the writing, directing, acting, cinematography, editing, and sound, we identify with these “heroes.” Walter’s problems become our problems because the writers allow us to understand Walter. And because we understand him, we identify with him, even as he grows more violent and more proficient as playing the game.

Because, believe it or not, BREAKING BAD is a game and we all know the rules — there aren’t any.

Check out ERASED, A new collection of mystery and suspense from PWA/St Martin’s Press Competition winner Thomas Kaufman.

Thanks to years behind the camera, Thomas’s work as a cinematographer informs his writing of ERASED and Other Stories. Filming interviews with Holocaust survivors, cops, PI’s, con men, and killers, Thomas has kept his eyes — and his ears — open.  He has shot multiple projects with Academy award winners Charles Guggenheim, Barbara Kopple, and Mark Harris.  Plus, his time directing and shooting TV crime shows gives his work the feel of what’s real.

‘Kaufman is a welcome new voice in DC crime fiction.” – George Pelecanos, author of WHAT IT WAS
‘Fast and funny, with a huge heart. Kaufman is clearly a writer worth keeping an eye on.’ ­ Steve Hamilton, author of THE LOCK ARTIST