Breaking Bad is on a brief hiatus in the middle of its fifth, final season, with shooting already wrapped on what may be the most anticipated eight episodes in recent television history. But for all the show's success, creator Vince Gilligan believes that things may have been very different if not for a shift in viewing habits enabled by the show's availability on Netflix. In a lengthy interview with Vulture, Gilligan says that much of Breaking Bad's momentum can be put down to "binge-watching" on the streaming service.

"I am grateful as hell for binge-watching. I am grateful that AMC and Sony took a gamble on us in the first place to put us on the air. But I'm just as grateful for an entirely different company that I have no stake in whatsoever: Netflix. I don't think you'd be sitting here interviewing me if it weren't for Netflix. In its third season, Breaking Bad got this amazing nitrous-oxide boost of energy and general public awareness because of Netflix."

Gilligan goes on to explain that services like Netflix make it easier for viewers to watch every episode of a show. Before, fans would profess to love his previous work on The X-Files without having managed to keep up in full; the writer notes that "it's a different world now."

The full interview contains hints about the show's ending, details of a possible spinoff series for sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman, and Gilligan's reaction to hearing that Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev tweeted “Breaking Bad taught me how to dispose of a corpse.”