Battle Creek: 10 Things We Already Know About Vince Gilligan's Next Masterpiece

2. We're Definitely Getting 13 Episodes

Battle Creek has no pilot. Well, it has a first episode which Gilligan originally wrote as a pilot, but CBS have ordered 13 episodes without having seen a single microsecond of filmed footage, which is really a no-brainer for anyone who's seen Breaking Bad or an executive who hasn't seen Breaking Bad but definitely knows a few million people who have. But is that necessarily a good thing? "YES, OF COURSE IT IS" I hear you scream from the rooftops. "Who doesn't want as much Gilligan as soon as humanly possible?" Well, fair point. My only reservation is that, without a pilot to test the waters, Battle Creek could be setting out on the wrong course without anyone to tell them so. The 13-episode order from CBS shows a great deal of faith in Gilligan and Shore based on their past successes, but no-one gets it right 100% of the time, and if the series ends up misfiring on the first few episodes, there could be some hand-wringing and head-rolling at both Sony and CBS and Gilligan's reputation could be at stake, whereas if only a crappy pilot were to be made, everyone could write Battle Creek off as better off being an idea. Not that I expect it to be crappy, of course, but Breaking Bad left quite a high bar to jump over and everyone seems pretty confident that they'll clear it with no problem.