At the same time, many of Better Call Saul’s best episodes are masterpieces of brutally dark, neo-noir storytelling in their own right, punctuated by gang violence and sinister characterizations comparable with the most chilling moments in Breaking Bad. The show strikes the perfect balance between honoring the story that spawned it and forging its own path.
In both visual and narrative terms, Better Call Saul unquestionably belongs to the world of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Yet, a subtle tonal shift sets the series apart from its forerunner, arguably elevating the Breaking Bad franchise to even greater heights in the process. The best TV spinoff of modern times feels like an effortless continuation of Vince Gilligan’s masterful narco-thriller.
Better Call Saul Is The Golden Example Of A Spinoff Done Right
If Breaking Bad served up five flawless seasons between 2008 and 2013, then its spinoff went one step further. Better Call Saul’s final season is the best in the whole franchise, building on a succession of increasingly inventive plot developments and character introductions. The show’s sixth season is the culmination of it all, tying intricately interwoven narrative threads together spectacularly.
As gripping and groundbreaking as Breaking Bad is, Better Call Saul season 6 is perhaps the only set of episodes across both shows that consistently meets the definition of high art, from its dazzling showdown between Gus Fring and Lalo Salomanca, to its stark change of color palette to signify Saul’s outlaw status. There are too many other examples to mention.
Among them, though, that final, emotional goodbye scene between Jimmy and Kim, which serves as the perfect epilogue for the franchise in its entirety, deserves all the attention we can possibly give it. As do smaller, carefully crafted details, like the full-circle allusions in Jimmy baking in the prison kitchen.
Even before this contender for the greatest season of TV drama ever made, Better Call Saul gave us five years of inimitable brilliance, rendering the same screen universe that Walter White first introduced to us in 2008 from fresh perspectives. We come to understand the origins behind Saul Goodman’s tragic flaws, whilst coming to empathize with those who antagonize him.
As a sequel series, Better Call Saul aims to do two very difficult things that seem to be mutually contradictory, but somehow manages both with distinction, often at the same time. There’s the singular character portrait it paints of Jimmy McGill, quite apart from his involvement with Walter White, and then there’s the Breaking Bad backstory it fleshes out.
The show seamlessly combines these two seemingly disparate elements to produce a thoroughly compelling whole. It simultaneously enriches the characterizations of Gustavo Fring, Mike Ehrmantraut, and the Salamanca crime family, and turns Saul Goodman into one of television’s ultimate antiheroes.
On Paper, Better Call Saul Looked Like A Terrible Idea
According to conventional wisdom, Better Call Saul should have been doomed to fail from the very beginning. Following one of the 21st century’s greatest prestige TV series with a procedural comedy set in the same world but without its best character, fronted by an actor primarily known as a sketch performer, it had no right to succeed.
Even when the sitcom format originally planned for Better Call Saul was abandoned during the early stages of its development, there were still serious question marks over the show. For example, as certain teething problems in early episodes reflect, it was hard to gauge exactly how funny a series this dark could really be.
The absence of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman must have weighed heavily on the shoulders of showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, too, as well as applying additional pressure to Bob Odenkirk in the lead role. What’s more, tying, Gus, Mike, and the Salamancas into Saul’s story must have felt like one heck of a challenge to begin with.
It was a challenge that writers, producers, cast and crew fully embraced, however. Better Call Saul is at once a show by itself, and Breaking Bad’s cleverer, funnier younger sibling. Nothing about it is out of place, but everything about it is a shining example of how the very best spinoffs make their own TV history.