Let's face facts: Spin-off TV shows tend to fare poorly to the original content. I was furious when I heard about the spin-off to the amazing Break Bad. Nonetheless centering around the buffoonish clown of a character Saul Goodman?! I was livid and heartbroken. I wanted Breaking bad to end on a high note and not let this potential disaster ruin it's legacy.
Breaking Bad was an absolute masterpiece of a show, with an amazing story, script, cinematography; you name it, it's there. But the one thing that made Breaking Bad shine, and in my option, be one of the greatest series ever made was it's deep, deep burial into the characters that made us either absolutely love or loath them. It didn't rely on special effects and had no fat to it whatsoever. No other show encapsulated a slow unfurling of characters so well that it was as if we were getting to know them in our real lives.
I finally decided to give Better Call Saul a shot after hating it's first episode on release. I figured, maybe I could eventually forget about the fact that it was attached to my favorite TV show, and when everybody who watches it is telling you it's amazing, there must be something there.. right?
Boy, were they right. Better Call Saul is just as good as it's predecessor. It maintains it's very high standard to every aspect of the production, and most of all, character development, motivation and relationships are centerfold once more. It is easy to find Better Call Saul even better than Breaking Bad, although I would chalk this up to it being more current and therefore more in the forefront of our minds in the Breaking Bad universe. If you, like me, have hesitated to give this show a shot for the same reasons, stop it. Let yourself feel uncomfortable for the 1st half of the first season, and then let it get it's clutches into you.
I'm so, so very happy I finally decided to give Better Call Saul a shot again 4 years later. With no hesitation, 10/10.
