As of today, it's officially been 9 years since Better Call Saul was released. It's been a little over a year since the finale aired and I'm still mesmerized about how this crew lead by Peter Gould & Vince Gilligan pulled it off, again.
When Breaking Bad reached its finale, it was hard for me to imagine any other show being able to reach it's level, let alone arguably surpass it. And when I heard that there was a spin-off regarding Saul Goodman, I thought maybe the show could have some solid and funny moments, and maybe bring a bit of depth towards some beloved Breaking Bad characters.
Spin-offs in television are usually seen to me as fan service, or a way to make more money off of a franchise that was loved. That doesn't mean that all of them are bad, but most of them don't have the passion or care that'd make you think it was extremely necessary to make a spin-off, especially considering the risk of making previous characters look bad writing wise. And while Better Call Saul was AMC's idea to make more money off of the franchise, I'm shocked with how the creators and writers were able to make another masterpiece.
This show was always meant to be in the shadow of Breaking Bad in my eyes, and I never would've thought of these shows as something that'd be deserving to talk about in the same breath as one another. But Better Call Saul took the ball that Breaking Bad was rolling, picked it up, and launched it forward.
While I think Breaking Bad has peaks that no other show can reach, Better Call Saul was able to do things that it's predecessor never could. The depth and writing of these characters are honestly perfect. So much so that I'd consider the shows leads Jimmy and Kim to be two of the best written characters in television history. And while the cast of this show is extremely stacked, Chuck McGill to me is a character that's honestly overlooked compared to the rest. His character has a pretty clear consensus amongst most people, but there's so much to him and Jimmy's dynamic that's it's honestly not as black and white as most people make it out to be, despite both being objectively wrong in certain aspects of the series. It's really fascinating to me.
The main aspect of the show that baffles me is how perfectly timed the arcs are considering this is a prequel. Every event in the show is written so well and is paced in a brilliant way to the point where no character arc seems to be rushed, yet the show still remains interesting. You think you've reached the pinnacle of a characters journey, then a curveball is thrown that changes everything.
That's not even mentioning how balanced both the lawyer side and the cartel side of the show are. When I first started the show I was eager to get more of the Mike and cartel portion, but the lawyer side of the story honestly paved the way for the first half of this show and was the most compelling part of the first 3 seasons.
My word of advice to anyone who watches this show.
1. Be patient
2. Understand that this is not Breaking Bad.
At some point the show will get very intense, but enjoy what arcs you are given at the time because before you know it, you'll look back and realize you were in the good times of the show. If you watch Better Call Saul after watching Breaking Bad, you might ask for one thing early on. But when you actually get it, you'll realize that the destination wasn't the key, but it was the journey to get there.
Considering most of the characters in this show were never even supposed to exist, it's safe to call Better Call Saul a miracle in television. Whether that was because of an actor wanting to be written off, an actor having a busy filming schedule, or a throw away line that created two of the greatest characters in the entire universe, it's amazing that Breaking Bad was able to pave the way for one of the greatest shows of all time. But what's even more impressive is Better Call Saul makes it to where Breaking Bad is not even complete without its existence.
Kudos to Peter Gould, Vince Gilligan and the entire crew that returned to create Better Call Saul, and I'm grateful I got to experience this universe come to a close.
