I don't think I need to say that Breaking Bad was a massive success at this point, it's considered by so many people to be one of the greatest if not the greatest TV show of all time. As a result, giving it a spinoff based on breakout character Saul makes a ton of sense, and the fact that it's being produced by the same team as its predecessor makes this one of the best spinoffs ever.
Better Call Saul is a spinoff/prequel series to Breaking Bad about the titular character Saul Goodman, originally known as Jimmy Goodman. The entire series focuses on Jimmy's fall as he becomes the slimy, charismatic lawyer we all know and love, but Season 1 mostly lays the groundwork for his journey throughout the series. Jimmy starts off as a struggling public defender who left the law firm HHM after being unable to advance in it. Meanwhile, he has to take care of his brother Chuck who left HHM due to his own electromagnetic hypersensitivity. As a whole, this season is really slow-paced, but it still manages to be entertaining to watch partly due to how fun it is to watch the charismatic Jimmy defend people. Unlike Walt who didn't seem to have much of a morally shaky past until he starting making drugs, Jimmy used to be a con artist and isn't afraid to do some questionable things from the very start of the series. However, Jimmy isn't the only protagonist in Better Call Saul, as Mike Ehrmantraut also has a pretty major role in the series. Throughout the series, we get to see him become the hitman he is in Breaking Bad while also getting more history on the Salamanca family. This season doesn't quite give the two storylines much screentime, but they are the focus of two of its best episodes. BCS also has a strong supporting cast. Nacho is an incredibly fascinating and complex character that only gets better in later seasons, Kim has a great dynamic with Jimmy while also having her own compelling conflicts at HHM, and Chuck gets an outstanding twist in the penultimate episode that brought his character to another level for me.
Better Call Saul is the rare spinoff that I feel can stand head-to-toe with the original show since it's pretty much produced by the exact same team. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould still have a huge role in the production of this series, Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks are returning as Saul (Jimmy) and Mike respectively and barely missed a beat, and the entire series manages to strike that same Breaking Bad blend of black humor, hard-hitting drama, and complex character dynamics. Despite the similarities though, there are a lot of aspects that differentiate the two series from each other. BCS has a much lighter tone with less violence and more wordplay, allowing for the aforementioned black humor and generally strong writing to really shine. I also feel like since the Breaking Bad team had all that experience with their first show, Better Call Saul doesn't have any growing pains at all. In spite of its relatively slow pace, Season 1 is completely lacking in any weak episodes, with plenty of them actually ranking among my personal favorites. My only gripe with this season that prevents it from being five stars is really just the finale, which isn't a bad episode but an uncharacteristically clumsy end to the season, shafting most of the cast to rush Jimmy into breaking bad. Knowing that his fall throughout the next three seasons is leagues more gradual, it feels more like the showrunners didn't know if they'd get another season and tried to make this one a series finale just in case.
While almost every episode this season was great, the high points really stick out:
Mijo: The pilot episode ends on a pretty great cliffhanger with Jimmy's accomplices accidentally running into none other than Tuco Salamanca. Miko is a strong followup to the pilot as it forces Jimmy to talk his way out of getting killed by the still incredibly terrifying and psychotic Tuco. It's a great showcase of Jimmy's charisma, it introduces Nacho, and it feels like a dark omen of things to come. Even more, coming right after the end of Breaking Bad, watching this episode just solidifies how consistent the quality is between the two shows.
Five-0: I didn't care too much about Mike in Breaking Bad. I thought he was a cool character, sure, but he was always a bit of an afterthought for me. Well, Five-O definitely changed that, this entire Mike-centric episode was just plain heartbreaking. The whole episode has this uncharacteristically gloomy vibe which the sad story of Mike's son definitely earns, but it's the final scene where Mike admits to everything that happened to his son that really makes this episode special. It's phenomenally written and probably has Jonathan Banks's best performance to date.
Pimento: While I was a tad disappointed by the finale, the penultimate episode was an incredibly different story. Pimento is a shocking episode that reveals Chuck's true nature, and that he prevented Jimmy from moving up in HHM because of his past. Michael McKean does a great job of selling the twist, and getting that first taste of Chuck's more elitist nature makes him a far more interesting character. The twist also puts all the events of Season 1 into perspective and has a massive impact on Jimmy's development. And that's not even it! Mike gets a great subplot about his first job as a bodyguard that gives the biggest hint of his character in Breaking Bad yet.
Overall, aside from its shaky finale, Better Call Saul's first season is a worthy successor to Breaking Bad and an incredibly strong start to the series with great characters, plenty of truly memorable episodes, and the same tone and strong writing that helped its predecessor make such an impact.
4/5 Stars
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