Hello, my fellow watchers. It's been a while since I've joined a CineTV contest and this week's theme is an interesting one. When I think of shows that I would like to binge-watch, Game of Thrones always comes to mind. It's such an epic medieval fantasy series that I've yet to see being dethroned in its genre. But doing a binge of this show is a monumental task for me as I would have to spend hundreds of hours through the episodes.
But beyond GoT, I've realized that there's another show that I've binge-watched so many times more, and that's Better Call Saul.
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I really thought Breaking Bad was the GOAT when it comes to television series. But when I started watching Better Call Saul, I realized how much better it is than the original show that it spun from.
What I liked about Better Call Saul
Character Progression
First off, the character progression is amazing for me. The story starts off with Jimmy trying his best to make a name for himself in the lawyering world. Right from the get-go, we see him try to circumvent the law in favor of his clients. All the little things of cutting corners and cheating eventually leads to him becoming the titular Saul.
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Side Characters
Saul is not the only likeable character in the show. In fact, some may even despise him and favor other characters. I like how the creators thoroughly flesh out the backstories and personalities of some of the characters. One such character is Kim who started out as a by-the-book and intelligent lawyer. As the story progresses, she slowly gets tainted by Jimmy's influence and eventually gives in to her inner demons.
Seamless Story Integration to Breaking Bad
Another amazing thing that the showrunners have done is connecting BCS to the original show, Breaking Bad. Saul first mentioned two personalities, Ignacio and Lalo, in Breaking Bad that were never referred to again in the rest of the series. But in BCS, they managed to introduce and give life to these characters, which eventually became an integral part of the story.
Some of the recurring characters like Mike and Gus had their backstories fleshed out even more than in Breaking Bad, letting the audience understand more about their motives. In my opinion, they managed to successfully mesh the two stories together with little to no loopholes, at least nothing that I'm aware of.
Story Comes Full Circle
Finally, Better Call Saul completes the story of Breaking Bad. It is both a prequel as well as an epilogue. The main character also progresses from being Slipping Jimmy, to lawyer James McGill, to lawyer Saul Goodman, to fugitive Gene, and then finally to simply James McGill. In the end, he comes clean to all of his wrongdoings and faced wholly the ramifications of his actions throughout the two shows. The same goes for his partner, Kim, as they both saw the error of their ways in the end. It's a far better ending that the bittersweet one that Walter had in Breaking Bad.
Additionally, what I especially like about Better Call Saul is that they had these segments in the show that can be binge-watched separately without having to watch entire episodes. They are key moments in the show that are sometimes comedic and sometimes tragic that are somewhat self-contained and can be rewatched by themselves. You can check these clips in YouTube and you'll see them having tens of millions of views. So that's my review of Better Call Saul and I hope you guys liked it as well as I did.
