On January 20, 2008, cable TV AMC broadcast the pilot of what would become the most important TV series in the history of television, for many the best ever. Breaking Bad has now peeped into our lives almost 13 years ago. Vince Gilligan had conceived, together with Peter Gould, a product that would forever change the perception of the television medium by the public and critics. A story, that of Walter White / Heisenberg, which would end on September 29, 2013 but would remain in the collective imagination forever.
A few months before the final series of Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan and his trusted right-hand man Peter Gould announced that the end of Breaking Bad would not be the final chapter of the Breakingbadian universe.
The 2 declared that a few months later they would start shooting the spinoff of the masterpiece starring Bryan Cranston.
The title would be "Better Call Saul" and the protagonist would be a character who appeared in the mother series and much loved by the audience: Saul Goodman.
Bob Odenkirk would return to play the role of the eccentric lawyer admired since the second season of Breaking Bad.
Odenkirk's first appearance in the mother series is dated April 26, 2009 in an episode entitled, guess what, "Better Call Saul".
On the one hand there was total fan excitement. Being able to return to those atmospheres, caress some characters again, return to Albuquerque to explore again certain narrative paths, created a spasmodic wait towards "Better Call Saul".
On the other hand, however, there was a strong concern. For many, creating a spinoff could be risky, sometimes presumptuous. The danger was to "ruin" the perfection that "Breaking Bad" had managed to create. An alchemy between plot, events, characters, development, photography, direction and historical moment, which seemed to be unrepeatable. Better Call Saul could only "stain" the crystal clear reputation that Breaking Bad had managed to build up over its intense 5 seasons.
Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould threw down the gauntlet, especially to themselves, repeating to boredom that they would never have conceived "Better Call Saul" if they hadn't been convinced of the goodness of the whole operation.
Recall that Gilligan, at the time of the fifth season of Breaking Bad, refused the court of AMC and private investors who offered him almost unlimited amounts to "stretch the broth" of the series, which was winning every prize imaginable and increasing ratings (and therefore revenues) episode after episode.
It was therefore to be expected that Gilligan was speaking with sincerity and conviction when he launched into the new adventure.
Today, 5 and a half years after "One", the first episode of Better Call Saul," we all know how it ended.
Better Call Saul has always been nominated in the Best Drama category at Emmy awards (including this year's Emmy Awards, where Rhea Sehorn and Bob Odenkirk have been shivering with missed nominations) since its debut. Odenkirk and his Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman have entered the hall of fame of the best characters all time.
The fifth season of Better Call Saul, which aired in the first half of this 2020 pandemic, is widely regarded as the best series of the year at the moment.
There are many who argue that Better Call Saul today has even surpassed Breaking Bad both in quality and overall critical acclaim.
Directors such as Guillermo Del Toro (Oscar winner for "The Shape of Water") and Darren Aronofsky ("Requiem For a Dream", "Black Swan", "The Wrestler") consider "Better Call Saul" better than "Breaking Bad".
These are speeches that leave, as often happens in these cases, the time they find, but can help to understand how much the spinoff has been able to live up to the mother series.
Maradona or Pelé?
The Beatles or Rolling Stones?
Tarantino or Scorsese?
Mom or Dad?
This parallel, however, has a signficative value. The fact that today we are talking about which of the 2 series is the best, represents the most important certificate of esteem, a certificate of quality towards Better Call Saul.
A spinoff of the most important TV series of all time that has succeeded in the most difficult task:
Honoring the parent series and building his own identity.
Watching any episode of Better Call Saul, your mind will immediately evoke events, moments, scenes from Breaking Bad.
At the same time, however, the adventures of Saul, Kim, Gus, Nacho, Mike and the other characters, old and new, of the spinoff have managed to create their own little corner of the universe. They are characters and stories that walk perfectly on their legs, in fact they run the 100 meters with the same sprint as Usain Bolt.
In this is an immediate parallel, albeit structurally different, with another TV series that has triumphed at the previous Emmy Awards nominations: Watchmen.
Also the HBO TV series, written by Damon Lindelof, owes its success to the author's ability to honor the original material (Alan Moore's comic strip in that case), succeeding at the same time in building a specific identity, updating themes and atmospheres dear to graphic Novel and its author.
Gilligan and Gould's ability to frame scattered pieces of Breaking Bad, with fragments built from scratch in Better Call Saul is sublime.
Everything always seems to fit together perfectly.
Without any smudging.
If many people think the spinoff is at the same level, if not even higher, than Breaking Bad, it's because he managed to deconstruct and build characters like Mike and Saul. Characters that we knew well, but, that in the spinoff we really knew, deep down.
Building a character from scratch and doing it well is very complicated.
Inheriting a character with a huge life behind him and having to sew a new series on him, halfway between prequel and sequel, is something that goes far beyond the concept of complicated.
That's why Better Call Saul is, and will be, the contemporary serial constant with which we wanted to inaugurate the first stage of the tour in the mind of a serialfiller.
We will consider him our Desmond Hume, our constant, able to connect with a glorious and recent past (Breaking Bad), a sparkling present (best series 2020 to date) and an imminent and certainly radiant future (Better Call Saul's final season in 2021).