2: Better Call Saul by Al Mannarino
When Breaking Bad ended in 2013, fans and critics had that same question. How would creator Vince Gilligan follow up his neo-noir classic? It came as a surprise to many when the idea of a spinoff featuring Saul Goodman, Walt and Jesse’s ‘criminal’ lawyer was in development. For one thing spinoffs are incredibly risky. The obvious positive is you intrigued the audience of the original show and almost guarantee the network that at least the first season will score big numbers from curiosity alone. The negative is that the show never lives up to the original because for every spinoff like Frasier there’s about ten like Joey.
Regardless of how great Breaking Bad was or how made for the role Bob Odenkirk is, Better Call Saul wasn’t a sure thing. Luckily, the show had a lot going for it. Gilligan and Peter Gould (the writer who came up with the idea of Saul Goodman) wrote the entire first season together. Prior to airing, AMC had already picked up the show for a second season. But the most important thing is that Bob Odenkirk was born to play Saul Goodman. In every appearance he made on Breaking Bad he stole each scene that he was in. The real questions were: could the origin story of Saul Goodman be as compelling as the rise and fall of Walter White (a.k.a. Heisenberg) and would Bob Odenkirk be able to carry the show without the help of Emmy winners Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul?
Exceeding expectations, Gilligan, Gould, and Odenkirk delivered an amazing and original first season, while also giving fans of Breaking Bad more of backstory on some of their favorite characters. Better Call Saul isn’t about what did Saul do before he met Walt and Jesse; it’s about how Jimmy McGill became Saul Goodman. It may be too early to compare these two series, but there’s no question that Better Call Saul was not only one of the best news series of 2015, but also one of the best shows of the year.
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