Better Call Saul has earned its way to becoming my favorite TV Show, dare I say, of all time. Yes, the prequel to the masterpiece that is Breaking Bad is very good on its own.
If you’re not aware, Better Call Saul follows the life of Jimmy McGill, otherwise known as Saul in Breaking Bad. Jimmy is an aspiring lawyer who is actually very good at his job but is denied any praise from his professional older brother, Chuck, also a lawyer.
In the entirety of Breaking Bad, we know Saul Goodman as a sleazy, fast-talking, get-rich-quick lawyer who represents criminals. He has connections in very dark places and ties to serious criminals.
In Better Call Saul, we learn that he actually comes from a tragic past and has a very good heart. Jimmy cares for his mentally ill older brother all while trying to become a respectable attorney. He is very determined in doing so but we learn that his older brother is bent on preventing Jimmy from sharing the same profession as him.
The reason? Well, Chuck is an extremely educated, extremely respectable and extremely good attorney who did his due diligence to become a well-known lawyer. Jimmy, on the other hand, took the easy route with only courses and finding work in sketchy places in order to find the experience. This drives Chuck crazy and it really paints a picture of who he is as a person.
What makes Better Call Saul so great is the fact that it dissects the relationship between two brothers who have been through a lot in their lives. You want so badly for Jimmy to succeed because he’s a great guy with charisma that will make anyone like him.
This brings us to the point of this article. Do we really need a Breaking Bad tie-in? I don’t think so. The show itself is a tie-in and having key roles from Breaking Bad, like Walt or Jesse, show up in Better Call Saul would make no sense. The only reason their paths crossed, to begin with, was due to Walt’s shenanigans in BB.
Having them come into contact anytime before the BB timeline would be a cheap attention grab to please fans. Better Call Saul’s storyline is exceptional by itself and crossing a few more characters over would do it a huge disservice.
We already have Mike Ehrmentraut, Hector Salamanca and a few other low-key familiar faces showing up as it is. And that’s fine because it makes sense for their paths to already have crossed before the BB timeline.
If the writers have to have ONE key character show up in BCS, it should be Jesse Pinkman. We already know Jesse had an existing sketchy life before linking up with Walter White so it wouldn’t be so crazy to have him seek help at some point from a pre-Saul Jimmy McGill.
Season 4 of Better Call Saul premieres on August 6, 2018, and will have 10 episodes- I can’t wait. If you haven’t begun watching the series then I highly recommend it. In fact, it’s the first series I ever paid to have a season pass for since I never watch live television. I never had an interest in legal jargon and technical law-talk but after watching three seasons of BCS, I feel like I can be a sleazy lawyer, myself. The show in its entirety is beatifully tragic.
