“Better Call Saul” is the gold standard for Prequels – the sign

“Better Call Saul” is an American television series for crime drama that ran six seasons from 2015 to 2022. The series is a fantastic accompanying piece for “Breaking Bad”.

I wrote one over a year ago Review of “Breaking Bad” and its effects on modern television. It is one of my favorite shows and holds incredibly well all the years later, so that its influence can be seen everywhere in modern television shows. This is particularly considered the first hit on Netflix, which began a chain reaction that created the streaming service empire that we see today.

Everyone expected what would come next from the writer and director Vince Gilligan.

What the audience got was something completely different.

“Better call Saul” Premiere on February 8, 2015 at AMC and ended on August 15, 2022. It is an American thriller created and produced by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould for AMC. The series is a forerunner to “Breaking Bad” and follows the transformation of Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) in the self -centered, criminal lawyer Saul Goodman.

To go in “Better Call Saul” and believe that it will be like “Breaking Bad” is pointless because the two shows have very little in common. So much that people, when the show was broadcast for the first time, are not very satisfied with it. It was a much slower show compared to “Breaking Bad”. In addition, no Walter White or Jessie Pinkman could be seen. The audience was forced to follow the comic relief character, which was not very interesting for most.

With a view of the review, “Better Call Saul” is immersed in me at a very low level, which only have a few works of art. I often think about the show – especially about the characters, the interaction between them and the wonderful kinematography.

It’s all a good man:

Although “Better Call Saul” is a prequel, the show is to be observed after “Breaking Bad”. In this sense, the viewer already knows who Saul Goodman is, or so he thinks.

This show is fascinating because it takes the loudest and most bombastic character of “Breaking Bad” and represents it as a much quieter, nuanced and introspective figure.

The viewer is introduced to Jimmy McGill, who is practically not recognizable by his Loudmouth counterpart Saul Goodman. Seeing where he starts in this series and knowing who he ends up in “Breaking Bad” is an incentive enough to set the readers.

Bob Odenkirk’s ability to present this character from many perspectives is fantastic. It is a crying shame that he has not won a single Emmy Award for his performance as it is as fascinating.

In order not to be exceeded, the rest of the line -up is just as fascinating.

Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) is the other important returning character of “Breaking Bad”. Just like Jimmy, the context of this prequel enables a much round character and gives the audience a newly discovered understanding of his future actions.

I always found Mike one of my favorite characters in “Breaking Bad” and this opinion was only deeper due to this show. Nevertheless, there are other convincing characters in this show.

Chuck McGill (Michael McKean) is a figure that appears strange in the context of this world. Jimmy has a brother who is allergic to electricity? What did you think?! In the course of the show, however, it quickly becomes the most important character in the entire show. His introduction is crucial for Jimmy’s transition to Saul, which leads to nailing interactions between the two.

Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) is another character that seems to be strange in this world, but quickly becomes crucial for this story.

Kim is exactly like Jimmy lawyer, but in the course of the show she begins to beat the same slope as Jimmy and even promotes his bad behavior. As a spectator, she will believe that she was similar to that of that in “Breaking Bad”, in which she tries to get out of the situation in which Walter White put her in. Instead, it is the power that she presses deeper into the criminal underworld.

There are so many other characters that I always and the main element that contributes to “better call” Saul’s brilliance in storytelling, even for most criticized for whom people criticize it most frequently: its pace.

One of the biggest mistakes in modern media is that the writers feel uncomfortable to leave emotions sitting for too long. Marvel is the main example for this as soon as every scene becomes too vulnerable or sincerely, they have to fall back on “funny” witness and sarcasm so that the action can continue to roll.

However, I think that the greatest strength of “better Call Saul” is that it is not afraid to sit with a character and to watch them.

Visual Chicanery:

“Better Call Saul” has the best cinematography of every television show I have ever seen. The way the show is experimented with with camera hinges and lighting keeps the viewer alongside the excellent letter. An essential aspect of this amazing cinematography is how it uses objects.

One of the most cult scenes on the show takes place in the first episode “Uno” and includes a dash box. This garbage can is a recurring object in the show, a physical manifestation of Jimmy’s frustration through the HHM law firm.

By attaching an object like this meaning, the authors can bring them back later and remind the viewer of the inner conflicts and thoughts of the character without dialogue. It is a common trick that many cameraman interweaves in their storytelling, but no other show makes it as masterful as this show.

In addition, the persistent use of the visual stories by the show increases it to another level. It not only looks good, it is also an important use of storytelling to bring the audience into the shoes of every character.

The best example is the constant use of wide recordings by the show. It is a tactic that makes the characters and objects look small in the camera. However, these recordings are used to establish the setting in a new and interesting way, even “Breaking Bad”. Albuquerque feels much larger and lived in it, so it feels like the city could live on, even if these characters did not exist.

On the other hand, the show condensed, isolated recordings that show how isolated or captured you feel, a tactic that is continuously used in the second half of this show when Jimmy’s life falls apart. Compared to the broad shots, it feels a lot of claustrophobic and closes the viewer in the way the characters feel without pronouncing a single word.

This is the genius of the visual storytelling of this show. It trusts that the viewer is smart enough to understand everything without being explicitly given. Instead, it emphasizes emotions and critical thinking through the art of cinematography. It is an aspect that emphasizes this show and is even better than the show that came before.

Diploma:

When I wrote my review of “Breaking Bad”, I had not yet ended “Better Call Saul”, which is why I only mentioned the show when I came by with the sequel to film “El Camino”. If I look back now that I looked at all the media in the “Breaking Bad” Vover Universe (including the terrible “slippin ‘Jimmy”), I think more and more about the goal of Prequels.

Most of the prequels that I stinked. Most prequels are usually cheap money grave that are supposed to attract the audience because their favorite media get a new entry. In addition, most prequels are created by people who have no idea what the original did so well so that they receive a separate story that does not fulfill the original.

Every now and then there is a prequel that justifies its existence. My favorite examples are “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Red Dead Redemption II”. These pre -sources are amazing in themselves, but the newly discovered context that they bring to their stories also increases the original work. If your prequel can do that, you have made it.

“Better Call Saul” does exactly that. It is not as action -packed or focused as “Breaking Bad”. However, his patience enables the show to do more with less, and forces the audience to concentrate more on these characters. There are so many layers in this show that I come to the conclusions that every time I look at them.

Vince Gilligan created a benchmark television with “Breaking Bad” in 2008. In addition to Peter Gould, he did her again with “Better Call Saul” and created one of the largest television programs in the modern era.