‘Better Call Saul’ is a great example of how sharp, organic writing can look as if it was planned years in advance. On ‘Breaking Bad’, Saul Goodman was largely used as a comedic relief – the crooked lawyer of Jesse and Walt who was obsessed with making money so long as he didn’t end up in a body bag. He was entertaining and had some fascinating moments, but he was definitely a side character to create a contrasting tone to the show; as the show became darker, Saul was the tragic, dancing clown designed to remind you how to laugh. So, when ‘Better Call Saul’ was announced, many fans wondered how the show would work. I’m going to look at several aspects the show did well that helped make it a successful prequel.
Firstly, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould and the other writers used the Saul Goodman character as the end point and spent countless hours wondering who the man behind the mask was. Jimmy McGill, ultimately, turns into Saul Goodman and so, much like how Walter White became Heisenberg, there is a journey and character arc that must take place for that transformation to happen. They used the fact that Saul was the dancing clown to ask the question of how he became that. Instead of simply saying that they couldn’t do a prequel about an important but not particularly fleshed out character, they instead used that to their advantage. ‘Breaking Bad’ fans already enjoyed Saul as a comedic presence so they were more than likely going to watch it to see what else could be done with the character. Saul is arguably the perfect example of how you pick a character to do another series from: he’s both likable enough to draw an audience and engrained in the shady underworld of ‘Breaking Bad’ enough that it’s likely to hold your interest. The unknown aspects of Saul were used to help build intrigue into the character’s journey. It creates an element of mystery; a desire from the audience to find out more.
Mystery is also important when building towards my second point: the fate of particular characters. After all, not much is known about Saul’s life when he’s in ‘Breaking Bad’ and there are several key characters introduced in ‘Better Call Saul’ who, obviously, are not in ‘Breaking Bad’ which begs the question: where are they? What happens to Kim, Chuck, Howard and Nacho which makes them not present in ‘Breaking Bad’? This tension would obviously be baked into many prequels because you’re always going to have new characters that were not in the original piece but this is made extra tantalising when examining my final point.
Similar to Walt’s journey in ‘Breaking Bad’, Jimmy McGill’s is essentially about a man crossing worlds: from the legal to the illegal. Knowing that this is something that must take place not only adds more tension to the dynamic of the show, it inevitably makes the prequel as much of a character study as ‘Breaking Bad.’ This is because you’re investing in wanting to know what drove McGill to become the “criminal lawyer” Jesse refers to when we first meet him. Many shows examine the bad decisions of characters but few do them with as much forethought and deliberate pacing as ‘Better Call Saul.’ This crossing of worlds is naturally engrossing when tied to the people that Jimmy has in his life or around him who aren’t in ‘Breaking Bad.’ After all, we know Jimmy is still alive as Saul in the ‘Breaking Bad’ timeline but it doesn’t mean that his mistakes couldn’t potentially lead to the deaths of those around him. As Jimmy goes further down the rabbit hole into the criminal underworld, the threat and tension are constantly heightened. The writers have managed to make the journey compelling by already having an endpoint. They do this by revelling in the unknown; by using Saul’s status as a tertiary side character in ‘Breaking Bad’ to their advantage.
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