©AMC and NetflixWhen an acclaimed TV drama like 'The Sopranos,' 'Breaking Bad' or 'Peaky Blinders' finally reaches the end, three questions are immediately asked.
How good was the finale?
Did the final season live up to the standards of previous series?
How does the show rate amongst the greatest TV dramas of all time?
©AMC and NetflixIn the case of AMC's 'Better Call Saul', the answer to the first question is "very good".
The answer to the second is "up there" and the third is "among the very best".
For the final season, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould's 'Breaking Bad' spin-off took the path of splitting its last season into two parts just like its parent show.
But it did so dangling the prospect for 'Breaking Bad' fans of Bryan Cranston's Walter White and Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman returning to our screens.
©AMC and Netflix(SPOILER ALERT!!!)
The first part of Season Six ended on a shocking cliffhanger, with Tony Dalton's narco Lalo Salamanca shooting the nemesis of Bob Odenkirk's Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman, Patrick Fabian's Howard Hamlin in the head.
With Jimmy and Rhea Seehorn's Kim Wexler rattled by Howard's jaw dropping murder, Lalo outlined a plan.
Jimmy would be used as a Trojan Horse to go to the home of Lalo's rival drug kingpin, Giancarlo Esposito's Gustavo Fring to assassinate him.
Jimmy sweet talked Lalo into sending Kim instead - much to her consternation.
Dispatching an extremely jumpy Kim to Fring's house with a pistol in a sequence that recalled a similar moment in 'Breaking Bad' with Jesse Pinkman, Lalo tied Jimmy to a chair while Howard's lifeless body remains slumped and bleeding on the floor.
The plan, not surprisingly, did not work with Fring avoiding being gunned down with the help of his right hand man, Jonathan Banks' Mike Ehrmantraut.
However he did end up in a taut confrontation with Lalo.
Mike and his crew cleaned up the murder scene in Jimmy and Kim's apartment, sending them off to work while they passed off Howard's apparent disappearance as suicide.
.jpg)
©AMC and NetflixIn death, Howard's reputation was trashed - thanks to Jimmy and Kim's concoction prior to his death of a story that he was a cocaine addict.
His shocking murder cast a huge shadow over the second half of Season Six, as Albuquerque's legal community tried to figure out what went wrong.
Kim and Jimmy had every right to feel guilty about how they maligned him.
But of the two, Jimmy seemed less haunted by their actions had and as a consequence, their marriage crumbled with Kim believing she must leave because other people had a tendency to get hurt when the were together.
©AMC and NetflixWith Kim gone, Jimmy went on to prosper as his legal alter ego, Saul Goodman.
Gilligan, Gould and their writers Gordon Smith, Ann Cherkis, Alison Tatlock and Thomas Schnauz then proceeded to jump between several timelines, covering Jimmy's life post 'Breaking Bad' in Omaha as his new alter ego Gene Takavic and then to flashbacks to the post-Kim days when he encountered Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.
Throughout the show's entire run, Gilligan and Gould had given us little snippets of Gene working in a cinnamon pastry outlet in a shopping mall filmed in black and white.
But now whole episodes were filmed in black and white as we saw Jimmy/Gene realising he had been identified by Pat Healy's cab driver Jeff as Saul from his commercials back in New Mexico.
©AMC and NetflixHaving laid low and kept his nose clean, this threat of exposure triggered Jimmy's propensity for a good scam and so he hatched a plot which saw him befriend Jeff's elderly mother, Carol Burnett's Marion and draw her son into a department store heist.
He then came up with another con to steal information and money from the accounts of drunk and drugged financiers like Devin Ratray's boorish Alfred Hawthorne Hill and Kevin Sussman's cancer patient, Mr Lingk.
But would the scams in Omaha prove a step too far for Jimmy?
Throughout its entire run, 'Better Call Saul' was a compelling slow burn of a show - meticulously setting up elements of its plot and sometimes not realising them until later seasons.
.jpeg)
©AMC and NetflixNot only did Gould, Gilligan and their writers wrap up story arcs in this season but they also impressively cross-referenced things that happened in 'Breaking Bad'.
In doing so, they created one of the most elaborate and sophisticated narratives ever to unfold on our screens.
Watching the final season of 'Better Call Saul' was like watching the last pieces of a complex jigsaw fall into place.
And it has to be acknowledged that Gilligan, Gould and their fellow directors Michael Morris, Michelle MacLaren and Thomas Schnauz assembled that jigsaw with great style.
©AMC and NetflixFar from being a gimmick, Marshall Adams' black and white cinematography increasingly took on a deeper resonance in the final stages of the show and gave it a film noir feel.
The decision to show us in black and white the new life Kim had eked out for herself in Florida was very clever and led to a poignant final showdown.
Emmy nominated Odenkirk and Seehorn were terrific as always and you couldn't help feeling that they and 'Better Call Saul's' creators have been unfortunate to often find themselves competing with the cast and creative team of another superb show 'Succession' for TV's top awards.
If Odenkirk and Seehorn manage to walk away with their first Emmys at this year's ceremony, you wouldn't begrudge them.
©AMC and NetflixTheir performances as Jimmy and Kim have always merited awards recognition.
The same would have been true too for Banks and Esposito had they been nominated.
As Mike and Fring, they have further fleshed out their 'Breaking Bad' characters - giving us glimpses of what might have been.
The final season of 'Better Call Saul' also saw Tina Parker blossom as Jimmy/Saul's secretary Francesca, delivering a memorably wry supporting performance.
Carol Burnett and Pat Healy were terrific additions to the cast, while Ed Begley Jr continued to delight as Howard Hamlin's friend and pillar of the Albuquerque legal community, Clifford Main.
It was wonderful too to see Cranston and Paul return in flashback sequences as their iconic 'Breaking Bad' characters as well as the late Robert Forster, Betsy Brandt as Hank Schrader's widow Marie and Michael McKean briefly reprising the role of Jimmy's brother Chuck.
How does 'Better Call Saul' measure against 'Breaking Bad'?
To some viewers, the spin-off certainly enriched it and possibly eclipsed it.
©AMC and NetflixThe show certainly boasted some wonderfully written episodes and also some equally stunning acting.
It was certainly the best spin-off since 'Frasier' - skilfully plotting a darkly comic course that was in keeping with 'Breaking Bad' without completely aping it.
An accomplished show in its own right, 'Better Call Saul' could be watched and enjoyed in isolation from 'Breaking Bad'.
But I would recommend watching it after consuming its parent show.
©AMC and NetflixNow it is over, with a taut and typically unpredictable final episode that managed to deliver just one more surprise.
Its departure will leave the show's devoted fanbase with a huge Jimmy McGill shaped hole to somehow fill.
It will be hard to find a show that is anywhere near as good.
Farewell Jimmy McGill, we enjoyed your scams and your gift of the gab.
©AMC and NetflixFarewell to Kim, Mike, Gustavo Fring, Lalo Salamanca, Nacho, Howard, Clifford and Francesca.
We'll miss your brushes with the wrong side of the law.
If you haven't ever watched 'Better Call Saul', where have you been all these years?
Do yourself a favour. Pour yourself a good drink and start doing so.
(The second half of Season Six of 'Breaking Bad' aired in the United States on AMC from July 11-August 15, 2022, with each episode made available for streaming in the UK and Ireland on Netflix a day later)
Comments
Post a Comment