Better Call Saul – AMC

To ask whether it was risky to make Better Call Saul after the success of Breaking Bad isn’t really the right question. Spinning off the show that put AMC on the map is nothing short of perhaps the biggest “duh” decision any programming exec has made in years—especially when you can retain the same showrunning duo Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, not to mention Saul himself, Bob Odenkirk. So no, it wasn’t risky per se, other than the obvious risk of messing it all up. And to the credit of both AMC execs and Gilligan-Gould’s Island of Writing Excellence, they didn’t mess it up. In fact, Better Call Saul in many ways captured the tone of the original, with perhaps a slightly more comedic tinge, while recreating the same dread we all felt when Walter White fell deeper and deeper into his own rabbit hole. Saul’s origin story is just as tragic. But the drama around watching a good guy go bad never seems to get old. Once again, we’re hooked.