PAGE 22 • May 2020
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Streaming Flicks by MILLER byBRIAN DEBRA MERRYWEATHER
Better Call Saul By all accounts, BREAKING BAD is generally regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time. Taut, exciting, and wonderfully acted, every season was magnificent, and most of the characters were extremely memorable. One of these, Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) even got the green light for his own spin-off series. Saul was easily one of my favorites on BREAKING BAD, and though I was looking forward to seeing where they could go with him, I never thought for a second that it could rival its predecessor in terms of quality. The finale of the penultimate season of BETTER CALL SAUL aired on April 20, wrapping up another run of 10 episodes that further proved that the series no longer lives amidst the shadows of its forbearer. Creator Vince Gilligan and Odenkirk, alongside Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito, Rhea Seehorn and Michael Mando, have delivered a saga that may not achieve same level of jaw-dropping fireworks as BREAKING BAD did, but was equally tremendous in vastly different ways. It is a magnificent, slow burn fusion of crime, drama, thrills, and comedy whose inevitable conclusion is largely known, yet still finds a way to keep its viewers guessing. In BREAKING BAD, Goodman was just the smooth-talking, unscrupulous lawyer
Bob Odenkirk and Derek Blakeney (2015) that would do anything so long as it lead to a large payday. Throughout the duration of BETTER CALL SAUL, however, we learn that before he was Saul, he was the ambitious Jimmy McGill. In the previous seasons, he was not only attempting to emerge from the shadow of his incredibly illustrious brother Chuck (Michael McKean) but prove that his intelligence and ingenuity could lead to great things. By season five, however, Jimmy has changed his name to Saul Goodman, and truly begins forging the path that would lead him to become the sketchy solicitor who was more than happy to help Walter White
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