So, there’s talk of having a spinoff of Breaking Bad centered on Saul Goodman. That certainly has a lot of potential. He’s my favorite character of the bunch.
The tone of the show would be rather different though, even if it has similarities. Saul Goodman is the comic relief of an otherwise quite dark series. Instead of a show that’s mainly dark punctuated by funny moments, you’d have a funny show punctuated by dark moments.
Lawyer shows tend to have a lot of potential and popularity. Crime shows tend to have a lot of potential and popularity. A show chiefly about a crooked criminal counselor could be great.
I don’t think there are any dopers who wouldn’t give this a fair chance. Would love to see the occasional Jesse or Walt cameo…assuming, of course, they make it out alive…
I’ve been saying this for the last couple of seasons. It seems like such a no-brainer. Surround him with some interesting characters, maybe some survivors from BrBa such as Larry Hankin (Old Joe) and Matt Jones (Badger). It will all depend on the writing, of course. May it do better than The Lone Gunman, Vince’s X-Files spinoff.
I guess this means that Saul survives the last eight episodes of BrBa. Not much of a spoiler, if true. Kind of fitting that the weaselly lawyer escapes with his skin.
Of course, this does go back twenty years, so I will maintain my general point while feeling like a idiot about a series I should have remembered (as a spinoff).
Most spinoffs go the way of “Fish” and a thousand others, bombing badly when the super-funny essential sidekick, straight man or pal proves unable to carry a whole show. I see Saul as being exactly in that zone. He’d get very tiresome very quickly.
I think this would probably be more of a pure comedy than Breaking Bad is because Saul doesn’t have any good or even kinda-good qualities beyond his skill at the criminal things he does. But as a weird, dark comedy about a sweaty, sleazy lawyer who keeps breaking the law to work with his criminal clients while trying to keep them and himself out of jail, it could be pretty funny. Shades of a more brutal, criminal Lionel Hutz, maybe. I don’t know if any of the Breaking Bad team will be involved in the longer term, though. I think Vince Gilligan wants to get away from the Walter White-verse once the show is finished.
I consider this to be a major spoiler, myself. I would have appreciated not being told that he gets out of it alive. Would it have been so hard to not put the spoiler in the thread title?
The appeal of Saul is the contrast between him and the grimness of the rest of the Breaking Bad universe. It’s hard to see how that could translate into a new show.
1001 others, if you include the Dwight spinoff pilot from The Office. The problem with most spinoff attempts is, they try the “fish out of water” approach (Fish taking in a group of orphans; Dwight running a farm). Keep the character true to form (Frasier as, well, Frasier), and it just might work.
There’s been a few successful ones, you can see some listed on Wikipedia. Angel, Private Practice, and Boston Legal all had multiple seasons. Law & Order, CSI, and Stargate each had two successful spin-offs.
But there don’t appear to be many comedy ones. I could see it being more difficult to do a comedy spin-off. A supporting character who’s fun in small doses could become too much in big doses on his own show.
I do love Saul and Bob Odenkirk, but I won’t hold out too much hope for this, either that it will get made, or if it does that it will be good. Even if it is good, it seems like it will probably be a disappointment when it’s inevitably compared to Breaking Bad.
It’s not a spoiler- each time Vince Gilligan has mentioned the possible spin off, he’s stated that it doesn’t mean that Saul survives the remaining Breaking Bad episodes. I’m guessing that means it could be a prequel.
Huffington Post put together a list of the thirty best and worst spinoffs in history here, complete with clips and their reasons.
Here are their best (parent show in parenthesis):
“Laverne & Shirley” (“Happy Days”)
“The Jeffersons” (“All In The Family”)
“Angel” (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”)
“Law & Order: SVU” (“Law & Order”)
“Frasier” (“Cheers”)
“Xena: Warrior Princess” (“Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”)
“Daria” (“Beavis and Butt-head”)
“Melrose Place” (“Beverly Hills, 90210”)
“The Simpsons” (“The Tracey Ullman Show”)
“Knots Landing” (“Dallas” )
“Rhoda” (“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”)
“NCIS” (“JAG”)
“The Facts of Life” (“Diff’rent Strokes”)
“Boston Legal” (“The Practice”)
“A Different World” (“The Cosby Show”)
Here are their worst:
“Joey” (“Friends”)
“Time Of Your Life” (“Party Of Five”)
“The Brady Brides” (“The Brady Bunch”)
“Law & Order: LA” (“Law & Order”)
“The Tortellis” (“Cheers”)
“Baywatch Nights” (“Baywatch”)
“Saved by the Bell: The College Years” (“Saved by the Bell”)
“Models Inc.” (“Melrose Place”)
“The Lone Gunmen” (“The X-Files”)
“Star Trek: Voyager” (“Star Trek”)
“The Finder” (“Bones”)
“Port Charles” (“General Hospital”)
“Caprica” (“Battlestar Galactica”)
“Joanie Loves Chachi” (“Happy Days”)
“The Golden Palace” (“The Golden Girls”)
And Wikipedia has a list of all of them unrated, of course, but OMG there are a lot of them! :eek:
All I will say is that I will tune in for Bob Odenkirk. The more I think about it, this has all the makings of The Lone Gunmen all over again. TLG were used to great comic relief effect on the X-Files and I was excited when they spun off, but they couldn’t carry a show on their own. The difference here, I think is that Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show) has serious chops. If the writing is up to the standards of BrBa I think it could work either has an hour long drama with dark comedic elements or perhaps even as a more traditional half-hour sitcom. I guess we’ll see.
If it works, great. If it fails, I will applaud them for trying and then wait to see what they do next.
Slightly related- is season 5 available anywhere? I caught up with the series on Netflix streaming but S5 isn’t there or on disc. I have DirecTV so Comcast On Demand won’t cut it. Need to catch up before S6 starts. Help!
I expect the first half of the fifth season to be released on DVD just before the second half of the fifth season (note that it’s not the sixth season) airs.
By the time I thought to set up a season pass for it, I was only able to record the last two eps of the season. I’m hoping they rerun them but would rather not be disappointed if they don’t.
Yeah, but I still think of it as a separate season, considering the time that elapses.
Perpetuating one of the most annoying show marketing trends I can think of: releasing the prior season far too late for anyone to use it to catch up before the new season.
