I’d have never made it through season 1 of Breaking Bad if not for the certain knowledge that Saul was coming back by season 2.
I think you’re onto something there. Walter is such a dreary loser that even in his new persona, he’s still unpleasant. Jesse is great, but his character arc makes him dreary after a while. The villains are the more compelling characters. But Jimmy and Kim had so much personality, they were much more compelling as characters than Walt/Heisenberg.
Also, they really fed off each other in a way that made for great entertainment. It was romance, comedy, drama, and tragedy all rolled into one complex codependent relationship, not only in the same scene, but often in the same line of dialogue or even same expression.
Whereas, at least from where I sit (on my couch, with season 2, episode 12 of Breaking Bad on pause as I type), Jesse and Walt just sort of feed on each other. It’s a death march. Almost literally in Walt’s case. They’ve got no joie de vivre.
Right! Jesse was best when he was allowed to be humorous to the audience - he wasn’t even going to be kept as a character after the first episode, except people appreciated the balance he brought. Once he became too miserable for that, it became tough to watch the downward spiral.
And just seeing the end of s2e12, I suppose I should say it’s almost literally a death march in Jesse’s case, too! Miserable.
Agreed, as much as I love Breaking Bad.
I’m going to be just a bit cynical for my own peace of mind and assume it will more likely be mediocre. Gilligan has caught lightning in a bottle twice now, at some point you expect the creative juices to curdle a little and the law of averages to catch up. But I’m nonetheless hopeful 
.
As for Rhea Seehorn, I think it’s honestly almost a crime she never won an Emmy for that role and I know more than a few professional critics agreed.
In other news, just binged Dept Q and liked it. It has a normal number of flaws and cliches for the genre, but it was largely well-acted with decently drawn characters.
It’s a crime against humanity that the entire series never one a single Emmy.
Who cares about Walt and Jesse and Jimmy and Kim?
Give me the damn The Adventures of Skinny Pete and Badger spinoff already!
I heard the found love and moved to a volcano in Hawaii. Have not been seen since.
I like to think that BCS and The Wire get drunk together every year during the Emmys broadcast.
And make pointed comments about the winners.
I did an ‘X-Files’ rewatch after having seen BB and BCS. There was such a distinctive cinematic quality to the camera work in both those shows, that on my rewatch of The X-Files I’d see certain memorable framing shots and think “that’s all Vince Gilligan, gotta be”.
Maybe in jest, but it’s not terrible.
It fits the theme of the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul universe. A rouge everyman in a rough and tumble world is driven to fight something larger than themselves. We could see the transition from abused and neglected tween to meth addicted adult with no prospects as a sort of dark coming of age version of Young Sheldon.
There’s a bunch of X-Files Easter Eggs in Breaking Bad (and one from Home Fries*). I never watched the X-Files, so all I know is what I heard, mostly from Talking Bad and the Breaking Bad Podcast. The only ones I remember are that Bryan Cranston was in the X-Files, and IIRC, played a character similar to Walter White and there was a scene in X-Files that Vince copied in Breaking Bad (at least WRT the aesthetics/lighting/blocking).
I think a big part of it is their motivations are very different. In BB, Walter’s downfall ultimately comes down to wanting money, and later, power. Ho hum, every bad guy ever.
But in BCS, Saul’s descent is very different, and Kim’s following him. Sure, he starts out rough, taking public defender cases for very little money, but then he finds a hook as a lawyer that actually works. His “Elder law” plan would have worked. He was naturally attuned to those clients’ needs, they were an underserved community that needed someone like Jimmy/Saul to help them, and he was good at it. None of the other lawyers we saw in BCS would have ever caught on to the elder abuse case that Jimmy found, for example.
He, and later Kim, both had good, professional jobs that were working for them. They weren’t desperate, or sick. They just got lured in by the risk and adventure of the criminal life. “Success” alone wasn’t enough for them.
This quote right here is why I never could get into Breaking Bad. Would I like Saul without having watched Breaking?
BB is centrally about Walter’s life falling apart and his marital struggles and issues with Junior reflect that. I saw them both when they aired but years later I don’t want to watch a marriage fall apart in all over again in reruns, but I would happily rewatch a shady lawyer fight the system. Doesn’t even matter which episode.
Yes, BCS largely stands on it’s own. Whether you “like” him or not, I cannot say, but he has his own story.
Thanks, I don’t need to like a character to enjoy a show. I didn’t like Breaking for the reasons you mentioned, not because I disliked the main character.
Right now we’re enjoying Murderbot which threads the needle of being goofy without being insipid.