Entertainment
How ‘Breaking Bad’ cooked up the addictive formula for ‘Better Call Saul’
Launched in 2008, “Breaking Unhealthy” made its debut the yr after “Mad Males” put AMC on the map as a house for status storytelling. Coupled with FX’s “The Defend” and “Nip/Tuck,” these fundamental cable networks demonstrated what’s thought of premium TV might be outlined by high quality and ambition, not merely its venue.
The keys to “Breaking Unhealthy’s” endurance will be traced to quite a lot of substances, mixed in a approach that has rippled by means of “Saul’s” addictive method, however which has confirmed as troublesome to duplicate for imitators as Walter White’s unusually pure meth.
Each collection charted the ethical descent of their central characters, combining darkish comedy, absurd moments and lengthy, sluggish scenes imbued with pressure and high-stakes drama.
Maybe foremost, “Breaking Unhealthy” — which introduced the evolution of high-school chemistry trainer Walter White (performed by Bryan Cranston), confronted with a terminal prognosis, right into a felony mastermind — turned one of the vital unpredictable collection TV has ever produced. Creator Vince Gilligan and his workforce constantly wrote themselves into seemingly inescapable corners, earlier than revealing some believable and normally ingenious approach out.
As for Walt’s ethical decay, the signature second got here when he sat idly by watching the sleeping girlfriend of his associate Jesse (Aaron Paul) choke to dying — not committing homicide, precisely, however failing to intervene with a view to defend himself. That foreshadowed extra casualties that might comply with, together with the astonishing sequence by which White engineered the demise of drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito).
On the time commentators drew parallels between Walt and Tony Soprano, each household males and criminals who epitomized the age of the TV antihero.
“Saul,” too, has unfolded as “a tragedy,” as Gilligan just lately described it in a session with reporters, watching Bob Odenkirk’s character make the transition from Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman, with the alienation of his vital different, Kim (Rhea Seehorn), because the mysterious linchpin hovering over the story by way of finishing that metamorphosis.
“Breaking Unhealthy” caught the touchdown by way of its collection finale, providing a definitive and satisfying end after a interval characterised by cryptic endings that to numerous extents left viewers to puzzle over the writers’ intent. The present additionally bucked TV traits by changing into a late-blooming hit, steadily constructing viewers towards the top — drawing a series-high 10.3 million viewers for its remaining episode — as folks found the present and phrase of mouth unfold.
“It was lightning in a bottle,” Gilligan stated.
“Higher Name Saul’s” collection finale premieres Aug. 15 on AMC.