Oh boy! That was one hell of a drama, and what's wild is that it was a spinoff that worked! That's unheard of. Better Call Saul was a worthy successor to Breaking Bad, which managed to be its own show and delve deeper into the criminal underworld of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Personally, I do believe Breaking Bad to be the better series, however, this does rival it at moments even creating some tense and edge-of-your-seat moments. Honestly, the Emmy's should reward the series Best Drama next year when it'll be eligible for the terrific six episodes. When flashier shows from the past decade disappointed me, I'd usually tune into this knowing I'd be watching a quality drama. Honestly choosing not to go into the Breaking Bad timeline immediately benefited the series, Jimmy McGill's story was one that was equally as tragic as Walter White's making it more dreadful to know such a persona would have their world fall apart.
Here's my ranking of the seasons
Season 6: It's still fresh in my memory but the last half ended up being some of the best TV I'd seen in years, even turning out to be the best thing I'd seen in 2022. It never drags and the slow black and white chapters are gorgeous and melancholic to their core, particularly the series finale. Even the arrival of Jesse and Walter are treated delicately and not in a distracting manner, it's Saul's show. Also, the exits here are brutal, showing how this story was already coming to a close.
Season 5: The penultimate season laid the groundwork for where this series would hear for the climactic and brilliant fifth and final season. Jimmy McGill is gone and Saul is in his infancy. Jimmy's world finally begins to meld with the drug one that we'd seen in Breaking Bad. "Bagman" and "Something Unforgivable" demonstrates this the most. Also, this is when Lalo Salamanca establishes himself as one of the best characters in this world.
Season 3: McGill vs McGill, seeing the two brothers at each other's throats created one of the tensest seasons of TV. We also get the introduction of Gus Fring. Pretty much when the show felt like it finally grew wings and was able to create its own identity and see what made it tick. Peter Gould also took the reins, and the results are glorious. There's also the tragic exit of Chuck McGill, which created a stirring season finale.
Season 4: Doesn't compare to the others, Jimmy isn't a lawyer but his detachment from Kim begins to show which hints at the inevitable deterioration of this relationship. However, on the crime side, Mike finally gets some terrific moments with the creation of the super meth lab in Breaking Bad.
Season 1: A solid season of TV that really showed the character of Saul had a lot more layers than what we saw in Breaking Bad. Some great revelations (particularly Chuck being the reason Saul never got a job at HMM). Jonathan Banks also gives the performance of his career in the solo episode. Anyways, the series has some amazing mini-arcs that would demonstrate what the show does best when the crime isn't boiling.
Season 2: It feels more like an extension of Season 1. Gilligan and company felt too shy about delving too soon into the Breaking Bad world, however, it doesn't do much justice to Mike, while Jimmy gets into some solid con jobs and henceforth but still, entertaining and hilarious.
Anyways, I'm gonna miss this series. Peter Gould and the company did something special! In a time of big IP TV, this managed to outdo all the CGI fare and remind viewers how the best stories are crafted in such simple ways. Definitely one of the best dramas to hit the small screen.
[9.5/10] They got me. They really did. I believed that Saul would do it, that he would find a way to lie, cheat, and steal out of suffering any real consequences for all the pain and losses he is responsible for. I believed that he would trade in Kim's freedom and chance to make a clean break after baring her soul in exchange for a damn pint of ice cream. I have long clocked Better Call Saul as a tragedy, about a man who could have been good, and yet, through both circumstance and choice, lists inexorably toward becoming a terrible, arguably evil person. I thought this would be the final thud of his descent, selling out the one person on this Earth who loved him to feather his own nest.
Maybe Walt was right when he said that Jimmy was "always like this." Maybe Chuck was right that there something inherently corrupt and untrustworthy in the heart of his little brother. This post-Breaking Bad epilogue has been an object lesson in the depths to which Gene Takovic will stoop in order to feed his addiction and get what he wants. There would be no greater affirmation of the completeness of his craven selfishness and cruelty than throwing Kim under the bus to save himself.
Only, in the end, that's the feint, that's the trick, that's the con, on the feds and the audience. When Saul hears that Kim took his words to heart and turned herself in, facing the punishments that come with it, he can't sit idly by and profit from his own lies and bullshit. He doesn't want to sell her out; he wants to fall on the sword in front of her, make sure she knows that he knows what he did wrong.Despite his earlier protestations that his only regret was not making more money or avoiding knee damage, he wants to confess in a court of law that he regrets the choices that led him here and the pain he caused, and most of all he regrets that they led to losing her.
In that final act of showmanship and grace, he lives up to the advice Chuck gives him in the flashback scene here, that if he doesn't like the road that his bad choices have led him, there's no shame in taking a different path. Much as Walt did, at the end of the line, Saul admits his genuine motives, he accepts responsibility for his choices after years of blame and evasion. Most of all, he takes his name back, a conscious return to being the person that Kim once knew, in form and substance. It is late, very late, when it happens, but after so much, Jimmy uses his incredible skills to accept his consequences, rather than sidestep them, and he finds the better path that Kim always believed he could walk, one that she motivates him to tread.
It is a wonderful finale to this all-time great show. I had long believed that this series was a tragedy. It had to be, given where Jimmy started and where the audience knew Saul ended. But as it was always so good at doing, Better Call Saul surprised me, with a measured bit of earned redemption for its protagonist, and moving suggestion that with someone we care for and who cares of us, even the worst of us can become someone and something better. In its final episode, the series offered one more transformation -- from a tale of tragedy, to a story of hope.
(On a personal note, I just want to say thank you to everyone who read and commented on my reviews here over the years. There is truly no show that's been as rewarding for me to write about than Better Call Saul, and so much of that owes to the community of people who offered me the time and consideration to share my thoughts, offered their kind words, and helped me look at the series in new ways with their thoughtful comments. I don't know what the future holds, but I am so grateful to have been so fortunate as to share this time and these words with you.)
EDIT: One last time, here is my usual, extended review of the finale in case anyone's interested -- https://thespool.net/reviews/better-call-saul-series-finale-recap-saul-gone/
Wrap it up 2021, we're only two months in and we may have found the best show of the year already.
Russell T. Davies has time and time again, churned out some incredible television experiences, from the funny and gutsy Queer as Folk at the turn of the century, to last years political-fuck-you in Years and Years to literally regenerating Doctor Who for a modern era.
But It's a Sin may very well go down as Russell's masterpiece.
Bringing into the light, in all it's cruel and heartbreaking detail, the AIDs crisis of the mid-to-late 1980s, It's a Sin chronicles the lives of a group of young gay adult students in London, whose world is slowly engulfed by the new aforementioned disease.
The progression of realisation in how deadly AIDs is is brilliantly shown over the five-episode structure, with episode one leaving our main characters somewhat doubting the severity of AIDs, episodes two, three and four ramping up the clarity the characters have with AIDs, whilst episode five brutally sweeps aside any and all doubt.
The second peak in this show is how it portrays homophobia. Being set in Britain in the late '80s, homophobia was still high. Episodes three and four showcases this homophobia perfectly, from Andria Doherty's "letterbox" scene in the third episode to the peaceful protest fallen on deaf-ears in episode four.
Olly Alexander and Omari Douglas are sure to break out into even bigger projects down the line for their superb performances as Ritchie and Roscoe respectfully, whilst Lydia West takes home the prize of being the standout in this series for her role as Jill Baxter. Her performance in Davies' previous series, Years and Years, put her on the map for sure. It's a Sin just proves that she is without-a-doubt going places, her conversation with Keeley Hawes' character, Valerie, on the promenade in the final episode is enough evidence to support this.
Incredible television, that will challenge near-on every emotion possible, don't sleep on this gem.
La!
I've waited a long time to say anything about Halt and Catch Fire. It seems too easy or pointless to use a word like "underrated." It's hard to say the most compelling aspects are "subtle." No matter how many times I try to dismiss the whisper "masterpiece," it still returns. This isn't a show that wastes time trying to "work its angle" well enough that you get cheap glimpses into "the computer world." It doesn't try to impress you with talk that makes you think of a snobbish adviser they consult with too often. It doesn't try to make profound statements about family or entrepreneurship. Halt and Catch Fire is the grind. It's the thing that gets you to the thing.
I crave entertainment that makes me think. Halt puts me into a kind of meditation. I can adopt the skin of practically any character and feel like I know how I'd react to any other. I want to forgive and grow and try and disappear as they did. I want to root for them, and be cut deeper and deeper each time I try to believe again. I want to feel like my home is where my heart is, and my heart can reside in so many people and everything we've tried to create together. This show can let you feel a dynamic and chaotic beauty and drive for every ounce of the pain it takes to do so.
I've reached a point where I can't find anymore words to wrap the swelling in my chest with that will quell what I'm going to miss now that it's over. What these characters have, what this story shows, is human perfection. Bloody, confusing, tumultuous and heartfelt perfection. While the show can end, what it represents is everything I want my life to be, and I feel humbled that they were able to strike the chord so soundly.
