If you miss Breaking Bad, you’re not alone – AMC misses it so much, they’re making a spin-off in the form of Better Call Saul, which, as you probably guessed, follows the legendary lawyer who brought so much to the original series. It was first believed that this new show would be a prequel to the events of Breaking Bad, but now it turns out that’s not 100% true, so we may actually have a chance to see the return of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.
From NY Daily News:
Executive producer Peter Gould says that the show will feature scenes that move back and forth over several decades, including the era where Walter White cooked and sold crystal meth. Initially, fans believed that the show would take place only in the 1980s and focus just on Saul, the wacky lawyer (played by Bob Odenkirk) who first appeared on “Breaking Bad.”
“One of the great things about having a time line which is flexible is that perhaps some of it takes place before ‘Breaking Bad,’ during ‘Breaking Bad,’ and after ‘Breaking Bad’. That gives us the ability to bring back characters that were killed on ‘Breaking Bad,’ ” he says.
Gould admits he and his team feel “enormous pressure” to produce the same kind of quality and and boffo ratings achieved by “Breaking Bad.”
Still, while he wants Cranston to join the show, or at least guest-star, he is adamant that the show will not stand or fall on Walter White’s return. Frederick M. Brown Bryan Cranston’s participation in the spinoff is sought but is not crucial to show’s success, says producer Peter Gould.
“We want to make a show that stands on it own, is its own story and is a brand extension,” he said.
“We think we have a story that is worth making. … We could never dream of the kind of success that ‘Breaking Bad’ had and the love we got from the fans. But (with ‘Saul’) at a certain point you have to do the best job you can and tell the best story that entertains you, get a good response and hope people like it.”
Nice! I do think that Walter’s story reached the only inevitable conclusion during the series finale, so I like the idea of shifting the focus a bit, and I think Saul Goodman has enough meat to him as a character that he could carry his own show – albeit with a completely different tone than Breaking Bad had, given his goofiness.
What do you think? Will you be watching Better Call Saul come fall?