by Robbie Jones
This is it, ladies and gents. The first season of Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul has come to an end. It may have its issues, but they’re not important because the show has ended on a high, and that’s what we all wanted. It’s been a very up-and-down experience watching this show; more often than not, it was utterly great. The performances were terrific, the writing superb and overall it just made for great entertainment, but then at times it suffered pacing issues and boring plots. That was why there was a certain degree of fear approaching this season finale, but luckily, there was nothing to worry about.
This is it, ladies and gents. The first season of Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul has come to an end. It may have its issues, but they’re not important because the show has ended on a high, and that’s what we all wanted. It’s been a very up-and-down experience watching this show; more often than not, it was utterly great. The performances were terrific, the writing superb and overall it just made for great entertainment, but then at times it suffered pacing issues and boring plots. That was why there was a certain degree of fear approaching this season finale, but luckily, there was nothing to worry about.
The only real problem with this episode is that it doesn’t actually feel like a finale until the last two minutes. Until that point, it felt more akin to a penultimate episode, which was a strange feeling since last week’s episode (you know, the actual penultimate episode) felt like a perfect penultimate episode, so it almost seemed like a do-over. But once it got to those final two minutes, that’s when it felt like the end, and a damn good ending too. At last, we’re finally seeing the transition from Jimmy McGill to Saul Goodman. This is just the start.
Bob Odenkirk has once again knocked it out of the park with this performance. The man was just born to play this character, and he’s exceptionally talented to be able to play both Jimmy McGill and Saul Goodman without making them really similar. The scene where Jimmy pretty much breaks down in front of all the pensioners during bingo was phenomenal; you could really see Jimmy crack after his brother’s betrayal. It was done to perfection. And that last scene where he talks to Mike, and he suddenly sounds like Saul Goodman... What an excellent change of character. Bob Odenkirk is fantastic, and it’ll be exciting to see more of him next year.
The finale did yet another great job with its aesthetics, especially the lighting. The scene with Marco and Jimmy was perfectly dark, adding a great tone and atmosphere to the unfortunate event that would follow. The montage halfway through of Jimmy and Marco ripping people off was fantastic; the blue tint on the characters, the music, the dialogue. It was so enjoyable, and made a nice change from the generally slow-paced talking scenes that had preceded it.
The finale did yet another great job with its aesthetics, especially the lighting. The scene with Marco and Jimmy was perfectly dark, adding a great tone and atmosphere to the unfortunate event that would follow. The montage halfway through of Jimmy and Marco ripping people off was fantastic; the blue tint on the characters, the music, the dialogue. It was so enjoyable, and made a nice change from the generally slow-paced talking scenes that had preceded it.
So, that’s season one over – did it live up to expectations? Well, to be honest, our expectations shouldn’t have been too high to start with. We deserved to be disappointed if we thought the show was going to be anywhere near as good as Breaking Bad. But that didn’t seem to be the case, as several fans fell in love with the show instantly. It was definitely a good show: disappointing at times and problematic at others, but you can tell that Vince Gilligan really wanted to make sure that he was delivering something great to the fans. A lot of work went into it, and we certainly appreciate it.
Well, despite not feeling like a finale, Better Call Saul has ended on a high, and hopefully it’ll be even better when we come back to it next year.
Well, despite not feeling like a finale, Better Call Saul has ended on a high, and hopefully it’ll be even better when we come back to it next year.
RSS Feed
