Published by Mason Oldridge, 30 September 2022
CONTAINS SPOILERS!
As Better Call Saul airs its finale and brings the 14-year franchise to a close, we take a look at the neo-Western crime drama. From the mild-mannered high school Chemistry teacher Walter White to the badass drug kingpin Heisenberg, here’s why Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is the greatest TV franchise of all time.
The plot itself is a primary reason. When overqualified Chemistry teacher Walter White is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer shortly after his 50th birthday despite never having smoked, he decides to break bad and use his skills to cook crystal meth to earn some money for his family. He teams up with former student Jesse Pinkman, who knows the business and can help with contacts. The first meet goes horribly wrong and it is an escalating situation from there. What makes matters all the more ironic is that Walt’s brother-in-law Hank is a DEA agent investigating the case the whole time too.
Walt teaches his class that Chemistry is “the study of change”. What is so clever about this show is that it focuses on the change of Walt. It takes audiences through the transformation of this character and it does it well. Walt’s first kill is unavoidable as it is literally to save his life and he vomits with guilt. Walt’s last kill is a group massacre by his handmade machine gun against a White supremacist neo-Nazi gang who he went into business with and have enslaved Jesse. Not long before this, he has ten prisoners brutally murdered to keep them from incriminating him. Bryan Cranston is known to have won several awards for his role but each one was well and truly deserved for his kind-hearted family man and hardened criminal mastermind portrayal.
Cranston may be the star of the show, but it is the array of complicated and layered characters that make the franchise so entertaining. Where Walt’s ego and bigheadedness causes a lot of the situations he and Jesse find themselves in, Jesse’s soft centre is to blame for many. He may be a small-time drug dealer but when he and Walt step up their game, he struggles to cope. His encounter in Peekaboo shows us his soft spot for children which hints at the pinnacle of the downfall of their partnership. It is his caring towards children that interrupts their working relationship with Gus when he goes after the street dealers using children and he turns against Walt due to his poisoning of Brock. After one too many black eyes, murdered girlfriends and his captivity by Jack, Jesse finally gets the fresh start he deserves in Alaska. Walt and Jesse are polar opposites, a recipe for a successful show in itself, though it is their onscreen chemistry that makes them TV’s greatest duo. Jesse’s immaturity plays well off Walt’s intellect and the twosome are often comedic in their world of dark subject matter, making them a thoroughly entertaining pair to watch.
Saul is the third wheel of the duo as he earns his fluctuating percentage in their business arrangement. When Walt and Jesse are running their own business, Badger is arrested as one of their street dealers. Upon Jesse’s recommendation of getting a criminal lawyer, Saul is brought in to keep their names out of the ordeal and to get Badger released. Saul sticks around to help the pair with money laundering and is the primary source of comic relief in the show. He is a funny character, notably due to his paranoia of getting caught or being targeted by higher ups, though his story is a much sadder one when explored in the prequel Better Call Saul. We learn he started off as scam artist Jimmy McGill though wanted to better himself and become a lawyer after his esteemed brother Chuck’s success in the industry. Despite looking up to him, Chuck never wanted Jimmy to succeed as he studied at University of American Samoa and wanted a shortcut to the legal system. Jimmy nevertheless becomes a lawyer focusing on elder law, using his charm to help elderly clients. He moves on to helping low level criminals and becomes a “friend of the cartel”. His relationship with reputable lawyer Kim Wexler causes her to let loose within the scamming world and they concoct a plan to damage the reputation of fellow lawyer Howard Hamlin to receive a pay-out owed to them. Their morality degrades as they enjoy the scheme until cartel associate Lalo murders him. This results not only in the breakup of the couple but sees Saul become irreversibly involved in the criminal world. Lalo and Howard’s bodies are buried next to each other under the lab, giving a whole new experience to watching the lab scenes in Breaking Bad.
The prequel also gives insightful background into other characters such as Gus and Mike. We learn how their partnership came to be: a mutual hatred of Hector Salamanca. The Salamanca’s show up all over the place in both shows and each are as evil as each other. If Tuco isn’t beating people to death in a drug-fuelled rage or the cousins axing witnesses, then Hector is goading cartel rival Gus. After seeing Hector helpless in his wheelchair-bound state in Breaking Bad, it is interesting to learn of how his stroke happened. Furthermore, seeing the construction of the super lab shows us lives were lost in what was a delayed and top-secret process. We also learn of how Mike, once a Philadelphia cop, became involved in the criminal world; that one is a tearjerker.
If Walt is the protagonist, Hank is the antagonist. The fact that Walt worked as his notorious alter-ego Heisenberg all the while doing so under Hank’s nose is all the funnier when you think back to the pilot in which Hank jokingly mocks Walt for being timid. Hank’s discovery of Walt being Heisenberg is the point of no return as Hank battles to catch Walt until he meets his death at the hands of Jack’s gang. Hank’s death kickstarts Ozymandias, the episode regarded as the show’s best.
However, it is the perfect finale that cements the show’s status. Where shows like Game of Thrones have crashed and burned in this area, Breaking Bad rises to the challenge with incredible success. The finale follows Walt’s last day as he ties up all loose ends, seeing his money will reach his family and all characters get their comeuppance or freedom, before one final immense vengeful scene of awesome action. The camera pans out as Walt lays dying at the hands of his own creation, the only thing that could’ve killed such a genius, surrounded by the equipment he oh so loved. And scene.