Copyright Screen Rant
Better Call Saul still holds up as one of the greatest TV shows ever made on a rewatch, but there is one harsh reality that stands out when you revisit the series. There are actually a few harsh realities of rewatching Better Call Saul, but they’re mostly forgivable. It took a few episodes to find the right voice, but so do most TV shows. The first couple of seasons of Better Call Saul are pretty slow-paced, the Sandpiper case takes up a lot of screen time in those early episodes, and Chuck is so darn despicable that it’s sometimes hard to watch his scenes. But all that stuff serves the show’s probing character study of Jimmy McGill. It’s all crucial to his transformation into Saul Goodman. But there’s one slight misstep in Better Call Saul that hurts the series in retrospect. It’s not enough to ruin the show — it would take some misstep to ruin such an incredible show — but it does stick out on a rewatch. Almost all of the show’s Breaking Bad cameos felt forced, and they were ultimately unnecessary. Better Call Saul's Breaking Bad Cameos Were Unnecessary As a spinoff from Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul had the freedom to bring back any character from the flagship show. But the writers wielded that power a bit too liberally. Every season brought a couple more Breaking Bad actors reprising their roles. In some cases, the Breaking Bad cameos felt like Marvel-level fan service. Better Call Saul went a bit too far with its Breaking Bad crossovers, and most of the cameos ended up feeling unnecessary — especially on a rewatch. The first time you watch the show, it’s exciting to see Walt or Jesse or Hank show up. But when you go back and rewatch the show, it starts to feel gratuitous. The first episode ended with Jimmy being abducted at gunpoint by Tuco Salamanca. This one made sense, because the pilot had to hook viewers from the beginning and the easiest way to do that was to emphasize the show’s connection to Breaking Bad at the height of its popularity. But Tuco’s appearance set a dangerous precedent for the rest of the series. Better Call Saul added plenty of depth to familiar characters from Breaking Bad — not the least of which was Saul himself — but these returning characters worked best when they had expansive supporting roles. The spinoff took plenty of time to develop Mike Ehrmantraut and Gus Fring into more well-rounded characters than they were in Breaking Bad. But the one-off cameos, like Wendy the meth-addicted sex worker, just felt forced. Hank’s appearance doesn’t serve the plot in any meaningful way; he’s just there to deliver exposition and wink at the audience. And it was a bit unbelievable that both Walt and Jimmy would encounter Ken the obnoxious stockbroker. What are the odds he’d get screwed over by both of them? Breaking Bad fans would’ve been plenty satisfied with Better Call Saul’s in-depth chronicle of Jimmy’s transformation into Saul, its humanization of Gus, and all the juicy backstory it gave Mike. We didn’t also need a bunch of scenes cramming familiar faces from Breaking Bad down our throats. There was no real reason to bring in Hank, so they shouldn’t have bothered. Better Call Saul Would've Worked Just Fine Without Walt And Jesse In the last few episodes of Better Call Saul, the spinoff finally brought in the dynamic duo: Walt and Jesse. The prequel storyline finally caught up to Saul’s first Breaking Bad appearance, and we got an extended sequence of Walt and Jesse out in the desert with their new lawyer. But Better Call Saul would’ve worked just fine without their cameos. The moment that we see Saul show up at Walt’s school to offer him a business proposal provided enough of a connection to Breaking Bad. We didn’t need to see Breaking Bad scenes from a different perspective; we didn’t even really need to see Walt and Jesse at all. Their story was already told; this is Saul’s story. Walt and Jesse showed up in Better Call Saul another couple of times after that. Jesse had a chat with Kim Wexler outside Saul’s office, and the series finale included a flashback to Walt and Saul’s brief but contentious stay in Ed Galbraith’s basement. They were strong scenes, but they weren’t necessary. Better Call Saul's Best Breaking Bad Cameo Wasn't Walt Or Jesse There was one Breaking Bad cameo in Better Call Saul that truly served the story and felt fitting for the character, but it wasn’t Walt or Jesse; it was Marie Schrader. Marie shows up in the finale after Saul is finally caught, and it allows her to get some closure on Hank’s death and feel a sense of justice about the fall of Heisenberg’s criminal empire. I'm Still Thankful Walt And Jesse Appeared In Better Call Saul
