Better Call Saul -- Better Than Breaking Bad? (SPOILERS for Both Shows)

One doesn't HAVE to choose one show over the other, and I guess Breaking Bad won more Emmies(has Better Call Saul won any?) and had better ratings -- and was more gripping(a LOT more killings; a LOT more life and death situations.)

I'm not going to choose -- I think that they are both great shows, and with the same creative team writing and directing them, they are almost the SAME show.

BUT:

As a matter of personal taste, I rather prefer Better Call Saul because I think it rather cannily uses the most interesting characters of Breaking Bad as its leads -- Saul and Mike -- and because some of the new Better Call Saul characters are more interesting than the characters on Breaking Bad.

Breaking Bad had, in its two leads -- Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman -- compelling dramatic leads, but they weren't really "fun guys." Walter started the series as a terminal cancer patient and got better...but got meaner and more paranoid and murderous; Jesse, a low level crook with a good heart ...had to kill at least one nice person and was beaten and tortured by others and basically sank into a depressed state swinging from tears to drug-induced catatonia. (And side characters like Skylar and the mopey Walter Jr. and the ditzy sister in law were much fun either.)

Meanwhile, Saul's a funny guy and Mike is tough and competent and they are just better company than Walter and Jesse(even as both Saul and Mike have very sad and traumatic backstories themselves.)

Backing itself up in time, Better Call Saul brings a group of famous Breaking Bad characters back to life -- a few each season -- and it is truly fun and moving to see them again(the effect is like the one in Pulp Fiction where John Travolta gets killed mid-film but returns in flashback for the Third Act.)

We get cold as ice Gus; high strung beauty Lydia, Hector pre-wheelchair(for awhile), the Cartel Don who never leaves his poolside(oh, once, maybe to go look at his new car), and two of Gus's henchman who we can never forget will eventually either get their throat cut, or blown up.

And Hank's back...and that catches one in the throat. He was NOT bad. To see his partner Gomey, and he resurrected hurts knowing what will happen to them.

(One realizes with all these great character returns, that Aaron Paul got screwed with his recent El Camino SEQUEL to Breaking Bad -- all the good characters are either dead or in Better Call Saul.)

With five seasons over and only one left, one wonders how, when and if the remaining Breaking Badders will show up in Saul and Mike's life: Walter(and his whole angst-ridden family), Jesse. On Breaking Bad, Walter and Jesse seemed to meet Saul and MIke for the first time on that series. They CAN'T meet before then. Can they?

There are enough Breaking Bad cast members in Better Call Saul to make it feel like its "new episodes of the same show," but showrunner Vince Giligan made sure to give us some great new characters: Saul's brother(well, JIMMY"S brother); Saul's girlfriend Kim above all. Their fates are not in Breaking Bad; by now we know how the brother does, but not Kim...

It will be an interesting Season Six.