“Better Call Saul” has finally concluded after seven long years. This show ended with a lot of praise and admiration from fans.

“Better Call Saul” is a prequel series to the 2008 hit show “Breaking Bad”. The show follows James Morgan “Jimmy” McGill (Bob Odenkirk) the story shows Jimmy’s life before his antics in Breaking Bad as Saul Goodman. It’s centered around his struggle to use his kindhearted spirit while putting aside his self-destructive nature and succeed as a lawyer like his brother Charles “Chuck” (Micheal McKean), and love interest Kimberly Wexler (Rhea Seehorn).

While Jimmy struggles with his job and relationships, the story also follows Mike Ehrmantraut (Johnathan Banks) as he deals with his family life and the life of crime, both sides of the story intertwine multiple times, and these plotlines develop further as they connect with each other. This leads to the stories branching out more and creating new problems the protagonist must face.

Many of the events help set up things in Breaking Bad, which leads to some actors returning to reprise their roles from “Breaking Bad.”  Their roles and characters aren’t overused. Their appearances feel like a natural response to the progression of the story, which adds to the impeccable writing.

Anyone can create a unique world and story; however, creating characters and original stories for them can be difficult, but Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan give everyone something new. Characters like Mike and Jimmy are not the people they are in “Breaking Bad” and they don’t need to be as long as their transformation into those characters feels like a natural progression in their lives. 

Jimmy’s side of the story is the most interesting. He’s not the sarcastic, cocky, and overconfident lawyer he is in “Breaking Bad.”  He’s more unsure, nervous, and tired of his life. As the show progresses viewers get to see the events that changed him forever.

The biggest changes come with how his relationship with people changes. The relationship between all the characters is fantastic. People around Jimmy change who he is. These characters are accompanied by pacing, and the show is slow because it is supposed to put the audience in Jimmy’s shoes. He is busy with balancing his life, as a viewer you watch his frustrations with clients, or his happiness only being short lived.

Viewers see through Jimmy’s eyes and watch what he sees in the world and you cannot help but sympathize with someone who only wants his brother’s approval and success in life. Despite the show being about Jimmy, it never hides the truth from the audience. Jimmy may be the protagonist, but that doesn’t make him a good person. He has good ideas and as a whole is a pure-hearted person who wants to do good; however, he constantly commits crimes and whether it is on purpose or not, he never regrets what he does.  James McGill is a self-destructive, sleazebag  and a truly awful person yet you can’t entirely hate him, this is how you create a likable protagonist that isn’t a good person. Jimmy’s entire character can be summarized in one line from the show: “I didn’t say you were a bad guy, I said you were a criminal.”

The show also has plenty of other characters that are also amazing, most exist just to interact with Jimmy while he is going through his self-inflicted descent in life, but they all have unique personalities and play off of each other perfectly.

The 4-way friendship between Jimmy, Kim, Chuck, and Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian) is the most interesting, because they constantly interact as a group and viewers can see the impact of each other’s presence, especially with Chuck. Whatever Chuck wants, he receives.

 These characters feel real and behave like people you would see in everyday life. The great writing is accompanied by expert editing and cinematography. Many times a conversation will be silenced or cut out, which leads to amazing reveals and leaves the audience feeling more invested in the importance of a scene.

In the end, all these amazing pieces come together to make an absolute masterpiece of a show, it is not only a perfect prequel but an amazing piece of pop culture and will be another show just like Breaking Bad that will be spoken of for years and years to come. These great aspects of the entire franchise have been rewarded with 46 Primetime Emmy nominations, which shows how much respect and adoration there has been for the love and care that Vince Gilligan along with his teams had put into every character and storyline that finally has reached closure after 14 years. The Breaking Bad universe can end after leaving a big impact on the future of film.