Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk weighs in on whether he thinks his prequel show is better than Breaking Bad. First premiering in 2008 on AMC, Breaking Bad is now widely considered one of the best TV shows of all time. The series chronicles the downfall of high school chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston) as he becomes one of New Mexico's biggest drug lords after getting a terminal cancer diagnosis. Breaking Bad was nominated for 58 Emmys over the course of its five-season run, winning 16.

After first being introduced in Breaking Bad, Odenkirk's Saul Goodman, aka Jimmy McGill, returned in Better Call Saul in 2015. Following a similar trajectory to Breaking Bad, the show focuses on McGill as he transforms from an honest attorney to a sleazy criminal cartel lawyer. The show has been just as warmly received by audiences and critics as its predecessor – perhaps more so – and is now on its sixth and final season. Better Call Saul is generally more comedic and lighter in tone, although many fans have pointed out that season 6 is noticeably more violent and intense than previous seasons, with the show approaching a more serious tone akin to that of Breaking Bad.

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In a new interview with The New York Times, Odenkirk comments on the ongoing debate regarding whether Better Call Saul is better than Breaking Bad. Odenkirk's response is diplomatic but candid, saying that Breaking Bad's story is more relatable, in many ways, and that Better Call Saul is "odder" and "more internal." The actor explains that, ultimately, his show couldn't exist without Breaking Bad. Check out Odenkirk's full comment below:

"I think Breaking Bad is a more universal kind of story. It’s a midlife crisis and the dangers are more striking — there’s more guns flying around and the main character is interacting with drug dealers almost immediately. That’s just not the case in our show. Our show is more internal. It’s an odder journey. It includes a lot of the ins-and-outs of being a lawyer. It’s just going to be less relatable because of the subject matter. But, in a beautiful stroke of hard work and genius, the writers have figured out ways to get people to understand some of the tensions and pressures these characters face and relate that to their own personal journeys.

The beautiful thing is that Vince Gilligan and the writing crew from Breaking Bad showed an audience the value of watching something closely. And then they took that audience and they took that investment and they said, 'Now we’re going to make a show that you have to watch very closely.' You couldn’t do that if you didn’t first make Breaking Bad. A show like ours wouldn’t have been able to exist."

Jimmy and Kim celebrating in Better Call Saul

While not coming down definitively on one side or another, Odenkirk's comment would suggest he thinks both shows have their merits. As he explains, Breaking Bad features more immediate dangers and more deadly stakes, which makes the show fairly easy to understand and get behind quite quickly. Better Call Saul, on the other hand, takes the deliberate pacing and strong character work of its predecessor and puts it in a less dangerous legal setting, with the premise being more dependent upon viewers having already seen Breaking Bad.

With Better Call Saul now closer to the tone of its predecessor than ever before in its final episodes, it's likely that comparisons between the two shows will only become more prevalent and more impassioned. Both shows have been massive hits for AMC and Better Call Saul has clearly met the high expectations set by Breaking Bad, something that, when the prequel was first announced, many viewers considered an impossible task. Regardless of whether one prefers either show over the other, many fans will surely be sad to see Better Call Saul come to an end later this summer.

More: Wait, What Is The Rest Of Better Call Saul Season 6 About?!

Source: The New York Times