Better Call Saul was never going to be your average prequel, and sure enough, the Breaking Bad spinoff slips free of an all-too-common prequel problem. Generally a byproduct of a TV show or movie's financial success, a prequel is very rarely part of any writer's initial artistic vision. Consequently, prequels can be a nightmare to get right, and one of the biggest problems is how to create intrigue and excitement when the audience already knows what becomes of your main characters. How much more would fans be looking forward to Black Widow if Natasha hadn't already died in Avengers: Endgame? In Young Sheldon, viewers already know the title character grows up to become a renowned and socially competent scientist. And hearing a whiny Anakin Skywalker moan about sand feels odd when you know he's destined to become Darth Vader. Being savvy to a character's fate, more often than not, hurts their prequel.
When a Breaking Bad spinoff was announced, Better Call Saul faced the same problem. Fronted by Bob Odenkirk's Saul and Jonathan Banks' Mike, fans already knew that Odenkirk's crooked lawyer ran away, while Mike Ehrmantraut got on the wrong end of Heisenberg. Viewers also possess full awareness of how the overarching story pans out, with Gus' assassination and the eventual collapse of the cartel. Fortunately, Better Call Saul does three things to inject the genuine sense of unpredictability that prequels so often lack.
The most innovative technique is Better Call Saul's Gene timeline. While the spinoff is essentially a prequel, the first episode of each season offers a small glimpse into Saul's future after his escape in the climax of Breaking Bad. Everyone knows Jimmy's prequel story will end with his full transformation into "Saul Goodman" and a lonely existence as a criminal, but there's lingering doubt over the ending of Gene timeline, which could still go either way. Better Call Saul offers the best of both worlds - a traditional prequel setup exploring the origins of a well-loved character, but with all the unpredictability and intrigue of a never-before-seen series.
And Better Call Saul doesn't stop there in its quest to refresh the prequel formula. For any prequel, integrating new characters alongside established favorites is tricky business, but Better Call Saul drew a royal flush with Kim Wexler, Howard Hamlin, Chuck McGill, Lalo Salamanca and Nacho Varga. In what can only be described as a stroke of genius, all of the intrigue that would usually surround Jimmy (Will he be killed? Will he redeem himself? Can he evade the law?) has been shifted over to Kim. The title character's fate might be clear thanks to Breaking Bad, but Kim's future is a mystery that viewers care about as much as if she were the lead protagonist. Better Call Saul is retroactively creating Breaking Bad mysteries we didn't even know existed.
There's an old storytelling cliche that a character's journey is more important than their destination. As anyone who saw Game of Thrones season 8 can attest, the truth is rarely so simple. But in terms of Jimmy McGill's Better Call Saul prequel story, that well-worn adage couldn't be more accurate. Despite the audience knowing exactly where Jimmy's journey into criminality will lead, Better Call Saul works hard to ensure their foresight doesn't matter. Rather than whether or not Jimmy will be consumed by "Saul Goodman," the big question heading into Better Call Saul season 6 is how Jimmy makes that final evolution into the character seen in Breaking Bad. Viewers still have no idea what that final trigger will be, and thanks to Better Call Saul's excellent storytelling and characterization, these details matters just as much as whether a character lives or dies. While many prequels can't help but be tied by their parent series, Better Call Saul finds new ways to create the intrigue of an original series, which might help explain why Saul's solo venture is generally considered the pinnacle of prequels.