BETTER CALL SAUL Premiere: What Did You Think?

Last night was the series premiere of Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spin-off that essentially serves as an origin story for Bob Odenkirk's Saul Goodman. When we first see him in this show, he's living out his own Breaking Bad prophecy, managing a Cinnabon in Omaha, Nebraska with a new name (he goes by "Gene" now). The pilot, directed by Vince Gilligan, opened with striking black-and-white cinematography, and gave us a very brief glimpse at Saul's rather pathetic life after Walter White. But the show soon flashed back to explore the character back when he was known as Jimmy McGill, and quickly formed its own visual identity by using an exceptionally bright color palette instead of the more drab tones we came to expect from Breaking Bad.

There are already quite a few comparisons one can draw between Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, including the appearance of a few familiar faces, but I was pleased with how much the pilot felt similar but different to its predecessor. It has a bit of that Breaking Bad vibe to it, but I felt like they didn't lean too heavily on references or cheap callbacks. And even though we think we know how things end up for Saul, that's not necessarily true. I assumed the black-and-white intro of the pilot would be the only time we'd see Saul in "present day," but according to an interview with EW, Gilligan says that isn't the case.

“I don’t think people should be surprised to know that they will eventually learn more about Jimmy/Saul/Gene’s ongoing existence in Omaha, but they shouldn't necessarily hold their breath that those questions will be answered this season.”

So while a majority of the show will be told in flashback form, it'll still jump ahead to continue Saul's story in the future. That's great news for the overall dramatic weight of the series, because now there can be seeds planted that pay off in future episodes instead of seeds planted that were already paid off on a different show. One of the most annoying elements of prequels is how the audience always knows how the main characters will end up, but by making this show a prequel and a sequel at the same time, Gilligan and co-creator Peter Gould have restored a sense of the unknown to this show, which makes it a lot more exciting than if Saul's ultimate fate was already set in stone.

What did you guys think of the series premiere?