Is 'Better Call Saul' going to end up better than 'Breaking Bad'? An argument for it

The question remains as the final season hits the halfway point.

Would it work? That was the biggest question for writer/showrunner Vince Gilligan. Going back to the terrain where you changed network television for good, with a supporting character and a sea of new faces mixed in with the familiar, carries delicious risk.

But as “Better Call Saul” prepares to reach the midway point of its final season, the gamble seems to have paid off. More than anything, the highly successful AMC Network spin-off that preceded the events of “Breaking Bad” expanded the universe (not multiverse!) of its characters and world.

By returning to the scene of one of television’s final series finales, Gilligan and his Jesse Pinkman, producer and co-creator Peter Gould, gave us larger servings of Bob Odenkirk’s Saul, Jonathan Banks’s Mike Ehrmantraut, Giancarlo Esposito’s Gus Fring, along with new faces like Rhea Seehorn’s Kim Wexler and Michael Mando’s Nacho.

In creating “Better Call Saul,” Gilligan took a gorgeously rendered painting and introduced spaces for new pieces of the puzzle to fit into-and the writing didn’t waver. In fact, the stories and threads for his new island of misfit drug cartel-infested toys got even better.

When you are able to find such gifted actors and give them the best writing and words to fire out of their collective mouths, it’s a home run before the swing is even taken. Television at its best is cinematic, coming off as larger than the smaller screen it’s playing on. When it’s running a season, “Better Call Saul” can hang with the best of what movie theaters are offering.

How many weeks have you left desperately wanting more? If the answer isn’t every week, you’re lying. Take this past Monday’s episode for example. When Seehorn’s Wexler whips her car around after a part of her and Jimmy’s plan falls through, it’s a low-hanging cliffhanger that looks like the biggest chunk of ice just got left to melt for seven days in Albuquerque. After next week’s midseason finale, the wait for more will extend to July. Gilligan’s saving the best for the warmest time of the year, at least here in the Midwest.

If there was a challenge for how many different entries a writer can make with one world, Gilligan takes the prize. His Pinkman spin-off, a Netflix Original film called “El Camino,” felt like a brilliant two hour episode arc. Same writing, aesthetic, and result. David Chase’s effort with “The Many Saints of Newark” pales in comparison to Gilligan’s movie version, and it’s all about the constant construction of his universe.

Think about it. “Breaking Bad” debuted in 2008, and “Better Call Saul” launched in 2015. The movie came during the latter’s run, and I wouldn’t be surprised if AMC continues to be the house that Gilligan built. With no disrespect to the legendary “Mad Men,” nothing hums better than a classic car humming down the road to cartel drama tunes.

The forever dangerous subplot has been a crown jewel for all three Gilligan entities, hitting wicked emotional highs (Nacho’s last stand!) and hilarious waves (Saul aggressively yanking a parking sign out of mulch) this spring in just six episodes. With the deadly Lalo on the loose and Gus gunning hard for him with wise surveillance and timely action, it only feeds the criminal setup Jimmy and Kim are trying to pull off with their rival of sorts in Howard Hamlin (the indelible Patrick Fabian).

It’s like watching a pair of low rent grifters play chicken with two different drug cartel families. As an audience member, it’s intoxicating and addictive. All the while, the wise and ultra-likable Mike hangs in the balance of both situations.

With a voice that sounds like Jeff Dunham’s Walter puppet and dead-sad beagle eyes, Banks is a fountain of soulfulness as the Philadelphia cop turned fixer for the cartel. He can smell bad from a mile away. Like his make-believe universe siblings, “Ray Donovan” and “Michael Clayton," Ehrmantraut understands there’s no good end for people who commit bad deeds, especially for the ones who provide shade for antagonistic individuals. I’m talking more about Bryan Cranston’s Walter White than Fring.

One of the bittersweet hooks of Gilligan’s shows is the knowledge of what comes later for certain characters. We know Fring’s fate and the current whereabouts of Saul, and the unfortunate end for Mike. But we are currently out in the woods about Kim’s end, which would definitely shape Saul’s future on “Breaking Bad.” The writing is so deft on Gilligan’s show that there are few if any breadcrumbs to be found in the original series on the location of Kim.

Did she get the Hoover vacuum filter exit treatment that Jimmy and Jesse selected? Was she killed, and is that something Jimmy/Saul simply holds close to his chest? Was she relocated back to her childhood home in Nebraska, which would place her suspiciously close to Cinna-bon manager Gene?

Whatever you’re thinking, Gilligan and Gould have thought of it already. It will be the 8th thing on your Reddit maybe-fate list. Few people have changed the game for such a long period of time. If Jon Favreau keeps up his current streak with “Star Wars” stories, he could get close to Gilligan. If Chase expands his “Sopranos” verse, or if “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino can bring a follow-up to audiences at some point, they could match him. But it’s doubtful.

Whatever happens at the end of “Better Call Saul” this summer, we will be left wanting more--like kids the week after Halloween or adults after a great brunch. It proves a long-lasting point that the best of television shows-the thing that allows them to hang around for more than 2-3 seasons, is the marriage between the acting and the writing. That’s the secret sauce, and I hope Gilligan never shares it with anyone else.

Except us.