Two-year pauses are always tricky for TV shows. Sometimes, they’re much-needed breaks so that a series’ creative team can gear up for another round of storytelling. In other cases, it’s a surefire opportunity to lose momentum.
Of course, “Better Call Saul,” like many of the other benchmark television dramas currently airing, had to put plans on hold when productions around the world went dark in 2020. As the show’s most recent season was airing, it would be almost another year entirely before “Better Call Saul” went back to Albuquerque to finish the connective tissue between it and its predecessor, “Breaking Bad.”
On the precipice of its final run of 13 episodes, the show’s first five seasons are now available on both AMC+ and Netflix. But in case you need a quick refresher and this didn’t get you quite far enough, here’s a pair of backward and forward looks at what’s already shaping up to be a memorable season.
So What Happened to Everyone at the End of Season 5?
When last we left our conflicted title character, Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) had just been through a trying ordeal in the desert. Add to that a harrowing living room confrontation with Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton), and he and Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) are understandably shaken. Though, in their mind, the source of their recent problems has now been taken off the board. Even as Lalo still lurks, they’re semi-blissfully unaware.
Disillusioned with her steady stream of big-firm cases and rich clients, Kim has switched lanes to work as a public defender. Tapping into the backlog of Albuquerque felonies sitting within document boxes in a courthouse storage room, she’s ready to try to use her talents to bring about some justice. Though, as the wheels started turning in the season finale, her sense of justice also might be directed toward former boss Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian).
Gus is still playing out portions of the 4-D chess game he fully set in motion by torching his own Los Pollos Hermanos location. Working with Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) to coordinate an attack on the Salamanca family and put a serious dent in his local competition, he found an undercover ally in Nacho Varga (Michael Mando).
Last we saw of Nacho, he was springing a trap for Lalo, one he assumed would lead to his former boss’ elimination and some protection in return. It will likely not be smooth sailing for him, now that he’s outside the walls of the compound, and the men he let inside have all been felled by Lalo’s machine gun.
The parting moments of Season 5 featured a very determined, very angry Lalo, presumably ready to do everything in his power to exact revenge on the people responsible for the compound siege. That’s not great news for anyone in his way, which may unknowingly include a recent married pair of practicing lawyers in New Mexico’s largest city.
“Better Call Saul”
Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television
Are They Already Done Filming?
Production rolled cameras on the Season 6 premiere over a year ago, back in March 2021. After Odenkirk’s health scare last summer, the show went on a temporary hiatus before resuming in the early fall. The series wrapped shooting in February 2022, nearly eight years after filming on the pilot initially began.
Will Any More “Breaking Bad” Alums Show Up?
Series co-creator and showrunner Peter Gould made some recent waves, announcing that after previously sharing the screen in the 2019 Netflix film “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie,” Season 6 of “Better Call Saul” will once again bring back Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. “Better Call Saul” has had no shortage of “Breaking Bad” alums stop by: In addition to the extended stays from Odenkirk, Banks, and Esposito, the show has also found room for David Costabile’s Gale Boetticher, Dean Norris’ Hank Schrader, and Steven Michael Quezada’s Steve Gomez.
How Many Episodes Will Season 6 Run?
Much like its TV ancestor, this final season will be divided into two separate chunks. Seven new episodes will start on April 18 and air until the 2021-2022 Emmys eligibility window closes. Then, after roughly a month and a half off, “Better Call Saul” returns for its final half-dozen chapters, beginning July 11.
There Are Already More Spinoffs…?
“Slippin’ Jimmy,” an animated series tracking the life of a young Jimmy McGill (Sean Giambrone), is set to be released in conjunction with the first batch of Season 6 episodes. Written by “Better Call Saul” vets Ariel Levine and Kathleen Williams-Foshee, this group of animated shorts will each take on a specific genre as a guide as it shows Master McGill’s evolution.
It’s the latest short-form addition to the greater “Saul” world, joining the “Employee Training” series that’s focused on everything from Los Pollos Hermanos orientation videos to legal crash courses, courtesy of Kim Wexler. In conjunction with Season 6, the long-running CNBC show “American Greed” put together a “Breaking Bad”/“Better Call Saul”-themed episode, narrated by Stacy Keach himself.
How are the First Two Episodes?
Unsurprisingly great! “Better Call Saul” has long had a legitimate claim to the Best Show on TV throne. The first pair of episodes made available to critics show that things aren’t slowing down on the way to the finish line.
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