1) Better Call Saul
The first season of Better Call Saul was an interesting introduction to how the artist formerly known as Jimmy McGill got his start as a lawyer and the moments that led him to "cross the line" and never look back. It was good, but damn, did Vince Gilligan and company step up their game in Season Two.
Better Call Saul has essentially been a show with two main leads: Jimmy and Mike Ehrmantraut. The two storylines only occasionally intersect, which sometimes makes individual episodes choppy. While Mike's are typically more action-packed and filled with Breaking Bad member berries, it's usually Jimmy's storylines that I find more interesting.
This is in no small part because Better Call Saul made great strides with its supporting cast. Mike and Jimmy are the leads, but possibly the two most interesting characters in Season Two are Jimmy's two most important relationships: his colleague and love interest Kim Wexler and his brother, Chuck. Kim's arc this season was fantastic. She's every bit a superstar, hardworking lawyer and watching her land Mesa Verde after all the painstaking effort she went through was one of those moments that makes you want to fist pump along with a television character. There's no character you pull harder for when you watch this show, but her decision to throw in her lot with Jimmy at the end of the season casts some doubt on whether she'll be able to succeed long-term in light of his shenanigans.
Kim is wonderful, but Chuck McGill is the best character on Better Call Saul, and perhaps my favorite on television right now. Chuck's essentially the show's villain in Season Two, but the things he stands for most are his adherence to the high standards of his profession and his desire to keep Jimmy from using his law degree due to his belief that Jimmy's a con man who will only use it for dishonest and possibly illegal means. Painted in that way, he has the moral high ground in this conflict. However, his Javert-like adherence (I love Les Mis, sorry I'm not sorry) to his principles leads him to take extensive and arguably unethical actions to thwart Jimmy, with Kim serving as collateral damage. By the end of Season Two, Chuck loses sight of why he began struggling against Jimmy in the first place and has just about fully stooped to his level of deceit just to beat his brother at this game. It's a tremendous storyline for the character and Michael McKean does a stellar job with the role.
I'll unapologetically continue gushing about Chuck, because so few characters on television are drawn as well as he is. He steals scenes because we're so acutely aware of his mannerisms and thought process that we're often taking things in from his point of view and anticipating how he'll react to situations and comments. Take the piano scene from the cold open of "Cobbler" or the way he takes in Jimmy's lawyer jokes in the cold open of "Rebecca". These scenes can't be as great as they are without Chuck's behavior appearing to be a perfectly natural extension of his character.
Of course, I'd be remiss to not mention Bob Odenkirk's work as Jimmy. Breaking Bad's Saul Goodman was interesting and also some refreshing comic relief for the show. What Odenkirk and Better Call's writers have done with Jimmy McGill has been truly remarkable. They took Breaking Bad's jester and fleshed him out to the point where we truly understand him and are seriously invested in his story. He's still got the same charisma and trickery we saw when we first met him as one of Walter White's sideshows, but they've been able to get so much more out of the character.
Season two of Better Call Saul wasn't perfect, but it was damn near close. Prequels can be a dicey proposition and it's difficult to execute them well or have them live up to the original subject matter. However, through two seasons, as crazy as it sounds, this show is every bit as good as Breaking Bad.
Season Grade: A
Essential Episodes: "Cobbler" (s2.ep2), "Fifi" (s2,ep8), "Nailed" (s2.ep9)
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