Cinnabon employees prepare food as a late 30’s jazz ballad plays. All the while, “Breaking Bad” nostalgia fills the scene. As most of “Breaking Bad” episodes did, “Better Call Saul”’s masterful debut starts with a scene that is seemingly unrelated to the rest of the show.
But then the director pulls back the scope of magnification to give the viewer an aha moment, before getting right into the meat of the narrative. If this sequence of events doesn’t sound familiar to you, it’s time to give either of these shows a try.
When it first got out that “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan was being called back to start a spin-off series, doubt was in the air.
Heavy sighs and mentions of the prematurely canceled post-“Friends”  era spin-off “Joey” were made.
However, contrary to the worries voiced by fans of the original show, “Better Call Saul” actually makes a stronger first impression than its predecessor.
Maybe it’s because we are all intimately familiar with the few characters that make reappearances here, or because Gilligan feels pressure to disprove the naysayers. No matter what, it’s made clear that whatever the secret ingredient is, the creative team still has it.

 The writing is as fantastic as fans have come to expect. Drama is taut, dialogue is great. New and returning characters have believable motivations to follow.
This all comes as no surprise as a majority of its slew of writing and production return from it’s first show.
The best members of this group of writers’ chops come in the form of Saul Goodman’s monologues in and out of the court room.
Bob Odenkirk reprises his role as Goodman and when he’s firing on all cylinders there’s not much else to do but stare rapt at the screen and soak in the man’s performance. How someone can so thoroughly come off as slimy with just enough virtue to be sympathetic remains a mystery, but Odenkirk achieves that balance perfectly.
With only its first two episodes, the show is already well on its way to giving viewers a broader picture of who Goodman is.
We get a better glimpse into Goodman’s checkered past. One scene he is humorously dealing with some unsavory or wit lacking characters, only to come home and be grounded by very real worries in the form of bills or his ailing mentor.
“Breaking Bad” walked the line between comedic relief and tightly wound morality-play, and “Better Call Saul” follows suit. If you haven’t seen “Breaking Bad”, that show is recommended first. But if you’re looking to fill that Walter White shaped hole in your heart, your search is over.
“Better Call Saul” gets five out of five stars.