Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Better Call Saul: Season 6

 

The sixth and final season of Better Call Saul aired during the spring and summer of 2002. The sixth season was delayed (airing two years after season 5 ended) because of the COVID-19 pandemic and Bob Odenkirk's on-set heart attack during the season. In it, the series finally catches up to the start of Breaking Bad, and we see Jimmy's full transformation into (and embrace of) Saul Goodman. The first nine episodes finish off the pre-Breaking Bad storyline. The final four episodes are mostly set in the "present" day in Nebraska (two years after the end of Breaking Bad) but also include events that occurred during Breaking Bad and El Camino, shown from Saul's (or another character's) perspective. Of course, this means we get more cameos from major Breaking Bad characters, including Betsy Brandt and, yes, Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston. The main storylines in the first nine episodes are Kim and Jimmy's continued scam against Howard Hamlin and their attempts to take him down and the feud between Gus and the Salamancas (with the discovery that Lalo survived the attempted hit) coming to a head. As you would expect, those two storylines intersect in a major way. In the final three episodes, we see how Gene decides to "handle" the situation with the cab driver (now played by Pat Healy after the role was recast), recognizing him during Season 5 and the ultimate resolution of the series. The guest stars in that storyline included Carol Burnett, Jim O'Heir (best known for his role in Parks and Rec), and Kevin Sussman (best known for his supporting role in The Big Bang Theory). The series also brought back several cast members from the earlier seasons, including Julie Ann Emery, Jeremy Shamos, Lavell Crawford, Steven Bauer, Jessie Ennis, Ed Begley Jr., Dennis Boutsikaris, and Michael McKean. Other guest stars who appeared this season included Sandrine Holt and Reed Diamond.

The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set. As in prior seasons, each episode has a commentary track (a couple of episodes have two commentary tracks), and some episodes have deleted scenes. There is about an hour of behind-the-scenes material, another set of training videos (this time, featuring the three film students Josh Fadem, Hayley Holmes, and Julian Bonfiglio, who Jimmy/Saul has used over the years to film his commercials and get video or pictures for his scams), and a gag reel. The season ends the show and the Breaking Bad universe well. The ending could have been much different had Bob Odenkirk been unable to continue filming after his heart attack. In the bonus features, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould said the series would have ended with episode eight if Odenkirk had not been able to return. In one of the behind-the-scenes interviews Odenkirk said he hoped that the showrunners would have recast Saul and properly finish the story, but Gilligan and Gould said that would not have happened. Thankfully, Odenkirk recovered and eventually returned to finish shooting the show. I will not spoil the ending of the series for people who have not watched it, but we do see a resolution for the arcs of all the surviving characters. If you have watched the prior five seasons, it will not come as a surprise that not every major character survives, and a significant death in the season directly impacts Jimmy's final transformation into the Saul Goodman we were introduced to in Breaking Bad. Ultimately, the season is well-written and very well-acted, and the ending of the series is satisfying. It is absolutely worth the time to watch.