Goodbye to 'Better Call Saul' ends an era

When

was born, it was going to be something very different than what it has ended up being.

The initial idea was that it was a comedy.

But what AMC, its channel in the United States, commissioned with three episodes remaining before the end of

was a drama about Saul Goodman's past.

The character had first appeared in the eighth episode of the second season of the series starring Bryan Cranston in an episode titled

That was, precisely, the title of the series that premiered in 2015 and this Tuesday broadcasts its finale on Movistar Plus + (22.30).

That's how viewers met Jimmy McGill, the character's real name, a very different kind of Saul Goodman from

shady lawyer and racketeer, "friend of the cartel", whose path crosses that of Walter White.

In all six seasons and 63 episodes of

dozens of references and points of connection between the two series have remained, set in a universe in which morality is as flexible as a reed.

As the end approached, the connection between those two worlds grew.

Everything seemed to obey a plan thought up years ago by its writers.

However, it was not so.

“We had no idea what the fate of the characters would be,” says Peter Gould, co-creator and series lead with Vince Gilligan.

"In the first season, everyone in the writers' room thought that the protagonist would transform into Saul Goodman at the end of the first season and then we would become something like a crime procedural, a series where we would see a different case every week.

I was thinking of a criminal version of Jerry Maguire.

But it was not like that",

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The series was adapting to what the characters asked for and what the actors created.

“What we did was monitor very carefully everything that we had already done before.

We like to take ideas that we have planted before and that we usually didn't even know we had planted.

An obvious example is when, in

Saul Goodman is on his knees at a grave and yells, 'It wasn't me, it was Ignacio!

I'm a friend of the poster.

Did Lalo send you?'

It was in an episode that I wrote and I had no idea what it meant."

In

, Lalo Salamanca and Nacho Varga have been two important secondary characters.

universe for 14 years ,

since the first season of the mother series.

He was the one in charge of creating Saul Goodman, which led him to take on more responsibilities in the production focused on the lawyer.

“When we started

it seemed crazy to me.

He was so proud of

… How could we continue?

How dare we do it?"

It is precisely Gould who directs the episode with which the story closes.

Peter Gould, Rhea Seehorn, Carol Burnett, Bob Odenkirk and Vince Gilligan on the set of the penultimate episode of 'Better Call Saul.'Greg Lewis (Greg Lewis/AMC/Sony Pictures Television)

But Saul Goodman would not have been the same without the acting work of Bob Odenkirk, a five-time Emmy nominee for his role in this series.

"Nobody can do what Bob does," says Gould.

“Nobody can go from the most ridiculous comedy, almost like a

, to drama two seconds later.

What he does is unique.

And I don't think he even realizes it."

One of the most praised aspects of the series has been the relationship between Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler (actress Rhea Seehorn).

As

progressed , viewers more often than not wondered about the fate of that lawyer who hadn't been mentioned in

and

core of Jimmy's personal life in a loving and supportive professional relationship that made him fear for his future.

"That's the biggest compliment we can get, that people really cared about her and her fate," says Gould.

“We started the series as a sequel or a prequel, because in the end it has been both, and at the beginning the questions that people asked us were focused on when we were going to see the characters of

.

But lately the question we were asked the most was what is going to happen to Kim.

'You better not kill Kim!'

That is that we have created with Rhea a character that has connected with people very deeply and is one of the greatest triumphs of this series.

Rhea Seehorn and Bob Odenkirk, on the set of the final season of 'Better Call Saul'.

Better Call Saul

was born in the shadow of

but, as Gould acknowledges, it didn't take him long to shake off that weight and free himself from a comparison that could have weighed down the series.

“I think we shed that shadow pretty soon.

He was always a presence in the writers' room, of course, many of us worked on

and we had to be careful with references and relationships with the series, which became more and more complex.

There were 62 episodes of

, plus 63 of ours and the two hours of the film directed and written by Vince Gilligan,

[which narrated the fate of Jesse Pinkman after the end of

].

It was a challenge to keep an eye on everything being consistent and fitting together.

We always think of

in that sense, but the shadow of him is soon removed.

I think that's when things started to happen that were too dumb to have happened in

There is an episode where Jimmy goes to an inventor who has created a talking toilet.

In another, he fakes a ransom on a billboard.

Walter White would never have done those things, not even Jesse."

The latest episodes, especially celebrated by viewers, include the participation of Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, who have returned to play Walter White and Jesse Pinkman to unite the two series definitively.

“It has been an exercise in resistance to have waited until now to do it.

But I think that having waited so long has been better.

We wanted to tell the Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman story.

And these characters weren't important to that until now."

Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Bob Odenkirk, in the reunion of the characters in 'Better Call Saul'.

universe

after the one the original series had in 2013. But will it be the final one?

Neither Vince Gilligan, in recent statements, nor Peter Gould dare to close the door completely, especially at a time when networks and platforms depend so much on their successful franchises.

“I think at the moment, Vince and I, and the rest of the team, we think we've pushed our luck enough.

It's been a lot of hours, we're asking viewers too much and it's time to give it a break.

I want to try other things and explore other worlds.

That said, you never know, you can never close the door all the way because, if there's a great idea, if people are up for it... who knows, it might happen again.

It's not going to happen any time soon."

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