Break Out

Better Call Saul, now in its third season, has become one of the better dramas out there.  The idea of a prequel to Breaking Bad, without its main characters, and lower on violence, was a tricky concept that Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, for the most part, have pulled off.

Watching it, however, reminds me in one way of the Star Wars prequels.  We go back in time to see how things got to be where they are.  And there's a fillip every time we see a character or situation introduced that we're already aware of.

But I wonder how it would play if I hadn't already seen BB.  Would it stand on its own?  And even more than in the SW prequels, which had mostly new characters, would I wonder who these people and why are they here?  Would I think they fit as part of an integrated story, or would they feel retrofitted?

Also, if someone were new to the whole thing, in what order would I suggest they watch? If you watched BCS before BB, some big surprises (like who Gus is, or for that matter, who Saul is) would no longer work.  You'd know, for instance, Mike's entire back story, and so when we start getting glimpses of his life in BB, they're not that big a deal.

So I think I'd follow Sheldon Cooper's advice on these things: "I prefer to let George Lucas disappoint me in the order he intended."