Better Call Saul: “What the hell is the show?” Showrunners admit how lost they were at first and what finally clicked

Better Call Saul started off as a Breaking Bad spin-off. Everyone wondered if the show will live up to the expectations. And it did.

Better Call Saul managed to exceed expectations when it maintained the cult like status that its parent show Breaking Bad had achieved.

The show gives us the sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman. He is one of the most unique characters on TV history. But this uniqueness was not easy to create. It was hard to even come to the conclusion that the show will take its viewers through everything that made this oddball of a lawyer.

It proves to be, at times, a painful exploration of his past. It does not just present us a character study of sorts. But also shows the harsh realities of being tied to the world of law and crime.

But the journey behind the scenes wasn’t all smooth for a show that’s now hailed as one of the best prequels ever made (and often argued to be just as good, if not better, than its parent show). The showrunners had even admitted they had no idea what they were doing at first.

Let's explore how the showrunners came up with what Better Call Saul was going to be about.

Better Call Saul: How the show found its direction

Co-creators and showrunners Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan shared about the early days of Better Call Saul in an exclusive interview with the Television Academy.

They were unprepared when the project first took off. They admitted to flying blind when they first set out to make the story.

"We said to them, "Hey, we have an idea — a prequel." Actually, we didn't even say "prequel" at the time. We said, "How about we do a spinoff series, Better Call Saul?" And everybody said, "Great." And the agents, executives — everybody, the lawyers — they started running around, getting all the contracts put together. And we just felt like, wow. We were feeling really good about ourselves. And then it suddenly dawned on us, "Hey, wait a minute, what the hell is the show?"

We did not know when we sold it. We had endless discussions, walking around Toluca Lake [in Los Angeles], walking around the neighborhood, where our offices were. We knew the title. What else do you call it other than Better Call Saul? That was a no-brainer. We asked questions like, “What does this look like? Is it a drama? Is it a comedy? Is it an hour? Is it a half-hour?”

And those weren’t just small creative struggles. They were big ones. They were the kind that could either make or break a show. According to Gilligan, it was Gould who finally hit upon the idea that brought everything into place and gave the show a direction. That helped them realize what the heart of the story really was.

Better Call Saul: Peter Gould came up with the solution

Creating a spin-off is hard enough. Creating one from a show as universally loved and critically revered as Breaking Bad is next to impossible. But somehow Better Call Saul did not just live up to the legacy but also made its own. Still the process was not smooth and had a lot of challeneges.

The creators realized that making a show centered on Saul Goodman wasn’t going to be as easy as it sounded. Saul was a carefree and cheeky guy on Breaking Bad who enjoyed life. And that kind of character cannot be woven into a drama or a comedy even.

They then realized that the show needed to be a prequel. That’s when they started putting things together: who Saul was before he became Saul and what would drive someone to become who he is.

Vince Gilligan shared that it was Peter Gould who came up with it:

"Peter Gould put it best. He said, "What problem does becoming Saul Goodman solve?" I think he worded it even better than that, but that's the way I recall it. But he said, "If you're a guy named McGill, who were you before you were Saul Goodman? And why did you choose to turn into Saul Goodman? And what problem did you face in your life that becoming Saul Goodman solved?" Once Peter asked that riddle of himself and of me, then slowly but surely, it started to click together. But we didn't know what the hell this show was going to be when we said, "Let's do a show.""

And that was when Better Call Saul became about identity and transformation. It became the story of a man who was dealing with failure and morality and his place in the world. He was trying to escape or suvive by becoming someone else. And that's how one of TV's greatest prequel was born.

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