10 Best TV Shows Of 2017 (So Far)

2. Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul Jimmy Kim
AMC

As Jimmy McGill continues on his slippery slope, Better Call Saul just keeps getting better and better. Season 1 was enough to justify the show's existence, Season 2 turned it into something great, and this year, with Season 3, it delivered an exceptional run of storytelling. It'll never be widely considered better than Breaking Bad, and the shows are very different by nature, but if it can consistently deliver this level then it'll at least be worthy of those conversations.

The fall of Jimmy is a much more tragic one to witness than Walt's, less about gaining any sort of power as it is a heart-wrenching inevitability, with a wonderful nuance to Bob Odenkirk's performance as he tries (to little avail) to keep on the right path.

The season did bring us closer than ever before to the timeline of Breaking Bad, thanks to the arrival of Gus Fring, which gave Mike's storyline an added injection of excitement. But it's in the Jimmy/Chuck/Kim narrative the true heart of this show lies, with stunning work from Rhea Seehorn and even more so Michael McKean.

Kim gives Jimmy a human grounding, a tether to being 'good', while this year the brotherly battle between Jimmy and Chuck reached explosive new heights, peaking with the sensational courtroom drama that unfolds in the fifth episode. The pacing is slow without ever becoming dull, the direction silky smooth, and as the drama unfolds everything has a purpose (even if you might not realise it at the time), packing in untold amounts of surprise and heartbreak

Best Episode: Chicanery

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Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.