10 Reasons Better Call Saul Is Better Than The Walking Dead
They are very different shows, but their target audiences aren't as dissimilar as you might think.
Since Breaking Bad and Mad Men reached their conclusions, AMC have struggled to fill the void. The Walking Dead has tried, but its script writing is nowhere near the same quality. Still, AMC push it and it has a large, but dwindling, fan base.
But this comes at the expense of Better Call Saul, the spin-off prequel to the aforementioned Breaking Bad. It has been well received and has a dedicated fan base, but it is treated as somewhat of a black sheep, with The Walking Dead taking all the attention.
This is disappointing, as Better Call Saul has proven itself to be a well written, deep and enjoyable programme. It has yet to display the significant structural weaknesses that have been present in The Walking Dead since its beginning and continue to be exacerbated with every new season.
Of course, at face value they are two very different shows, and if you watch The Walking Dead purely to see zombies and gratuitous violence, then Better Call Saul probably isn't for you. However, if you are looking for gripping drama, great characters and interesting plot twists, Better Call Saul may be able to offer you something that has been lacking from more recent seasons of The Walking Dead.
If you are bored of The Walking Dead and looking for new drama to get behind, here's why you should give Better Call Saul a try.
10. The Characters Are Written And Developed Much Better
Despite only having aired two seasons with twenty episodes in total, most of the characters in Better Call Saul are much better developed than those in The Walking Dead, perhaps with the exception of the core cast. That said, this is more of an inevitable consequence of having appeared in close to 100 episodes as opposed to good character development. Newer characters are hit and miss, depending on how much energy the writers have.
If it wanted to, The Walking Dead could create some deep characters and explore different aspects of humanity, but instead it usually only offers superficial insights into human nature in trying times. Saul on the other hand, is much more successful in offering us deeper, more insightful characters. The relationship between Jimmy and his brother Chuck is one of the most complex and nuanced sibling relationships on television. Mike's slow transformation into Breaking Bad's hardened killer for hire is engaging, whilst Jimmy and Kim's not-so-clear-cut relationship is full of little intricacies from the start.
Compare this to a character like Rick Grimes and you can see how chances to explore the deepest regions of such a character still haven’t been fully realised. In a relatively short space of time he has transitioned from good cop and family man into a savage killer. In many cases he isn't much better than the 'bad guys' he is hacking to pieces, and yet the show doesn't really try to explore this contradiction at any meaningful level.