10 Reasons Better Call Saul Is Better Than The Walking Dead

9. No Wasted Or Irrelevant Characters

Better Call Saul The Walking Dead
AMC

One of the major problems with The Walking Dead is that the vast majority of characters on the show are pretty much irrelevant, existing for the sole purpose of getting eaten alive whilst the other characters escape.

It isn't just background characters either. Someone like T-Dog from the first season had the potential to be quite interesting, but due to a lack of better ideas they wrote him off with an injury during the second season until eventually giving up on him and killing him off early in season three. Then there was Bob, who was also wasted. We barely knew any more about him in his final episode than we did in his first. The show hinted at his issues with alcohol and other personal demons, but they didn't develop any of this nearly as far as they could have. As such, his eventual death wasn't as meaningful as the show tried to portray it to be.

Saul is much better in this respect. This isn't to say that every character is integral to the story, of course there are minor characters who come and go as the narrative needs them to. But if they are in the background it is because they aren't needed, not because the writers don't know what to do with them. The core cast always have something to do, and characters aren't just introduced to be killed off for cheap emotional responses. If you are supposed to care about a particular character, the writers don't wait until the episode prior to their death to try and make that happen.

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Ten years ago, Chris was sent to prison by a military court for a crime he didn't commit. He promptly escaped from a maximum-security stockade to the East Midlands underground. Today, still wanted by the government, he survives as a WhatCulture writer. If you have a problem... if no one else can help... and if you can find him... maybe you can hire...