We have to face facts: Breaking Bad ends this year. We’ll say goodbye – however it happens – to Walter White, Jesse Pinkman, Hank Schrader and the rest. But if Sony TV and US network AMC have their way, it might not be the last we see of crooked, canny lawyer Saul Goodman, played on the show by Bob Odenkirk. According to Deadline, there are early discussions afoot about a Saul spin-off.
We’d stress at this point that it’s at a pre-embryonic stage, with no deals made and nothing formal to report. But Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan (who has floated the idea in the past) and writer-producer Peter Gould (who first wrote Saul for the show) are at least considering it.
Even with the involvement of the main men from the show, however, a spin-off is fraught with danger. Given the history of telly spin-offs, it could be less Breaking Bad and more actually bad. And though we’re confident Odenkirk would rock as the lawyer who loathes the law, Saul has worked best as comic relief on a show that tends towards the dramatic and darkly funny. A small amount of Saul, in other words, goes a long way. Do we need to see more? That said, perhaps this could be the Boston Legal to Breaking Bad's The Practice.
For now, it’s all just chatter, and may never come to light. But if it does, please oh mighty telly gods, let it be as good as its progenitor…