Better Call Saul started as a spinoff prequel of Breaking Bad, and Bob Odenkirk would like to honor the flagship show by keeping the episode count ever-so-slightly lower. Note episode count, not season count, since it looks like Better Call Saul may actually have more seasons.
Bob Odenkirk plays Jimmy McGill on Better Call Saul, but the Season 4 finale primed him to fully become the Saul Goodman we know and shake our heads at but still love in Breaking Bad.
Breaking Bad ran for five seasons from 2008 to 2013. The fifth season was split into two parts, though, so it was essentially six seasons. Season 1 had seven episodes, Seasons 2-4 had 13 episodes, and Season 5 had 16 episodes split into two batches of eight. The total episode count? 62.
Better Call Saul's first four seasons all had 10 episodes. Season 5, coming in 2020, is expected to continue the 10-episode count. If the show goes for one more season, that would put the episode count at 60.
That sounds about right to Bob Odenkirk, who had this to say when Gold Derby asked how long he sees Better Call Saul lasting:
I’d like to find out what happens to Gene, the character he is after Better Call Saul, after Breaking Bad, but I feel like the way these guys tell a story, I feel like maybe two seasons. Maybe. I also like when the story speeds up. I respect how good they are at picking things apart and slowing them down but I like when things go a little faster, so for me, I feel like two seasons would be the outside of it. . . . I’d like to fall short of Breaking Bad. If Breaking Bad is the mothership then we shouldn’t be as big as them.
So he's hoping for no more than six seasons with 10 episodes each?
That’s my gut, but I’m not writing the story.
That also fits with what Giancarlo Esposito (Gus Fring) said about the show probably having six seasons, continuing the story of Jimmy becoming Saul and then -- after Breaking Bad -- Gene at Cinnabon. But six seasons is not confirmed yet, so we'll just have to wait for official word from AMC.
Bob Odenkirk said he thinks Jimmy has fully become Saul by the end of Better Call Saul Season 4, although he said he's not sure show creators Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan would say the same:
I feel that in his heart and in his mind he’s there. He’s Saul. He just needs to get the office and come up with the idea that, 'Who will be beneficiary of these particular skills? Who would value them the most?' I don’t think it’s a long journey to drug dealers and scumbags are gonna appreciate how fast and loose I play with the truth. [...] The most pivotal moment is the end, the very end where he is excited and happy and tells Kim, 'Look what I did! I pulled it off! I tricked ‘em and you helped me. You were right, Kim, thank you! You helped me!' And then he goes, 'It’s all good, man!' And we know he’s gonna be Saul Goodman now and he’s just so inspired by conning those people with his true feelings and manipulating his way back into legitimacy.
Saul is now here. We just have to wait a while to see him, Kim, Gus, Mike, Nacho, new villain Lalo, and the rest of the gang when Better Call Saul Season 5 arrives on AMC in 2020.
