The time we’ve been waiting for with equal parts anticipation and dread is finally upon us (almost), as Better Call Saul’s final season is set to premiere on Monday, April 18. As Bob Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman gets chronologically closer to Walter White’s Breaking Bad universe, we’re finally about to find out the fates of characters including Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), Nacho Varga (Michael Mando) and Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton), among others who weren’t featured in the flagship series. Critics got the jump on the rest of us and have viewed the first two episodes, and to be expected, they aren't keeping mum about what they think of the beginning of the end.
Season 6 will be divided into two parts, with the first seven episodes premiering on April 18, and the second six coming July 11. Anticipation has been high, especially since the production suffered a huge scare when Bob Odenkirk collapsed from a heart attack on set. It’s been a couple of years since Season 5 ended, so if you need a refresher, check out these things to remember before Better Call Saul Season 6. Now that we’re all caught up, let’s check out the reviews.
Darren Franich of EW grades the first two episodes an A-, saying the series continues to introduce tantalizing mysteries even while hurtling toward its finish, and only the best artists can pull a con like that.
In the two episodes I've seen, everything happening with Kim is totally fascinating. At one point, she performs an entirely heroic act that is somehow also the worst thing she's ever done. By comparison, some of the cartel stuff is… very solid! But not too surprising — which could be an inevitable prequel problem. There has always been a vague notion that Saul was going to slowly become the previous show, with greater focus on the Fring-adjacent underworld. But these early episodes confirm the prequel as its own unique entertainment.
Steve Greene of IndieWire gives it an A, saying it’s an “exquisite” start to the final season, and that the Breaking Bad prequel continues to maintain an impossibly high bar for itself with wicked humor, a trademark visual vocabulary and metric tons of dread:
It’s one of the ongoing achievements of Better Call Saul that it has shepherded this character that, more often than not, can snatch a beneficial outcome from the jaws of despair and do it convincingly. These early episodes give just enough hint of a crack in that quick-thinking apparatus to have you question whether or not Jimmy is hastening the arrival of the moment where his own magic evaporates.
Another critic who uses the word “exquisite” is Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence. She says every element of the first two episodes is working hard to make sure the audience is engaged in the show’s biggest questions, including the mystery of how it’s all going to end:
A defining quality of Better Call Saul is how it plays with focus, both in its cinematography and its storytelling — a tradition going back to Breaking Bad, of course, but one that Season 6 continues to push further. After all, so much of this show has always been about zooming in on a person’s life, the details that make up a day, and then pulling back out to reveal their place in a far bigger, messier, and more tragic picture than they could ever truly realize. It’s an approach that nurtures the show’s incredible gift for specificity, for telling a story about crooks and lawyers and good people and all the grey areas that exist between them. For telling a story unlike literally anything else on television.
Drew Dietsch of Giant Freakin Robot rates the beginning of the final season 5 out of 5 robots. He says while Breaking Bad will always be classic TV, Better Call Saul has eclipsed its predecessor, and we should be thankful to be alive in a time when this show was airing:
It’s hard not to just spend the rest of this review gushing about every single detail about Better Call Saul Season 6. Society has a real tough time when it comes to ending stories, and most endings are looked at with disappointment. It would take the most epic fumbling of all time to close out this show on anything less than a profound conclusion. The talent involved are so assured of the story they are telling that it’s time to simply savor every last moment we have with this show.
Daniel D’Addario of Variety is the rare critic who found faults in the first two episodes, as he continues to struggle with the series’ tone. However, he says Season 6 is ultimately worth watching, if mainly because Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn’s acting together is as strong as it’s ever been:
Still and all, the show is urgently worth watching for Odenkirk and for Seehorn. Kim’s frustrations, so beautifully played by Seehorn, come to feel like the viewer’s own. Like her, we’re committed to seeing our guy through it all, wherever he goes. But it’s hard not to feel as though he’s choosing a path that cuts off not just Jimmy’s humanity, but what made him interesting, too.
Only nine critics have offered their judgments on the first two episodes on Rotten Tomatoes, but as of this writing, Better Call Saul’s final season is rated 100% Fresh. I don’t know about you, but these reviews made me more excited than ever to see what happens next — especially after the recent confirmation that Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul will reprise their Breaking Bad roles at some point this season!
The first two episodes of Better Call Saul Season 6 will air at 9 p.m. ET Monday, April 18, with one episode per week airing in that timeslot thereafter. While we wait (impatiently), be sure to check out our 2022 TV Schedule to see what other new and returning shows are premiering soon.
