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The Show That Surpassed Breaking Bad Premiered 10 Years Ago And Has A 98% RT Score

July 22, 2025

Breaking Bad is an all-time great show, but a 98% Rotten Tomatoes series that premiered 10 years ago has surpassed it. More than a decade after it aired, Breaking Bad season 5, episode 14, “Ozymandias” is frequently celebrated as the undisputed all-time best TV episode.

As great as Ozymandias is, it is only one of many Breaking Bad episodes that are masterpieces. The series finale “Felina” and the season 4 finale “Face Off” are among the many other episodes that are iconic in television and popular culture history.

Every Breaking Bad season is phenomenal, and the show continues to be in a class of its own. However, one other show has surpassed it for a very good reason.

Better Call Saul Came Out In 2015 As A Risky Prequel To Breaking Bad

It Was Bold, Even After Breaking Bad’s Success

Two years after Breaking Bad ended, it became a franchise with Better Call Saul, which acts as a prequel and sequel to the original series. Better Call Saul‘s episodes primarily take place in the years before the titular character meets Walter White, but some scenes take place after Breaking Bad, using a black-and-white aesthetic to explore Saul’s life in Omaha, Nebraska.

10 Years Ago, One Of The Best TV Shows Of All Time Broke A Major Hollywood Curse

Spinoffs are almost always destined to fail, but Better Call Saul not only managed to live up to Breaking Bad; it may have even surpassed it.

With a 98% Tomatometer score and 96% Pocornmeter score, Better Call Saul is critically acclaimed and loved by general audiences, but it was a risk at the time. Saul Goodman was a fan-favorite Breaking Bad character, but he had largely been comic relief, and it was risky to make him the star of his own show.

The Show Didn’t Have As Strong Of A Start As Breaking Bad

Unlike Breaking Bad, which immediately hooks the audience from its very first episode, Better Call Saul takes a few episodes to find what it does best. Better Call Saul does not have the same immediate thrills that helped make Breaking Bad a popular culture phenomenon.

The Better Call Saul pilot ends with a surprise appearance from Tuco Salamanca, Kim Wexler is not initially a main character, and Howard Hamlin is set up to be a villain. Despite Tuco’s early appearance, the show’s greatest strength was not bringing in familiar faces, but was instead how it gradually developed Jimmy/Saul and the original characters.

Better Call Saul needed time to forge its own identity, and it also required patience as a series that mastered the art of a slow-burn payoff.

Kim went on to be the most important and best-developed character other than Jimmy, and Howard’s story ended up being tragic, but he was definitely not a villain. Better Call Saul needed time to forge its own identity, and it also required patience as a series that mastered the art of a slow-burn payoff.

Better Call Saul Surpassed Breaking Bad In Many Categories

Better Call Saul Has Better Pacing, Character Development, & Villains

As brilliant as Breaking Bad is, Better Call Saul does surpass it in several significant ways. Breaking Bad‘s fast pace is one of its strengths and contributes to the show’s widespread appeal, but Better Call Saul is better-paced. It is slower at times, but the slower pace always pays off.

The difference in pace also creates more opportunities for character development. Breaking Bad does an excellent job developing Walt and Jesse Pinkman, but many other characters are not as richly developed. In Better Call Saul, Jimmy feels just as well-developed as Kim, Howard, Mike Ehrmantraut, Gus Fring, Chuck McGill, and Nacho Varga.

Closeup of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) in the Breaking Bad series finale

Breaking Bad Has 3 Endings, And One Of Them Is Not Like The Others

Most shows only have one ending, but Breaking Bad has three of them, and one feels very different from the others due to one major reason.

Better Call Saul even has better villains, as it has both Gus and Lalo Salamanca. The prequel makes Gus even more compelling than he already was in Breaking Bad, and despite his relatively late introduction to the show, Lalo is arguably the Breaking Bad universe’s best villain.

Even from a technical standpoint, it feels as though Better Call Saul is the superior series. This is somewhat inevitable due to Better Call Saul being released in later years and with the advantage of more advanced filming technology, but it nevertheless makes the show almost feel like a more refined version of Breaking Bad.

Why Better Call Saul Doesn’t Get As Much Love As Breaking Bad

There’s More Than One Reason

Everyone who watches both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul tends to love both shows, but Better Call Saul never became a popular culture phenomenon like its predecessor did. This can partly be attributed to the second show’s slower pace, which requires more patience, and not everyone is willing to stick around for the payoff.

Breaking Bad‘s premise is arguably a stronger hook as well, as it is difficult to be more intriguing than a high school science teacher making crystal methamphetamine and becoming a criminal kingpin after being diagnosed with cancer.

Show	Tomatometer Score	Popcornmeter Score
Breaking Bad (2008-2013)	96%	97%
Better Call Saul (2015-2022)	98%	96%

The way in which Breaking Bad continues to live on through memes has also contributed to its legacy, and Better Call Saul is not as ubiquitous when it comes to Internet culture.

There is also the matter of awards. As confounding as it is, Better Call Saul never won an Emmy, while Breaking Bad won 16. Despite the stark difference in their Emmy wins, Better Call Saul is the better show, and arguably the only one to surpass Breaking Bad since its conclusion.