Slippin' Jimmy

Earlier this year, the US television channel AMC aired the first episode of the spin-off of Breaking Bad (2008–2013). It was a long-awaited television event. Probably because its ‘parent’ serial ended too soon – what a rarity! – before the fans were ready for it, but also because Better Call Saul (Better Call Saul, 2015–) is the first spin-off of the so-called »second golden age of television«. Do Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad share only part of the ingredients (the main and a few supporting characters, the setting, etc.) or did the spin-off follow the original show’s more comprehensive recipe? We show that the latter is the case. In the context of the relationship between the spin-off and the original show, the protagonist’s (moral) transformation, while at the heart of both shows, in the first functions in the name of something else than in the latter.

The integral (Slovenian) version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!