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The Top 10 Television Shows Of 2015: No. 1 'Better Call Saul'

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No. 1. Better Call Saul:  Breaking Even Badder

Sequel, prequel or something in between, it’s never a slam dunk to try to rearrange the parts of a great show into something new. Breaking Bad showrunner Vince Gilligan knew this first hand, having signed on to the X-Files spinoff, The Lone Gunman. And often the stronger the parts, the harder the task. Remember AfterM*A*S*H?

A show as rich and complex as Breaking Bad offered an almost limitless number of spin-off opportunities. The Chicken Brother starring Gus Fring? One and a Half Men with Fugitive Jesse and Brock. A Walking Dead spinoff with Walker Walt? Late Night with Badger and Skinny Pete?

Gilligan, showrunner Peter Gould and the staff of writers chose the right character. If they didn't know it when they started, they figured out pretty quickly that Saul Goodman is essentially an empty shell in a yellow shirt. During Breaking Bad he was motivated by nothing more or less than survival. Perfectly fine for an ensemble player who's mostly there to move the plot along and provide some comic relief.

But not enough to base a show on. Mining the backstory in classic Breaking Bad fashion, they latched onto a small plot point--that Saul had once been named Jimmy McGill--and built Better Call Saul around it.

The Jimmy we came to know—and yes, love—was really the Anti-Saul, a good friend, a better brother, and a lawyer who was interested in actually doing the right thing. In the course of a season, they built him up, just to tear him down.

If the elevator pitch for Breaking Bad was "Mr. Chips turns into Scarface" you can summarize BCS thusly: "Perry Mason turns into Maury Levy." That story arc earned BCS a spot in a crowded Top 10 of 2015.

What earned Better Call Saul the top spot was one single episode. "Five-O," written by first-time writer and former Breaking Bad assistant Gordon Smith traced Mike Ehrmantraut's fall from grace. Jonathan Banks gave an Emmy-worthy turn, and Kerry Condon, as his daughter-in-law, stayed with him beat for beat. Sure there was a lot of housekeeping in the first season of Better Call Saul, setting pieces in motion that will pay off in Season 2 and beyond. But Vince, Peter, Gordon and Friends also gave us something else: The best hour of television of 2015.

(Check back in after Christmas for an exclusive interview with Better Call Saul producer Stewart Lyons.)

The Forbes Television Top 10 for 2015:

  1. Better Call Saul
  2. Rectify
  3. Fargo
  4. Life in Pieces
  5. Manhattan
  6. Mad Men
  7. Narcos
  8. The Walking Dead
  9. Jessica Jones
  10. Into the Badlands
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