Better Call Saul is widely regarded as the best sequel to Breaking Bad, but El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie is a severely underrated part of the story. Better Call Saul certainly earned that distinction, too. Vince Gilligan and the rest of the show’s creators took Bob Odenkirk’s whacky side character from Breaking Bad and turned his spinoff show into a beautiful and mᴀssively acclaimed story of corruption and the worst parts of human nature. Better Call Saul is a masterpiece, I just believe that El Camino deserves to be a bigger part of the conversation about Breaking Bad‘s legacy.
On paper, El Camino seems like it makes more sense as a follow-up to Breaking Bad than Better Call Saul did. El Camino followed Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), one of the best characters in the Breaking Bad universe, and gave longtime fans some closure to his story. It also worked quite well – El Camino has a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and it’s one of the best thrillers on Netflix. However, it has been overshadowed by the discussion surrounding Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, wrongly so, in my opinion.
El Camino Is An Underrated Part Of The Breaking Bad Universe
El Camino Is Great, But It Doesn’t Get The Same Flowers Breaking Bad & Better Call Saul Do
El Camino is largely overshadowed by Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, partly because they’re two of the best TV shows ever made. But El Camino is a great movie, even putting aside its connection to Breaking Bad. El Camino is a tremendously well-made film with some beautiful sH๏τs, it’s a mature and harrowing look at the reality of post-traumatic stress disorder, and Aaron Paul delivers some of the best – possibly even Oscar-worthy – acting in his entire career. El Camino has it all, yet it doesn’t get the same recognition Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul do.
Another reason El Camino was overshadowed by Better Call Saul is simple timing. El Camino works best as a sendoff to Jesse Pinkman and Breaking Bad as a whole, but Better Call Saul lasted longer than it, both in the real world and in the story’s timeline. El Camino came out in 2019, while the finale of Better Call Saul was in 2022. Better Call Saul‘s black and white scenes also provided a more up-to-date look at what happened to the characters fans loved. If it had come out after Better Call Saul, I feel confident saying El Camino would be considered an equally good sequel.
I Like Jesse’s Ending In Breaking Bad, But I Needed More Closure
El Camino Was An Even Better Ending To A Beloved Character’s Journey Than Breaking Bad Could Provide
Jesse’s final scene in Breaking Bad saw him finally freed from the neo-Nazi camp and driving away in an El Camino, laughing and crying at the same time. That open-ended farewell to Jesse Pinkman was great, and it provided a much-needed bit of light in an endlessly dark finale, but I still wanted more out of Jesse’s story. I wanted to know that he got out safely, that he wasn’t just going to be scooped up by the police as soon as he parked the car. Jesse, and his fans, deserved more closure than that, and El Camino perfectly delivered.
El Camino didn’t just reveal that Jesse had, in fact, evaded the police, it gave him a chance to put Walter and all of Breaking Bad behind him. Through flashbacks and conversations with characters like Walt, Mike, and more, Jesse literally left his past behind as he fled to Alaska. We even got a good look at Jesse’s mental state after being in the neo-Nazis captivity, his thoughts about his relationship with Walt, and Mike’s warning that he could never set things right. By the end of El Camino, viewers got to see exactly why Jesse deserved more closure than Breaking Bad afforded him.
El Camino Is The Only Breaking Bad Story With A Happy Ending
All Of Breaking Bad’s Endings Give Their Protagonists Exactly What They Deserve
Another reason El Camino is such a valuable part of the Breaking Bad story is because it’s the only happy ending anyone gets. At the end of Breaking Bad, Hank died, Walt died, Skyler was a single mother and the husband of the most notorious criminal in the country, Maria was a widow, Saul was on the run, and Jesse had endured half a year of torture and enslavement. Likewise, the ending of Better Call Saul was bittersweet at best – Jimmy did find some small morsel of redemption, but only after destroying his and Kim’s lives and going to prison.
Jesse was probably the only character who deserved a happy ending, and El Camino finally gave it to him.
In comparison, the ending of El Camino is downright joyous. Jesse finally got out of the life he never asked for, he finally got a chance to deal with and work through all the abuse Walter subjected him to, and he finally got a second chance. Jesse had to carry the baggage of Breaking Bad with him, but he finally got a chance to do it on his own terms. He even saw Jane again and found some semblance of happiness in the wreckage of his old life. Jesse was probably the only character who deserved a happy ending, and El Camino finally gave it to him.
