Does Better Call Saul contain Breaking Bad spoilers?

Question

I'm one of those people who has a Breaking Bad box set they've not yet got around to watching... although I intend to soon.

Somehow, I've managed to avoid all Breaking Bad spoilers beyond "the main guy is diagnosed with cancer", "it involves crystal meth" and "it isn't an incredibly dark origin story for the dad from Malcolm in the Middle" (so no spoilers in comments or answers please, thanks! Posting using a dummy account so no pre-moderation spoilers appear in my notifications...).

Should I avoid watching Better Call Saul until I've watched all of Breaking Bad? Or avoid specific episodes, or avoid certain episodes until seeing certain Breaking Bad episodes?

I know they take place in the same world and share characters and locations, I believe the plots are largely unrelated, but I don't know if there are any Better Call Saul scenes that reference, mention or give away key Breaking Bad plot twists.

Answer 1

[Since you asked for no spoilers, I'll try to avoid specifics as much as possible.]

I've watched season 1. So far, there aren't any significant Breaking Bad spoilers. Better Call Saul is a prequel, so it's really the other way around: Breaking Bad contains BCS spoilers, so to speak. Mostly, BCS might contain foreshadowing that demonstrates how certain characters got to be what they are on BB, but I didn't see anything major that might spoil the fun.

BCS revolves around Saul Goodman who was a minor (though somewhat important) BB character and precedes the events of BB by a few years. A couple of characters from BB appear, but mostly, BCS contains all new characters. Its main focus (so far) is law and legal ethics, as opposed to BB.

The only exception I can think of is the very first scene of BCS which takes place after Breaking Bad and shows a certain character that survived that show and what has become of it. I don't know your spoiler threshold, but personally, I don't think this character's fate is a major Breaking Bad spoiler.

[That said, I doubt this would be the last flash-forward we see on BCS. Though the first BCS season contained little to none, BB spoilers might be unavoidable in future BCS seasons.]

Answer 2

In Better Call Saul, we get a chance to watch how Tuco started his career. His intro in Breaking Bad is simply a drug lord who has lot of connections. But we never knew about how he started his drug distribution empire. And for those who watched Breaking Bad,

we know Tuco will die and who isn't glad enough to see him back.

But speaking about spoiling, actually for those who have watched Breaking, it's Breaking Bad that spoils Better Call Saul. I don't mean Better Call Saul is bad for those who watched Breaking Bad but actually it is more interesting if you haven't watched Breaking Bad. If you watch Better Call Saul and then watch Breaking Bad, then definitely Breaking Bad will be breaking new grounds. The reason why I say this is because some characters we see in Better Call Saul will then be seen again.

We know Tuco will be dead and how he dies in Breaking Bad. For those who didn't watch Breaking Bad they are lucky to see how the character develops into a powerful one (Tuco). The same goes for Mike Ehrmantraut.

So in Better Call Saul they would see those powerful characters develop and they won't be seeing them for like one or two seasons in Breaking Bad. But when they see them back in Breaking Bad as an even powerful role, now that is excitingly awesome. You never know what is going to happen next.

They kept us on the nerve with Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Now for persons who watch Better Call Saul and then watch Breaking Bad -- that's where you get the advantage. You never know what is going to happen to all those characters. It actually improves the plot for the viewer. So for those who didn't watch Breaking Bad, now I feel jealous of you guys.

But that doesn't mean those who did not watch Breaking Bad are lucky, they do miss a lot of exciting scenes in Better call Saul. The reason is: We know who Gus Fring is but got no idea why Gus Fring lives such a normal life though he has a lot of money. Why doesn't he have a family.

Maybe because his friend was shot dead right in front of him by Don Eladio but but even after becoming so rich and having such high security why doesn't he have a family.

There is an ocean of thriller that can be created by Gus's past life history and only those who watched Breaking Bad will be excited to see this because how on earth will they know who Gus Fring is when they start to watch Better Call Saul first. How Saul had come in contact with Gus and Ed. Again a huge opportunity to make it more interesting for those who watched Breaking Bad. We never knew how Mike met Gus (though we now know how Saul met Mike).

And who wouldn't want to see Walter White and Jesse Pinkman doing a guest role in Better Call Saul. Though there is no conformation of them doing a guest role but just imagine a moment where suddenly Walter White appears in a supermarket and passes by Saul but they both won't notice. The new watchers won't understand this but watching Walter White just for a moment in Better Call Saul can shoot up the TRP rating for Better Call Saul to record heights.

So speaking, the creators have made it in such a way that if you watch Breaking Bad you miss something in Better Call Saul and if you haven't watched Breaking Bad then again you miss something in Better Call Saul.

Answer 3

I don't know what's up with these other answers but of course there are spoilers. It doesn't matter if it's a prequel...but, well, probably not any major spoilers though (I guess that's the relevance of that it's a prequel!)...at least up to s4 or s5 maybe.

For example, the very 1st episode, we see what's up with Saul after the events of Breaking Bad. A fortiori, Saul, well, doesn't die at the end of Breaking Bad. Does that count as a 'spoiler'?

If you watch the 1st episode of BCS, then, whenever you see Saul in a near-death scenario in Breaking Bad, you'll know that Saul doesn't die.

(This is different from the near-death scenarios of Saul in BCS because, well, it's a prequel so of course you know Gasai that Saul's gonna get out of it. It's also different from just knowing the existence of a prequel. The 1st episode really 'spoils' that at the end of BB, Saul is alive.)

Well maybe it's just those flashforwards at the start of some episodes that contain 99% of the BB spoilers and they're not that major of spoilers.

Finally, BCS isn't finished:

For all we know something in s6 is gonna spoil you for BB either directly or like when you watch Breaking Bad you may get spoiled because of this thing you knew from BCS.

Answer 4

TL;DR: Watch Breaking Bad first.

Throughout most of the show there are not really significant spoilers; but the last few episodes of Better Call Saul contain MAJOR spoilers for Breaking Bad.

The last few episodes of Better Call Saul spoil the entire ending of Breaking Bad. Watching the entire BCS series before BB will absolutely spoil the fates of the major characters for you.

Throughout most of BCS (the first five seasons and about half of the sixth) there are a few minor Breaking Bad plot points that would be spoiled. Some would require you to have an extremely good memory for faces and details. Your mileage may vary on how much the spoilers would really ruin things for you.

A few examples of the minor BB spoilers in the first 5 1/2 seasons of BCS:

In Breaking Bad, we meet a drug dealer named Crazy 8 whom Walt kills. After he kills him, Walt learns that Crazy 8 is a DEA informant. If you saw Better Call Saul, you would already know that he was a DEA informant, albeit one with a cartel-backed agenda.

Mike's character is introduced as Saul Goodman's private investigator in Breaking Bad and then later in the series you learn that he is much more than just that. If you watch Better Call Saul, you'll know his full story right away.

Who Gus Fring is and the fact that he has an underground meth lab beneath an industrial laundry is slowly revealed in Breaking Bad. Anyone who watches BCS first will know all these details from the start.

How Gus uses his business to cover his drug operations is also fully revealed in BCS.

These minor spoilers aside, it is really impossible to get around the very major spoilers at the end of the Better Call Saul series. Watch Breaking Bad first.

Answer 5

I think it is probably silly to answer this particular kind of very old question since almost certainly the OP has watched both series, but I do think that someone planning to binge watch both series might get more "aha" moments by watch BB first followed by BCS -- the writers take advantage of things that were unknown in BB because there was not time to go into it or they had not thought of it, etc. by fleshing things out in BCS. There are Easter eggs in BCS that if you have not already watched BB, you won't catch. So: Max enjoyment by watching in the order produced, I think.

Answer 6

Yes.

Since Better Call Saul has ended, the question can now be definitely answered with a big "Yes."

Simply put, Better Call Saul will spoil the ending of Breaking Bad. Better Call Saul will reveal how multiple key characters in Breaking Bad end up. It is not recommended to watch Better Call Saul (especially the last season) before Breaking Bad.

Unless you want to be spoiled on how Walter White, Gus Fring, Hank Schrader, and multiple other key characters end up by the end of Breaking Bad.

I don't know if there are any Better Call Saul scenes that reference, mention or give away key Breaking Bad plot twists.

There are multiple Better Call Saul scenes that will reference, mention or give away key Breaking Bad plot twists. Better Call Saul is meant to be watched after Breaking Bad.

Answer 7

To answer your question simply, no. There can be no spoilers of BB in BCS because BCS occurs entirely before BB.

However, I'd go further and say that there are anti-spoilers that occur if you watch BCS first!

To explain: there are many characters in BCS that are not in BB. If we've seen BB first (as we would have if we watched the shows when they were released), then we would always have a question - what happens to that character? How/why does he/she disappear from the scene?

This puzzle adds a layer of mystery to the show - we, the viewer, have more information than the characters. If, on the other hand, we watched BCS first, we'd experience none of this and would observe the flow of the character's stories at the same time as the characters. That would lessen the experience.