Originally Posted by B5Erik

What I'm saying is that they could have come up with this season and had it turn out just as good if they had self-imposed a 12 month deadline. That would have given them twice as long as network shows have to do twice as many episodes.

Now, could they have done as well in 5 months, like network shows have? Maybe, maybe not, but there is no way you can tell me they spent as much time per day on this thing as network show writers and producers do.

Originally Posted by dex14

And what I'm saying is your deadline point is moot. They couldn't have gone into filming even if the whole season was written because it had to with an actor issue, not writing and production. The show's premiere dates were on a generally consistent basis the first three years. The last two were longer because of factors that had nothing do with a lazy work ethic.

Originally Posted by dex14

Yes, I can tell you for the third time, the year and half gap didn’t have to do with the production taking their sweet time.

Do shows on cable have a more lenience? Yes. And they are usually better for it.

Originally Posted by Josh-da-man

I would think that one factor in "the gap" would also be that it's a series on cable, and since the cable networks don't have a lot of original programming, they need to spread the handful of original programming that they have around the calendar in a way that network tv doesn't. There are all kinds of considerations at play here... scheduling it around Walking Dead, having a suitable series to show after it (since BCS is an established series, they'll want the slot following it to have a new series that the audience might be interested in).

And, on top of that, BCS isn't a "case of the week" type of show like Law and Order where they can have a bunch of writers cranking out episodes independently of each other. Each season is, essentially, one long story.

And, of course, the production values are feature-film quality (or even above that in some cases) and that's going to take time to do all of the locations shoots, setting up the complicated camera work, all of the post-production work, etc. This isn't hacked out like some 1970s sitcom, it's meticulously made. And then they probably have to accommodate actors' schedules; Esposito alone is an in-demand actor.

Originally Posted by dhmac

Thinking about Nacho's actions at the end. Once Lalo still being up meant the hit wasn't going to go according to plan, Nacho then should've done nothing given he had no "Abort" option (a surprising screw-up by Gus). He should've just sat there, drinking with Lalo until the hit team either improvised a way in (in which he could've played innocent) or canceled their hit and left.

Originally Posted by Josh-da-man

And, on top of that, BCS isn't a "case of the week" type of show like Law and Order where they can have a bunch of writers cranking out episodes independently of each other. Each season is, essentially, one long story.

Originally Posted by B5Erik

Honestly, I don't think the show has ever been quite the same since they killed Chuck.

He was the perfect foil for Jimmy. Now Jimmy's kind of his own enemy.

Originally Posted by Coral

I was starting to get annoyed/bored with Chuck as he served his limited purpose and anything more would've been repetitive. In fact, he was probably kept around a season too long as it was. Glad they moved on from him - he was starting to drag the show down.

Originally Posted by Osiris3657

Funny coincidence, but the actor who plays Lalo is also in Sense8 (it's a minor role though), which I've been watching for the first time. Looks just like his character in BCS too. Hope to see more of this actor, he's great.

Originally Posted by Decker

From the Alan Sepinwall interview with Gould and Gilligan

5 Burning Questions About the ‘Better Call Saul’ Season 5 Finale — Answered

Do Gilligan and Gould know how the series ends?
The co-creators famously don’t plan very far ahead with their storytelling. “We see about three inches down the road at any particular moment,” Gould likes to say. When, for instance, they open a season with Jimmy’s post-Breaking Bad persona, Gene from Cinnabon, in trouble, they joke that figuring out what happens next is something someone else will have to deal with the following year. As Gilligan puts it, “That’s a future Peter problem!”

But while writing Season Five, Gould says, “The fog started to clear slightly about where we were going with all of this. So we started to think about how this all relates to where we’re going. Having said that, I don’t want to say we’ve got it all figured out. I’m very happy to have Vince in the writers room this season, even though we’re doing it remotely, because we’re getting to finish this thing that we started together. But we’re deep in the struggle. Even though we have ideas about where we’re going, we’re always ready to jettison them.”

When it came time to write the Season Five finale, Gould realized that they hadn’t gotten around to a lot of story ideas they had hoped to include. This happens each season, and Gould always reassures himself by saying that they’ll get to them eventually. But for next season, “We have these 13 episodes, and that’s it. There’s no ‘eventually’ anymore.”

Originally Posted by dex14

It started 6 years before and is now currently 4 years before in Season 5. The flashforwards are 5 years after.

Originally Posted by Lifepawn

Are you sure its 4 years from S1 of Breaking Bad? Seems more like 4 weeks as once Saul learns Lalo survived the attack his comments to Walt/Jesse about Lalo and Ignacio make sense.

Originally Posted by Bill Needle

It’s going to take some serious time jumps if it is actually going to get anywhere near the BB timeline. Four years is a lot of ground to cover in 13 episodes. Considering there will likely be some Gene story (post BB) it’s even less than that. So any assumptions along the lines of “Saul wouldn’t act like XYZ in BB if XYZ has just happened” probably don’t mean much.

I’ve started thinking maybe Gene has decided to go to Kim (wherever that is) when he announces he will handle “it” himself. Who else would he go to that is a known character from the BCS/BB world in his timeline? I suppose he could mean literally handle it all by himself. But that seems unlikely.