It would take roughly five days to watch every episode of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul and the oft-forgotten (but pretty good!) El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. Who needs bathroom breaks and other television shows when you’ve got Walter and Saul and Kim and Huell and Todd and especially Lalo to keep you company? It’s maybe the most accurate way to determine the “best” season of the combined shows, but if you don’t have a work week to re-watch the Breaking Saul (Better Call Bad?) saga because you’re too busy deciding which of your two copies of Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium to plop into the DVD player, Rotten Tomatoes has done the dirty work for you.
Of the 11 combined seasons of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, two have a 100 percent “Fresh” rating: seasons three and four of Breaking Bad. They both have the same number of reviews under “Critic Ratings” with 35 (user ratings should always be ignored), so for all intents and purposes, they’re tied for the best season.
Of course, this comes with the usual caveat of Rotten Tomatoes scores are reductive, a positive review can get a green splat, a negative review can get a red tomato, etc. That being said, Breaking Bad was, I believe, at its peak in those seasons, so you’ll find no complaints here. Three other seasons have a near-perfect 99 percent “Fresh” rating: seasons four, five, and six (which includes the series finale) of Better Call Saul. In last place, so to speak? The first season of Breaking Bad with 86 percent. Still pretty good!
Here’s the full ranking:
1. Breaking Bad season 3 / Breaking Bad season 4 (100 percent)
2. Better Call Saul season 4 / Better Call Saul season 5 / Better Call Saul season 6 (99 percent)
3. Better Call Saul season 3 (98 percent)
4. Breaking Bad season 2 / Breaking Bad season 5 / Better Call Saul season 1 / Better Call Saul season 2 (97 percent)
5. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (92 percent)
6. Breaking Bad season 1
(Via Rotten Tomatoes)
