Show Review: El Camino

October 15, 2019

I am going to be honest: I am disappointed. 

Not because this wasn’t good, nor because it didn’t fit the storyline or even the fact that Todd has so obviously aged between the last episode of Breaking Bad in 2013, no it was nothing like that. In those aspects this was great! 

Vince Gilligan is amazing at what he does. There is no denying that, even in the slightest. This film was congruent with the style and feel of the entire Breaking Bad series and the mini series of Better Call Saul. It was obvious that they’re all in the same story. It is also obvious that Gilligan is well loved in that he is able to continue to make new things with the cast. This was nothing short of the mastery of the rest of his work in the world of Jesse Pinkman and Walter White.

I love that Gilligan leaves easter eggs as he does in every episode, but this time it felt a little like he was just trying to tie up loose ends. Looper explains all of these little easter eggs and a lot of them are pretty stinking amazing, but that doesn’t keep me from feeling like some of them are pretty stretched. 

Aaron Paul (plays Jesse Pinkman) was awe-inspiring. His role in this film was utterly jaw dropping. Paul is believable, exciting, and heart-wrenching. He is able to capture Jesse’s anger, disgust, sadness and fear. But this isn’t anything new. Aaron Paul was fantastic throughout the whole series and as the time goes by the viewer can plainly see the changes in his performance. He talents are honed to being a skill. 

Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) was the background star of this film. Gilligan really showed the depth of the friendship between Skinny and Jesse even just from the fact that Skinny is who Jesse went to when he escaped his captors. He knew that Skinny would take him in and take care of him. Their last interaction is Skinny telling Jesse that he is Skinny’s hero. Skinny not only cares for him as a friend, but he also sees him as a bit of a mentor. I really fell in love with their friendship because of the little time his character was on screen. It may not have been necessary for the plot to show Skinnys’ adoration for his friend, but I think it was a nice touch to further show the humanity and big heartedness of Jesse. 

So, I have said all of these good things; why am I disappointed? I didn’t think it was needed. I thought it was fun and a good way to tie up loose ends, but since when has Breaking Bad been all about making sure that all the ends were tied up and all the audience knew what was going on? We didn’t need to know that Jesse got away and was able to find the vacuum man again to get off the map. We didn’t need to know that his girlfriend ended up passing away and that Skinny was a good best friend. We could have guessed these things, or not, but the open-ended finish was even part of the hopefulness. 

The trailer made it seem as though Skinny would be heavily involved and that we would see him being interrogated by the police. This didn’t happen, even in the slightest. We didn’t see Skinny talk to anyone besides Jesse or Badger. This leads me to believe that it isn’t the “loose end tie up” that it seems to be; that Gilligan might have something else up his sleeve. 

Gilligan, I’m excited to see what you do next.