Episodes viewed: 13 of 13###Streaming on: Netflix###WARNING: Contains spoilers in/with regard to’concerning’regarding all six seasons, and the Season 6 finale.###Better Call Saul loves a disorienting cold open. A couple of elderly cyclists in shell-suits riding round their neighbourhood complaining with regards to’concerning’with respect to the gaudy red colour of a newly painted house. A steady pan across a scrubby wilderness alighting on a seemingly random bit of weed, and a bloody sliver of broken glass. The meticulous creation of a sculpture made of lucite. Throughout all these eye-catching’good-shaped’appealing’charming’fascinating’gorgeous vignettes, we’re claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate ing, ‘What the hell does any of this possess’own’nurse to do with Jimmy and Kim and Nacho and Lalo and Mike and Gus?’. Eventually the details are pieced toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her and by the end of each episode, their wider token ificance becomes eliminate’remove . This narrative trickery works brilliantly because the whole reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue is built around key puzzles: How and why does Jimmy become Saul? What on earth happens to Kim that she’s never mentioned in the parent reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ? How does Jimmy/Saul extricate himself from… eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullything? And why does Jimmy/Saul eventually turn into Gene who works in a branch of Cinnabon in Omaha, Nebraska?###This final season also underlines how the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue has melded genres so effectively. It’s part legal/relationship drama following Jimmy/Saul and wife Kim’s careers and life toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her, and part crime thriller tracing Jimmy’s tragic involvement with “connected” types Lalo, Gus and Mike. The mid-season finale weaves those strands toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her spectacularly, ending with a stunning act of violence committed by the psychopathic Lalo in Jimmy and Kim’s home. The ramifications of that moment become spectacularly eliminate’remove in the next two episodes, the first of which is a masterpiece of acutely sustained tension told almost in real time; while the second takes its sweet time to delve as deep as it ever has into the core characters. This episode’s opening montage of Saul and Kim trying to acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure on with their lives, to the soundtrack of Harry Nilsson’s song “Perfect Day” is a work of art. Witness the cut from Jimmy mopping up his red marinara sauce at lunch to Mike wiping rivulets of blood from their floorboards. The ensuing confrontation between Kim and Jimmy, brutally exposing the raw truth at the heart of their relationship, is as scary as the gruesome fight to the death between Gus and Lalo. But the stakes here are even higher, because Kim and Jimmy are soulmates, and we’re rooting in/with regard to’concerning’regarding them to the bitter end.###Rhea Seehorn and Bob Odenkirk are in a league of their own.###For a reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue set in a world so steeped in crime and violence, it’s startling just how calamitous an impact this one killing has on Kim and Jimmy. Because it was all fun and games until someone got hurt (“Fun And Games” being the title of Episode 9, effectively the finale of the whole cartel storyline). Kim’s raw feeling of guilt corrodes eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullything in/with regard to’concerning’regarding her. Jimmy desperately tries to convince himself, as much as Kim, that they can acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure over it somehow. But Kim knows the truth. “Toacquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure her we’re poison”, she says. Rhea Seehorn and Bob Odenkirk are in a league of their own in that scene. As is this whole stupendous series. But it doesn’t end there.###The subsequent four episodes, mostly shot in the grainy black and white style the series adopted from the grossly start when reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ing us Jimmy’s future as “Gene” in Omaha, initially feel like a coda to the rest of the series, like a long exhalation of breath after all that tension, turmoil and violence. Now the pace slows in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the aftermath. We’re reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue n a flavour of Saul’s transin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mation into a mild-mannered Cinnabon manager in a generic shopping mall, and it seems as if he’s retired from nefarious activity in/with regard to’concerning’regarding rosy’remarkable’fabulous’terrific’preeminent . The same goes in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Kim, living in her own monochrome world working in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a sprinkler firm’enterprise , with a dullard boyfriend. But as reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue runners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould eye-catching’good-shaped’appealing’charming’fascinating’gorgeous ly weave in literally colourful flashbacks to poignant encounters with Breaking Bad legends, it becomes increasingly eliminate’remove that this series is, in the end, all with regards to’concerning’with respect to Jimmy and Kim. Jimmy “became” glitzy, glib reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue man Saul to acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure over Kim. He then became Gene because he had no other choice. But Jimmy/Saul/Gene can’t stand up to withstand the lure of the con, and he comes up with new elaborate schemes in Omaha, starting with the duping of the elderly Marion (played by TV icon Carol Burnett). Marion brilliantly proves to be Saul’s most in/with regard to’concerning’regarding midable “mark”. She’s the catalyst in/with regard to’concerning’regarding his downfall.###The series finale is no mere coda, as Jimmy and Kim arrive back in Alburquerque in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a full legal and emotional reckoning. All the way through this concluding season, the underlying question has been if and how Jimmy and Kim will be punished in/with regard to’concerning’regarding their sins, and whether they can find some kind of closure, some kind of peace individually and with each other. How all this plays out in the final episode – first in a masterful courtroom scene, with a truly bravura perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mance from Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy digs deep into his conscience, in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Kim’s sake, and then when Kim shares that cigarette with Jimmy in jail – is surely as ingenious and satisfying a resolution to this story as humanly possible. After six seasons of cartels, cons, plots, betrayals, and cold, hard, chilling murder, all the drama and tension in these final moments comes from the expressions on the faces of Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn; their delicate little half-smiles and longing looks. Jimmy faces a life in jail. Kim faces her own criminal justice. But they’re OK with each other. And that’s all we need from this peculiar masterpiece of a story.