Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould talks on the shows success

BETTER Call Saul co-creator talks about the shows success, streaming services, criminal minds and vegemite.

This image released by AMC shows Bob Odenkirk in a scene from the final season of "Breaking Bad." AMC and Sony P...

WHEN the debut season of AMC’s Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul came to a close this week, co-creator Peter Gould breathed a sigh of relief.

“I would say the response was much better than I hoped and certainly a hell of a lot better than I feared,” he told news.com.au.

“People seem to be accepting the show on its own terms, which is good because the concern was we were always going to be in the shadow of Breaking Bad.

“After each episode we would find fan art on the internet and would put it up on a wall, but now we have so much we have to start taking some down.”

Having taking a back seat role working as a producer, writer and occasional director on Breaking Bad, Mr Gould stepped up to the big league and co-created Better Call Saul with Vince Gilligan.

“As a creator, I have a lot more responsibility which I am enjoying, but it also means I have a lot more insomnia,” he said.

“I am just happy people are interested in the show, the characters and the strange combination of tones. It’s gratifying.”

“One of these greatest honours as a writer is to have a hand in creating characters people associate with.”

Peter Gould on the set of Better Call Saul. Picture: AMC

Mr Gould admits he had his worries regarding the direction of the show, but he was willing to let the chips fall where they may.

“The initial concept turned out to be pretty different to what went to air,” he said.

“We said Breaking Bad was 30 per cent comedy and 70 per cent drama and we wanted this to be the reverse, but it ended up taking on a life of its own.

“That’s what so risky about the show, we will ask you to laugh at a comedic scene and then we will take you into something extremely heavy.”

When faced with the gruelling task of selecting which characters would carry over in the first season, Mr Gould said it always had to be Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) and Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks).

“We found that two characters seem to go together like peanut butter and chocolate or whatever you put with vegemite,” he said.

Vegemite and butter, Mr Gould. Picture: AMC

Mr Gould contributes the success of the both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul to society’s fascination with the criminal mind.

“I am a very, very law abiding person who gets nervous around authority,” he said.

“I get cold sweats if pulled over by police, so there is something wonderful about living the life of an imaginary criminal.

“The truth is, people who break the rules are always going to have certain appeal one way or the other.”

While Mr Gould reaps the rewards of creating a popular show, he admits the think technology revolution of streaming has also played a vital role.

“When I first got into television, the words ‘serial drama’ was deemed a dirty expression,” he said.

“With TV a strictly broadcast medium, if you missed one episode of a show and knew you couldn’t catch up, you would start skipping the show entirely.

“It was during the run of Breaking Bad that something extraordinary happened, people could access the shows on their own time with streaming services.

“We found our audience grew each season which was surprising because it was unheard of with the conventional broadcast medium.”

The broadcast medium changed during Breaking Bad.

The advancements in technology have not only helped in the distribution of the show, but also in the cinematography.

“TV’s have gotten bigger and have higher resolutions, so television broadcast is almost as much of a visual experience as cinema,” he said.

“This means we can use cinematic techniques and I am so proud of the fact we have big chunks of episodes with no dialogue. There is something amazing about the visual experience.”

As for the second series of Better Call Saul, Mr Gould is not giving too much away.

“I can tell you we spent a lot of time thinking about what the end of the first season meant and as we have been working on season two, we have had some other aspects emerge,” he said.

“Where the story goes has been a surprise to me and I think viewers will be surprised too.”

You can stream the entire first season of Better Call Saul on Stan.