I was looking forward to El Camino, not like Kingdom Hearts 3 in terms of hype, but I enjoyed Breaking Bad at the time and I really like Better Call Saul, so I thought what an exciting watch this would be for a Sunday… Although my hype wasn’t super high, I was still pretty disappointed by this ‘movie’.
**Obvious spoilers ahead** – Please don’t read if you’re a Breaking Bad fan and haven’t yet watched it.
Now the thing is this isn’t a bad 2 hours to watch; it’s still interesting and obviously has Jesse in it, and lets you know where a couple of other characters are, seemingly straight after the events of Breaking Bad, and confirming the death of Walter. Firstly, I have to say I found it really hard to believe that this was the Jesse who we saw driving off after Walt helped him out 6 years ago, as Aaron Paul has clearly aged in those 6 years and to me looked too different with not much attempt to make him look a bit younger (nit-picky, I know). We find out how he escapes, sure, that’s great, but it’s just 2 hours of pretty much pointless activities for him, being dirty and escaped, to clean and even more escaped – When I really break it down, that’s my summary of the 2 hours. It doesn’t advance the Breaking Bad universe in any way; it solely focuses on Jesse and relies incredibly on our interest in this character, and that’s why I think it’s a cash grab.
There are flashback scenes written in to give a bit more meat to Jesse’s capture (of course I feel sorry for him), to give him access to money and to provide a very loose revenge story – What aggravated me, though, was that every coincidence was just too high; when he goes back to obtain the money he just so happens to get entangled with the guy who created his welded gear (that kept him prisoner and locked in the workshop). It felt that because he and Walt had killed the blokes who imprisoned him at the end of the series, they had to give Jesse someone else to get revenge on, and ultimately I didn’t give a shit. Being realistic, this is a long boring episode, not a movie.
This has been the worst thing that’s been done in the Breaking Bad universe so far, and is a very clear cash-in; luckily it was a Netflix release and not theatrical, as that would have been a lot worse. This ‘movie’ definitely suits the streaming platform as it has less going on than most of the episodes – It could have easily have been done as a normal episode with half the fluff cut out.
I’m not saying I hated it, however – It was still marginally interesting and worth it to know that Jesse got away, but it didn’t need to be told in a 2 hour stretch. He needs money, he gets money, he escapes – That’s your summary. I think anyone hoping for more tidbits or hints towards the future will be sorely disappointed.
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