There is perhaps no other television series that will be as iconic and brilliantly done as AMC's "Breaking Bad."
The show, which ended in 2013, provided us with a variety of characters, subplots, themes and theatrics that turned it into a television masterpiece. It's also not to mention that its series finale, "Felina," gave precedent to how to end a TV show the right way: decide the fate of the main characters and give audiences a reason to continue holding onto the show long after the series finale airs (*coughDexterandGameofThronescough*).
Fast foward six years later, with the new "Breaking Bad" movie "El Camino." The flick, which premiered on Netflix on October 11, 2019, picks up from where "Felina" ended, following Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) trying to put his life back together following his long incarceration by the neo-Nazis he and Walter White (Bryan Cranston) fought against.
Abiding by my commitment to providing spoiler-free reviews of reviewing pop culture, my ultimate verdict of "El Camino" is that it continues one defining element of what makes "Breaking Bad" so damn good: its balancing of plot twists and actions that can spur endless hours of debate.
Not only do we see what Jesse is up to, but we also see a variety of flashbacks that motivate Jesse's decisions. Among some of the characters that we see in these flashbacks are Todd (Jesse Plemons), Mike (Jonathan Banks), Jane (Krysten Ritter), and of course, Walt. It adds a bit of both nostalgia and glee for fans who wanted a bit of the old "Breaking Bad" back.
But with this closure comes some of the unanswered questions. We still don't know how Skyler (Anna Gunn) and Walt Jr. (RJ Mitte) are up to following Walt's death, nor we ever get a glimpse at Marie (Betsy Brandt) in the aftermath of Hank's (Dean Norris) demise. This would've been a nice addition to the film, but at the same time it seems justified in the sense that the White family is a radically different universe from the one Jesse lives in.
The bottom line of "El Camino" is that it is a masterpiece as great as the television series was. Vince Gilligan continues to make us glued to our screens and reminds us why we loved his show in the first place. "El Camino" is essential watching for the die-hard--or even the casual--"Breaking Bad" fan who just wants answers to some of the most pressing questions of the past six years.