By Published Apr 1, 2026, 9:16 AM EDT Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock. follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap
is a near-perfect TV franchise — where most franchises are hit-and-miss, Vince Gilligan’s crime epic is almost all hits — but there’s one weak link in this cinematic universe. It’s almost impossible , and the bigger the original show was, the harder it is to get the spinoff right.
But Gilligan and his co-creator Peter Gould . TV shows don’t get much bigger than Breaking Bad (some critics even hailed it as the single greatest achievement in the history of television, ), but Better Call Saul managed to match its greatness and maybe even surpass it.
And Gilligan still wasn’t done turning out bangers in the Breaking Bad-iverse. He went back to tie up the biggest loose end from the original series — the uncertain fate of one Jesse Pinkman — in . As a bonus episode of Breaking Bad, and a postscript for Jesse’s story, El Camino proved to be another worthwhile addition to this saga.
Slippin' Jimmy Is The Weak Link In Breaking Bad's Near-Perfect Franchise
Between Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and El Camino, Gilligan has given us a near-flawless TV universe. It doesn’t have any disastrous failures, like Marvel’s Secret Invasion, or any polarizing blunders, like the final season of Game of Thrones or half the Walking Dead stuff out there. But there is .
Released in 2026 to coincide with Better Call Saul’s final season, Slippin’ Jimmy is a zany cartoon following a young Jimmy McGill’s adolescent exploits in Cicero, Illinois. The Goldbergs’ Sean Giambrone plays Jimmy alongside Kyle S. More as his hometown partner-in-crime Marco Pasternak. The series only ran for six episodes, all released on the same day, and it was panned by critics.
Slippin’ Jimmy is structured like an anthology show, with each episode acting as an homage to a classic movie genre, whether it’s Buster Keaton-style silent comedies, The Exorcist-style demonic horror movies, or brutal Sergio Corbucci-style spaghetti westerns. It’s a full-blown adult animated comedy in the vein of Family Guy or South Park.
As you might imagine, this style didn’t really gel with the established tone of the Breaking Bad universe. There’s a heightened pulpiness to the crime stories, and an offbeat sense of humor to the characters’ interactions, but Breaking Bad and its spinoffs usually have a grounded sense of realism, exploring the dark side of the human condition, so Slippin’ Jimmy didn’t really work.
Why Slippin' Jimmy Shouldn't Be Considered A "Breaking Bad Show"
Since Slippin’ Jimmy is so absurd, with ridiculous plotlines involving demonic possession and train accidents, it’s hard to take it seriously as an official part of the Breaking Bad canon. Everything that happens in Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and El Camino is canonical, because it all takes place in the same somewhat realistic world, but Slippin’ Jimmy goes to a world of its own.
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AMC has never officially confirmed that Slippin’ Jimmy is non-canonical, but a lot of reviews branded it as such. It just doesn’t seem right that a wacky cartoon about a possessed nun is technically a part of the same narrative arc that includes a chemistry teacher’s descent into monstrosity and an unscrupulous lawyer going into hiding as a Cinnabon manager in Nebraska.
It was a strange release strategy to have Slippin’ Jimmy coincide with That’s the episode where Howard Hamlin meets a grim fate, and it’s about as dark and as real and as horrifying as the Breaking Bad universe has ever gotten, so the contrast with the levity of Slippin’ Jimmy was pretty jarring.
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