TV Blog Buzz: On a ‘Breaking Bad’ spin-off, plaudits for ‘Slings and Arrows’

The second half of “Breaking Bad”‘s fifth and final season doesn’t premiere until later this summer but buzz around the drug-dealing drama is starting to build. Creator Vince Gilligan has been hinting in interviews that there may be life for the series no matter what happens to Jesse and Walt. He tells Yahoo TV! (http://yhoo.it/16w5jNG) that a spin-off based on Bob Odenkirk’s slimy lawyer character Saul Goodman is a very real possibility and that “nothing’s written in stone, but we are working away on it.” He also told Empire (http://bit.ly/19tkDJB): “I personally would like to see it happen, because I think it would be its own creation and its own creature, and I think it would exist in a ‘Breaking Bad’ universe, as it centres on a character that was integral to ‘Breaking Bad,’ but I think it’s its own thing. It’s like comparing an apple to an orange. Or white meth to blue meth.”

The Canadian theatre drama “Slings and Arrows” is being feted on the AV Club as “one of TV’s greatest shows.” After reviewing the show’s three seasons (which originally aired between 2003 and 2006), TV critic Todd VanDerWerff an obvious fan posted an in-depth two-part interview with the series’ creators Susan Coyne, Bob Martin and Mark McKinney. In the first part (http://avc.lu/15oYyJ4) they talk how the show came to be, why it aired on The Movie Network instead of CBC-TV, the development of the characters, and how they lost Rachel McAdams to Hollywood. In the second part (http://avc.lu/12TSR3T) they discuss the show’s writing and how they’d like to reincarnate the characters. “Basically, we love the story, we love the characters, and we’re trying to do something with the material,” says Martin. “But as of right now, it won’t be a fourth season of ‘Slings and Arrows,’ the television show, as it was created.”

Is there hope for “Community?” The show’s fourth season, its first without creator Dan Harmon, wasn’t a total bust but it certainly didn’t rank with the series’ best stuff. Even some of the program’s diehard fans gave up on the show post-Harmon. Well, he may be coming back. Harmon has publicly stated that he’s been invited to return to the show’s creative team. The blog Cultural Learnings weighs in (http://bit.ly/15pf5N9) on why NBC might be inclined to un-fire Harmon, who admits he’s not the easiest guy to work with. Hint: the network wants at least one more strong season of the show to get it syndicated.