How good is Better Call Saul? Of its 63 episodes, more than one-eighth score higher than 9.5 on IMDb. More than one-third score higher than 9.0. Not a single one scores lower than 8.0. The word I most often use to describe it is, against all odds, "beautiful," and I wouldn't say that's true for any other show. Why "against all odds?" Saul Goodman was slime personified in Breaking Bad, truly the lowest of the low and with no layers to him otherwise. By the end of his own story, he was the most complex, most compelling and most sympathetic character in the entire two-series saga. Better Call Saul made what had heretofore been comic relief the central figure of a tragedy so gripping that you desperately wanted better for him than what you already knew was coming. It took a comic sketch writer/performer and transformed him into a dramatic powerhouse, which even Bob Odenkirk has said was against all odds. It was the sort of prestige TV that you could recommend to both your dad and your mom (which I did, and they both enjoyed it so much that they decided to give Breaking Bad a try, also against all odds). It forever changed the way I perceive mint chocolate chip ice cream, the word "chicanery" and, most especially, the song "The Winner Takes It All" by Abba. It struck such an emotional chord that whenever Bob Odenkirk or Michael McKean grace my screen in some other role, my heart swells with gratitude. And it did it while contending with all the baggage of a spinoff and all the banality of a prequel. It is a genuine miracle of TV, and while I hesitate to say it's the best, seeing as it's lacking the grand ambition of so many others in the running, I don't think the medium has given us better.

Here's my initial top 20 at first base, the most plentiful position for 2027: cbssports.com/fantasy/baseba…