Better Call Saul: 5 crime dramas to watch next if you like Netflix series - from Ozark to The Lincoln Lawyer

With seven weeks to go until the last half of the final season of Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul airs, many fans may feel a gaping hole in their life.

If you are in need of a new season to binge in the run up to Jimmy McGill’s last hurrah, or you’re looking for shows to see after Better Call Saul concludes in August, there are plenty of excellent dramas out there.

These are some of the best TV shows that capture a similar feeling to Better Call Saul to keep you entertained when you have finished season 6.

All of these shows are available to watch now on Netflix.

Breaking Bad (obviously)

It’s almost superfluous to mention Breaking Bad at this point, but it would also be odd not to have the show that paved the way for Better Call Saul at the top of this list.

Breaking Bad is Saul’s predecessor, though it is set several years after the events of the younger series.

Breaking Bad follows a chemistry teacher with cancer who teams up with one of his former students to make and sell meth to cover his treatment and provide for his family.

Several characters from Better Call Saul appear in Breaking Bad, with Jimmy featuring in many of the show’s major plotlines.

The Lincoln Lawyer

New Netflix series The Lincoln Lawyer gives a cleaner, more moral view of the legal world, and Mickey Haller is presented as an idealistic, if unconventional, heroic lawyer.

The series is based on the Michael Connelly novel The Brass Verdict, and sees Haller,  a lawyer who operated out of the boot of his Lincoln Town Car, take on a major murder case.

Whereas Saul treats the law as a tool to bend to his own advantage, Haller appears to be motivated by a desire to see justice done.

It’s an easier watch than Better Call Saul, and doesn’t require much deep thought about the duality of man, but the plot is interesting enough and contains enough twists to keep you on your toes.

Ozark

Ozark had to make an appearance here given how much stick the show has received for being a Breaking Bad rip-off.

The series offers a simple premise - a financial advisor gets in deep with a drug boss and moves his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks where starts a money laundering operation.

Like Better Call Saul, Ozark showcases some morally challenged characters who struggle to do the right thing in a world that is far from black and white.

The series hits some of the same notes as Better Call Saul - corruption, family and loyalty, and also serves up some of the slick dark humour that Saul is famous for.

House of Cards

While Jimmy and Kim begin Better Call Saul and relatively sympathetic characters who become difficult to defend as the show goes on, the two leads in House of Cards begin the series as amoral power hungry sociopaths.

The series follows the quest for power of machiavellian politician Frank Underwood and his wife Claire.

As Frank schemes and manoeuvres to climb higher in the White House, his hands get bloodier and bloodier as it becomes clear that he will do anything it takes to get what he wants.

The series fizzles out in its final few seasons and struggles to maintain momentum following the firing of its lead actor, but it remains a fascinating look at the corrupting influence of power.

Suits

To be completely honest, Suits isn’t that similar to Better Call Saul, but if it was all the legal jargon of the first couple of seasons that got you into the show, if you found Chicanery far more compelling than Something Unforgivable, then Suits may be the show for you.

Suits is set about 2,000 east of Better Call Saul, in New York City and offers a sleeker, shinier, and probably less realistic view of lawyering.

Suits is essentially a soap opera - it follows Mike Ross, a college dropout who talks his way into a top flight job with a law firm, and successful attorney Harvey Specter, as they take on cases.

The show is more like what Better Call Saul would have been had Howard and Chuck been the lead characters, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.