Television

My understanding is that “Better Call Saul” is a prequel to “Breaking Bad,” which I’ve never watched but intend to. So should I watch “BCS” before viewing “BB”? — SusanYes, “Better Call Saul” is a prequel, but it definitely makes more sense to start with “Breaking Bad.” “Better Call Saul” gets a lot of juice from its implied resonance with “Breaking Bad” — familiar faces, people you know are not long for this world, jokey callbacks to obscure incidents. It’s also what helps fill the show with its melancholy, like a sad fable where you’re cursed by knowing the future, and who’s there and who isn’t. “Saul” hasn’t hit its tragic era yet, and maybe it never totally will. Maybe we will be very lucky, though I am girding myself. Definitely watch “Breaking Bad” first!But maybe it doesn’t matter? I’ll put it this way: Given that you have not yet watched “Breaking Bad,” maybe you don’t want to watch “Breaking Bad” that much, and you want to try “Better Call Saul,” in which case you should.I think you will have more fun watching some “Saul” than no “Saul,” and there’s plenty of intrigue and dynamism for it to stand on its own. Honestly, you can have a wonderful journey through the drama of the human condition just by watching only the scenes between Saul — known as Jimmy for most of the show — and his love interest, Kim. Will you miss a ton of information and not totally get everything? Yes. Will you still find sublime joys within? I’m absolutely certain you will. These shows both reward careful, even obsessive viewing, but they don’t require it.Will “Homicide: Life on the Street,” the greatest cop show ever on network television, ever be available for streaming? It came from an era, the ’90s, that was a preview of the quality television that was just around the corner starting with “Mad Men” and “The Sopranos.” — RichardRichard, I’m starting to lose hope. This has been one of my enduring wishes for the last decade, and I kept thinking the day was right around the corner, when finally one of my favorites of all time would make it to streaming, and then I could enjoy 9,000 articles dissecting its minutiae and everyone getting super into it and arguing about the best episodes and burying myself in a hundred Frank Pembleton GIFs.But it hasn’t happened. When “ER” and “NYPD Blue” finally came to Hulu, I was sure “Homicide” couldn’t be far behind. Then two years went by. Then I thought NBC’s big Peacock rollout might include it, but it didn’t. HBO can spend almost half a billion dollars on “Friends,” but we can’t go to the Waterfront Bar one more time?To my dismay, it seems like major back catalogs just aren’t as big a deal as they were even five years ago; a few flagship classics might be all big streaming platforms are willing to pay for now while they turn their attention, understandably I guess, to flashier and buzzier originals. (And reboots.) Disney Plus has a much bigger push for its film library than its television one. Netflix has let its library atrophy, and Hulu is making a to-do about its FX partnership, but it doesn’t even have every FX show. Heck, Apple TV has no back catalog at all.I thought the streaming revolution would bring me all the wonders of the TV world, and I would have all the shows at my fingertips; a library vast and wonderful, a chance to see everything I had always longed to see, and even better, a chance to share all the weird minor treasures I’d adored in obscurity. That did not happen. (And before you email me about DVDs: Many of my favorites have never made it to DVD, either!) So while I remain devout in my dedication to “Homicide,” I’m feeling less optimistic about its streaming future. I hope I’m wrong. In the meantime, you might like “Southland.” (It’s on Hulu.)My husband has stubbornly declared that he won’t start another new TV series unless he feels assured the series has a clear plan for an eventual ending.  I try to explain to him that TV doesn’t work this way, and often they just don’t have every season perfectly mapped out before they shoot the pilot. Am I right or what? Isn’t it worth watching and enjoying one good season, even to give up later in the show? Back me up here, please. — SahraYou are right! And I bet you guys would like “Better Call Saul.”It would be quite rare for a TV show to be completely mapped out before a pilot had been shot — unless that show is a mini-series. So maybe it’s time to go the mini-series route for a bit. Watch “Angels in America.” (It’s on HBO Go.) Watch the 1981 “Brideshead Revisited.” (On Amazon.) If you like history, try “Wolf Hall” (on PBS Passport). More politics and tension? Watch “The Night Manager” or “The Honorable Woman” (on AMC or Amazon). Want something more recent and buzzy? “Chernobyl,” “When They See Us” and “Watchmen” (HBO, Netflix, HBO).No one enjoys being disappointed, but to watch a show for many years is to know that everything in the world is flawed. I’d love to only watch shows that never diminished in quality, but that is such a strange bar — especially because one’s own tastes change in the span of decade, and shows have to breathe and grow and develop, too.Send in your questions to watching@nytimes.com. Questions are edited for length and clarity. More

What’s StreamingBABYLON BERLIN Stream on Netflix. This German crime noir covered a lot of ground in its first two seasons. It followed the detective Gereon Rath and the aspiring police officer Charlotte Ritter as they came up against rising nationalist sentiments, a stolen train filled with Soviet gold and a disastrous May Day confrontation between the police and Communists, all set in the years that preceded the Third Reich. In its third season, the show returns to explore aspects of Berlin’s gritty underworld and growing film industry as Rath and Ritter work to track down a cloaked killer who’s been terrorizing a movie shoot. Along the way, Ritter works to gain respect with the homicide squad, Rath encounters troubles at home, and the country braces for financial collapse.MARC MARON: END TIMES FUN Stream on Netflix. At the moment, the world is feeling pretty apocalyptic, between coronavirus fears, economic concerns and the threat of natural disasters. But as anxieties continue to mount, it feels like a prime moment for Marc Maron’s latest comedy special, “End Times Fun.” In it, the comedian chastises the way most people collectively shrug their shoulders when it comes to climate change: “We brought our own bags to the supermarket,” Maron says in his set, pausing, “and that’s about it!” Maron devotes the rest of his time to commenting on Marvel movie fans, life before cellphones and the importance of consuming turmeric.LITTLE JOE (2019) Rent on Amazon, Google Play, YouTube and Vudu. This film, which earned its star Emily Beecham the best actress award at Cannes last year, tracks the events that occur following the development of a plant that’s engineered to improve people’s moods. Little Joe, as the breed of plant is named, releases a potent antidepressant that not only makes those who inhale it happy, but also seems to strangely alter their behavior. The film has been described as “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” for the antidepressant age, but in his review for The New York Times, Glenn Kenny takes that idea a step further. The film looks like “a ‘Snatchers’ reboot as directed by a pod person,” he wrote. “The deliberateness of the styling makes the story’s predictability feel more like inexorability,” he added. “The events may be familiar, but their stagings are unusual and often uncanny.”What’s on TVWOMEN OF TROY 9 p.m. on HBO. This documentary focuses not on the mythical Battle of Troy, but on a team of skilled competitors who rose to victory on the basketball court. In the 1980s, the University of Southern California women’s basketball team, led by Cheryl Miller, won two national titles and rose to mainstream prominence. The film explores how Miller, along with her teammates Pam McGee, Paula McGee, Cynthia Cooper, Juliette Robinson and Rhonda Windham, helped pave the way for female basketball players to compete at a professional level with the eventual founding of the W.N.B.A. in 1996. More