'Better Call Saul' and 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' make a case for the art of the prequel

Saul Goodman and Obi-Wan Kenobi might sound like odd bedfellows, unless the Jedi Knight needed fast-talking legal help after that bar fight in Mos Eisley. But as "Better Call Saul" builds toward its end after "Obi-Wan Kenobi's" stint on Disney+, in their very different styles each demonstrates key skills in the delicate art of the prequel.

Prequel series, of course, are all the rage these days, including "The Lord of the Rings" and the "Game of Thrones"-inspired "House of the Dragon" coming soon, picking up the mantle from major franchises. Yet those stories are set far from the events depicted in the previous projects, making them an almost completely different animal.

Both "Obi-Wan" and "Saul," by contrast, unfold with enough narrative proximity to the projects that launched them ("Star Wars: A New Hope" and "Breaking Bad," respectively) to feature characters from their predecessors and directly tap into those situations, recognizing how these offshoots feed off of the earlier stories.