Better Call Saul: Please Vince! Please Peter! Come Back!

The first season has ended all too soon.

"THIS ISN'T OVER UNTIL I SAY IT'S OVER!" - Charlie Kelly, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, S02E05



Is this some kind of sick joke? AMC, Peter Gould, Bob Odenkirk, and Vince Gilligan give me nine weeks of pure bliss before just... just stopping for a whole year? They leave me with Jimmy McGill finally turning toward the dark side and... just leave? What the fuck guys? Don't leave me now! Oh god damn... at least you guys brought back Mad Men and Turn next week. Bah humbug.

Who else is excited as hell for this?
So, it's about that time... time to recap and review the amazing first season of AMC's Better Call Saul. I admit, as I talked about after the premier, I was skeptical about this show. To me, it felt like Gilligan and co. were just cashing out on the Breaking Bad franchise, making a spin-off. I was a doubter of how the quality of the show would actually turn out. Boy was I wrong. Depending on how Mad Men, Game of Thrones, and the upcoming HBO Westworld go, Better Call Saul could very well be the best show on television. From the characters to the twists to the writing to the directing to the... well... everything, this show has fucking delivered.

The story of Jimmy McGill is a very different one from Walter White. Where one show told the narrative of a man going from good to bad-to-the-bone, another tells the story of a guy who's been beaten down by the world one too many times, causing him to turn to the dark (although not nearly as dark as Walt) side. Jimmy McGill is a good person at heart. He started off as a con-man; one that is quite talented. However, after being offered a job by his older brother whom he looks up to with stars in his eyes, he moves to Albuquerque to work in the mail room. Jimmy really tries to turn his life around. He works his tail off and gets a law degree online. He waits on his brother hand and foot when he's sick. He tries to do "good, honest work." However, just when Jimmy is getting successful, finally getting a blockbuster case, he learns that his brother has been against him the whole time. Chuck, played expertly by Michael McKean, apparently values the law over the love of his brother. He says that Jimmy will, and forever be, Slippin' Jimmy - the con-man - not the lawyer.
Marco's Pinky Ring still going strong.

This betrayal is what we as viewers know will send Jimmy over the edge, transforming himself from Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman. Just as Breaking Bad showed a man transform from Walter White into Heisenberg, Better Call Saul goes after names as a major symbol. In the masterful finale, Jimmy goes back to Chicago where he was known as Slippin' Jimmy. He joins back up with his old partner, Marco. In one of the better montages Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan have put together, Jimmy goes back to his old ways, banging hookers whom he convinced that he was Kevin Costner, making money, and being generally up to no good. However, when he returns to Albuquerque to put his life back together, he has a revelation. He's capable of making money. He's capable of being successful. The only thing that was holding him was his "loved ones," - the same people that screwed him over so hard in the first place. And, in those last three minutes of the finale, this all seems to fit together in Jimmy's head. As he talks to Mike, a man who could have easily robbed him for over a million dollars, he realizes that his want to "do the right thing," is foolish. Jimmy has talent, but he's also the one holding himself back. This isn't Walter White deciding to kill Jane Margolis or blow up Gus, it's Jimmy realizing that he can, if he wants to, actually make something of himself - albeit a con-man.

What a friendly smile.
Then we come to Mike - a character who I've always loved in Breaking Bad and only love more once his background is explored in Better Call Saul. Once again, we have a good guy gone bad... yet Mike displays another side of this similar story. Walt felt alive when he became Heisenberg. Jimmy feels like he is his own man when he inevitably becomes Saul. Mike doesn't change names. In fact, Mike barely changes mentality. He was a Philadelphia cop for 30 years, making money to protect his loved ones. After his son died and he killed the cops that did it, Mike moves to his daughter-in-law's neighborhood in Albuquerque and begins a life of crime to continue to support those he loves. Mike isn't changing anything but profession, and, as he explains to Price in episode nine, you can be a good guy, but still a criminal. There are bad cops, as Mike found out in Philly, there are good criminals, as we see in Jimmy, and there are those who remain somewhat neutral, such as Mike himself. This narrative, although the secondary plot to Jimmy's, is an amazing addition to the show. Not only does it add another layer to the stories of both Jimmy and Walt, but it gives background on one of the best characters from Breaking Bad, showing us who he was before that fateful scene by the lake in Breaking Bad.
Don't think it won't happen... along
with Better Call Duffy.

In an overall sense, Better Call Saul is an example of a spin-off that works. It wasn't a half-assed project. Gould and Gilligan compiled an amazing group of actors, an excellent group of writers and directors, and were able to make a show that is every bit as worthy of being in the Breaking Bad universe as the main show itself. However, Better Call Saul can survive on its own. No matter whether you're a fan of Bad (which you all should be) or not, this show is worth watching. Stripping away any prior knowledge of the universe, taking away the smile that came to everyone's face when Tuco Salamanca showed up, Better Call Saul is an excellent piece of storytelling.

Come this time next year, when Mad Men is over, we'll have to see if Better Call Sterling exists.

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