A GOOD ‘CALL’
It’s just getting ‘Better’ as ‘Saul’ season draws to a close
BACK in early 2015, I joined the chorus of TV fans lamenting the premiere of “Better Call
Saul,” a prequel series starring Bob Odenkirk reprising his combed over, shyster-lawyer character from “Breaking Bad,” which ended its scorching run just 17 months before.
Sure, Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman was a charming, slippery chameleon, providing whatever comic relief managed to slowdrip into the pitch black world of “Breaking Bad.” He was fun to watch, but he was a lateral character who couldn’t carry an entire series. Why not just let “Breaking Bad” rest in peace and move on? Enough already.
I was wrong, and as “Better Call Saul” barrels toward its Season 3 finale Monday night it’s become one of my go-to series. It’s no “Breaking Bad,” but it has carved out its own unique universe (in familiar Albuquerque, no less) and has succeeded in making Saul Goodman (or Jimmy McGill, as he’s known here) a multi-layered person surrounded by equally interesting and colorful characters. It would be a creative injustice if Michael McKean, for instance, doesn’t get an Emmy nomination for his searing portrayal of Jimmy’s brilliant-yet-incapacitated brother, Chuck. His storyline this season has been compelling, particularly in his tense battles with Jimmy and with his smarmy law partner, Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian, equally terrific). And I like how the series has taken its time building its own world, holding back until this season on integrating those “Breaking Bad” characters both familiar (Gus Fring, Lydia, Hector) and arcane (hey, isn’t that Huell?) into its circa 2003 storyline. No Walter, Jesse or Hank — yet — but who knows? Maybe next season.
“Every season we kind of go in and talk and come up with a basic road map, signposts for a general arc for what the season will be, and where we want to take the characters,” says “Better Call Saul” writer Gennifer Hutchison, who wrote Monday night’s season finale. “We try to build that organically as we go along. This season, for instance, we really wanted to escalate the relationship between Jimmy and Chuck and bring that to a head.
“Each season it feels like we’ve brought more [‘Breaking Bad’] elements into the show as [the storyline] gets more and more complex,” says Hutchinson, who also wrote for “Breaking Bad.” “We have so many continuity notes, a whole board with just characters’ names on it. There are ‘Breaking Bad’ connections that make sense now, like bringing Lydia back and, specifically, Mike’s storyline with Gus. There was always a plan to bring these characters back, but ... it happens as we go along. It’s not like a flip is switched.”
Hutchison is asked what she can reveal about Monday night’s season finale (without spoiling anything). “There are definitely things that were set in motion that we do wrap up ... that push you into the next chapter,” she says. “I look at this season as a season about consequences, some of which were set in motion in Season 1 and Season 2.
“The [season] finale is a lot about that,” she says. “There are consequences for every character across-the-board, actions taken and not taken — and now they have to pay that bill.”