Review: Better Call Saul Season 1

Warning: this review contains spoilers.

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ith his sleazy persona and one-liners, Breaking Bad’s criminal lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) was a mostly comical character who provided humour against the dark backdrop of Walter White (Bryan Cranston)’s transformation into drug kingpin Heisenberg. It’s fair to say that when the spin-off Better Call Saul was first announced, most people automatically assumed it would be a more light-hearted and comedic affair. However, what we got instead was a poignant character study, and a story of transformation that rivals Walt’s evolution into Heisenberg.

The first season of Better Call Saul follows Jimmy McGill (Saul’s actual name) and his pursuit to become a serious and well-established lawyer with the aim of making his brother Chuck (Michael McKean) proud of him. However, his ambition is made impossible by the mistakes he made in the past – most notably, his past career as con artist Slippin’ Jimmy and the time he got arrested for defecating through the sunroof of a car.

Interestingly, the criminal transformation this time is not caused by the choice of the protagonist as it was in Breaking Bad, but feels as it is tragically predestined to happen regardless of Jimmy’s efforts throughout the season to make a big breakthrough with his law career. The season concludes with this realisation, as Jimmy discovers his brother has been deliberating sabotaging his efforts to become a lawyer, believing that “Slippin’ Jimmy with a law degree is like a chimp with a machine gun”.

Photo: Flickr/Suman Park

Watching Jimmy’s desperate attempts to become a proper, hardworking lawyer despite knowing his grim destiny is both a really engaging and moving character arc. It’s hard not to root for Jimmy McGill, even though he’s doomed to become an exiled criminal working in a Cinnabon in Omaha. Indeed, this story works mainly because the show makes Jimmy a hugely likeable character. We see a lot more depth to his character in Better Call Saul – most importantly, in his relationships with fellow lawyer Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) and brother Chuck, who has developed a fear of electromagnetic waves and requires daily care.

As well as an engaging story of transformation akin to Walter White’s, Better Call Saul features a number of other things that will hugely appeal to Breaking Bad fans. For instance, we see a lot of the cinematic techniques often used in Breaking Bad, such as extensive montages, point-of-view shots and colour symbolism which English literature students could spend hours dissecting. There’s also the odd Breaking Bad Easter egg for fans to spot, such as the moment in the final episode in which Jimmy manages to convince a woman he’s actually Kevin Costner (an event which Saul later recounts in Breaking Bad).

The show also includes the return of several Breaking Bad characters alongside Saul Goodman. In the first couple of episodes for instance, we see the return of drug kingpin Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz). His scenes are both intense and darkly humorous, as Jimmy desperately tries to negotiate a suitable punishment for two skaters who have insulted his grandmother – a difficult endeavour considering Tuco’s initial idea of “an eye for an eye” is literally to gouge out their eyes.

The most important returnee however is hitman Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), who begins a working relationship with Jimmy and begins his own descent into the criminal world.

As with Saul, Mike also gets an origin-story of sorts in Better Call Saul

In the stunning Mike-centric episode ‘Five-O’, we get a glimpse of Mike’s turbulent past as he exacts vengeance on two cops who murdered his son, before emotionally revealing to his daughter-in-law that he encouraged his son to become involved with one cop’s illegal doings – a piece of advice that led to his son’s murder. “I broke my boy,” the usually-indifferent Mike tells her tearfully, in a scene that’s perfectly played by Jonathan Banks.

Photo: Flickr/Televisione Streaming

Perhaps the only downside to Better Call Saul’s first season is that it can be rather slow-paced at times. However, this doesn’t change the fact that the show is a definite must-watch. Saul and Mike’s origin stories are as every bit as compelling as Walter White’s transformation; Jimmy McGill is a hugely likeable and engaging protagonist; and the cinematography is consistently impressive. The prospect of more Breaking Bad cameos is also tantalising, especially if Mike gets involved with a certain Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) in the future.

With a second season returning in 2016, it will be compelling to watch Jimmy begin his transformation into an immoral and dubious criminal lawyer – or a chimp with a machine gun, as Chuck would call it – now that Jimmy has taken his first steps towards becoming Saul Goodman.