This split focus really helps channel the energy of the show and it’s from here that Better Call Saul really starts to carve its own identity.Īll of this builds up to quite the dramatic ending leaving the door wide open for the second season. With this change comes a slightly increased pacing, turning the attention to Mike who, up until this point anyway, has been reserved to ticket-booth duties. It’s not until he stumbles upon a killer case late on that his luck slowly starts to change. James struggles with the harsh realities of being a lawyer, struggling financially and caring for his older brother Chuck who has an allergic reaction to electricity, forcing him to stay inside.Īs McGill squares up against HHM, this David VS Goliath contest sees our plucky lawyer constantly thwarted at every turn. For the first 5 or so episodes, things move pretty slowly. With familiar faces of Mike and Tuco cropping up across this first season, Better Call Saul essentially serves as an origin story for both Mike and James McGill. Instead, this serves as an alias for the nervous lawyer James McGill whom we follow across this slow-paced, methodically plotted narrative. In fact, Saul Goodman isn’t even our protagonist’s name. Saul Goodman is not a big face on TV and instead, ekes out a living in the shadow of the mammoth HHM law-firm that stifle the competition and hold all the cards. Here the same thing applies, as careful characterization and tantalizing teases for the future are laid out across this 10-episode season.Īfter a brief black-and-white opener, the story cuts back in time before the events of Breaking Bad take place.

In order to bring the story to boil, the tranquil water needed time to heat up and react. It seems difficult to remember now but Breaking Bad’s run worked as a pressure cooker of tension that slowly built up over time. Despite a slow start, a couple of show-stopping episodes help elevate this series and leave lots of promise for the future seasons to come. Not only does lightning strike a third time here, it does so with all the usual hallmarks and ideas that make Gilligan’s previous shows so endearing. With fan expectations at an all time high and the suffocating pressure almost too much to bear, show creator Vince Gilligan had quite the mountain to climb before Better Call Saul even hit the small screen. After the success of The X-Files and Breaking Bad, it was always going to be a mammoth task to follow-up the success of those two shows with something equally as timeless and inspiring.

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