Season 1 (2015)
Created by: Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould
Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorn, Michael McKean
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| Bob Odenkirk is Jimmy McGill, the future Saul Goodman. |
Jimmy McGill is a former grifter who is now a lawyer. He wants to do the right thing, but at the same time, becoming a lawyer hasn't been the dream he imagined.
Verdict:
This spin-off seemed like a terrible idea. AMC wanted to cash-in on Breaking Bad, and this was the way to continue the money train. The only good spin-off I recall, and even then it was an acquired taste was Frasier.
This is the origin story of Saul Goodman, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman's corrupt lawyer from Breaking Bad. This defies the typical spin-off result. It works, for the most part. It's not as shocking as a high school teacher that starts selling drugs, but it lifts the concept from Breaking Bad of showing a law-abiding citizen turn to illegal means. Granted, Jimmy McGill doesn't have a clean record, but he is reformed and he isn't a sociopath like Walter White. We've seen the sociopath story, and this feels like it could be a corollary, with Slippin' Jimmy wanting to do the right thing, but slipping into crime.
You don't need to be familiar with Breaking Bad at all to jump into this show. While we get a few cameos from Breaking Bad characters, it's expected. The best parts of this season are when the episode focuses on Mike Ehrmantraut, an enforcer for Gus Fring in Breaking Bad. The series looks like it will be as much about Mike's rise to power as Jimmy's. This series is lighter in tone overall, and while Mike's scenes are often hilarious, Banks is playing it completely straight.
It's a smart move to include Mike, he's a great supporting character, but wouldn't be able to carry a show. His focused story contrasts with Jimmy bouncing around, trying to make a quick dollar. Jimmy's story lacks focus and thus, my attention wanes at times. Odenkirk is fun to watch, but even at the end of the season I'm waiting for him to become the savvy, corrupt, strip-mall located, Cadillac driving lawyer we first saw. We're not there yet, not even close. This season served to introduce us to McGill's new law career and provide his history prior.
The camera work is really impressive. There are crane shots, multiple set ups, and lots of detail to make this cinematic. It errs a bit on the side of too cute, too far, too much, but it's a minor quibble.
Watch it.
Review:
Episode 1: Uno
The season, and series, opens with a black and white scene showing Saul working at Cinnabon. It's apparent he's in hiding, scared. It has to be post Breaking Bad. Saul goes home from Cinnabon to a modestly furnished house and watches a tape of Saul Goodman commercials from his former life. No matter the origins of Saul Goodman, things won't end well. The last season of Breaking Bad opened with Walter White and then flashing back, the rest of the season working its way to the first scene. This scene may be be a bridge from Breaking Bad to Better Call Saul. I hope the show isn't working towards that Cinnabon scene because it would involve a lot of Breaking Bad overlap which is redundant and unnecessary. Not only that, that concept just happened. This scene has no bearing on the rest of season 1.
Saul Goodman started out as Jimmy McGill. This episode has great timing. The camera work is cinematic with wide shots and careful angles. It slows down the pacing, when Jimmy enters the court and delivers his closing arguments. The prosecutor wheels a television to the front of the court and shows the video of Jimmy's clients. Jimmy is a public defender defending three kids who committed necrophilia. Jimmy exits the court and is walking towards the Cadillac that looks like his car from Breaking Bad. The camera pans, and Jimmy is actually driving a yellow Suzuki Esteem beater car. At his car, he answers his phone posing as a secretary. His office is in a nail salon. McGill has nothing. We are starting at the beginning of his law career, and as the season progresses we'll get the story on what Jimmy did before being a lawyer.
Skateboard twins try to run a scam on Jimmy, but Jimmy sees straight through it. Jimmy references a scam he employed, then he enlists the twins to scam a client that declined his services for a big firm. The client is the Kettleman's who embezzled a million dollars and appear throughout season one. While Jimmy claims to be reformed, he's schemes to further his law practice are never more than a glorified scam.
There's a subplot with Jimmy's brother Chuck (Michael McKean). Chuck was a hotshot attorney who is now paranoid about electro-magnetic radiation. His house doesn't have electricity and anyone that enters has to leave electronics in the mailbox and ground themselves before entering.
The episode ends with Jimmy's scam going awry, having tracked the skateboard twins to a house. He knocks on the door, and gets a gun in his face, concluding episode one.
It looks like Better Call Saul is going to be a lot like Breaking Bad in that we'll see the building of a criminal empire. While Walter White was a sociopath, McGill has a conscious, he wants to do right. White departed from social norms and never looked back. I'm guessing McGill will have an internal struggle.
Episode 2: Mijo
The title credits show a Cadillac with the familiar license plate 'LWYRUP', the car we see in Breaking Bad. I wondered if this was foreshadowing, but the car and license plate do not appear again this season.
The gun in the face Jimmy got in the first episode, belongs to Tuco, a Breaking Bad alumnus. Tuco holds Jimmy at gunpoint and beats up the skateboard twins while trying to pacify his grandmother upstairs who has no idea what's going on. This is what I expected from the show, Jimmy finding himself in ridiculous situations and having to find a way out. Tuco felt a bit contrived, but it also serves to introduce one of Tuco's lieutenants, Nacho, into the story. Nacho appears throughout the season.
Jimmy almost talks Tuco down until the twins, enraged, state it's Jimmy's scam. Tuco takes Jimmy and the twins to the desert. Jimmy talks himself free, but lingers in an attempt to free the twins. The twins escape with a broken leg, ridiculing Jimmy as a terrible lawyer. Jimmy responds, "I took you from a death sentence to six months probation. I'm the best lawyer."
Later, Nacho tries to talk Jimmy into joining him to rob the Kettleman's of the embezzled money, to which Jimmy refuses.
It looks like this series will be Jimmy building confidence,figuring out who he is, and talking smooth, reluctantly fraternizing with criminals.
Episode 3: Nacho
Episode three opens with a flashback to Jimmy's brother Charles visiting Jimmy in jail. This is presumably when Jimmy was a scam artist himself. Jimmy tells Chuck he'll do anything for help.
Jimmy is pressured by Nacho to get the Kettleman's money. Jimmy calls his friend Kim in the Hamlin law office for information. The Kettleman's spurned Jimmy for Hamlin. Distraught at what might happen to the Ketleman's, Jimmy drives to a pay phone to warn them.
Where Walter White used the excuse of his family to become a criminal, McGill wants to do the right thing, despite the fact he is just barely making a living. The dreams of being a lawyer aren't working out like he imagined.
When the Kettleman's disappear, Jimmy thinks Nacho has abducted them. He desperately leaves Nacho voice mails. The cops had apprehended Nacho and bring in Jimmy, who becomes Nacho's counsel. Jimmy purports the Kettleman's faked their disappearance, but the cops use Jimmy's altercation with Mike the parking ticket attendant to twist Jimmy and his client to no avail. The episode closes with Jimmy discovering he was right about the Kettlemans.
Despite it's pedigree, Better Call Saul has a lot of fun. Bob Odenkirk does a great job with the slightly manic Jimmy. The show doesn't completely distance itself from Breaking Bad, with plenty of crossover cameos.
Episode 4: Hero
This show looks like it will be flashback heavy, with yet another flashback opening that depicts Slippin' Jimmy in his grifter days, and dropping the Saul Goodman name. Jimmy had a partner and they dupe a drunk into buying a fake Rolex. How does Jimmy become a lawyer? Was it due to his brother and the scene we saw in the previous episode?
Jimmy finds the Kettlemans camping, and they offer him a bribe to keep his mouth shut. He refuses the bribe, but agrees to a retainer if they hire him. They break the news that he's the kind of lawyer guilty people hire. They don't want him.
Why is Mike a parking ticket attendant? He used to be a cop according to Breaking Bad, so how did he get here?
Nacho is released, but he's mad and accuses Jimmy of warning the Kettlemans, which Jimmy did. Jimmy did take the money from the Kettlemans and bills the money out. I don't know why. Is it just for tax purposes or just to make him feel better? I suppose Jimmy is a recovering grifter. One slip could put him back in that world.
With his new money, Jimmy buys clothes and a billboard that copies the Hamlin law offices in look, color, and logo. Jimmy tries to get a newspaper to cover his story when Hamlin demands the billboard be removed, but not one will cover it. Jimmy hires a camera man to make his case, but during the video a worker taking down the billboard falls from the platform and is suspended in mid-air. Jimmy saves him and due to his heroics makes the news. His law practice finally has clients interested in his services.
Episode 5: Alpine Shepherd Boy
Will we ever find out about Chuck's condition or how it developed? Yes! Chuck's condition is mental, but Jimmy refuses treatment, not wanting to upset Chuck. Chuck is concerned that Jimmy's heroics were manufactured and the stunt is Jimmy slipping into his scamming ways. Jimmy assures Chuck that he's not slipping.
Jimmy has interested clients, but they are all crazy. One wants to pay him in a fictitious currency, and another invents a voice activated, innuendo spouting toilet. Jimmy realizes the elderly are the perfect target. Jimmy garners fashion tips from Matlock and begins shilling wills at retirement centers.
The final scenes provide a bit more information on Mike. He's parked outside of a woman's house, and shares a look with her as she leaves. Could it be a daughter?
The episode ends with cops knocking on Mike's door, remarking, "Long way from home."
Episode 6: Five-O
So every episode starts with a flashback, which feels too formulaic. This is Mike's episode, and it is a standout for this season because it tells a complete and engrossing story. Will Better Call Saul give us an in depth look at other criminals Jimmy encounters or is Mike going to be part of this show throughout its run?
This is easily the best episode of the season because we get a payoff at the end of the episode, and it isn't left open ended. The problem is that it doesn't include Jimmy. This is supposed to be Jimmy's show.
The girl Mike was stalking last episode is his daughter in law, Stacey. Her husband, Mike's son, Matt was killed in the line of duty. Mike left Philadelphia to come to New Mexico, where his daughter-in-law is located.
Stacey thinks Matt was up to something. Mike seems to know something, but denies any knowledge. Slick editing takes us back to the present day.
Mike is being questioned, and his only words, as they should be, are "Lawyer." Enter Jimmy McGill. Jimmy has no idea what he's getting when he enters the room with Mike. Jimmy, speaking for the audience, asks the cops to lay it bare.
Mike's son was killed in the line of duty, the two cops that were his backup were killed the day before Mike left town.
The mystery is explained in this episode. Mike sets up the cops he thinks killed his son. The cops offer to give the inebriated Mike a ride, but they are really planning to kill him since he's a liability.
Mike feels guilty. He talked Matt into taking money in order to save him, and he ended up dead anyway.
The inclusion of Mike is in part self-serving for Breaking Bad fans, but I like Mike and this is a good episode due to the focus and pacing.
Episode 7: Bingo
I'd be completely happy if the rest of the season is Mike and Jimmy.
Jimmy's looking at an extravagant office. I'm wondering how he ends up at a strip mall. With Jimmy's luck, I bet this office doesn't work out.
The Kettleman's are back, and their story isn't bad. Mrs. Kettleman is crazy and delusional. Her refrain of "There is no money." is hilarious, when we know there is.
Kim tries to sell them on taking a plea bargain. The domineering Mrs. Kettleman refuses to take a deal, despite the potential jail time for her husband.
Kim delivers an impassioned speech, and just when you think the wife will submit, she doubles down. I would have liked a better of idea of what the husband thought, some kind of parting shot. I feel like he wants a deal, but it is never indicated.
The Kettleman's go back to Jimmy. I love it that Jimmy is shutting them down. Unfortunately Jimmy is on the hook. They reference the bribe/retainer and now they are coming to collect. The wife even has the gall to tell Jimmy there is no money when he has seen the money.
Jimmy enlists Mike to find the money. Apple cores show the passage of time as Mike stakes out the Kettlebmans house. It's a brilliant indication of time passing. Mike sprayed the money to track the finger prints as he breaks into the house.
It's a great scene with great story telling and editing. I'm guessing Jimmy and Mike will have a mutually beneficial relationship. Jimmy gives up his bribe and turns in the full amount of embezzled money.
Will Gus Fring show up in the show? Will the show depict Mike's promotion to Gus's crew? Jimmy doesn't have any memorable associates other than Mike, and this is as much Mike's show as Jimmy's.
Episode 8: RICO
In yet another flashback, we discover Jimmy was a paralegal at HHM. He managed to become a lawyer through Amercian Samoa University and an online class. HHM refuses to hire him as an associate.
Jimmy gets wind of a scam on an elderly client by the retirement home. The retirement home attempts to shred documents and block Jimmy from them premises. He dumpster dives to retrieve evidence, and this case helps invigorate Chuck. Jimmy has a class action lawsuit on his hands and stands a chance to finally make some money.
This episode provided a big piece of backstory, but overall it was the weakest episode of the season.
Episode 9: Pimento
Chuck coerces Jimmy to turn the civil action suit over to HHM.
While Chuck is afraid to go outside, he manages when he needs to because his condition is mental. When will the show delve deeper into that? Who is he calling on Jimmy's phone?
Mike is mixing it up again, but why? Is he tired of validating parking, did his run in with the Philly cops spark him to do more, or is he looking to provide for his daughter in law?
In the most hilarious scene this season, of course a Mike scene, Mike is up for a protection job with two goons (or goofs). This scene typifies why Mike needs to be in this show.
The scene is serious, but Mike's deadpan delivery is hilarious.
This season isn't bad, but the scenes with Mike are on a higher level. When pressed by one of the goons to make him look bad in front of the client, Mike states he doesn't need a gun and will take one from the goon questioning him. The goon offers to make it easy for Mike and offers the gun.
Mike replies, "How bout you make it not so easy?" Mike drops the guy and frisks him. "So many guns, I don't know which one to use." Mike turns to the other goon who is staring dumbfounded, "How 'bout you. You want one?" The other goon runs off.
The client is stunned, "But we need three guys." Mike responds, "No, no we don't."
It's a great contrast between Mike and this clueless civilian selling prescription drugs.
As much as I'd like a Mike show, I'm not sure it would work. Part of what make's Mike scenes great is that they are a foil to Jimmy McGill. Mike is measured and Jimmy is manic.
Chuck manages to leave the house with Jimmy's help and is greeted at HHM with a round of applause. Jimmy and Chuck present the case to HHM. They want the case, but not Jimmy.
Jimmy is irate and retorts that he will burn the case to the ground before he gives it to HHM.
Jimmy wants to rant to Kim, but she urges him to turn the case over and he accuses her of suggesting that because she was promised a promotion. She did meet with Howard Hamlin, so even the viewer wonders if it's true.
The reason HHM won't hire Jimmy is his brother. Chuck doesn't like that Jimmy took a shortcut to become a lawyer. Chuck worked his life for it and Jimmy went to American Samoa and took an online course. Jimmy cuts Chuck loose. He's done.
Episode 10: Marco
In this flashback, Jimmy is out of jail and going to work in the mail room for HHM. He cuts ties with his scamming partner, Marco. The entire season included flashbacks to introduce each episode. With the first season finale, Jimmy's backstory is established. Will we get a new character for flashbacks or is that story telling technique over?
Jimmy turns the civil action case over to Howard Hamlin, as well as his brothers care list. Jimmy snaps at a bingo game, railing against his brother, dredging up his history, how he ended up in New Mexico, and describes a Chicago Sunroof that got him arrested.
Jimmy travels back to his hometown and finds Marco. Marco and Jimmy jump right into running scams. The Kennedy half dollar scam scene was amazing. They go for one more, the old Rolex scam, but it goes awry.
Jimmy talks to Mike, wondering why he didn't take the million dollars from the Kettlemans when he had Mike steal it. Jimmy says he knows what stopped him and it's never happening again.
It's not a bad season finale, but it hints at what we've known the entire time. We know Jimmy is going to break bad. He's fueled by money. He thought being a lawyer would provide him with enough money to leave scams behind, but he can't afford it. The one case he gets that is lucrative is too big. He has to turn it over to a large firm. His other cases are high brow scams focused on the elderly.
What will season two provide? Season one established Jimmy McGill as a reformed grifter who wants to do the right thing. At the end of season one, he seems poised to quit always doing the right thing. I'm betting that season two will be the start of Jimmy's criminal network. Subsequent seasons will be Jimmy getting deeper into the world.
I expect to see Mike rise up through the ranks as well. The dichotomy of Mike and Jimmy creates a nice pacing.
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