Better call saul season 1 synopsis
There are nods to Breaking Bad of course – unusual camera angles (the inside of a mail box), the cameos from other old characters like Mike and Tuco, an offbeat soundtrack, pop culture references and the “cold open” beginning that throws a future storyline into the mix – but there are also hints that Saul can find its own path. The more senior McGill even suggests that Jimmy stops using the family name to avoid confusing any potential clients, with a “Wouldn’t you rather build your own identity? Why ride on someone else’s coattails?” line that almost doubles as a comment on the show itself. Chuck, who wavers between sounding loopy and then offering Jimmy some fairly reasonable advice, is an unreliable guru for the show to draw on.
Jimmy even has to leave his phone outside the house and “ground” himself to discharge static electricity before coming in. Played by the excellent Michael McKean (Spinal Tap), Chuck is a far more successful lawyer who is on an extended leave of absence, holed up in his own home protecting himself against what he believes are the ravages of “electromagnetic forces”.
Which is inconvenient as Chuck seems to be in the middle of a breakdown. He tries a kind of “kids these days, what are you going to do?” argument which seems reasonable enough until the court watches the film the defendants have shot of themselves playing American Pie with a disembodied head.įar from being from the guy who always knows a guy who can get you out of a tight spot, Jimmy is the kind of man who fakes a secretary’s voice when he answers his own phone, has an office that’s basically a store cupboard in the back of a nail salon, and is very much living in the shadow of his older brother, Chuck. We see him in action trying to save three teenagers from jail – psyching himself up for court in a bathroom. In his life before he became the Saul Goodman we know and love, “Saul” was actually James “Jimmy” McGill: a public defender scrabbling at the bottom of the legal pit. And then we’re back in colour, around six years before the Breaking Bad timeline. The opening scene, a black and white flash-forward to Saul’s life after Walter White – hefty moustache and new glasses, working in a mall bakery, going home watching his old commercials on VHS – casts a downbeat shadow on proceedings, like a mini slice of indie Americana. With so much expectation riding on its shoulders since Breaking Bad finished, Better Call Saul is finally here. You’ve got to love a lawyer who drives a car called Esteem.