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| image via AMC |
Spin-offs are a tricky beast.
If watching television has taught us anything, it’s that for every Frasieror The Colbert Report, there’s usually a bad egg like Joey, That ’80s Show orNCIS: We’re Still on the air whatever.
For a spin-off to truly work, it needs to step out of the shadow of the TV show it preceded to be able to stand on its own while sharing a universe with it. In that regard, AMC’s new series Better Call Saul shows a lot of potential in succeeding.
Set as a prequel to the award-winning drama Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul follows our favorite sleazy criminal lawyer we once knew as Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), legal adviser to meth kingpin Walter White. However, in this dark comedy, Saul isn’t around — not yet at least.
The series opens in the long-ago era known as 2002 (as evidenced by a character repeatedly using the phrase “biznatch” in the second episode) and Odenkirk’s character still identifies himself by his birth name, Jimmy McGill.
Jimmy so far has virtually none of the flashiness he has when he will encounter Walter in about five years. His office is located in the boiler room of a strip mall nail salon and he can only afford to advertise on matchbooks instead of cheesy billboards and TV spots like when Walter first met him. We’re watching a frustrated and broke Saul Goodman and that’s far more interesting than it sounds.
Of course, the main reason why Better Call Saul works is because Odenkirk is so entertaining to watch. Odenkirk is literally in every single scene of the series and has a strong onscreen presence that pulls viewers in, making the scenes where he’s in court especially fun to watch.
Saul was always Breaking Bad’s comic relief and this spin-off takes advantage of Odenkirk’s sketch-comedy past through Jimmy’s display of flamboyant theatrics during the courtroom scenes. These scenes have none of the glamour that you usually see in popular crime shows, but they have a certain charm in them that’s bursting with energy.
The second hour of Better Call Saul ends with Jimmy receiving an intriguing proposition by a criminal to help him steal over a million dollars previously taken by local politicians. This serialized plotline hints that the show will double as a caper which sounds like fun.
Speaking of fun, the series so far has been loaded with several wonderfully grim moments of comedy. A dinner scene set after a tense standoff in the desert — the most suspenseful moment of the series so far — has Jimmy failing to go through his date as he’s distracted by someone loudly breaking bread. Thanks to the confident direction by Breaking Bad veteran director Michelle MacLaren, the tight editing and sound design in this scene makes the breaking of the bread sound like the gunshots Jimmy managed to escape from in the previous scene. It’s a wonderfully squirm-inducing moment as we watch Jimmy fidget during his meal.
It’s tiny scenes like this that ultimately show how Saul is a different beast than Breaking Bad — it’s filled with the back comedy the latter delved in but wasn’t particularly recognized for.
The personal stakes in the show may not be as great as being diagnosed with cancer, but that doesn’t mean viewers that are either not familiar with Breaking Bad or are fans of that show won’t get invested in this new series.
Better Call Saul is a humble series with no delusions of grandeur to imitate its predecessor, and that’s reason enough to celebrate.
Better Call Saul airs Mondays at 8 p.m. central on AMC.
