It’s been quite a while since we were able to hang out with Saul Goodman, lawyer extraordinaire. Better Call Saul is (finally) back after a two-year hiatus, largely due to the Covid pandemic. The wait is over, thank Goodman, as Better Call Saul returns with not one, but two episodes on April 18. The Movie Mensch was able to check out those first two new episodes of the Bob Odenkirk starring, Breaking Bad prequel show that we’ve seen since the season five finale aired on April 20, 2020.
Have we reached a verdict? You bet we have and there is no question Better Call Saul is guilty of continuing its streak of being the best thing on television. Period.
Considering the AMC hit show is from the mind of Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, it should hardly surprise. Bad remains one of the best television experiences I’ve experienced in my entire life.
Since the first season of Better Call Saul aired in 2015, audiences have learned how Jimmy McGill—the pride of the University of American Samoa’s law program—became Saul Goodman, the man we know and love from Breaking Bad. The latter got rich representing folks who are probably guilty of their crimes, but of course, still deserve solid legal representation. They get that and more from Goodman, as we saw over the five-season run of the Emmy-winning show that starred Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul.
How (and most importantly, why) McGill became Goodman is the crux of Better Call Saul and although it has a slightly different feel than its predecessor, it still possesses Gilligan’s unique brand of storytelling that has a habit of grabbing its viewers by the lapels and never letting them free from his awe-inspiring gift of weaving the most thrilling of webs.
Breaking Bad was a show about a high school chemistry teacher who learns of his morbid fate and seeks to do something radical to ensure his family is financially secure when he departs this world. That earth-shaking move was to become one of the world’s most notorious meth makers. Meanwhile, Better Call Saul is unquestionably a legal eagle program. From my lawyer pals, who have repeatedly stated that it is one of the best representations of what it means to be a lawyer in the real world, to critics who have hailed it as (gasp) even better than Bad, the love for Saul has been universal. Look for that to continue with its sixth and final two-part season.
The Movie Mensch has long been a spoiler-free zone, so that will continue with this review of the first two episodes of Better Call Saul, season six. That being said, it doesn’t give us much wiggle room for describing what occurs during these two explosive eps. That’s fine. All you need to know is Nacho (Michael Mando) is on the run, Saul (Odenkirk, who we last heard on the big screen in Pixar’s The Incredibles 2) and his live-in lawyer girlfriend Kim Wexler (the mesmerizing Rhea Seehorn) is hatching a plan to permanently stain the reputation and living making potential of one former boss at Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill. This all while Goodman is balancing his opportunity to become a “friend of the cartel” and whether that is even something he wants out of life.
Judging by how he attacks these first two episodes of the final season of the AMC smash hit, Odenkirk’s onscreen persona looks to be taking the proverbial bull by the horns—seeking to control his own destiny. Of course, given that we’ve seen Breaking Bad, we know that is exactly what Goodman achieves. But those of us who have seen Bad also know there is no mention of Wexler on the landscape we’re working towards on Saul. What becomes of Kim is far from revealed in these first two episodes, but I will say this, she is strangely comfortable pulling off the needle threading balancing act that is working pro bono work while aiding her husband Saul with his cartel aiding law practice.
What is fascinating is something that is gleaned from the first two shows of this sixth season and that is that much of what Goodman is doing and how he does it in Breaking Bad is encouraged by Wexler in these first 120-minutes. There are already Easter Eggs that pop up tying these worlds together—which essentially is what the sixth season is all about. That and delivering jaw-dropping, heart-stopping suspense and drama so thick that it makes the strongest black coffee appear light. There are numerous storylines that are firmly moving forward and some that are appearing to be trainwrecks we’re just waiting to crash. Also… there is a ton of humor that is a trademark of Gilligan. His ability to lighten the mood while still never losing an ounce of power is uncanny.
Anyone who experienced the brilliance of Breaking Bad knows that Goodman went into hiding at the close of that Emmy-winning beloved drama. What’s fascinating is what fans are calling the Gene flash-forwards (that is Saul’s name that he was given when he disappears to Utah) is something that Gilligan has us moving towards, but at the same time, we keenly know that that is way in the future of where we sit currently with Better Call Saul. Yet, those worlds will collide before all is said and done on the Odenkirk starring show that premieres Monday, April 19.
During the first two episodes of season six, all our favorites are visited—including the scene-stealing brilliance of Giancarlo Esposito’s Gus Fring, Fabian’s Hamlin, as well as Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton), who we know from that April 20, 2020, episode somehow survived that massacre at his home. We also get to spend some time with Lalo’s boss uncle, the says so much with so little Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis), Clifford Main (Ed Begley, Jr.), and of course, the ever-so commanding Mike (Jonathan Banks).
The ensemble delivers once again, which should shock absolutely nobody. There is not a single weak link, and all are there to support Odenkirk, after all, it’s his name on the moniker of the program. At the same time, Gilligan has crafted characters that are as three-dimensional as come on television. They are so rich, and the gifted writer-director-producer has once again packed so much for all these souls to navigate during the first 120 minutes of season six.
The only problem with the premiere episodes is that when they conclude, we must wait a week for episode three. If there was a show to be able to binge, it is this one.
Then again, they do say that good things come to those who wait, and it doesn’t get any better than Better Call Saul.
Grade: A+