“What might we say to Vince Better Call Saul Ed*]? Don’t take the risk ’cause you just did Breaking Bad ? It would have been like telling the Beatles not to make another album following the White Album. I mean… I like Abbey Road. It’s not as good as the White Album, but I’m glad it exists. »
Sent to a reporter questioning the foundation of Better Call Saul, the punchline by actor Bob Odenkirk had, this Thursday, February 12, in the privacy of a London palace, the flavor of a pleading by Saul Goodman. Last seen, Walter White’s whimsical criminal attorney (in every sense of the word), fled to Nebraska with a fistful of dollars and a new identity following five seasons of loyal service.
Totally opaque, characterized by his art of bluster and camouflage, the character intrigued Gilligan from his first appearances on screen. Where is he from ? What is he hiding? Where did he leave his moral sense? “Keep it for the spin-off” becomes a running gag on the film set. The authors first imagine a 25-minute comedy, before yielding to the temptation of drama. “They were curious regarding this guy, they adored him and they wanted to know more, remembers Odendrik. But everyone was very cautious regarding this prospect. There was no guarantee that this project would be good, or in any case up to what was Breaking Bad*.* »
The exercise is dangerous. The AMC channel announces the start of construction of Better Call Saul in September 2013, when Breaking Bad wasn’t even over yet. Faced with the news, reactions oscillate between disbelief, excitement and distrust. Is the chain surfing the hype of a series whose corpse is still warm? Saul Goodman, secondary character, does he really deserve his own show? Can Bob Odenkirk hope to live up to Bryan Cranston, who bows out with 17 awards for his portrayal of the crystal meth whisperer?
On February 9, 2015, there were almost seven million viewers – the best start ever by a cable channel – which simultaneously follow the first difficult steps of Saul Goodman, James McGill of his real name, a small court-appointed lawyer from Albuquerque crushed by the contempt of the big local law firm, founded by his brother Chuck. When he’s not defending students filmed raping a corpse’s head (eww), McGill rents a Chinese manicurist’s back room as an office and rehearses his pleadings in the courtroom bathroom.
« Better Call Saul* is the story of a guy who wants above all to be validated by the people he loves”*, explains Odenkirk. Like a certain Walter White? The saturated colors of the desert, the pathetic aura of the avocado, its murderous verve – “The only way my car would be worth $500 would be if I put a $300 whore in the passenger seat”his tendency to rub shoulders in spite of himself with gangs of gangsters armed to the teeth, all of this necessarily evokes Breaking Bad and will delight fans of the original series, already spoiled by the many winks scattered throughout the episodes.
Add to it the mad energy of avocado “constantly trying to save his ass, his throat and especially his wallet”, his instinctive sense of justice, its uninterrupted flow of words (monologues so long that Odenkirk thought he would never be able to learn them), its little extra soul and you get the series the most addictive of this beginning of the year. His first fans? Lawyers, of course. “They love the intent of the show. They all said to me, “There are plenty of lawyers like that, but I’m not one of them.” »
