Better Call Saul (AMC Network) had an entertaining two episode debut that showed strong future promise. The new series is a prequel spinoff from the classic series Breaking Bad, and features sleaze ball criminal lawyer Saul Goodman.
The new series begins while Saul is still named Jimmy McGill and trying to survive while doing public defender cases for peanuts. But the seeds of the future Saul Goodman are already being planted.
Jimmy sets up a phony pedestrian injury scam with two skateboarding brothers, but the plan goes grotesquely wrong. The subsequent leg breaking scene in the desert is a blackly comic gem that's as outrageous as the wildest scenes in Breaking Bad.
Another plus is the return of two familiar characters from Breaking Bad -- tough oldster Mike Ehrmantraut and drug thug psycho Tuco.
Still in process is Jimmy McGill's transition into Saul Goodman. He changes his name because he thinks it gives him more credibility if clients believe he is a shrewd Jewish lawyer. Later to come are the shoddy TV ads, "Better Call Saul!" and the strip mall office.
The fun of Better Call Saul will be seeing Saul's ongoing character transition while he tries to survive entanglements with various dangerous criminal clients. It looks like a great ride is in store for viewers.
Showing posts with label Breaking Bad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Breaking Bad. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Saturday, July 27, 2013
BREAKING BAD and the End of Walter White
Breaking Bad returns for its final episodes August 11 on AMC Cable. After all that has taken place in this violent, addictive series, one truth is certain: Walter White cannot simply walk away from it all free and clear at the end.
We've watched Walter's corrosive transformation from high school chemistry teacher to meth lab cook to ruthless drug kingpin. Early on, Walter learned there are only two basic values in the brutal world of the meth business: Power and Survival. Walter began only wanting to survive, soon making ever harsher moral choices in order to do so. He has finally achieved a position of power himself, a role which he sadististically relishes. But by now he has descended into such a swamp of criminal corruption that there seems no way back for him at the series end.
Walter's ultimate fate is similar to that faced by another ruthless criminal character, Tony Soprano at the end of the great Sopranos series. For all of his past violent deeds, Tony got a suitable payback: a sudden bullet to the back of the head in a Jersey dinner booth. The abrupt black-out ending was a shocker, but a brilliant metaphor for Tony's own end in the amoral blackness he existed in.
That stunning series finale set a high bar for Breaking Bad to follow. Whatever is waiting for Walter White could be the result of his own new found arrogance, an innocuous error that he makes, or a sheer, random disastrous event. But whatever happens to Walter must be an inevitable outgrowth from this contradictory character and the moral complexities of this outstanding crime series.
We've watched Walter's corrosive transformation from high school chemistry teacher to meth lab cook to ruthless drug kingpin. Early on, Walter learned there are only two basic values in the brutal world of the meth business: Power and Survival. Walter began only wanting to survive, soon making ever harsher moral choices in order to do so. He has finally achieved a position of power himself, a role which he sadististically relishes. But by now he has descended into such a swamp of criminal corruption that there seems no way back for him at the series end.
Walter's ultimate fate is similar to that faced by another ruthless criminal character, Tony Soprano at the end of the great Sopranos series. For all of his past violent deeds, Tony got a suitable payback: a sudden bullet to the back of the head in a Jersey dinner booth. The abrupt black-out ending was a shocker, but a brilliant metaphor for Tony's own end in the amoral blackness he existed in.
That stunning series finale set a high bar for Breaking Bad to follow. Whatever is waiting for Walter White could be the result of his own new found arrogance, an innocuous error that he makes, or a sheer, random disastrous event. But whatever happens to Walter must be an inevitable outgrowth from this contradictory character and the moral complexities of this outstanding crime series.
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