TeeVee Casualty: Is Better Call Saul superior to Breaking Bad?

Maybe, maybe not. But last week’s format break truly slingshot the prequel to “best show on television” status.

Hmmmm….wonder what Dave Cross is up to? (Pic: AMC)

WARNING! Potential spoilers lurk within this text, if you’re one of the few who’ve yet to audit last week’s episode - proceed with caution.

Episode by episode in this, its sixth and final season, Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul’s steadily upped its already superior game. The tale of how third-rate lawyer/former con artist Jimmy “Slippin’ Jimmy” McGill became highly-successful-yet-sleazy criminal lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) in the years before Walter “Heisenberg” White and Jesse Pinkman arrived and turned his life topsy turvy earned its place in creator Vince Gilligan’s universe. The writing, storytelling, casting and acting were at the same level, enhanced by the humanizing backstory it wove: McGill struggled to win the approval of troubled genius older brother Chuck (played by seasoned comic actor Michael McKean, AKA Lenny, AKA David St. Hubbins). Then there were the occasional fast-forwards to the drab, black & white hell of Goodman’s present: Managing that Omaha Cinnabon of his final words to Walter White, as balding, dour Gene Takavic. That’s been the most hilarious extended punchline delivery in TV history.

But this season? It’s like Gilligan and partner Peter Gould attached turbo-boosters to his creation. The cinematography is the most dazzling and inventive anywhere – film, TV, you name it. It’s consistently clear, dynamic, and unusual, greatly enhancing the storytelling. And the stories being told! Goodhearted Nacho Varga’s (MIchael Mando) inevitable rush to his end! The sociopathic Lalo Salamanca’s dogged lust for revenge! The long con pranks Goodman and partner-in-crime Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) enact on Patrick Fabian’s hubristic, condescending Howard Hamlin, ultimately ending in his murder at the business end of Salamanca’s smoking barrel in the Goodmans’ apartment! It’s been as rocky a thrill-ride as Breaking Bad’s final season.

And yet, just when you think BCS is gonna zig? It zags. Hard.

Episode 9, “Fun And Games,” was shocking enough. Did anyone see Kim leaving both the law and Saul/Jimmy? That was gut-wrenching, and understandable – Howard was just murdered in front of them in their living room! And it’s all their fault! If they could just have refrained from pranking/discrediting him…! Then a dissolve into Saul Goodman’s garish, excessive penthouse world – prostitute in his bed, a psychedelic/Technicolor wardrobe, dismissal of his date with an invitation to take a muffin on her way out, and a seamless bluetooth conversation with assistant Francesca (Tina Parker) from the breakfast table to the over-the-top flag-waving storefront office so familiar from Breaking Bad.

The message: The transformation’s complete.Jimmy McGill is dead. The Saul Goodman virus has fully swamped every cell of the host body.

But last week! Episode 10 began innocuously enough in Gene Takavic’s gray Omaha universe. Which is fine –  we haven’t seen his humorously dull “adventures” all season. In fact, have we even seen him since he was recognized as Saul by bullying cab driver Jeff (Don Harvey) way back in Season Five?  Curiously, once the camera cuts from supermarket shopping cart wheels to people, it isn’t Gene we see, but Carol Burnett! She’s welcome onscreen anytime, even as an elderly woman in a motorized cart, negotiating a supermarket checkout line.

Well, here’s Bob and Carol. Where’s Ted and Alice? (Pic: AMC)

So where’s Gene? Oh, he’s tacking up flyers for a lost dog, Nippy (also the episode’s title, whimsically). Burnett’s motorized cart stalls on some sidewalk-obstructing snowdrift, and Gene rushes to her aid. Then disables the cart, snipping battery terminal wires.

What in the name of Slippin’ Jimmy’s goin’ on here?! And how will this be resolved since this has to be yet another cold-open fast-forward?

Well, it isn’t. After a disrupted title sequence, we discover this is a Gene Takavic episode! 

Turns out Gene isn’t entirely rid of Slippin’ Jimmy’s DNA. He’s running another con. Ingratiating himself into an invitation to drinks at Burnett’s house, Jeff walks in. And freezes. Carol’s character is his mom. 

Yep, Saul’s been researching Jeff, and has something up his sleeve.

There is one problem here, though. In one of this episode’s – and the series’ – few missteps, this is a different Jeff. Literally. Don Harvey was replaced by actor Pat Healy, who has none of Harvey’s intimidating swagger. Healy’s Jeff is irritated at seeing Gene/Saul in his kitchen, but this guy is no threat. Whereas Harvey’s Jeff nearly caused Gene to hit the self-destruct button on his current life, before opting to take matters into his own hands.

Saul reemerges to trick Jeff into committing a crime, a bit of “mutually assured destruction” to ensure he’d never be turned in for the sizable bounty on Saul’s head. He tricks Jeff and a friend into robbing a department store in the same mall as the Cinnabon location, From there, the episode becomes a deftly executed Ocean’s Eleven/Thomas Crown Affair heist-film-in-miniature, complete with split-screens, quick cuts and montages galore, as Gene ingratiates himself with a security guard (Parks & Rec’s Jim O’Heir) with weeks of free Cinnabons and faked college football expertise. He was just trying to scope out the crime scene, see?

Tellingly, Saul scams Jeff and his pal into lifting exactly the sorta garish designer wear that was his trademark in his former life. Later, we see the glint in his eye as Gene returns to the department store to size up some Saul-esque shirt and tie combo that makes toothpicks out of the scenery, even in black & white. Or as he drops the hammer on Jeff about all the serious laws he just broke, other than the ones of which he was aware. 

Yeah, he misses Saul, and Saul’s life. And Saul isn’t lurking too far beneath Gene Takavic’s surface. But what’s going on here? Is Saul fixing to take over the host again? We may or may not find out tonight. The third -to-last Better Call Saul episode is titled “Breaking Bad.” Saul Goodman’s first appearance on Breaking Bad was an episode called “Better Call Saul.” Does this mean Walter and Jesse finally appear, as Vince Gilligan’s intimated? Maybe. Or maybe we get another all-Gene episode. Most likely, the way this season has unfolded, whatever they choose to do will be thrilling and innovative, completely shattering every expectation. That’s what’s elevated this season of Better Call Saul into episodic television’s finest hour. Shame its reign ends in three weeks. But it baits the breath for whatever Gilligan and Peter Gould devise next.

Thanks for reading. If you like what you’ve read, please feel free to hit the subscribe button on your way out, and please share on your way out. Also, what are your thoughts? Have you similarly been dazzled with this season of Better Call Saul? Or do you think I’m way off-mark? Please let me know in the comments. I welcome all feedback and discussion.

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