Better Call Saul

Every element of this show remains among the best on TV, but what struck me most about the first two episodes of season three was the deliberate, confident pacing.

Based on the first two episodes, Saul is making a case that it could be even better than “Breaking Bad” (and do brush up on your Bible stories).

Better Call Saul grows more ironic and tragic with each subsequent episode.

From what we’ve seen the show’s commitment to smart, engaged, and challenging storytelling has yet to falter. There are sequences that will make you ask questions. There are sequences that will offer very little explanation. But in pushing to understand, the experience becomes all the more richer.

The beauty is in the discovery of how much terrain there can be for setting up the chess pieces for the world of Breaking Bad. Co-creators Gilligan and Peter Gould make sure to walk you through it at a slow pace, so you can admire the cacti.

Regardless of where we are in this strange voyage, it’s obvious that Gilligan and Gould are accelerating Jimmy toward his grimmer future. The third season opens with a heavier atmosphere leaning more into the drama of the tale, so much that one may forget that it was originally conceived as a half-hour sitcom.

The larger point is that, with all this character growth continuing, the already superb Better Call Saul is in a position to take its biggest creative leap yet. It's not a surprise that we will eventually get to Jimmy McGill becoming Saul Goodman, but it's certainly surprising just how heartbreaking that transformation has become.

This isn’t a story taking place in a parallel timeline to Breaking Bad, but one traveling down the same terrible track. And, like Saul Goodman’s most important client once said, nothing stops this train. All we can do is travel along it with these superb actors and the gifted writers, directors, and editors who keep the train moving, trusting that we’ll be wildly entertained even as it takes us someplace we keep hoping it won’t.

The dots that link the events of Better Call Saul to Breaking Bad are slowly but surely being joined, and we can rest assured after another excellent start to the season that the journey will provide plenty to be excited about.

Wicked and shrewd, Better Call Saul has the suspense of a thriller and the emotion of a family saga.

Although Fring’s first arrival is, unshockingly, a muted one, the sight of Giancarlo Esposito as a fast-food manager may nevertheless dislodge a few tense memories in the Breaking Bad fan’s brain. Remember the careful way he assembled his fish stew? Remember the precise manner he used to cut an underling’s throat? What a fitting addition to the Saul story: a devil who works in details.

It’s definitely a slow-burn start to season three, but aspects of episode two suggest viewer patience will be rewarded--eventually.

Season 2’s balance of these elements was nearly perfect, but when the story shifts back to Jimmy in Season 3 the energy change is palpable. Odenkirk again lights up every scene, imbuing Jimmy with not only excessive charisma but a large degree of pathos.

Complications, and they are many, ensue.

This prequel is worth watching because it asks more of itself. And the amount of jailhouse imagery in the season three advertising campaign, coupled with the trajectory of the two episodes screened for critics, suggests that Jimmy’s and Mike’s paths will continue diverging. But there is this force that we know unites them in the future.

The two Season 3 episodes made available to critics feature both familiar strengths and weaknesses of the series so far.