‘Better Call Saul’: The golden age of TV continues to shine

With the latest episode of Better Call Saul set to premiere on August 16, it’s time to think we’re in the midst of a new golden age of TV. Or perhaps before his swan song, depending on the optimism of each viewer. After a third era started by The Sopranos in 1999 and continued with titles such as The Wire, Mad Men and the same “breaking Bad”, the last of Vince Gilligan D Peter Gould joins a portfolio of series that have achieved the goal of commercial success without giving up on being a bold and valuable TV product in narrative and aesthetic terms. Something more than just entertainment.

Because along with The Heirs, The Boys, The Gap, and more, the fiction about small-time lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) picks up what critic Brett Martin noticed in his book The People of the Show. : “own art form”. With a screenplay laced with silence and a visual style indebted to high-end cinematography, “Better call Saul” stands out at a time when platforms streaming they can overwhelm the average viewer with a plethora of superhero, multiverse, and drama stories. centennial.

The slow-cooked series tended to dip its nose into the psychology of its characters from the start rather than favoring high-voltage action. Yes “breaking Badhad an episode in The Fly that came out of the corset of the standard narrative, how many of the same type did its prequel give us? It was enough to see its sixth season: A little over halfway through, Gilligan and Gould decided to kill off their greatest villain, Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton), to slow down the frantic pace, impose an anti-climax, and focus on who should be in charge. drama weight. : A dodgy lawyer turned friend of the cartel.

Thus plunging into the fetters of his creatures and their respective frictions,Better call Saulbrought back the Shakespearean breath that oxygenated much of the third golden age of the small screen. Family dramas, power struggles, human passions, and other themes that the Bard of Avon had pushed to the limit—responsible for the invention of man, as the critic Harold Bloom would say—could be seen re-enacted in Albuquerque, transformed almost into a necropolis. It was, to use the title of Jorge Carrión’s book, “teleshakespeare” in its purest form.

“Better Call Saul” is no better or worse than “Breaking Bad”: only on the same level

In December 2013, there was unanimous applause when Vince Gilligan announced that he would be helming a prequel to “breaking Bad”. Seal showrunner it was synonymous with quality, a guarantee that the high level of creativity achieved by the tandem of White and Pinkman would be preserved in the new work of art. But several critics at once also raised their eyebrows: why keep circling around a story that has already given everything? How much novelty could this lawman, a specialist in money laundering and serving selfish drug dealers, hide under his colorful costumes?

The first season, released in February 2015, dispelled all doubts. Well, though”Better call Saulretained echoes of its parent series and evoked a certain nostalgia for it, while at the same time offering broad patterns of autonomy. After its masterful conclusion, there should be no more doubts about what this series has achieved on its own. It was like a birth: the umbilical cord that had supported him in the beginning fell off as new characters emerged and solidified in the story of Jimmy McGill, who became Saul Goodman and then turned into fugitive Gene Takavich.

In addition to reviewing the past of famous Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis), Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) and others, spin off he assembled a team of homies – lawyers, drug dealers and scammers, whose fate no one knew anything about. Lawyer Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), for example, has sparked growing curiosity in her quest to find her place between the lamb and the wolf. And so did Chuck McGill (Michael McKean), Saul’s hypochondriacal brother with a deadpan ethic who foreshadowed what his only remaining family member would be capable of.

To these two it would be worth adding the criminal Ignacio “Nacho” Varga (Michael Mando) and the lawyer Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian), who have also been given an authentic sense in fiction, far from being abused. cliffhanger and with the ellipsis as his best narrative ally, he has taken on an air of unpredictability capable of allowing him to meet his quotas. fan service without being the focus of its plot. The reappearance of Jesse Pinkman and Walter White made headlines, but more important to the story was Wexler’s return with a flawless performance from Seehorn that drew applause at home.

Of course, Saul Goodman led this exploration of morally ambiguous characters. Just as Walter White went from tragedy to evil in a masquerade game with Heisenberg, Jimmy McGill disintegrated—but thankfully not because of his comic streak—on his way to becoming a crazy tie lawyer with no problems. with child poisoning. the client requires it. This begs the question: Who am I? Was McGill a Saul Goodman mask? This modern tragicomedy deals with this erupting volcano as well as its magma.

And in this life, the derivative series has surpassed its parent series. Gilligan and Gould made us stop thinking about “breaking Bad”while we watched”Better call Saul”, despite the fact that deep down they have a lot in common, mainly the struggle between good and evil with its subsequent redemptions. This paradox alone is a feat in itself and makes us question the 2022 Emmys: what value do they have if they only give three nominations to a masterpiece? Its creators must know that there are things more important than tinsel. Because both series are already flying over the current television at the same height. There, right there.

EER+ 13 BETTER CALL SAUL went into BREAKING BAD mode and the result is great

Discussing the first half of the final season of Better Call Saul. We will only last 10 minutes WITHOUT SPOILERS to then comment on the future of Nacho Varga, Howard Hamlin and, of course, Saul Goodman and Kim Wexler. A separate chapter is dedicated to the HUGE VILLAIN Lalo Salamanca. It already scared us. Come and listen.