For seven years,Better Call Saul has been successful against all odds. Conceived as a spin-off of Breaking Bad AMC At the height of crime dramaSaul could work . Was his hour-long drama about the character - a low-talking bawdy lawyer played by Bob Odenkirk -, in all intents and purposes, just comic relief? The only word more ominous to viewers than 'spin-off' was 'prequel', andSaul was both. Half of the cast are over the age of 15 for the roles he plays. Still, this didn't matter. Whether you think Saul outperforms its predecessor or not, he's teamed up with creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould to create a brilliant, compelling, and endlessly original series and silenced nearly all skeptics. This was true to the end.
Saul closed last night (August 15th) with "Saul Gone". Confront his many, many misdeeds. “So Gone” opens with a man on the run after being brought in by the police by Marion (Carol Burnett) at the end of last week’s episode. This is necessarily short-lived. For the last half season, Jimmy clearly acted like a man desperate to get caught. Finally, he is. To add a little legal firepower, Jimmy hires his old buddy Bill his Oakley (the always funny Peter Disces). But in the end, what Jimmy is after is not a legal calculation, but a moral one.
Interspersed with scenes of Jimmy in custody – filmed in black and white, as all 'present' sequences were – are a series of flashbacks. Each shows a conversation Saul had with someone: Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), Walter White (Bryan Cranston), and his younger brother Chuck (Michael McKean). In a clumsy script, this comes across as a sentimental indulgence. Instead, the scene remains laser-focused on the issue at hand: Jimmy himself. No attempt is made to steal focus. All of these characters have had their moments in the sun. All eyes are now on Saul and Odenkirk. Former Mr. Show comedian Saul turned out to be a surprise. If last week's "Waterworks" gave Lea Seehorn the spotlight on the climax of her dazzling character work, "Saul Gone" represents, for my money, Odenkirk's best acting of the entire run.
Breaking Bad's bullet-puffed finale pleased the majority of viewers and critics at the time, but its reputation has faded since. . Too pretentious to begin with, not enough mercurial quirkiness to make it such a special series in the first place. The show has always excelled at visual storytelling, trusting its viewers to notice and interpret various symbols and mirror images without over-explaining things. “Saul Gone” is dense with them, evoking numerous images from past episodes to absolutely devastating effect.
Sometimes, letting things unfold calmly is the most moving and satisfying ending. In Bang v Wimper, this judge will rule in favor of the defendant.
