In 2008, a guy who was broke at the time named Vince Gilligan introduced us to a series that would become a favorite of millions (myself included): Breaking Bad.
She wasn’t a hit right away: she almost had the success of the first season, almost all of the iconic characters killed off in the first season, like Jesse Pinkman, but when she starred on Netflix, the series caught on! Final more than a phenomenon and with its perfect in 203, left us.
“Breaking Bad” (2008 – 2013)
How to recover knowing that we wouldn’t have new episodes with those characters we’ve grown to love?
Just two years later, in 2015, Gilligan came with yet another gift for fans: Better Call Saul, which told us the story of Saul Goodman, the “criminal lawyer” from Breaking Bad (as he is called by Jesse) and his adventures before to meet Walter White!
And it was love at first sight!
In the first episode we saw the return of Mike and Tuco. And soon we would be meeting new characters that would win us over immediately, like Kim and Saul’s brother Chuck.
Tuco Salamanca and Mike Ehrmantraut
We saw that, unlike Walter in Breaking Bad, Saul (Jimmy as he was known) was not a nice guy and became an anti-hero, but rather that he was always a manipulator and it only got worse over time and ended up getting worse. with the lives of everyone around him.
But then, how can we like and root for the main character? Simple: Due to Bob Odenkirk’s unique charisma and the sensational script of the entire series.
Let’s get to know 7 curiosities of this work of art:
1 – BOB ODENKIRK HAS ALREADY WON AWARDS AS A SCREENWRITER
Bob Odenkirk, lawyer Saul (Jimmy McGill at the beginning of the plot), protagonist of the series, has already won two Emmy awards (top US TV award) as screenwriter. One of the awards was given in 1989 for his work on the humorous “Saturday Night Live” in 1975 (weird, but that’s right) and the other for the program “The Ben Stiller Show” in 1992. In addition, the actor was nominated for the award. for Best Screenplay other times at the awards.
Another curiosity of the actor is that he has worked as a DJ on the radio at his university, WIDB, in Illinois, his home state, well before becoming an actor.
ISTA
2 – THE ORIGIN OF SAUL GOODMAN’S NAME
Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, wanted to name the character Saul Good in an analogy to the English saying “It’s all good” and in order to sound a very memorable name to the dubious lawyer’s clients. When another screenwriter suggested the surname be “Goodman”, there was no other: the team loved the sound of the nickname and the fact that the first name rhymes with “Call”.
Before using the pseudonym in the law business, Jimmy used it as a stage name for the production of television commercials, as seen in some episodes.
3 – REFERENCES BY STANLEY KUBRICK
Shot with 4K resolution digital cameras, Better Call Saul takes as a reference the photographic style of one of the masters of cinema, Stanley Kubrick.
From the rule stipulated by the director of “The Shining” (1980), in making the first image of the film the most intriguing for the audience to framing what is in the scene following the perspective of a central point.
4 – THE COLORS OF THE COSTUMES
Since Breaking Bad, every little detail in the scene isn’t free. Better Call Saul relies heavily on color psychology to represent specific sensations to the audience.
Peter Gould, the show’s co-creator, has already stated that warm colors like red are commonly associated with the criminals in the story, in contrast to the cooler tones, dedicated to figures considered innocent.
Notice, for example, the color tones of Tuco Salamanca’s robes compared to Kim Wexler’s, while Jimmy’s shirts and ties are more prone to flashy colors, which, depending on the situation, are still warm.
Kim Wexler
5 – IS CHUCK REALLY A VILLAIN?
Played brilliantly by Michael McKean, Chuck was a very impatient brother to Jimmy. He never hid that he never believed in Jimmy’s potential (mostly for good reason), as he kept and rescued past resentments at the slightest sign of friction between the two.
However, it took a while for Gilligan to realize that he had a huge antagonist on his hands.
“Believe it or not, the idea of Chuck being the ‘bad guy’ was a late addition to Season 1,” the co-creator explained, still in 2015. “It points to one of the reasons I love writing for TV the most. enough episodes and runtime (if you’re lucky) for writers to change direction of a theme midway.”
Chuck’s character is so complex, it’s interesting to do an exercise: what if you were seeing the series through Chuck’s eyes? Would you really be rooting for the cheating little brother, who most of the time only gets things done by being charismatic and unscrupulous? Or would you cheer for the older brother who, despite being more scowling, always conquered things with great effort?
It’s worth thinking from this angle.
6 – CHARACTERS KNOWN TO THE PUBLIC
We can meet up again with many characters who went through Breaking Bad. Antagonists like Tuco, Mike Ehrmantraut, Hector Salamanca, Gus Fring, the twins, and even Huell presented us with their presence.
Gus Fring
Even Saul’s secretary Francesca was introduced to Better Call Saul as a helpful employee working in Jimmy and Kim’s joint office, and later called on to work with Jimmy alone.
7 – WOULD BETTER CALL SAUL BE A COMEDY?
Seen practically as a comic relief within the plot of Breaking Bad, Bob Odenkirk’s wonderful interpretation guaranteed the production of the spin-off series that, even before Breaking Bad ended, was already of great interest to Sony and AMC.
However, Vince Gilligan had no idea what the series would be like and even considered doing a story that took place after Breaking Bad.
The producer also considered turning it into a comedy show with comedians making cameos each week, handing Saul a problem that would be fun to watch.
Although the idea was interesting, we saw that it was completely discarded and that it was much better executed being a drama series.
Better Call Saul is an incredible series and it represents well being a prequel to Breaking Bad, another masterpiece.
And you? Also love the series?