This post contains spoilers for Breaking Bad as well as Better Call Saul, so tread carefully if you haven’t watched it yet!
Spoiler
My love for this show grows more with each passing week. This prompted me to begin rewatching Breaking Bad over the weekend, and while I’m only up to the fifth episode of the second season it seems to me that Better Call Saul might very well trump it for interesting, thought-provoking and just downright beautiful cinematography. I could be wrong, and as I work my way through the five seasons of Breaking Bad I may well notice a similar trend, but I think there’s been a very definite development in the intervening period in Vince Gilligan’s approach towards that aspect of his filmmaking, to the extent that virtually every shot he conceives and executes in his new show seems to function as a genuine talking picture. I’m very aware that what I’m watching is art, and art that needs very little in the way of cheap frills to embellish it.
I’m fully convinced that they are little aspects of the story that I would have missed had scenes not been framed in a very specific way cinematically. Watching it last night, for example, I was struck by how similar Gus and Mike are. No wonder one ends up working for the other, I thought to myself as the shot widened to show the two standing across from each other in the deserted parking lot (as well as how big Gus’ feet looked – was he wearing clown shoes or what?) One is a wealthy distributor of narcotics who nonetheless drives around in what appears to be an old Volvo and spends his days working up a sweat at a fast food restaurant; the other could probably retire in a few months on the kind of money he could command in a certain line of work that’s available to him, but chooses instead to sit in a little booth doing crossword puzzles all day and in this episode refuses a massive wedge of cash on principle.
No doubt they each have their own reasons for living how they do, certainly one of them is virtually compelled to live well within his means lest he attract unwanted attention, yet when Gus smiles and asks Mike to come and work for him it seems a lot more fundamental than that. These two men share something in common, namely humility. Later on in the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul universe, Gus will hire Walter White based solely on his flair for producing quality narcotics, but the fit is bad from the start and the relationship is doomed to failure. The personalities involved are simply too different, Walt too keenly aware of his own worth, I dare say too arrogant. Whatever else you can say about Gus Fring you could never accuse him of arrogance or flamboyance, anymore than you could Mike. The fit seems perfect and it’s easy to see why Mike, once he eventually agrees, remains a loyal associate right up until Gus’ eventual death.
By the way, this train of thought was prompted by a mere two-minute scene (crowned by Gus’ killer line that a bullet in the head would be too humane for Hector Salamanca). Leaving aside comparisons between the respective cinematic qualities of both shows, it’s clear that Gilligan’s ability to create and develop compelling characters is undimmed. Roughly the first half of this latest episode contained not a single trace of Jimmy, Kim or Chuck, and I loved every second of it. The way he’s built, and continues to build, on the existing Breaking Bad universe, expertly weaving the strands of both together, has been extraordinary. I confess to currently being downright giddy at the prospect of seeing how Hector ends up in that wheelchair, surely a scene that became locked-in for this season once Tuco’s uncle started flicking shit from his shoe onto Gus’ desk. As Alan mentioned earlier, if there were concerns that this show would be a mere spin-off, a diluted version of something vastly superior, surely they’ve now been expelled.
It isn’t just about Breaking Bad alumni, of course. I realised last night that with the main storyline threading the season, namely Chuck’s attempts to have Jimmy disbarred and the disintegrating relationship between the two brothers, now set towards its inevitable conclusion (whatever that may be – I could have done with an extra two hours in last night’s episode, to be honest), the character I’m now most rooting for to come out of it with a win is Kim. This became clear to me when she stood facing Howard and Chuck after Jimmy’s hearing and I suddenly felt the unmistakeable urge to chin Howard on her behalf.
Kim, I have to say, was a slow-burner for me from day one. There’s not a whole lot of backstory there in terms of history or family, no sudden deviations (and attendant character development) caused by traumatic life events like a son being killed by crooked cops (Mike), a partner and best friend being murdered by the Mexican cartel (Gus), or contracting lung cancer (Walt), no major screen time devoted solely to Kim herself beyond, perhaps, her efforts to secure Mesa Verde as a client in season 2 which was primarily driven by a desire to get out of Howard’s bad books. Her character exists mainly in terms of Jimmy, and yet that’s fine because her warmth and humanity towards this most flawed of individuals speaks volumes for her. She’s loyal, kind and thoroughly decent, and in the tradition of the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul universe, this means that she’ll probably meet a thoroughly depressing end.
Nonetheless in terms of this particular storyline, one that seems to be setting the scene for the final and total fracture of Jimmy and Chuck’s relationship, Kim seems to be the only one capable of emerging from the wreckage with anything of worth. It seems clear now that, regardless of whether Jimmy retains some vestiges of a fraternal bond with Chuck, it’s not going to end well. Either he continues along as before in a toxic relationship with a brother who has little or no respect for him, or he loses the last connection he has with his family. The same is true for Chuck – lose his last remaining family member, a brother who for all his faults has taken care of him with patience for what appears to be a number of years, or remain stuck with someone with a criminal past who, as far as he’s concerned, disgraces his profession.
But Kim sticking it directly to HHM and Howard (the man who banished her to the document research room with the interns out of some perceived personal slight) in a courtroom? What’s not to like?
