**If, for some reason, you haven’t seen every episode of Breaking Bad and the first two episodes of Better Call Saul, I’d go ahead and file this blog under “things I shouldn’t read”**

Perfection. No other word to describe it. Biggest cable premier in history. 6.9 million viewers. From that first scene in Omaha on Sunday night, Breaking Bad fans were thrown right back into the cinematic jewel that is Vince Gilligan’s Albuquerque, New Mexico without skipping a beat. This was by far my most anticipated TV premier in my 24 years on Earth and boy did it deliver.

I was actually pretty nervous heading into it. Breaking Bad spoiled me. Before Walter White, if you gave me a show with characters I didn’t hate, a decent plot, an unexpected death or two and a cliffhanger at the end, I’d be game. Hell I thought “24” was literally the single greatest thing in the history of entertainment for a solid 6 years of my life (…it 100% was at the time). But never before had I paid attention to what color clothes a character was wearing, or the angle of the camera in a shot, or made mental notes of quotes in case of foreshadowing. Yes obviously the story of Breaking Bad was incredible, but it also changed the way I watch shows. How could Better Call Saul possibly measure up?

Vince Gilligan hit a no-doubt walk-off grand slam to win the World Series with Breaking Bad. Incredible story, yeah. Even more incredible performances from actors and actresses that hadn’t necessarily been there before. But after the success of the first two episodes of BCS, it’s pretty clear that he’s the coal that powers the engine. Yes, it’s going to be interesting to learn more about a character from BB that was universally well-received. Sure, all of the references back to BB were awesome. But take away the links to Breaking Bad, make Jimmy/Saul (FYI I’ll be using whichever name pops in my head first) a brand new character, have it set in Toronto…it’d still be awesome. It’s the way the story is told and the way the show is shot. It’s kind of a similar to an Aaron Sorkin-type situation (if you’re into that kind of thing). The way his shows are shot with walk-and-talks and quick-witted dialogue, that’s what make them awesome. You can apply it to whatever backdrop you want.

Uno

Talk about giving the people what they want. After Saul told Walter that “…in a month from now, best–case scenario, I’m managing a Cinnabon in Omaha,” towards the end of Breaking Bad, every idiot in your office was joking about him actually becoming the manager of a Cinnabon in Omaha. So what did BCS kick off the series with? Saul, as “Gene”, managing a Cinnabon in Omaha. Why not. Cool that they wasted no time giving us a BB callback. It also turned sour pretty quickly, with Gene returning home, pouring himself a Rusty Nail and popping in an old tape of Saul Goodman commercials from the good old days.

The first glimpse we have of Jimmy in his native environment is when he is defending a trio of high school students who broke into a bio lab, cut off the head of a cadaver and then banged it. **Tips cap to Gilligan once again** Such a perfect first case to see Saul try and win. He then meets with a state treasurer and his wife about potentially defending him in what we would later learn is a $1.5 million dollar embezzlement case. The treasurer has pen-in-hand before his wife talks him out of it.

On his way back from that meeting it was kind of funny to see Jimmy, not yet the full-blown criminal we’ve come to know and love, almost fall a victim to a scam that he would, later in life, probably view as the smallest potatoes he’s ever seen. A couple skateboard bros with curly hair try to put one over on him by jumping in front of his car and asking him how he’ll “fix it”. He sniffed out the con almost right away, telling us that even though this is a show about how Saul became Saul, there may have been some Saul in Jimmy even before BCS took place.

So Chuck = Saul’s brother. He founded the law firm of Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill but hasn’t been working there for some time due to an apparent mental illness (or “extended sabbatical”). Whenever someone comes to his house, they have to “ground” themselves (leave cell phones, keys in the mailbox). Someone on Reddit suggested a condition called “electromagnetic hypersensitivity”, and that’s as a far as I’m going with that. The firm is penning checks to Chuck but delivering them to Jimmy in the meantime, something Jimmy doesn’t particularly appreciate apparently. The entire scene of Jimmy going to the firm to question the checks and suggest they buy Chuck out of his share was one of my favorite scenes of the two episodes. His sleazeball personality was on full display as greeted everyone he saw and nobody gave a shit. This scene and the courtroom montage in Episode 2 put Bob Odenkirk’s talent on full display. Bryan Cranston was obviously genius as Walter in BB, but I’m not entirely sure we won’t see Odenkirk give him a run for his money by series’ end. Jimmy seeing the state treasurer bringing his business to HH&M on his way out was just icing on the cake.

Wrapping up the premier, Jimmy reconnects with the skater bros from earlier and tells them a story about “Slippin’ Jimmy” (lol), who used to pull off similar scams as they were attempting to do. He eventually joins forces with them and creates a plan to win the business of the treasurer by having his wife hit the brother with her car. Unfortunately they’re real fucking dumb and jump in front of the wrong car, which turned out to be none other than Tuco Salamanca’s grandmother.

Mijo

Morale of this episode? Don’t call the grandma of a psychotic methamphetamine pusher who beats people’s asses for fun a “biznatch”. That’s what the skater bros from episode 1 did, so Tuco promptly sent his sweet old grandma upstairs before breaking their noses with her cane.

Odenkirk earned his paycheck in this one, explaining himself out of a death sentence multiple times. Initially, when Tuco first brings him in the house, he convinces him he was just a lawyer who got a call from clients. Then when Tuco is ready to release the brothers, one of them spits out that Jimmy put them up to it, immediately turning the focus right back to Jimmy. Then once again in the first scene in our beloved New Mexico desert since BB, Jimmy convinces Tuco not only that this was a big misunderstanding, but to spare the lives of the brothers. Instead they just get a couple broken legs.

Jimmy has sort of a PTSD situation later on when he goes on a date with what was certainly a lady of the night. A fellow patron keeps breaking breadsticks in half, reminding him of tweedle dee and tweedle dumb’s respective femurs, and leads to Jimmy calling dinosaurs in the bar’s toilet.

Fast forward to the morning. Jimmy stumbled home to Chuck’s last night without grounding himself. Chuck tossed Jimmy’s cellphone into the front yard. Jimmy wakes up to Chuck wearing a space blanket. F***ing weird. But despite Jimmy’s clear disdain for his brother’s “condition” (“Take off the blanket. I didn’t do anything wrong.”), you could tell their love for one another was greater than that sickness or Jimmy’s pride. Jimmy was concerned about the checks earlier in the first episode, Chuck was concerned with the hospital bill he found in Jimmy’s pant pocket the night before.

Determined to make ends meet, the next scene was a montage straight out of Walt and Jesse’s lab in BB. Beautifully shot, it shows Jimmy working his tail off to defend the scum of the earth and rub his sleaze all over anyone who comes near him. “It’s show time!” was his go-to line during his pre-trial bathroom pep talks. I’d also be remiss to not mention the hilarious back-and-forth between Jimmy and your favorite senile old man from BB Mike Ehrmantraut, now working as a laid-back (and almost seemingly medicated) toll booth operator at the court house. It was honestly just a perfect couple minute summary of Saul’s beginnings as a criminal lawyer.

Even more fitting though, that scene ended with him in his closet-of-an-office, using the pull-out couch as a bed and drinking a short glass of cheap vodka out of a cup that wasn’t his. That’s when the first “client” we see comes to visit him — Tuco’s henchman Nacho. Armed with a plan to “win the business” of the treasurer on his own terms, Jimmy initially declines, but Nacho leaves his number on a matchbook with Jimmy’s name on it, for “when you figure out you’re in the game.” I’m guessing the coach is going to be calling Jimmy’s number pretty damn soon.

Breaking Bad Callbacks

• Saul Goodman
• The Cinnabon in Omaha
• The Cadillac Saul would eventually drive in BB parked next to his POS mustardmobile

 

• The garbage can he dented after the meeting at the lawfirm — the hand-towel dispenser Walt punched after his chemo treatment in BB
• Nacho and that other thug that tries to get Tuco to spare the brothers are both in BB (Tuco literally beats the thug to death in BB, and Saul is deathly afraid of Nacho in S2)
• Pretty sure Jimmy’s keys use the same red keyless entry keychain that Walt used to arm his turret in Felina
• The nail salon that Jimmy’s office is located in the back of –> the nail salon Saul suggests Jesse embezzle his money through in BB
• 
• Mike, obviously
• Saul lives on the same street as Gale Boetticher from BB (Juan Pablo)
• The courtroom montage –> Walt & Jesse cooking montage

• The confrontation in the desert –> like 15 thousand desert confrontations from BB

 

Let us know in the comments or @Bottlegate if we missed any BB references, or even if you just think this review was garbage. This will (hopefully) be a weekly thing where you can get your BCS recap for every episode.