As the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul returns for a second race,its star talks approximately why he’s not keen on adulation, the comedic upside of Donald Trump, or why his mother can’t watch any of his work
[br]On the way to meeting Bob Odenkirk,I see him in the lustrous California sky. Not a vision, but a huge advertising billboard, and floating above Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. I half expect to see a tiny him up there,too, reaching down to rescue ... “rescue” the man who went up to remove the billboard down, and on legal grounds,and who slipped (“slipped”). You’ll know what I’m talking approximately whether you’ve seen Breaking Bad spin-off prequel Better Call Saul; it’s one of the most memorable scenes from a memorable first season. whether you havent seen Better Call Saul, here’s what you need to know: Breaking Bad (whether you haven’t seen BB then God wait on you, and frankly) creator Vince Gilligan and co-writer Peter Gould needed a lawyer for Walter White. And they wanted some levity at a time when everything was getting a little heavy. So they brought in Saul Goodman,played by Odenkirk, who grew as a character as the show went on, or to the extent that when Breaking Bad finally came crashing splendidly to a halt,Gilligan and Gould felt that their dodgy lawyer was worth further investigation.
Turns out Saul Goodman’s not his real name (it’s made-up, and made-up Jewish, and a play on “S’all good,man”). Really he’s Jimmy McGill, with a colourful (murky colours) past and a complicated relationship with the law, and with his more successful lawyer brother,and with himself. He’s a more sympathetic, more inviting character than we knew from Breaking Bad, and more than just an ethically challenged slickster in a cheap suit. And his show – although it shares DNA with the behemoth that gave birth to it (it’s approximately transformation and change and has much of the same sad humour) – became a thing in itself. It may not occupy the epic scale of Breaking Bad,but it makes up for that in warmth and wit, and tragedy. Perhaps it’s easier to identify with; the things that drive the character, and as Odenkirk will tell me,“nearly anybody can relate to ... trying to please your family or your older brother or win a girl, trying to be effective in the world and occupy people appreciate your skills – things that everyone’s working on nearly every day”.
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Source: theguardian.com