‘Better Call Saul’ is back for one last scam. The stakes have never been higher.

Bob Odenkirk chose his words carefully.

The actor and comedian, sitting on the couch at his home in Los Angeles, was trying to answer questions about the final season of “Better Call Saul,” his “Breaking Bad” spin-off series, without saying a word could be construed as a hoax.

“Of course I now know what will happen,” Odenkirk said matter-of-factly, “and I would love to talk about it with you.”

It seems odd that the final 13 episodes of “Better Call Saul” are so questionable before the season’s premiere on April 18. The show is a prequel to one of the most popular series in a season. Over the past century, that means millions of people around the world have learned that Odenkirk’s character, the low-paid Albuquerque mercenary and hapless public defender Jimmy McGill, plays as a drug attorney. flashy, pompous, known as Saul Goodman in “Breaking Bad”.

But the screenwriters of “Better Call Saul” always had more tricks up their sleeve.

Over the course of 50 intricately written episodes, co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have lured viewers into a collection of characters that don’t even appear in “Breaking Bad” – as far as we know. What fate will befall the besieged gang lieutenant Nacho Vargo (Michael Mando); Jimmy’s morally malleable partner, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn); white shoe lawyer Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian)? How exactly does their rich storyline intersect with that of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), the magical cooking antihero who started it all?

“I think the way ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’ come together in our final season will be a great satisfaction for all fans,” Odenkirk said in a chat. with Zoom, seems to weigh every syllable as he speaks.

Gould, for his part, recently confirmed that the final season will the presence of a guest by Cranston and Aaron Paul, the Emmy-winning actor who plays Walter’s accomplice, Jesse Pinkman.

“Better Call Saul,” like its hit predecessor, takes place in a certain shabby setting: the fringe life of early 2000s Albuquerque, an arid landscape of shopping malls. shopping malls, stucco motels and cheap office trailers in the middle of the Desert. Jimmy McGill started out living in a convenience store in the back of a nail salon, where he tried (and failed) to become an upper-level attorney but found more lucrative opportunities as a lawyer. a con artist and fixer for some of the city’s most wretched criminals.

The series debuted in 2015 and the fifth season started airing on AMC over two years ago, in late February 2020, right before Covid shut things down and delayed production on the final season. Production stalled shortly after Odenkirk have a heart attack and collapsed on set in July 2021. He returned to filming in early September and told NBC News he has recovered. 24 months after the most recent episode aired, “Saul” feels like a welcome blast from the past in many different ways.

The show is also said to be pre-existing, anticipating a wave of stories of daring killers covering documentary about the ill-fated Fyre Festival for scripted projects about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes (“School dropout”) and social media scammer Anna Delvey (“Invented Anna”). “Saul” is almost certainly the most poignant of the lot: a dark but deeply sad manga that portrays a man essentially addicted to lying, completely convinced that his Shamelessly cutting corners will win the respect he believes he deserves.

“Jimmy McGill is driven by resentment and a sense of punishment. He’s often led by feelings of vulnerability, rather than letting things go and making choices that don’t align with those feelings,” says Odenkirk. “I would rate it as a bad choice, but it’s their character [Gilligan and Gould] created, and they have to track it. “

Soul of ‘Saul’

“Breaking Bad” is one of the landmark shows of the celebrity television era, but “Saul”’s artistic achievement is not guaranteed. The prequel lacks the original “Mr. Chips-to-Scarface” egotistical and hit at a different tempo, light but fun. “Breaking Bad” is usually high octane; “Saul” is relatively more leisurely, with a defiant poodle spirit. However, there are plenty of violent shocks and mayhem as Jimmy gets tied more tightly to a vicious Juárez drug cartel and socially jovial Lalo Salamanca (a fearsome Tony Dalton).

“Saul” didn’t get the same massive ratings as “Breaking Bad” by Nielsen. But many fans and critics now believe the two shows are equal, contrasting in provocative ways. Walter White’s turn as a villain is on the level of Wagnerian ferocity, but Jimmy’s increasingly morally broken nature makes it all the more painful, like watching an unlucky friend slowly fade away. .

Seehorn, one of the show’s breakout performers, was also delighted to have the opportunity to illustrate Kim Wexler’s incredible evolution, portraying a character who lives in a gray zone between professional prowess and edginess. lack of morality.

“Personally, I find her very attractive. Surname [the writers] Allow room for hidden meanings. They do this to all the characters, but she [Kim] Seehorn said. The results may not be conceivable, she adds, “but instead, I was encouraged to pronounce the text in a way that allowed the audience to participate.”

The prequel series also delves deeper into the psyche of some of “Breaking Bad’s most intriguing characters,” such as the calmly calculating drug lord Gustavo “Gus” Fring (Giancarlo Esposito, unsurprised) and scenes former supervisor Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks, couldn’t have been better). In an interview, Esposito said he initially didn’t want to reprise his role in “Saul,” not sure if he could give new space to a popular villain with a tough character. his stone face.

“I had doubts,” Esposito said with a laugh, “and I had to talk to Vince about what the plan was. We had to come to an agreement that the mysterious nature of Gustavo, about his background, should be preserved. The prequel also gives Esposito some intriguing new notes: “Gus [on ‘Saul’] more tempered, less reserved. His cards are less close to the chest”.

Esposito’s character had a particularly terrible ending in “Breaking Bad” – Google it, if you have to, but you’ve been warned – and some “Saul” fans are wondering about the What violence or tragedy awaits their favorite characters. Mando – who plays Nacho, the underling of gangs trying to escape his brutal existence – said his character was pushed to the brink in season six, “with high stakes.” possible.”

“I never thought this would be a dream role for me, and it only really starts to make sense towards the end of this season. When you’re in there for five or six years, you can’t really look outside of what you’re doing, you’re too close to the picture,” Mando said. “The biggest surprise was how heroic, tragic and romantic the character is. I don’t want to play the stereotypical cartel guy, and I want to dedicate humanity to that part of the world.”

End of the road

The final season, which aired in two seasons – seven episodes in April and May, six episodes in July and August – paints a veil on a character Odenkirk has played for most of the past 13 years, defining redefining the career of the best-known adventure performer formerly known for the hit HBO sketch series “Mr. Show.” It also closes a chapter on a surrogate family that arose around the production process.

“It’s a real family,” Seehorn said. “We read all the time about actors on shows who say they get along well, and I hope most actors get along… but we’re real friends.”

During production three seasons ago, Odenkirk shared a house in New Mexico with Seehorn and Fabian, a witty talker who said he emulated his character’s distinctive move on Cary Grant.

“We were like a college acting troupe,” said Fabian with a laugh. “We would spend the day together, and then we would stay at home around the kitchen table and talk about what happened today and what will happen tomorrow,” adding that the housemates had Workout and run together between groceries and hiking.

“Patrick is the operations manager,” Odenkirk said affectionately. “Rhea and I are passionate actors – talk, talk, talking about them [expletive] characters,” Odenkirk joked. “We talked about motivation and theory, psychology and style of photography, breaking it down all day. It is a wonderful friendship and cooperation. ”

The final season could wrap up what happened to Jimmy after he fled Albuquerque following the events of “Breaking Bad” and reinvented himself anew as Gene Takovic, a man manager at a Cinnabon mall in Omaha, Nebraska. Odenkirk said he’s always believed it’s important that screenwriters don’t completely wrap the possibility of enlightenment — or something like that — to his small-screen alter-ego.

“I ask them to consider that sometimes people learn the right lessons. Walter White has a degree of self-awareness that he derives from his egotistical, selfish, and destructive path. You can call that a boon,” says Odenkirk. “I always wondered if Vince Gilligan believed that a person could learn the right lessons or grow in a positive direction, rather than just becoming weaker as they get older.”

He said Odenkirk’s request was to be “part of the conversation”. But of course, the actor is tight-lipped about the end of Jimmy McGill’s morally fraught adventure.

“I can’t tell you where it went. It is not black and white. I won’t declare the character to be a saint,” said Odenkirk, “because that’s not the case at all. ”

at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here