BETTER CALL SAUL

You may be familiar with the character name Saul Goodman, the resourceful lawyer for Walter White from Breaking Bad? With this comedic serial, Better Call Saul, streaming now on Netflix, you will get to know him a little bit better. Saul Goodman first went by the name Jimmy McGill and this original series showcases his life six years prior to ever meeting Walter White.

We get time-warped back into Saul’s younger years, watching television ads that were made when he was a struggling defense attorney and better known by his birth name Jimmy. Jimmy arrives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to look after his brother Chuck, who has gone through some serious traumatic distress. In Albuquerque, Jimmy McGill is a simple small town lawyer, mainly working with civil liberty claims and small time criminals.

The first season is filled with flashbacks of Jimmy’s brother bailing him out of jail and later, Jimmy taking care of his brother. We see him attempt to scam a couple accused of embezzling 1.6 million dollars by staging a skateboard accident. When the con artist hired to pull off the scam targets the wrong car and ends up being kidnapped by a notorious gangster by the name of Tuco Salamanca, Jimmy finds himself at the wrong end of Tuco’s gun. Jimmy somehow is able to talk his way out of being killed and persuades Tuco to spare the skateboarders’ lives as well at the cost of having their legs broken instead.

One thing that has not changed through his years: Jimmy is always trying to scam his way for the things he wants, and this often leads him into precarious situations.

As the antics continue, Jimmy is constantly stuck trying to reach a respectable lawyer status. He mostly assists with wills and small legal matters, but stumbles across a claim that one of his clients is being overcharged. He gathers enough evidence to back the claim by piecing together the shredded paperwork he retrieved from a dumpster. Anxious to present the evidence, Chuck knows they can win the case against the nursing home. But instead of Jimmy being hired to represent the case, another lawyer is hired. Jimmy is, of course, outraged once again for being overlooked and discovers that his brother is the cause.

The series sets the stage for how the small town lawyer Jimmy McGill merges into the more abrasive lawyer Saul Goodman portrayed in Breaking Bad. Those who are fans of the Breaking Bad series will love this prequel.