At a PaleyFest event in February, Gilligan and Gould stressed repeatedly that they dont have as much of a grand plan for the show as fans and critics would like to believe. Theyd expected that Jimmy might have adopted the Saul Goodman moniker by the end of Season 1, but the writing hasnt led them there to date. Their process, instead, has been to find the story in the telling of it, and its only in the hopeful minds of fans that it might one day wrap up with Saul Goodman shaking hands with Walter White. This was the same approach taken for Breaking Bad too, so why break with a winning formula?
People have an immense amount of patience for well-crafted storytelling and they dont really need those bells and whistles, continues Odenkirk. What you get in Saul is the very high standard [Vince and Peter] set themselves, and we all get to trust that were going somewhere.
Banks thinks that if Better Call Saul does no more than tap the rich backstory of these characters, itll have heightened the experience of Breaking Bad no matter where it ends up. Theres a lot to be seen. Youve never seen Mike be treated gently, for example, and I have a feeling its one of those things where the weakness in the beast is when somebody shows tenderness. But I like the mystery of Mike. He was separate in Breaking Bad and hes separate in Better Call Saul. He lives out there
somewhere else.
Still, if the Mike we meet in Saul isnt too far removed from the one we meet in Bad, its in Odenkirks fragile, naïve Jimmy McGill that we find a real distance still to travel. Not to mention an extreme difference in tone from the high-stakes crime of Breaking Bad to a quieter, more pensive drama that has dealt with topics as thrilling as elder law and Cocobolo desks. More than once, Banks heaps praise on his co-star for making Jimmy compelling enough to sell that shift. Taking this show was a huge risk for all of us, but Ill never stop blowing smoke for Bobby, because he came in, did page after page after page of monologue, and he deserves to give himself credit for pulling it off.
Odenkirk screws his face up, but Banks persists. No, you do. I know youre self-critical, but you gotta give yourself so much credit for what you did with this character.
Yeah, but I had nothing at stake, Jon, Odenkirk counters. I had no status in this world as a dramatic actor that I could lose. I was a comedy and sketch writer, and that was who I was, and I was lucky enough not to have been famous enough as a comic actor that I had anything to work against.
Banks rolls his eyes. Bobby will yammer and yammer, as he always does, but this is what it fking came down to: he did it.
Two years from now, then I will brag.
Well Im gonna brag on you now, because you deserve it.
