TV #9 of 2020:
Better Call Saul, season 4
My original review from 2018:
“I’ve mentioned this before, but one reason that I prefer Better Call Saul to its parent show is that Walter White has always struck me as being evil right from the start – Breaking Bad could be exciting and horrifying, but the story was never really about its fairly static main character; it was about his toxic effect on the people around him. Better Call Saul, in contrast, continues to offer a brilliant tragedy of its lead character’s moral decline, as the ongoing disappointments of the world grind him down into the jaded figure we know from the original show. That’s heartbreaking to watch, especially through the eyes of a character like Kim Wexler who knows and loves him (and whose ultimate fate, as someone neither seen nor referenced on Breaking Bad, remains the prequel’s greatest and most quietly devastating mystery).
This season edges us ever closer to Heisenberg’s eventual debut on the Albuquerque crime scene, and it’s a thrill to watch those pieces fall into place on both a plot and a character level. I don’t expect this show to end up with a higher episode count than Bad, but that still leaves the writers one or two more seasons to resolve all the lingering issues that this era has explored. Even though we’ve known from the start where the story is heading, there have been so many unexpected nuances that at this point I have no idea what to predict for the ultimate finale. But I have complete faith in this writing team to make it a poignant one.”
To which I’ll add in 2020 that this year also has great personal arcs for Kim and Mike, the latter of whom, like Jimmy/Saul, is being gradually shaped into the person he’ll soon be on Breaking Bad. One criticism I’ve heard about this show is that it’s answering backstory questions no one actually cared about: Where did Hector Salamanca get his bell? How did Gus Fring build his lab? And I’ll admit there’s some truth to that, especially in this season. But I don’t particularly watch for those logistics; I watch for the outstanding character moments which genuinely take my breath away on a pretty regular basis.
I haven’t yet seen any of the season that’s currently airing — now confirmed as the penultimate — but I’m so ready to dive back in with that next chapter of this universe. There’s guaranteed to be further heartbreak ahead as Jimmy McGill completes his transformation into Saul Goodman, and I can only hope for Kim (not to mention Nacho Varga) to somehow make it out of that alchemy intact.
★★★★★
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