‘Better Call Saul’: Showrunner talks Saul Goodman, ‘Breaking Bad’ spin-off’s quirks

And the most-anticipated show of 2014 to yet to film a single shred of footage is … “Better Call Saul”? It may sound crazy, but it’s true. The “Breaking Bad” spin-off will be starting off with the weight of all of the original show’s fans on its shoulders, and it’s going to be tough. People will hate the spin-off just because they’ll compare it to “Breaking Bad”, and they will probably not show much in the way of remorse for doing so even if the show changes their minds later. Also, you have to prove that Bob Odenkirk is perfect leading man material, and there is enough of this Saul character to sustain, especially if this is a prequel and you already know where the journey ends.

One of the interesting aspects that the character’s creator (and the spin-off’s showrunner) Peter Gould is excited to explore in the new series is just how this man got to be so good at his job in the first place. In an interview with Yahoo! TV, Gould answered a question on the subject with the following:

“Yes, that’s part of the paradox of Saul Goodman and one of the things that made him fun, even right back in that first episode. He looks like a clown. Frankly, I’ve been hanging around in courtrooms lately, and it’s not as broad as I thought originally. He dresses in a ridiculous way, he’s got billboards, he’s got ridiculous ads, but he is a shrewd customer. If you listen, most of his advice to Walt over the years in the show was really good advice. If Walt had listened to Saul a little bit more, I think the show would have gone very differently and probably would not have been as exciting.” 

Gould later confirmed that he has been doing research in courtrooms for the show, which is a suggestion that you will see a lot more of this part of the character’s life this time around then you did in “Breaking Bad.” But this makes sense, given that you’ll see more of him doing everything.

Personally, our simple hope for the new show is that it gives you some of that classic Saul, and if there are sequel elements, that it’s framed around seeing him in modern-day Nebraska, that way we can at least have some hope that we are also going to know about some of the later chapters of his life.

In case you missed it earlier this fall, we compiled a list of almost everything that we’ve had an opportunity to learn about this spin-off so far.

Photo: AMC