“This show almost works better as two half-hour comedies”

AMC’s Better Call Saul tried something interesting, structurally, this week. Normally, the action flits between Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) and Mike (Jonathan Banks), who’s now involved with Gus Fring and Les Pollos Hermanos. Even though I enjoy both strands of the story, 48 or so minutes of extremely low-stakes drama with a known conclusion (the arrival of Walter White on the Albuquerque crime scene) can become slightly taxing.

Hence, I was really impressed by the experiment in this episode: the first 24 minutes were exclusively Mike and Gus: the former visited his granddaughter, while Giancarlo Esposito’s Fring (now listed on the main cast) was paid a visit by Hector Salamanca and some thugs at his esteemed eatery. Then, focus shifted to Jimmy’s continuing fight with Chuck, and followed them until the end of the episode (including a delightful reappearance by Mike, who visited Chuck with a loud power tool). I think this show almost works better as two half-hour comedies than one hour-long drama; such is the lack of suspense as to the outcome.

After popping up briefly last week, Esposito went Full Fring in this episode and was as frightening and charming as he was in Breaking Bad. Meanwhile, Chuck and Howard’s stubborn insistence on including the exact words “Cassette Tape” in Jimmy’s confession letter was despicably amusing. The first two episodes of Season 3 didn’t interest me enough to publish my thoughts, but Saul is now officially back in business.