The AMC “Breaking Bad” spinoff represents a sort of wish fulfillment for fans. We may have left Heisenberg behind, but we can still visit the world of Walter White and company in this origin story.
But if we thought we were in for a comedy starring Bob Odenkirk, we guessed mostly wrong. The sad, slow decline of a scrappy underdog depicted here, at least in the first three episodes, is more dramatic than humorous.
“Better Call Saul” premieres Feb. 8, locally at 8 p.m. on AMC.
The making of slimeball lawyer Saul Goodman, who began life as Jimmy McGill, a hustler working the angles in Albuquerque, will be a descent, all right; and there will be familiar faces from the now-classic “BB” source material. No spoilers, but it’s good to see Jonathan Banks reprising his tough-guy Mike Ehrmantraut.
Luckily, “Better Call Saul” is intent on defining its own world and rising or falling on its own storytelling. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have constructed a layered, very human, bumbling protagonist who is not at all limited to the role of sideline comic accent. While fans may wish for inside references and even recognizable props, the creators have wisely avoided that sort of checklist and focused instead on establishing a full-blooded character.
Six years prior to the Saul of “Breaking Bad,” the star of late-night TV ads and lawyer to drug dealers, there was Jimmy — a struggling public defender barely able to keep the lights on while taking care of and hoping to cash in on his brother (Michael McKean), who is on some sort of disability leave from a fancy corporate law firm.
When Jim goes ballistic on a metal trash bin, we get a glimpse of the disappointments, failures and anger that made him who he is — and who Saul is to become.
I trust Gilligan, so although it’s less than exciting and not at all a comic respite, “Saul” has me along for the ride.
“The Slap” on NBC
The creators of “The Slap” don’t have a beloved TV classic to measure against. They do have a previous Australian TV attempt and the book that series was based on, by Christos Tsiolkas.
premieres Feb. 12 on NBC, locally 7 p.m. on KUSA.
Picture a blended Greek-American family gathered for a 40th birthday party in an urban backyard, with drinking, rivalries and affection in equal parts, plus one misbehaving kid who tests the patience of one of the adults by swinging a baseball bat at his son’s head. The adult slaps the boy, the boy’s (indulgent) parents are horrified. Will they press charges? The ramifications of the event will rip the family apart, and reveal secrets and tensions until now held beneath the surface.
The cast is inviting — Peter Sarsgaard, Thandie Newton, Uma Thurman, Melissa George and Zachary Quinto among them — the playwright Jon Robin Baitz (“Other Desert Cities” and, for TV, “Brothers & Sisters”) is writer-executive producer. But the too-prominent, overly obvious voice-over narrator is a truly awful innovation.
Subsequent installments focus on one complicated character at a time, with the midlife crisis of Hector (Sarsgaard) a continuing theme, but the fleeting slap remains at the center of the drama.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830, jostrow@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ostrowdp
