1/5
Jimmy Mcgill (Bob Odenkirk) returns in “Better Call Saul” Season 6. Photo courtesy of AMC
LOS ANGELES, April 4 (UPI) — Between the COVID-19 pandemic and Bob Odenkirk’s heart attack, it’s been a full two years since we last saw Better Call Saul. It can be challenging to remember exactly where the show left off, and the season premiere, airing April 18, uses that to its advantage.
For the first time in six seasons, Better Call Saul does not begin the season premiere with a black-and- white flash forward to Gene Takovic, Jimmy McGill/Saul’s (Odenkirk) alias in witness relocation. It begins with a scene intrinsically tied to Saul, but something viewers have never seen raises more intriguing questions.
Before Better Call Saul even returns to Jimmy, it spends time with Nacho (Michael Mando). On the run after the attempted assassination of Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton), Nacho’s story resumes at an intense pace that’s as disquieting to jump back into as it must be for Nacho in a panic.
Another scene at Lalo’s home betrays a sense of peace. On Better Call Saul, even a peaceful domestic scene makes the viewer antsy that something deadly is coming.
Only then does the season premiere finally catch up with the most memorable part of the season finale. Jimmy is in bed with Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) after she’s committed to a plan to take down Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian).
The money bag and other artifacts from the memorable Season 5 episodes “Bagman” and “Bad Choice Road” rear into the scene again. Fans will appreciate their subtle reappearance, without making it too obvious that they are Easter eggs.
Easter eggs from predecessor series Breaking Bad also make their appearance in the season premiere of Better Call Saul. Their significance also would constitute spoilers, but Breaking Bad fans will appreciate their significance.
With all the crime the season premiere deals with, Better Call Saul doesn’t forget that its main characters are lawyers. Both Kim and Jimmy spend some time working on their cases.
More significantly, Kim seems to be embracing Jimmy’s Saul persona in a way that may make Jimmy uncomfortable. That’s delicious to watch.
The bulk of the episode deals with Kim and Jimmy executing their plan, which won’t be spoiled here. It becomes a bit of a heist caper in which you get to see Jimmy think and plan on the fly.
Cinematography remains a strong suit of Better Call Saul. Shots of Jimmy or criminal characters frame them in effectively imposing ways, and epic shots of the desert give the show a vast scope.
In elaborate suspense sequences, the camera gives viewers the lay of the land, with all the obstacles facing characters. More effective violence explodes in those sequences.
The season premiere of Better Call Saul was worth the wait. It drops the viewer right back into the story without missing a beat and sets up a compelling last right for Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001 and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
