Here's The Biggest Problem With BETTER CALL SAUL

I don't envy Better Call Saul co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Their new show has been in a practically impossible position from its very inception: a spin-off of Breaking Bad would inevitably draw comparisons to it, and because Breaking Bad is arguably the greatest American television show of all time, calling it a "tough act to follow" would be an understatement. But Better Call Saul's biggest problem doesn't involve living up to the Breaking Bad legacy. It's still only three episodes in, so I imagine viewers will give the show a little bit of time to come into its own before completely passing judgment. No, I think it's biggest problem so far is the forced inclusion of Mike Ehrmentraut (Jonathan Banks) and his relationship with Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk).

Their banter in the first two episodes, especially, pushed my patience past the breaking point. Mike is working as a parking lot attendant at the courthouse where Jimmy works, and Jimmy is constantly forgetting to acquire the proper amount of stickers to provide proper validation when he wants to leave. Mike asks for the stickers, Jimmy says he doesn't have them, and Mike sits there stone-faced as Jimmy becomes furious with him and eventually has to go back inside to get the stickers. Rinse, repeat.

This same sequence of events happened an unthinkable number of times in the first couple of episodes - so often, in fact, that it completely undermines the intelligence of the show's main character. Are we to believe that Jimmy is slick enough to talk himself out of being murdered (and to talk his various clients out of terrible sentences), but he's too stupid to remember the hard-ass attendant isn't going to budge when he forgets the validation stickers? This may sound like a small gripe, but the way the show has relied on it so many times already in its short run time has been inexcusable.

And then in the third episode, it happens AGAIN. Jimmy tries to leave and says he's in a hurry, but Mike is there, unflinching and stone-faced as ever. Eventually Jimmy reaches past him and raises the bar to free himself from the parking lot, leading to a confrontation with Mike when he returns. From there the show tries to show you how Mike and Jimmy could eventually become friendly and maybe even work together, but the damage has already been done. Jimmy, who the audience is supposed to be rooting for because he's smarter and wittier than everyone else, has already been depicted as an absolute idiot. Seeing a character do something that only a film or TV character would do is one of those things that instantly yanks me out of a movie or TV show, like when a protagonist does something especially stupid in a horror film that no one would ever actually do in real life. It's a sign of bad/lazy writing, and when there's a cognitive break like that, it's tough to re-engage with the story.

The show has other issues, to be sure. Montage sequences drag on for what seems to be an interminable amount of time, and oftentimes those sequences aren't even visually interesting - think of Jimmy refilling his coffee cup at the courthouse, or simply walking through the desolate area behind the Kettlemans' house in episode three. There are definitely some Breaking Bad-level touches to the framing of certain shots - no surprise, considering Gilligan, Michelle MacLaren, and Terry McDonaugh all directed episodes of that series as well - but it doesn't have the pacing down yet.

It's still early in the show's life, so I'm not ready to write it off just yet. But if the first three episodes are any indication, the jury's still out on whether or not Better Call Saul is worth sticking with for the long haul.